House Standing Committee Chairs and Ranking Minority Members: Rules Governing Selection Procedures
Released: 2017-08-31T00:00:00

House Rules

House Rule X, clause 5(c)(2), adopted in 1995 limited committee (and subcommittee) chairs to three terms of consecutive service. Service for less than a full session in a Congress is disregarded. A rules change adopted on January 7, 2003, pursuant to H.Res. 5 , exempted the Intelligence Committee chair from the limit. A rules change adopted on January 4, 2005, pursuant to H.Res. 5 , exempted the Rules Committee chair from the limit. In 2009, the Democratic majority removed term limits from House rules. The rules adopted on January 3, 2013, reinstituted term limits for all committee chairs, but continued the exemption for the Rules Committee chair.

Republican Conference Procedures

Republican Conference rules delineate procedures for the selection of standing committee chairs and ranking minority members. The Speaker, with the Republicans in the majority, has the authority to nominate the chairs of the House Administration Committee and Rules Committee. In the minority, these appointments are made by the minority leader. The Speaker's or minority leader's nominations for these two positions are submitted directly to the full Republican Conference for ratification. If the conference rejects the leader's nominee, the Speaker or minority leader has the authority to submit another name to the conference.

All other standing committee chairs or ranking minority members are nominated by the Republican Steering Committee and ratified by the full Republican Conference. Pursuant to conference rules, the Member nominated to be chair or ranking minority member does not need to be the Member with the longest continuous service on the committee. In recent Congresses, the Steering Committee "interviewed" prospective candidates for chair or ranking slots. Some of the new chairs and ranking members have been the most senior members of the committee, others were not.

The Steering Committee is composed of party leaders, selected committee leaders, class leaders, and regional representatives. The Steering Committee is reconstituted each Congress. Regions are restructured to reflect as closely as possible an equal number of Republican Members from each region. Each region elects its Steering Committee member. If Steering Committee members are elected from states that have four or more Republican Members, a "small state" group is triggered to also elect a member to the Steering Committee; the small state group is composed of states that have three or fewer Republican Members.

On November, 19, 2015, the House Republican Conference adopted a conference resolution redesigning the composition of the Steering Committee.

The chairs of the Committees on Appropriations, Budget, Energy and Commerce, Financial Services, Rules, and Ways and Means were removed, except when the Steering Committee is considering members for election to one of those specific committees. If, for example, a member is elected to the Ways and Means Committee, that committee's chair would join the Steering Committee to deliberate and vote on the new member.

Six members are to be elected by the conference as at-large members.

The Speaker has the authority to appoint one at-large designee.

The Speaker, who previously had five votes, will have four votes.

The conference resolution stated that elections for the at-large members would be held not later than 30 calendar days after the resolution was adopted. The six members receiving the greatest number of votes would be elected. The Republican Conference elected the six members on December 10, 2015.

It is anticipated that the number of regions and the regional allocation will be reviewed in the near future.

Table 1 depicts the membership of the reconstituted Republican Steering Committee as of July 1, 2017.

Democratic Caucus Procedures

Democratic Caucus rules address selecting committee chairs and ranking minority members. The Democratic leader nominates a chair and ranking member for the Committees on Rules and House Administration, who must be approved by the entire Democratic Caucus. The Budget Committee chair and ranking member are selected from among members choosing to run for the position. Other chair and ranking Member nominations are made by the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee and voted on by the entire Democratic Caucus. In making selections, the Steering Committee considers, pursuant to caucus rules, "merit, length of service on the committee and degree of commitment to the Democratic agenda of the nominee, and the diversity of the Caucus." The Steering Committee is reconstituted each Congress, and regions can be restructured to reflect equal Democratic representation among regions. The number of appointments made by the party leader can also change. Table 2 depicts the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee as constituted as of July 1, 2017.