Congressional caucus
A congressional caucus is a group of members of the United States Congress that meet to pursue common legislative objectives. Formally, caucuses are formed as congressional member organizations (CMOs) through the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate and governed under the rules of these chambers. In addition to the term "caucus", they are sometimes called conferences (especially Republican ones), coalitions, study groups, task forces, or working groups. Many other countries use the term parliamentary group; the Parliament of the United Kingdom has many all-party parliamentary groups. Party caucuses and conferences in the United  States Congress. The largest caucuses are the party caucuses and conferences in the United States Congress, which are the partisan caucuses comprising all members of one house from one party (either the Democrats or the Republicans) in addition to any independent members who may caucus with either party. These are the House Democratic Caucus, House Republican Conference, Senate Democratic Caucus and Senate Republican Conference. The caucuses meet regularly in closed sessions for both the House of Representatives and the Senate to set legislative agendas, select committee members and chairs and hold elections to choose various floor leaders. They also oversee  the four Hill committees, political party committees that work to elect members of their own party to Congress. Ideological conferences. Ideological congressional caucuses can represent a political party within a political party. In the United States two-party dominant political system, these congressional caucuses help congregate and advance the ideals of a more focused ideology within the two major relatively big tent political parties. Some caucuses are organized political factions with a common ideological orientation. Most ideological caucuses are confined to the House of Representatives: Racial and ethnic caucuses. Among the most visible caucuses are those composed of members sharing  the same race or ethnic group. The most high profile of these represent people of color. The Congressional Black Caucus, Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus also form the Congressional Tri Caucus when they sit together. LGBT+ caucus. The formation of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus was announced on June 4, 2008, by openly gay representatives Tammy Baldwin and Barney Frank. The mission of the caucus is to work for LGBT rights, the repeal of laws discriminatory against LGBT persons, the elimination of hate-motivated violence, and improved health and well-being for all persons, regardless  of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. The caucus serves as a resource for Members of Congress, their staffs, and the public on LGBT issues. The LGBT Equality Caucus admits any member who is willing to advance LGBT rights, regardless of their sexual identity or orientation; it has historically been co-chaired by every openly-LGBT member of the House. The caucus had 165 members (164 Democrats and 1 Republican) in the 116th United States Congress. Interest group caucuses. The most common caucuses consist of members united as an interest group. These are often bipartisan (comprising both Democrats and  Republicans) and bicameral (comprising both Representatives and Senators). Examples like the Congressional Bike Caucus works to promote cycling and the Senate Taiwan Caucus promotes strong relationships with Taiwan. Rules. The House Committee on House Administration (HCHA) prescribes certain rules for Congressional Member Organizations (CMOs). Each Congress, CMOs must electronically register with the Committee on House Administration, providing the name of the caucus, a statement of purpose, the CMO officers and the employee designated to work on issues related to the CMO. The HCHA rules include the following: