What is the role of the speaker of the house?

Three roles in one

The position combines the institutional role of presiding officer and administrative head of the House, the partisan role of leader of the majority party, and the representative role of an elected member of the House.

Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution gives the House the authority to choose its Speaker, but most of the actual power comes from House rules and party control, not the Constitution itself.

Running the floor

As presiding officer, the Speaker is empowered by House rules to administer proceedings on the floor, including recognition of members to speak or make motions, and appointment of members to conference committees. Conference committees are the joint groups of House and Senate members who hammer out the final text of a bill after each chamber has passed its own version.

The Speaker also decides which bill goes to which committee for review. That routing decision matters enormously, because a bill sent to a friendly committee can move quickly while one sent to a hostile committee can die quietly.

Setting the agenda

The Speaker chooses members of the House Rules Committee, commonly known as the “Speaker’s Committee” because of its loyalty, and that gives the Speaker near plenary power to set the House’s agenda. Plenary means effectively unlimited, the full range of scheduling and sequencing what gets debated and what gets voted on.

Little in the House can happen without the acquiescence of the Speaker.

Line of succession

The Speaker is second in line to the presidency, after the Vice President, under the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, and also plays a role in the 25th Amendment’s process for dealing with presidential disability.

What the Speaker cannot do

The Speaker has no Senate powers: no filibuster, no invoking cloture, no confirming nominees, and no role in advising and consenting on treaties or appointments. The Speaker controls the House and nothing beyond it.