Table Of Content
The allocation of seats is based on the population within the states, and membership is reapportioned every 10 years, following the decennial census. House members are elected for two-year terms from single-member districts of approximately equal population. The House of Representatives shares equal responsibility for lawmaking with the U.S. As conceived by the framers of the Constitution, the House was to represent the popular will, and its members were to be directly elected by the people. In contrast, members of the Senate were appointed by the states until the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment (1913), which mandated the direct election of senators. Paul Ryan’s House retirement means that a new person will assume his role of Speaker of the House of Representatives next January and become one of the most important elected officials in Washington.
Leadership List
While it is not required, the Speaker usually belongs to the majority political party. When the House of Representatives convenes at the beginning of a new Congress, its first order of business is to elect a Speaker. Because the House dissolves at the end of a Congress and must start anew at the beginning of each new Congress, the Clerk of the House presides over the House under general parliamentary law until a Speaker is elected. In 1839, this method was changed to election by vive voce, meaning that each Member names aloud whom he or she favors for Speaker.
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The hard truth is that the five who preceded Johnson (McCarthy, Paul Ryan, John Boehner, Dennis Hastert and Newt Gingrich) all saw their time in the office end in relative degrees of defeat or frustration. And to find a Republican speaker who left voluntarily in a moment of victory, moving on to another office, you have to go back to the mid-1920s. Additionally, since many speakers held office for multiple terms, often with non-consecutive periods, the time listed for each speaker represents the total length of their time as speaker. It is important to note that the period between the adjournment of one Congress and the convening of the next Congress is not included in the calculations. For instance, Nathaniel Macon served as speaker during both the 8th and 9th Congresses, but the eight-month gap between the two Congresses is not included in his service duration. The exact dates of service for each individual speaker is shown in the Term of service column of the above table.
House Rules
The Constitution does not require the speaker to be a member of Congress, although all speakers have been members. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was the first woman Speaker of the House, serving from 2006 to 2010. Media coverage of Pelosi frequently included references to her gender, clothing, emotions, and personal style. Pelosi’s choice of Armani suits was much noted in the press following her selection. Pelosi was replaced by Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) when the Republicans took control of the House following the 2010 midterm elections. Speakers’ personal styles have influenced the evolution of the position.
Presiding officer of the House of Representatives
But when he left after the 1924 session, his party was still firmly in control and had just elected President Calvin Coolidge to a full term. Even a glance at the history of Republican speakers since World War II would tell him that. Johnson has gained stature and won bipartisan praise for letting the whole House vote on the aid package. He also got strong support in the Senate, where even an outright majority of Republicans voted for the aid on Tuesday. The package was signed into law by President Biden the following day. Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) became House Majority Leader following the 2010 midterm elections.
About state leadership positions
Neither party agreed to permit a speakership election with the opposite party's delegation participating. Finally, it was agreed to exclude both delegations from the election and a speaker was finally chosen on December 17. John Boehner was elected speaker when the 112th Congress convened on January 5, 2011, and was subsequently re-elected twice, at the start of the 113th and 114th Congresses. The power of the speaker was greatly augmented during the tenure of the Republican Thomas Brackett Reed (1889–1891, 1895–1899). Reed, however, declared that members who were in the chamber but refused to vote would still count for the purposes of determining a quorum.
Opinion How the Interim Speaker Patrick McHenry Could Actually Govern - The New York Times
Opinion How the Interim Speaker Patrick McHenry Could Actually Govern.
Posted: Wed, 18 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
The positions that a member has held in Congress, such as service on important committees, are evaluated. Fundraising ability, media prowess, and communications skills are increasingly important criteria for leadership. The ability to forge winning coalitions and the connections that a member has to leaders in the Senate or the executive branch are factored into the decision (Peabody, 1976). From 1977 to 1995, three successive Democratic speakers — Thomas "Tip" O'Neill, Jim Wright and Tom Foley — reinvigorated the speakership. They enlarged the party leadership structure, creating wider networks of loyalty among members of the majority party while strengthening support for their priorities.
How Speaker of the House evolved into a critical constitutional role
Get answers to frequently asked questions about committees from the Clerk of the House. The current state of internal politics among House Republicans is so unsettled that almost anything could happen at almost any time. When the House returns from its recess next week, Speaker Mike Johnson is now widely expected to resume his duties without immediately facing a motion to oust him.
Who is Rep. Patrick McHenry and why is he the interim House speaker? - NPR
Who is Rep. Patrick McHenry and why is he the interim House speaker?.
Posted: Wed, 04 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
The next two figures in the House Republican leadership hierarchy, Majority Leader Richard Armey and Majority Whip Tom DeLay chose not to run for the office. The chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Bob Livingston, declared his bid for the speakership, which was unopposed, making him speaker-designate. It was then revealed, by Livingston himself, who had been publicly critical of President Bill Clinton's alleged perjury during his sexual harassment trial, that he had engaged in an extramarital affair.
Historically, there have been several controversial elections to the speakership, such as the contest of 1839. In that case, even though the 26th United States Congress convened on December 2, the House could not begin the speakership election until December 14 because of an election dispute in New Jersey known as the "Broad Seal War". Two rival delegations, one Whig and the other Democrat, had been certified as elected by different branches of the New Jersey government. The problem was compounded by the fact that the result of the dispute would determine whether the Whigs or the Democrats held the majority.
The role of the Speaker also extends to the requirement in House Rule V, clause 1, that he or she administer a system for audio and video broadcasting of the proceedings of the House. Rule I, clause 9, provides for the Speaker, in consultation with the minority leader, to devise a system of drug testing in the House. Such a motion to vacate had only been subject to a floor vote once in the House’s history. On two other occasions, lawmakers considered a motion to vacate, but the vote never made it to the House floor. The current controversy over the Speaker of the House of Representatives has highlighted that position’s role as one of the most important elected officials in Washington.
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