Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives. The office is provided for in the United States Constitution in the second section of the first article, which states:
- "The House of Representatives shall choose their speaker and other officers..."
In practice, this amounts to the speaker's election from the sitting house members. The speaker is thus almost always elected along strictly partisan lines, and is thus a member of the House's majority party. (The Speaker need not, by the Constitutional provision stated above, be a member of the House, but to date has always been one). A Representative who does not vote for his or her party's leader as Speaker may be deprived of committee assignments. Once elected, a Speaker is sworn in by the
Dean of the House.
The Speaker is considered a partisan officer, unlike the nonpartisan Speaker of such bodies as the British House of Commons. While there is a majority leader in the House of Representatives, he is in fact the second highest officer of the majority, and the Speaker is in fact the functioning leader of the majority. However, it is customary for the Speaker not to vote, unless his vote is necessary to pass a bill.
The current (since January 6, 1999) Speaker is Republican Dennis Hastert of Illinois.
The Speaker is currently second (after the Vice President) in line to succeed to the U.S. presidency in the case of death or resignation of the President.
America's "Loyal Opposition"
The speaker of the House is ceremonially the highest ranking legislative official in the United States government. He is generally a well-known national figure, and thus a human "face" on the legislative branch. Since the Speaker and the President are often from different parties, this can sometimes leads to situtations in which the two men appear at odds with each other. The speaker can thus come to be seen as the leader of the "opposition" and the symbol of his party, and the very personification of partisan opposition to the President's agenda. Examples of this include Newt Gingrich under Bill Clinton, and Tip O'Neill under Ronald Reagan. The speaker is also a much more politically active figure than many of his counterparts in other countries, and though he has little formal power, throughout American history the speakership has evolved into one of the nation's key political positions.
Speakers of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1789-present
- Frederick A.C. Muhlenberg (Federalist-Pennsylvania) 1789-1791
- Jonathan Trumbull, Jr (Federalist-Connecticut) 1791-1793
- Frederick A.C. Muhlenberg (Democratic-Republican-Pennsylvania) 1793-1795
- Jonathan Dayton (Federalist-New Jersey) 1795-1799
- Theodore Sedgwick (Federalist-Massachusetts) 1799-1801
- Nathaniel Macon (Democratic-Republican-North Carolina) 1801-1807
- Joseph Bradley Varnum (Democratic-Republican-Massachusetts) 1807-1811
- Henry Clay (Democratic-Republican-Kentucky) 1811-1814
- Langdon Cheves (Democratic-Republican-South Carolina) 1814-1815
- Henry Clay (Democratic-Republican-Kentucky) 1815-1820
- John W. Taylor (Democratic-Republican-New York) 1820-1821
- Philip Pendleton Barbour (Democratic-Republican-Virginia) 1821-1823
- Henry Clay (Democratic-Republican-Kentucky) 1823-1825
- John W. Taylor (Democratic-Republican-New York) 1825-1827
- Andrew Stevenson (Jacksonian-Virginia) 1827-1834
- John Bell (Whig-Tennessee) 1834-1835
- James Knox Polk (Democrat-Tennessee) 1835-1839
- Robert M.T. Hunter (Whig-Virginia) 1839-1841
- John White (Whig-Kentucky) 1841-1843
- John Winston Jones (Democrat-Virginia) 1843-1845
- John Wesley Davis (Democrat-Indiana) 1845-1847
- Robert Charles Winthrop (Whig-Massachusetts) 1847-1849
- Howell Cobb (Democrat-Georgia) 1849-1851
- Linn Boyd (Democrat-Kentucky) 1851-1855
- Nathaniel Prentiss Banks (American/Republican-Massachusetts) 1856-1857
- James Lawrence Orr (Democrat-South Carolina) 1857-1859
- William Pennington (Republican-New Jersey) 1860-1861
- Galusha Aaron Grow (Republican-Pennsylvania) 1861-1863
- Schuyler Colfax (Republican-Indiana) 1863-1869
- Theodore Medad Pomeroy (Republican-New York) 1869
- James Gillespie Blaine (Republican-Maine) 1869-1875
- Michael Crawford Kerr (Democrat-Indiana) 1875-1876
- Samuel Jackson Randall (Democrat-Pennsylvania) 1876-1881
- Joseph Warren Keifer (Republican-Ohio) 1881-1883
- John Griffin Carlisle (Democrat-Kentucky) 1883-1889
- Thomas Brackett Reed (Republican-Maine) 1889-1891
- Charles Frederick Crisp (Democrat-Georgia) 1891-1895
- Thomas Brackett Reed (Republican-Maine) 1895-1899
- David Bremner Henderson (Republican-Iowa) 1899-1903
- Joseph Gurney Cannon (Republican-Illinois) 1903-1911
- Champ Clark (Democrat-Missouri) 1911-1919
- Frederick Huntington Gillett (Republican-Massachusetts) 1919-1925
- Nicholas Longworth (Republican-Ohio) 1925-1931
- John Nance Garner (Democrat-Texas) 1931-1933
- Henry Thomas Rainey (Democrat-Illinois) 1933-1934
- Joseph Wellington Byrns (Democrat-Tennessee) 1935-1936
- William Brockman Bankhead (Democrat-Alabama) 1936-1940
- Samuel Taliaferro Rayburn (Democrat-Texas) 1940-1947
- Joseph William Martin, Jr (Republican-Massachusetts) 1947-1949
- Samuel Taliaferro Rayburn (Democrat-Texas) 1949-1953
- Joseph William Martin, Jr (Republican-Massachusetts) 1953-1955
- Samuel Taliaferro Rayburn (Democrat-Texas) 1955-1961
- John William McCormack (Democrat-Massachusetts) 1961-1971
- Carl Albert (Democrat-Oklahoma) 1971-1977
- Tip O'Neill (Democrat-Massachusetts) 1977-1987
- Jim Wright (Democrat-Texas) 1987-1989
- Thomas Stephen Foley (Democrat-Washington) 1989-1995
- Newton L. Gingrich (Republican-Georgia) 1995-1999
- J. Dennis Hastert (Republican-Illinois) 1999-present
See also