Relationship Between House of Representatives and Speaker of the House
Speaker of the Business firm
"The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall accept the sole Power of Impeachment."
— U.S. Constitution, Article I, section ii, clause 5
/tiles/non-collection/h/hh_1789_03_04_muhlenberg_hc.xml Drove of the U.Due south. House of Representatives
Well-nigh this object Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania was elected the first Speaker of the Business firm on April 1, 1789.
The Speaker is the political and parliamentary leader of the House. The Constitution mandates the part, but the House and Speakers take divers its contours over time. Some Speakers have aggressively pursued a policy calendar for the Firm while others have, in the words of Speaker Schuyler Colfax of Indiana, "come to this chair to administer [the] rules, but non as a partisan." Regardless, the Speaker—who has ever been (but is non required to exist) a Business firm Member and has the aforementioned duties to his or her local constituents similar the other 434 Members—is at the levers of power. The Speaker is simultaneously the Business firm's presiding officer, political party leader, and the institution's administrative head, amid other duties.
Origins
The function originated in the British House of Commons during the 14th century. The speaker had allegiances to the legislative body as well as to the sovereign: elected past the Commons, the speaker represented that body before the monarch simply too served every bit the monarch's representative in the Eatables. This duality ended three centuries later when Speaker William Lenthall declared to Charles I that he had "neither eyes to see, nor tongue to speak" except for what had been authorized by the House of Commons. While today Eatables' speakers serve primarily equally non-political parliamentary traffic cops, 18th-century speakers also served as party leaders and ministers of government.
The American speakership has followed this example and is a product of politics. The Pennsylvania delegation nominated Frederick A. C. Muhlenberg to be the offset Speaker since it wanted a member of its state to hold a high office, as Virginia'due south George Washington became President, Massachusetts'south John Adams became Vice President, and New York's John Jay became Chief Justice of the The states. The Pennsylvania delegation as well wanted to locate the nation's upper-case letter in Pennsylvania and thought the Speaker would be well-positioned to lead that campaign. Muhlenberg, who served two non-sequent terms in the Speaker'due south chair, all the same, failed in that chore.
The Ascension of the Speaker
While Speakers were always regional or party leaders, they lacked national prominence until Henry Clay of Kentucky took the chair in the 12th Congress (1811–1813). Elected in his first term in the Firm, Clay was already a national luminary, having previously served equally a U.S. Senator and equally speaker of the Kentucky country house. Dirt championed national policies over regional ones, and he effectively coupled the institutional tools of the speakership with his personal charisma, raising the stature of the Business firm. Clay noted that "delicate and perplexing" demands were placed on the Speaker, and "especially crave of him in those moments of agitation from which no deliberative associates is always entirely exempt, to remain absurd and unshaken amidst all the storms of debate, advisedly guarding the preservation of the permanent laws and rules of the Firm from existence sacrificed to temporary passions, prejudices, or interests."
The Political Speaker
The power of the Speaker expanded every bit the political party organisation better developed after the Civil War. Until 1911, the Speaker had the sole authority to appoint Members to House standing committees. The Speaker likewise chaired the House Rules Committee, which controlled the flow of legislation to the flooring. In response to minority filibusters, Speaker Thomas Brackett Reed of Maine streamlined the House'southward continuing rules to prune dilatory tactics and to button the Republican Party'south policy calendar. Just equally Reed was quick to point out, he was successful in making the House a majoritarian body because the bulk of the trunk—all members of his party—supported his reforms. "The approval of the Firm is the very breath in the nostrils of the Speaker," he said.
The stiff speakership, though, had its detractors. Speaker Joseph Cannon of Illinois, known as "Uncle Joe" to his friends and "Czar Cannon" to his enemies, tightly controlled admission to the floor via the Rules Committee and through committee appointments. But in 1910, rank-and-file Members launched a revolt against Cannon and amended House rules to rein in the powers of the Speaker. 1 frustrated Representative said the speakership under Cannon was "not a production of the Constitution" and the Speaker was not "entitled to exist the political and legislative dictator" of the Firm. Cannon, in his cocky-defense, said he was merely implementing his political party'south agenda that the American people chose. Speakers, he said, would accept to sacrifice popularity to be effective. "Information technology is as piece of cake to find a certain kind of popularity every bit it is to pick upward pebbles on a stony embankment, and the one is worth just near equally much every bit the other," he said.
The Modernistic Speaker
Subsequently the era of strong Speakers, committee chairs reasserted influence in the sleeping room, forcing after Speakers to change how they used the office. In the middle of the 20th century, the longest-serving Speaker in Business firm history, Sam Rayburn of Texas, took the verbal reverse stance equally Cannon. "The old days of pounding on the desk-bound and giving people hell are gone," Rayburn said. "A homo's got to lead by persuasion and kindness and the best reason—that'south the but mode he tin can lead people." Subsequently, larger party organizations wielded the greatest power. When 1970s reforms limited commission power, the dominance of House Speakers re-emerged as the coordination and timing of legislation gained greater importance. Power flowed dorsum to the Business firm Flooring from commission rooms.
For further information, meet the Speakers of the House Resource.
Source: https://history.house.gov/Institution/Origins-Development/Speaker-of-the-House/
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