2.  Promoting legislative agenda of the party  Monitoring and shepherding of party’s bills  Obstructing passage of opposition party’s bills  Making committee assignments  Supporting candidates in their home districts  Forging political coalitions  Issuing rewards and punishments

3.  Speaker of the House  President of the Senate  Majority/Minority Floor Leaders  Majority/Minority Whips  Republican/Democratic Conference Chairs  Standing committee chairs and ranking members  Congressional membership organization chairs

4.  Presiding officer (U.S. Const. art. 1, § 2, cl. 5)  Elected by members of House  Second in line of Presidential succession after the VP (Presidential Succession Act of 1947)  Has a lot of power  Controls the legislative calendar  Leads appointment process of committee chairs  Leader and national spokesperson of the majority party

5.  Second in command to Speaker  Responsible for day-to-day management of legislative affairs on the House floor  Responsible for building majority party consensus and helping pass bills that are of interest to their party  Officially designated in 1899, usually a lieutenant appointed by Speaker until 1911  Sometimes was the chair of Ways & Means or Appropriations committees  Since 1911, elected by members of majority party

6.  Official role emerged in 1899  Elected by members of the minority party to serve as their spokesperson  Criticizes the program of the majority party  Seeks to block majority bills from passing

7.  Vice-President is the President of the Senate (U.S. Const. art. 1, § 3)  Only votes in the case of a tie, has little power  Opens electoral ballots for Presidential elections  President Pro-Tempore (“President for a time”) presides when the VP is not present Daniel K. Inouye  Elected by resolution in the Senate  Usually the majority party member with the longest record of continuous service  Third in line of Presidential succession  Term of service solidified in 1890

8.  Role first established in 1925 (Republicans)  Elected by members of the majority party  Senior Senate official, has the right of priority recognition on the Senate floor  Primary spokesperson for majority party  Day-to-day manager of business on the Senate floor  Schedules the sequence and manner of debate on all legislation  Responsible for building and managing majority party consensus

9.  Established in 1920 (Democrats)  Elected by members of the minority party  Senior official for the minority party  Primary spokesperson for the minority  Responsible for setting the legislative agenda and strategy of the minority party

10.  Term “whip” comes from British hunting lore: the whip keeps the foxhounds in line  Role first emerged in late 1890s in the House  Elected by party members  Assist the floor leaders to keep track of party members and lobby them for votes  Responsible for the details of mobilizing votes among party members  Serve as floor leaders in their absence

11.  Committees are where the bulk of legislative work is done  Committees mark-up bills, hold hearings, conduct investigations, and perform oversight  Committees (and subcommittees) concentrate legislative expertise in various policy areas  Chairs of key committees are very powerful  Ways and Means  Appropriations

12.  House & Senate rules provide that they elect the members of committees at the beginning of each Congress (post 1970)  Representatives of the two parties agree on committee assignments and party ratios, then submit rosters for vote  Seniority is the normal basis for ranking among committee members  The longer a member is in the committee, the more likely to become chair or ranking minority member

13.  Most commonly known as caucuses  Also called coalitions, study groups, task forces, and working groups  Special interest alliances that function as internal lobbies  Represent a wide variety of political interests  Emerged around 1930s, peaked in 1970s & 80s  Registered with the Committee on House Administration