The congressional committee that prepared the United States Declaration of Independence draft was the Committee of Five.
The Second Continental Congress appointed the committee on June 11, 1776. Its members were Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. Jefferson wrote the principal draft, and the other members reviewed it before presenting it to Congress.
The Committee of Five was separate from the Committee of Thirteen, which was created to prepare a plan for a confederation. Congress debated and revised the committee’s draft over several days before approving the Declaration on July 4. This process explains why Jefferson is called the principal drafter, while the document itself was a product of committee work and congressional action.