Who Hold the Majority in the House of Representatives

6b. Leadership in Congress: It's a Party Thing

Republicans and Democrats in Congress continually battle each other on political party lines, even though many claim that the parties are substantially the aforementioned.

Is walking the plank dangerous? Certainly, for a pirate. Merely for a politico, information technology may be prudent.

Partisanship — or fierce loyalty to 1'southward political party — generally is not admired in the United States today. Many people today call themselves contained voters, and bickering between the parties in Congress is frequently condemned. But parties are very important in both the House of Representatives and the Senate today. Even though political parties do non play as big a role in elections equally they once did, they still provide the basic organization of leadership in Congress.

Later on each legislative election the party that wins the most representatives is designated the "majority" in each house, and the other party is called the "minority." These designations are meaning considering the majority political party holds the most pregnant leadership positions, such equally Speaker of the House. Ordinarily, the same political party holds both houses, simply occasionally they are split. For example, from 1983-1985, the House majority was Autonomous and the Senate majority was Republican.

Coalition groups like the Bluish Domestic dog Democrats are trying to bridge the party gap in Congress.

At the beginning of each new Congress, the members of each party gather in special meetings to talk party policy and themes and to select their leaders by majority vote. Democrats telephone call their meeting a "caucus," and the Republicans phone call theirs a "conference." Next, when each house convenes in its first session, Congressional leaders, such equally the Speaker of the Business firm and the Majority Leader in the Senate, are selected. And fifty-fifty though the whole firm votes for its leaders, the bulk party makes the existent selections alee of time backside the scenes when they select party leaders.

Business firm Leadership

Because the House has 435 members to the Senate's 100, House leaders tend to take more ability over their membership than do Senate leaders. With 435 people trying to make decisions together, their sheer numbers require leaders to coordinate the code process. Political parties choose all top leadersip positions.

Speaker of the Business firm. The Speaker is the virtually powerful member of the House of Representatives, and arguably, the most influential single legislator in both houses. Always a fellow member of the majority party, the speaker'due south influence depends partly on strength of personality and respect of colleagues, simply also on several important powers.

The Speaker of the House must address the media well-nigh daily on issues discussed in the Firm of Representatives.

The Speaker:

• presides over proceedings on the House flooring
• influences which bills go to which committees
• influences committee assignments for new members
• appoints the party's other leaders
• rules on questions of parliamentary procedure

The majority leader usually the 2d ranking fellow member of the majority party, is the political party leader on the floor. Often manus-picked by the Speaker, the bulk leader helps program the party'due south legislative program. Many Speakers came to their positions past serving as bulk leader offset.

The minority leader heads and organizes the minority party. Because the political party has less voting power than the majority political party has, this person'south influence is ordinarily limited. If the minority party succeeds in the next congressional election, the minority leader could well be the next Speaker.

Senate Leadership

Elbridge Gerry was an early architect of partisanship. His election to the Massachusetts Senate was aided by redrawing district boundaries to include a majority of his ain political party members. This do is called gerrymandering.

The Senate leadership is characterized past its highest positions actually having very little ability. By Ramble provision, the president of the Senate is the Vice President of the United States, who but tin can cast a vote in case of a tie. The Vice President rarely sits with the Senate, then a President pro tempore is selected to take his place. This role too is largely ceremonial, and then the chair is often passed to a junior Senator.

The floor leaders are the existent leaders in the Senate, although they generally have less power than practice leaders in the House. The majority leader is usually the virtually influential person in the Senate. He has the privilege of kickoff debates on legislation, and he unremarkably influences choices for committee assignments. He shares his power with the minority leader, who leads the other party. Usually the two leaders cooperate to some extent, simply the leader of the bulk political party ever has the upper paw.

The major leadership positions — Speaker of the Firm, and majority and minority leaders in both houses — are based almost exclusively on party membership. Does this organisation encourage party loyalty higher up all else in members of Congress who want to get ahead? If that is the case, the impatience that Americans have with "partisan politics" is understandable.

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Source: https://www.ushistory.org/gov/6b.asp

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