Committee work

Where the detail is done: the committees

Most of the Bundestag's legislative work happens not in the plenary but in its committees. Steffen Bilger's committee record runs from nine years on the transport committee to seats on some of the parliament's most specialised constitutional bodies. This page sets it out term by term and explains what each body does.

9 yrsOn the Bundestag's transport committee, 2009 to March 2018

3Joint Bundestag–Bundesrat bodies: Joint Committee, Mediation Committee, rail infrastructure council

12Members of the Wahlausschuss, on which he has sat since 2025

0Standing-committee seats while a member of the government, 2018–2021 and since July 2026

The system

How Bundestag committees work

The Bundestag sets up its committees at the start of each term, broadly mirroring the federal ministries. Seats are shared among the parliamentary groups in proportion to their strength. Each group names full members and an equal number of deputy members who stand in when needed.

First reading
A bill is introduced in the plenary, often without debate.
Referral
The plenary refers it to a lead committee and to others for opinion.
Hearing
The committee may hold a public hearing with experts and associations.
Recommendation
Members debate amendments and adopt a recommendation and report.
Second and third reading
The plenary votes on the bill as amended by the committee.

Committee meetings themselves are generally held in private, which allows members to negotiate across party lines; public hearings and the published reports are what outsiders see. Committees also scrutinise their ministry's part of the federal budget and question ministers and officials. Inside each parliamentary group, the members of a committee form a working group with a spokesperson, and each member is usually given specific subjects as rapporteur (Berichterstatter).

Alongside the standing committees the Bundestag has bodies created by the Basic Law or by statute, advisory councils, and temporary commissions. Several of Bilger's memberships were of this kind.

The record

Memberships by legislative term

Each cell shows his status in the body during that term. "Unconfirmed" means a membership given only on Wikipedia and not in the Bundestag's own records.

Steffen Bilger — committee and board memberships, 17th to 21st Wahlperiode
Body	17th 2009–13	18th 2013–17	19th 2017–21	20th 2021–25	21st 2025–
Transport committee	Full	Full	Full, to Mar 2018	—	—
Health committee	Deputy	—	—	—	—
Environment committee	Deputy	—	—	Deputy	—
Food and agriculture committee	—	—	—	Deputy	—
Enquete Commission "Growth, Prosperity, Quality of Life"	Full, from 2011	—	—	—	—
Parliamentary Advisory Council on Sustainable Development	Member	Unconfirmed	—	—	—
Joint Committee	—	Full	To Mar 2018	—	Unconfirmed
Mediation Committee	—	From 2016/17	To Mar 2018	—	—
Kuratorium, Federal Agency for Civic Education	—	Chair	—	—	—
Eisenbahninfrastrukturbeirat (rail infrastructure council)	—	Member	—	—	—
Wahlausschuss (judges' election committee)	—	—	—	—	Full
Ältestenrat (Council of Elders)	—	—	—	—	Unconfirmed

Full full member
Chair chair of the body
Deputy deputy member
Part part of the term only
Unc. Wikipedia only

The two empty stretches are deliberate. From March 2018 to December 2021 Bilger was a member of the government as Parliamentary State Secretary, and members of the government do not sit on Bundestag committees. The same applies to the standing committees since his appointment as minister in July 2026, although his current Bundestag profile still lists him as a member of the Wahlausschuss. During the 20th term, as a deputy chair of the CDU/CSU group, he took only deputy seats on the committees in his portfolio.

The bodies

What each body does

Short descriptions of the committees and councils on which Bilger has sat, with what is documented about his time there.

Standing committee · 2009–2018

The transport committee

Called the Committee on Transport, Building and Urban Development in the 17th term and the Committee on Transport and Digital Infrastructure in the 18th, it shadows the federal transport ministry. It handles legislation on roads, rail, waterways, aviation and road traffic, examines the transport budget, and takes evidence on large projects. Bilger spent nearly nine years on it, the foundation of his specialist profile. According to Wikipedia, within the CDU/CSU group he was the rapporteur for alternative drives, led the parliamentary circle on electric mobility and, from 2013, chaired the transport forum of the party's SME and business association (MIT-Verkehrsforum).

The committee's present-day agenda is reflected in the site's transport policy pages.

Constitutional body · 18th term

Joint Committee

Set up under Article 53a of the Basic Law, two-thirds of its members come from the Bundestag and one-third from the Bundesrat. In a state of defence, if the Bundestag cannot meet, it would act in place of both chambers. In normal times it meets rarely; membership is a mark of a group's confidence.

Constitutional body · 2016/17 – 2018

Mediation Committee

The Vermittlungsausschuss has 16 members from each chamber. When the Bundestag and the Bundesrat disagree over a law, the committee negotiates a compromise, which both chambers then vote on. Its start date for Bilger is given as 2017 by the Bundestag and 2016 by his own website.

Election body · 21st term

Wahlausschuss

The twelve-member committee proposes the judges of the Federal Constitutional Court whom the Bundestag elects; the other half are chosen by the Bundesrat. In the current term the CDU/CSU holds five seats. His membership falls in the 21st term, which included the failed judge election of July 2025, described on the First Parliamentary Secretary page.

Statutory council · 18th term

Eisenbahninfrastrukturbeirat

The rail infrastructure council advises the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur), the regulator for access to Germany's rail network and for track charges. Its members come from the Bundestag and the Bundesrat. See also rail infrastructure.

Board · 18th term

Kuratorium of the bpb

The board of the Federal Agency for Civic Education is made up of members of the Bundestag and oversees the political balance of the agency's work. Bilger chaired it during the 18th term.

Commission · 2011–2013

Enquete Commission on growth and wellbeing

The commission "Growth, Prosperity, Quality of Life" brought MPs together with outside experts to examine how progress and wellbeing could be measured beyond gross domestic product. Bilger joined as a full member in 2011.

Advisory council · 17th term

Sustainable development council

The Parliamentary Advisory Council on Sustainable Development follows the federal sustainability strategy and checks whether the government's bills have been assessed for their long-term effects. Bilger was a member from 2009.

Reading the record

Specialist first, institutional later

The pattern is typical of a member who rises inside a large parliamentary group. The early terms are spent in a specialist committee building expertise and contacts in one policy field; for Bilger that was transport. Seats on bodies such as the Joint Committee, the Mediation Committee and the Wahlausschuss come later and are distributed by the group leadership to members it trusts with sensitive procedures.

Committee membership alone says little about influence, and committee deliberations are mostly private, so the record cannot show how Bilger voted or argued there. What it does show is continuity: when he became Parliamentary State Secretary in 2018, and minister in 2026, he took over responsibility for a field he had scrutinised from the committee bench for nearly a decade. His wider parliamentary record is on the parliamentary work page, and the legislative side on legislative work.

Sources

Deutscher Bundestag — Biography of Steffen Bilger, 21st term (18th-term memberships; Mediation Committee 2017–2018; Wahlausschuss)
Deutscher Bundestag — Biography archive, 19th term
Deutscher Bundestag — Biography archive, 20th term (deputy memberships)
Steffen Bilger — Politische Stationen (17th-term memberships; committees left 14 March 2018)
Wikipedia — Steffen Bilger (Enquete Commission, advisory council, rapporteur roles, 21st-term memberships)
Deutscher Bundestag — Wahlausschuss
Deutscher Bundestag — Ältestenrat
Basic Law, Article 53a — Joint Committee
Basic Law, Article 77 — legislative procedure and Mediation Committee