Majority Leader of the United States House of Representatives

Current floor leaders

With the Republicans holding a majority of seats and the Democrats holding a minority, the current leaders are Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, and Minority Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts.

Selection

The floor leaders and whips of each party are elected by their respective parties in a closed-door caucus by secret ballot. The speaker-presumptive is assumed to be the incoming speaker, although not formally selected to be nominated for Speaker by the majority party's caucus. After this period, the speaker-designate is also chosen in a closed-door session by the largest caucus although the speaker is formally elevated to the position by a public vote of the entire House when Congress reconvenes.

Like the speaker of the House, the minority leaders are typically experienced lawmakers when they win election to this position. When Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, became minority leader in the 108th Congress, she had served in the House nearly 20 years and had served as minority whip in the 107th Congress. When her predecessor, Dick Gephardt, D-MO, became minority leader in the 104th House, he had been in the House for almost 20 years, had served as chairman of the Democratic Caucus for four years, had been a 1988 presidential candidate, and had been majority leader from June 1989 until Republicans captured control of the House in the November 1994 elections. Gephardt's predecessor in the minority leadership position was Robert Michel, R-IL, who became GOP Leader in 1981 after spending 24 years in the House. Michel's predecessor, Republican John Rhodes of Arizona, was elected minority leader in 1973 after 20 years of House service.

By contrast, party leaders of the United States Senate have often ascended to their position despite relatively few years of experience in that chamber, such as Lyndon B. Johnson, William Knowland, Tom Daschle, and Bill Frist.

History

Before 1899, the majority party floor leader had traditionally been the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, the most powerful committee in the House, as it generates the bills of revenue specified in the Constitution as the House's unique power. However, this designation (begun under Speaker Henry Clay during the 12th United States Congress) was informal, and after 1865, alternated between the Ways and Means Committee Chair and the House Appropriations Committee Chair after the latter committee was split from the former. By at least 1850, the Senate and House Republican Conferences and the Senate and House Democratic Caucuses began naming chairs (although conference and caucus chairs carried very little authority).

The office of majority leader was created in 1899 and first occupied by Sereno Payne. Speaker David B. Henderson created the position to establish a party leader on the House floor separate from the speaker, as the role of speaker had become more prominent and the size of the House had grown from 105 at the beginning of the century to 356.

Starting with Republican Nicholas Longworth in 1925 and continuing until 1995, all majority leaders have directly ascended to the speakership after the incumbent surrenders the position. The only exceptions during this period were Charles A. Halleck, who served as majority leader from 1947–1949 and again from 1953–1955 and did not become Speaker because his party lost the House in the 1948 and 1954 House elections, respectively, and would not regain the House until 1994 (Halleck had been dead for years at this point); Hale Boggs, who served as majority leader from 1971–1973, died in a plane crash; and Dick Gephardt, who served as majority leader from 1989–1995, descended to minority leader since his party lost control in the 1994 midterm elections.

Since 1995, the only two majority leaders to become speaker are John Boehner and Kevin McCarthy, though indirectly as their party lost control in the 2006 and 2018 midterm elections. Boehner subsequently served as House minority leader from 2007 to 2011, and McCarthy served from 2019 to 2023. Both were elected Speaker when the House reconvened after gaining a majority in their respective midterm elections. In 1998, when Speaker Newt Gingrich announced his resignation, neither Majority Leader Dick Armey nor Majority Whip Tom DeLay contested the speakership, which eventually went to Chief Deputy Whip Dennis Hastert.

Majority leader

The House majority leader's duties vary, depending upon the political makeup of the majority caucus. In several recent sessions of Congress, with the notable exception of the Pelosi speakership, the majority leader has been primarily responsible for scheduling the House floor's legislative calendar and direct management for all House committees.

One statutory duty, per 19 U.S.C. § 2191(c)(1), stipulates that an implementing bill submitted by the president of the United States for a fast-track negotiating authority (trade promotion authority) trade agreement must be introduced (by request) in the House by the House majority leader or a designee.

Minority leader

Responsibilities

From an institutional perspective, the rules of the House assign a number of specific responsibilities to the minority leader. For example, Rule XII, clause 6, grant the minority leader (or their designee) the right to offer a motion to recommit with instructions; Rule II, clause 6, states the inspector general shall be appointed by joint recommendation of the speaker, majority leader, and minority leader; and Rule XV, clause 6, provides that the speaker, after consultation with the minority leader, may place legislation on the Corrections Calendar. The minority leader also has other institutional duties, such as appointing individuals to certain federal entities.

From a party perspective, the minority leader has a wide range of partisan assignments, all geared toward retaking majority control of the House. Five principal party activities direct the work of the minority leader.

The minority leader provides campaign assistance to political party incumbents and challengers.

The minority leader devises strategies, in consultation with other partisan colleagues, that advance party objectives. For example, by stalling action on the majority party's agenda, the minority leader may be able to launch a campaign against a "do-nothing Congress".

The minority leader works to promote and publicize the party's agenda.

The minority leader, if their party controls the White House, confers regularly with the President and the President's aides about issues before Congress, the Administration's agenda, and political events generally.

The minority leader strives to promote party harmony so as to maximize the chances for legislative and political success.

The roles and responsibilities of the minority leader are not well-defined. To a large extent, the functions of the minority leader are defined by tradition and custom. A minority leader from 1931 to 1939, Representative Bertrand Snell, R-N.Y., provided this "job description": "He is spokesman for his party and enunciates its policies. He is required to be alert and vigilant in defense of the minority's rights. It is his function and duty to criticize constructively the policies and programs of the majority, and to this end employ parliamentary tactics and give close attention to all proposed legislation."

Origin of the post

To a large extent, the minority leader's position is a 20th-century innovation. Prior to this time congressional parties were often relatively disorganized, so it was not always evident who functioned as the opposition floor leader. Decades went by before anything like the modern two-party congressional system emerged on Capitol Hill with official titles for those who were its official leaders. However, from the earliest days of Congress, various House members intermittently assumed the role of "opposition leader". Some scholars suggest that Representative James Madison of Virginia informally functioned as the first "minority leader" because in the First Congress he led the opposition to Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton's fiscal policies.

During this early period, it was more usual that neither major party grouping (Federalists and Democratic-Republicans) had an official leader. In 1813, for instance, a scholar recounts that the Federalist minority of 36 Members needed a committee of 13 "to represent a party comprising a distinct minority" and "to coordinate the actions of men who were already partisans in the same cause." In 1828, a foreign observer of the House offered this perspective on the absence of formal party leadership on Capitol Hill:

I found there were absolutely no persons holding the stations of what are called, in England, Leaders, on either side of the House.... It is true, that certain members do take charge of administration questions, and certain others of opposition questions; but all this so obviously without concert among themselves, actual or tacit, that nothing can be conceived less systematic or more completely desultory, disjointed.

Internal party disunity compounded the difficulty of identifying lawmakers who might have informally functioned as a minority leader. For instance, "seven of the fourteen speakership elections from 1834 through 1859 had at least twenty different candidates in the field. Thirty-six competed in 1839, ninety-seven in 1849, ninety-one in 1859, and 138 in 1855." With so many candidates competing for the speakership, it is not at all clear that one of the defeated lawmakers then assumed the mantle of "minority leader". The Democratic minority from 1861 to 1875 was so completely disorganized that they did not "nominate a candidate for Speaker in two of these seven Congresses and nominated no man more than once in the other five. The defeated candidates were not automatically looked to for leadership."

Institutional functions

The style and role of any minority leader is influenced by a variety of elements, including personality and contextual factors, such as the size and cohesion of the minority party, whether their party controls the White House, the general political climate in the House, and the controversy that is sometimes associated with the legislative agenda. Despite the variability of these factors, there are a number of institutional obligations associated with this position. Many of these assignments or roles are spelled out in the House rule book. Others have devolved upon the position in other ways. To be sure, the minority leader is provided with extra staff resources—beyond those accorded him or her as a Representative—to assist in carrying out

diverse leadership functions. Worth emphasis is that there are limits on the institutional role of the minority leader, because the majority party exercises disproportionate influence over the agenda, partisan ratios on committees, staff resources, administrative operations, and the day-to-day schedule and management of floor activities.

Under the rules of the House, the minority leader has certain roles and responsibilities. They include the following:

Drug Testing. Under Rule I, clause 9, the "Speaker, in consultation with the Minority Leader, shall develop through an appropriate entity of the House a system for drug testing in the House."

Inspector General. Rule II, clause 6, states that the "Inspector General shall be appointed for a Congress by the Speaker, the Majority Leader, and the Minority Leader, acting jointly." This rule further states that the minority leader and other specified House leaders shall be notified of any financial irregularity involving the House and receive audit reports of the inspector general.

Questions of Privilege. Under Rule IX, clause 2, a resolution "offered as a question of privilege by the Majority Leader or the Minority Leader ... shall have precedence of all other questions except motions to adjourn." This rule further references the minority leader with respect to the division of time for debate of these resolutions.

Party functions

The minority leader has a number of formal and informal party responsibilities. Formally, the rules of each party specify certain roles and responsibilities for their leader. For example, under Democratic rules for the 106th Congress, the minority leader may call meetings of the Democratic Caucus. They are a member of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee; names the members of the Democratic Leadership Council; chairs the Policy Committee; and heads the

Steering Committee. Examples of other assignments are making "recommendations to the Speaker on all Democratic Members who shall serve as conferees" and nominating party members to the Committees on Rules and House Administration. Republican rules identify generally comparable functions for their top party leader.

Informally, the minority leader has a wide range of party assignments. Lewis Deschler, the late House Parliamentarian (1928–1974), summarized the diverse duties of a party's floor leader:

A party's floor leader, in conjunction with other party leaders, plays an influential role in the formulation of party policy and programs. They are instrumental in guiding legislation favored by his party through the House, or in resisting those programs of the other party that are considered undesirable by his own party. They are instrumental in devising and implementing his party's strategy on the floor with respect to promoting or opposing legislation. They are kept constantly informed as to the status of legislative business and as to the sentiment of his party respecting particular legislation under consideration. Such information is derived in part from the floor leader's contacts with his party's members serving on House committees, and with the members of the party's

whip organization.

These and several other party roles merit further mention because they influence significantly the leader's overarching objective: retake majority control of the House. "I want to get [my] members elected and win more seats," said Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-MO. "That's what [my partisan colleagues] want to do, and that's what they want me to do."

Five activities illustrate how minority leaders seek to accomplish this primary goal.

Party whips and assistant party leaders

Whips

A whip manages their party's legislative program on the House floor. The whip keeps track of all legislation and ensures that all party members are present when important measures are to be voted upon.

The majority whip is an elected member of the majority party who assists the speaker of the House and the majority leader to coordinate ideas on, and garner support for, proposed legislation. They are reckoned as the third-ranking member of their party behind the speaker and the majority leader.

The minority whip is a member of the minority party who assists the minority leader in coordinating the party caucus in its responses to legislation and other matters. They are reckoned as the second most powerful member of their party, behind the minority leader.

Chief deputy whips

The chief deputy whip is the primary assistant to the whip, who is the chief vote counter for their party. The current chief deputy majority whip is Republican Guy Reschenthaler. Within the House Republican Conference, the chief deputy whip is the highest appointed position and often a launching pad for future positions in the House Leadership. Cantor and McCarthy, for instance, served as chief deputy Republican whips before ascending to the majority leader's post. The House Democratic Conference has multiple chief deputy whips, led by a senior chief deputy whip, which is the highest appointed position within the House Democratic Caucus. John Lewis held this post from 1991 until his death in 2020. Jan Schakowsky held the position of senior chief deputy majority whip along with Lewis since 2019, previously holding a position as chief deputy whip since 2005. Between 1955 and 1973, the Democrats simply had the title Deputy Whip.

Chief deputy whips (only one each Congress)

Chief deputy whips (more than one each Congress)

Assistant party leaders

The position of Assistant Democratic Leader was established by Nancy Pelosi on January 3, 2011, and filled by Jim Clyburn to avoid a battle for whip between then-Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and then-Majority Whip Jim Clyburn. The title has undergone several name changes, with the title being known as the titular "Assistant Speaker of the House of Representatives" during Pelosi's second speakership; it is said to replace the Assistant to the Leader post established in 1999; first held by Rosa DeLauro and last held by Chris Van Hollen. There is currently no Republican equivalent in the U.S. House of Representatives.

List of party leaders and whips

The majority and president are included for historical and comparative reference.