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Would you please provide basic job descriptions for the House leaders? Gary, Indiana - 7/26/01
Speaker of the House (Dennis Hastert)
The Speaker is both the presiding officer of the House of Representatives and the leader of the majority party. He is also second to the Vice-President in the line of succession to the Presidency. The Speaker plans and implements the legislative agenda of the House, has administrative control over much of the operations of the House, including all television broadcasts, and controls appointments to special committees and delegations. He also refers legislation to committee, may place deadlines on committee action, and chairs the committee which appoints majority party members to their committee assignments.
Majority Leader (Dick Armey)
The Majority Leader acts as deputy to the Speaker. He schedules legislation for the floor, taking into account factors of political timing as well as policy importance. He acts as a spokesman for the party position during floor debate, plans legislative and political strategy for his party, mediates political disputes among majority party Members, and negotiates agreements with the minority, all under the direction of the Speaker.
Minority Leader (Richard Gephardt)
The Minority Leader is his party’s chief spokesman, both during floor debate and as a representative in negotiations with the majority leadership and with the White House. He plans the party’s legislative and political responses to the majority’s initiatives. He directs the process of assigning minority members to committees, and appoints minority Members to conference negotiations with the Senate.
Majority Whip (Tom DeLay)
The Majority Whip advises his party’s leaders how Republican Members intend to vote on upcoming bills. He has a team of Members who act as his assistants, gathering intelligence on Members’ positions, and responding to leadership requests for head counts on specific bills. The Whip takes the lead in actively encouraging party discipline and unity, and in persuading rebellious Members to vote with the party. He also notifies Members with alerts on floor schedules and timing of votes.
Minority Whip (David Bonior)
The Minority Whip performs the same functions as his Majority counterpart for the Democratic party.
Republican Conference Chairman (J.C.Watts) (Vice-Chair: Deborah Pryce)
The Republican Conference is the umbrella group of all Republicans in the House. Its chairman is elected by its Members to be a spokesman to the press and public about issue positions taken by the party, to schedule and mediate closed-door sessions held to air policy conflicts among its Members who hold a wide range of ideological views, to lead negotiations to find a consensus position on issues within the party, and to take care of the logistics necessary to schedule party-wide meetings, notify Members of that schedule, find suitable meeting places, and preside over the meetings. The Conference as a whole settles important issues such as the election of party leaders, tenure rules for committee chairmanships, and disciplinary measures against any Members who consistently stray from the party’s position.
Democratic Caucus Chairman (Martin Frost, Chair) (Robert Menendez, Vice-Chair)
The Democratic Caucus is the umbrella group of all Democrats in the House. The functions of its Chairman are as those described above for the Republican Conference.
Republican Policy Committee Chairman (Christopher Cox)
The Chairman presides over the meetings of the Policy Committee, which reports advisory positions on policy matters to the entire membership of the Republican Conference. Committee members discuss and analyze pending legislative proposals and then report suggestions for action to the Conference at large. The Committee also drafts and distributes background issue papers in preparation for floor votes and summaries of legislative action to help Members in answering inquiries from the press and public.
Democratic Policy Committee Vice-Chairs
For Research: Eva Clayton, David Obey, and Louise Slaughter.
For Policy: Nita Lowey, George Miller, John Spratt, and Charlie Stenholm.
For Communications: Rosa DeLauro, Jesse Jackson Jr., Frank Pallone, and Nydia Velázquez.
Duties as described above for Republican Policy Committee.
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