House Standing Committee Chairs
and Ranking Minority Members:
Rules Governing Selection Procedures
Judy Schneider
Specialist on the Congress
November 23, 2015
Congressional Research Service
7-5700
www.crs.gov
RS21165
House Standing Committee Chairs and Ranking Minority Members
Summary
House rules, Republican Conference rules, and Democratic Caucus rules each detail aspects of
the procedures followed in selecting standing committee chairs and ranking minority members.
The Republican Steering Committee and the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee are
constituted during the early organization meetings traditionally held in November and December
to determine most committee chairs and ranking minority members and to make committee
assignments for most committees. Their recommendations are then forwarded to the full
Republican Conference and Democratic Caucus for their approval.
Although structured slightly differently, both the Republican Steering Committee and the
Democratic Steering and Policy Committee are comprised of elected party leaders, regional
members, class representatives, and other party officials.
The report will be updated if rules or procedures change.
Congressional Research Service
House Standing Committee Chairs and Ranking Minority Members
Contents
House Rules ..................................................................................................................................... 1
Republican Conference Procedures ................................................................................................. 1
Democratic Caucus Procedures ....................................................................................................... 3
Tables
Table 1. Republican Steering Committee ........................................................................................ 2
Table 2. Democratic Steering Committee ........................................................................................ 3
Contacts
Author Contact Information ............................................................................................................ 5
Congressional Research Service
House Standing Committee Chairs and Ranking Minority Members
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
was to be 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.
Congressional Research Service
1
link to page 5 House Standing Committee Chairs and Ranking Minority Members
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.
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
November 20, 2015.
Table 1. Republican Steering Committee
Member Serving in
Designated Representative
114th Congress
Comments
Speaker
Paul D. Ryan
Has 4 votes in Steering Committee
Majority leader
Kevin McCarthy
Has 2 votes
Minority whip
Steve Scalise
Chief deputy whip
Patrick McHenry
Republican Conference chair
Cathy McMorris Rogers
Republican Conference vice-chair
Lynn Jenkins
Republican Conference secretary
Virginia Foxx
Republican Policy chair
Luke Messer
NRCC chair, former chair
Pete Sessions
NRCC chair
Greg Walden
TBD
Open Chairman
Representative
Vacant
Speaker Designee
Vacant
At-Large Rep 1
Vacant
At-Large Rep 2
Vacant
At-Large Rep 3
Vacant
At-Large Rep 4
Vacant
At-Large Rep 5
Vacant
At-Large Rep 6
Texas Representative
Lamar Smith
Region I
Joe Heck
Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho,
Montana, Nevada, Utah, Colorado
Region II
Kevin Yoder
Wyoming, Missouri, New Mexico,
Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, South Dakota
Region III
John Shimkus
Il inois, Indiana, Kentucky
Region IV
Candice Mil er
Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North
Dakota
Region V
Bil Shuster
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland,
New Hampshire
Region VI
Pat Tiberi
Ohio, New York
Congressional Research Service
2
link to page 6 House Standing Committee Chairs and Ranking Minority Members
Member Serving in
Designated Representative
114th Congress
Comments
Region VII
Steve Womack
Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana.
Oklahoma
Region VIII
Lynn Westmoreland
South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama
Region IX
Bob Goodlatte
Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia
Region X
Devin Nunes
California, Arizona, American Samoa
Region XI
Jeff Mil er
Florida, Mississippi
Small State Representative
Cynthia Lummis
(Composed of delegations with one or
two members): Alaska, Oregon, Nevada,
Idaho, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, New
Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota,
Iowa, West Virginia, Maryland, Nevada,
American Samoa, Maine, Nebraska, New
Hampshire)
112th Class Representative
Jeff Denham
113th Class Representative
Richard Hudson
114th Class Representative
Steve Russell
114th Class Representative
Mike Bishop
Democratic Caucus Procedures
Democratic Caucus rules address selecting committee chairs and ranking minority Members. The
Democratic leader nominates a chair/ranking Member for the Committees on Rules and House
Administration, who must be approved by the entire Democratic Caucus. The Budget Committee
chair/ranking Member is selected from among members choosing to run for the position. Other
chair/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, 2015.
Table 2. Democratic Steering Committee
Member Serving in the
Designated Representative
114th Congress
Comments
Steering Committee chair
Nancy Pelosi
Steering Committee co-chair
Rosa DeLauro
Policy Committee co-chair
Donna Edwards
Chair, Policy and Communications
Steve Israel
Democratic whip
Steny Hoyer
Assistant Democratic leader
James Clyburn
Democratic Caucus chair
Xavier Becerra
Congressional Research Service
3
House Standing Committee Chairs and Ranking Minority Members
Member Serving in the
Designated Representative
114th Congress
Comments
Democratic Caucus vice-chair
Joseph Crowley
DCCC chair
Ben Ray Lujan
Senior Chief Deputy whip
John Lewis
Chief Deputy whip
Krysten Sinema
Chief Deputy whip
Diana DeGette
Chief Deputy whip
G.K. Butterfield
Chief Deputy whip
Keith El ison
Chief Deputy whip
Jan Schakowsky
Chief Deputy whip
Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Chief Deputy whip
Peter Welch
Chief Deputy whip
Juaquin Castro
Region I
Susan Davis
Southern California: 21-53
Region II
Barabara Lee
Northern California: 1-20; Hawaii,
American Samoa, Guam, Alaska, Marianas
Islands
Region III
Gwen Moore
Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa,
North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska
Region IV
Andre Carson
Il inois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri,
Oklahoma
Region V
Peter DeFazio
Colorado, Utah, Montana, Wyoming,
North Dakota, Oregon, Washington,
Nevada, Idaho
Region VI
Henry Cuellar
Texas, Arizona, New Mexico
Region VII
Cedric Richmond
Louisiana, Tennessee, Arkansas, North
Carolina, South Carolina
Region VIII
Lois Frankel
Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi,
Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico
Region IX
John Carney
Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia, D.C.,
Delaware
Region X
Mike Doyle
Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, West
Virginia
Region XI
Yvette Clarke
New York
Region XII
Mike Capuano
Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode
Island, New Hampshire, Vermont
Appropriations Committee ranking
Nita Lowey
Member
Budget Committee ranking Member
Chris Van Hol en
Energy and Commerce Committee
Frank Pallone
ranking Member
Financial Services Committee ranking Maxine Waters
Member
Congressional Research Service
4
House Standing Committee Chairs and Ranking Minority Members
Member Serving in the
Designated Representative
114th Congress
Comments
Rules Committee ranking Member
Louis Slaughter
Ways and Means Committee ranking Sander Levin
Member
Organization Study and Review
Karen Bass
(OSR) chair
Class of 2014
Stacey Plaskett
Donald Norcross
Members appointed by Democratic
Judy Chu
leader
Katherine Clark
Tammy Duckworth
Hakeem Jeffries
Marcy Kaptur
John Larson
Carolyn Maloney
Betty McCol um
Tim Ryan
Terry Sewel
Eric Swalwell
Nydia Velazquez
Mike Thompson
Vacant
Author Contact Information
Judy Schneider
Specialist on the Congress
jschneider@crs.loc.gov, 7-8664
Congressional Research Service
5