How Is the Speaker of the House Selected?

The Speaker of the House is the presiding individual over the United States House of Representatives. The Speaker has an important role in the government, and John Boehner is the Speaker of the House as of 2011.

The Speaker of the House is elected by the House of Representatives. The House votes for the Speaker. The individual who receives the majority of votes in the House then wins.

After the Speaker of the House is elected, he or she is sworn in by the Dean of the House. The Dean of the House is the longest serving member of the House. Interestingly, the Speaker does not have to be a current member of the House of Representatives. He or she can be a past member, although, that has never happened.

Usually, the majority party of the House will choose a candidate for Speaker. They choose the candidate from amongst their own party (currently, the government has two parties that could be the majorities, the Republicans and the Democrats). Usually approximately two or three weeks before the election occurs, the majority party will meet and choose their candidate. The minority party usually votes against this candidate. However, since they are in the minority, the candidate from the majority party almost always becomes the Speaker of the House.

Duties of the Speaker of the House

There are a lot of different duties that the Speaker of the House must perform. The Speaker choose a member of Congress to preside over the House as the Chairman. The Chairman recognizes different members of Congress to take the floor and to speak.

If the Chairman does not recognize them, then the member of Congress cannot speak. The Speaker of the House also has to maintain dignity and decorum in the House. The Speaker of the House also has a lot of power over the committee process. In fact, the Speaker is in charge of selecting nine out of the thirteen members for the Committee on Rules.

Although these nine members must be approved by a conference of the majority party, the Speaker’s suggestion will still have a great deal of influence. Further, the majority party frequently approves most, if not all, of the suggestions.

Bills and Voting

When a bill is introduced into the House, the Speaker also decides which Committee the bill should go to. The Speaker has the right to participate in debates in the House, as well as vote on matters. However, due to tradition, the Speaker almost never votes.

The only time that the Speaker votes is when an extremely important issue comes up to vote. For example, the Speaker of the House would vote for a constitutional amendment to pass or not to pass.

Joint Sessions and Meetings

The Speaker oversees joint sessions and meetings. These joint sessions and meetings occur when the two houses of Congress meet in the Hall of the House of Representatives. The only time when the Speaker does not preside over these meetings is when the joint session is assembled for the purpose of counting electoral votes for a presidential election. When the joint session is for this purpose, the President of the Senate presides over the joint session. This rule is written in the twelfth amendment in the Constitution.      

Officers of the House

The Speaker of the House also oversees the officers of the House, such as the Clerk, the Sergeant-at-Arms, the Chief Administrative Officer, and the Chaplain. The Speaker of the House is actually second in line for succession, after only the Vice President. There has never been a situation in which the Speaker of the House succeeded directly to the presidency.