Claim: Dennis Hastert served as a congressman.

The Speaker of the House is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives . The office was established in 1789 by Article I , Section 2 of the United States Constitution . The Speaker is the political and parliamentary leader of the House of Representatives , and is simultaneously the House 's presiding officer , leader of the body 's majority party , and the institution 's administrative head . Speakers also perform various other administrative and procedural functions , and represent their congressional district . Given these several roles and responsibilities , the Speaker usually does not personally preside over debates . That duty is instead delegated to members of the House from the majority party . Neither does the Speaker regularly participate in floor debates or vote .   The Constitution does not require that the Speaker be an elected House Representative , though every Speaker so far has been an elected Member of the House . The Speaker is second in the United States presidential line of succession , after the Vice President and ahead of the President pro tempore of the U.S. Senate .   The current House Speaker is Congressman Paul Ryan from Wisconsin . He was elected to the office on October 29 , 2015 , and is the 54th person to serve as Speaker .