The committee is composed of 12 legislators who are appointed by the legislative leadership, and the membership is apportioned equally between the two houses and the two political parties.  Members serve two-year terms, and the committee is co-chaired by a member of each party and legislative house.  Support services for the committee are provided by 25 staff members.

Two purposes of the committee are to ensure that the Legislature is adequately informed of how laws are implemented through agency rulemaking and to facilitate public understanding of rules and regulations.  To that end, in addition to the review of new and existing rulemaking, the committee monitors legislation that affects rulemaking and conducts a public act review to alert agencies to the need for rulemaking.  The committee also distributes a weekly report, the Flinn Report, to inform and educate Illinois citizens about current rulemaking activity , and maintains the state's database for the Illinois Administrative Code and Illinois Register.