Committee Chairs and Ranking Members

Every congressional committee and subcommittee is led by a chair from the majority party, and the senior minority member is called the ranking member. Chairs are nominated by the majority party's steering committee or caucus and formally elected by the full chamber. For most of the twentieth century the most senior majority member became chair automatically. Reforms in the 1970s made chairs subject to secret-ballot votes in the party caucus, and House Republicans adopted a limit of three consecutive terms for chairs in 1995.

A chair controls the committee's agenda: which bills receive hearings, when markups occur, which witnesses are called, and whether a subpoena is issued, a power that in most House committees rests with the chair alone. Chairs hire most of the committee staff and manage its budget, and their committee's bills on the floor. Ranking members lead the minority's side, hire minority staff, question witnesses after the chair, and negotiate with the chair on legislation.

The relationship between a chair and ranking member shapes what a committee produces. Some pairs have legislated together across party lines for years, while others have used their committees as stages for partisan conflict. Gavels pass between the parties whenever control of a chamber changes, and the chairs of Appropriations, Ways and Means, Finance, and Judiciary are among the most powerful members of Congress.