Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Speaker of the House of Representatives

Episode Date: January 5, 2023

The United States Congres is divided into two houses. The larger of the two houses, the House of Representatives, is led by a single representative known as the Speaker of the House. The duties and powers of the Speaker of the House have changed since the office was established in 1789 as they are entirely determined by the members of the House of Representatives itself. Learn more about the Speaker of the House, the duties of the position, and its history on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Subscribe to the podcast!  https://link.chtbl.com/EverythingEverywhere?sid=ShowNotes -------------------------------- Executive Producer: Charles Daniel Associate Producers: Peter Bennett & Thor Thomsen   Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Update your podcast app at newpodcastapps.com Discord Server: https://discord.gg/UkRUJFh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/EverythingEverywhere Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/everythingeverywheredaily Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/everything-everywhere-daily-podcast/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The United States Congress is divided into two houses. The larger of the two houses, the House of Representatives, is led by a single representative known as the Speaker of the House. The duties and powers of the Speaker of the House have changed since the office was established in 1789, and they are entirely determined by the members of the House of Representatives itself. Learn more about the Speaker of the House, the duties of the position, and its history on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. The history of the Speaker of the House begins with Article 1 of the Constitution, which says, quote,

the House of Representatives shall choose their speakers and other officers. That's literally all the Constitution says. It says that the House of Representatives shall have a speaker. What the Speaker does, what role the Speaker plays, and who can be the speaker, is entirely up to the House of Representatives itself. The only other mention of the Speaker of the House and the Constitution is in the 25th Amendment, which is dedicated to presidential succession. The reason why a speaker was specifically mentioned in the Constitution

is that the position was based on the role of Speaker in the British Parliament. The role of Speaker in the British Parliament is that of an impartial and supposedly a political officer whose job is to oversee the proceedings, and it is distinct from the political role of the Prime Minister. Despite being an impartial role, the Speaker of the House of Commons is always selected from one of its ranks. Prior to the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, the Continental Congress had a presiding officer called a president. The official term was the president of the United States in Congress assembled. And many people mistakenly think that this role was actually the first president of the United

States, but they were not. They were the president of the Congress. The duties of the president of the Continental Congress were like those of the Speaker of the House of Commons, in that it was mostly ceremonial and procedural. When the United States Constitution was written, the position of Speaker was just sort of assumed as a given for the House of Representatives. What isn't known and what has been debated is what exactly the role of Speaker was supposed to be. Because there are no roles or functions for the Speaker outlined in the Constitution,

it isn't certain if the writers of the Constitution intended for the Speaker to be an impartial, neutral role, similar to that of the Speaker in the House of Commons, or if it was intended to be a more active partisan position, which it later became. The person elected as Speaker in the very first Congress was Frederick Mullenberg of Pennsylvania. He didn't seek re-election in the Second Congress, but was then elected Speaker in the Third Congress. For the first 11 Congress, there were six different speakers of the House. These early speakers mostly held a ceremonial role and focused on order and procedure. And they also tended to have regional alliances and promoted regional agendas.

The first person who significantly changed the role of Speaker of the House was Henry Clay of Kentucky. Clay had quickly risen to national prominence before he was elected to the House. He served as a Speaker of the Kentucky Legislature and also became a senator when one of the sitting senators from Kentucky resigned. He was elected to the House in 1810 and was elected Speaker when the House convened in 1811. He was the youngest Speaker of the House at the time, having been elected at the age of 34, and one of only two people to serve as Speaker during their first term in Congress. Clay was much more aggressive than his predecessors about giving committee chairs to his political allies. Unlike previous speakers, he actually took part in floor debates.

He was responsible for increasing the power of the Speaker, which was largely facilitated by President James Madison, who is happy to defer to Congress on many matters. Of special note is the Speaker elected to the 24th Congress in 1835, James Knox Polk, who later became President of the United States. He is the only person ever to have served as both Speaker of the House and President. The selection of Speaker is usually a pretty straightforward affair, with the majority party selecting one of their own. However, there have been periods where the election of the Speaker has not been straightforward at all.

The 34th Congress took two months from December 3, 1855 to February 2, 1856, just to elect a Speaker. As with pretty much everything else, dealing with national politics in the 1850s, the main issue was slavery. There was no party in the House that had a majority, and the result was 133 ballots to elect a Speaker. The eventual winner was Nathaniel Banks, who was a member of both the know-nothing and free-soil parties. After the Civil War, the role of Speaker became increasingly more political and the office was used to control what legislation came to the floor. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there was a series of strong speakers who shaped the office and used it to promote the agenda of their party. Until 1911, the Speaker had the power to make all appointments to all House standing committees, and the Speaker was also the chair of the Powerful House Rules Committee.

This allowed the Speaker to have almost absolute control over what came up for a vote. One of the most powerful speakers was Thomas Brackett Reed of Maine, who excelled at using the House rules in the 1890s. But perhaps the most powerful speaker in the history of the House of Representatives was Joseph Cannon of Illinois, who served as Speaker from 1903 to 1911. He was considered to have dictatorial control over the House. He used his power as Speaker to keep the Republican Party in line by controlling committee appointments. By 1910, there were growing splits inside the Republican delegation, which led to a revolt by the membership of the House. The Republicans were split into the old guard, which were the majority of the party, and the progressives who supported President Theodore Roosevelt. On March 17, 1910, a legislative revolt took place on the floor of the House.

46 of the Progressive Republicans joined with the entire Democrat delegation to vote on rules which took power away from the Speaker to appoint members of standing committees. Many of Cannon's allies weren't present due to St. Patrick's Day, and the rebels had enough members to have a quorum. There was a point-of-order filibuster that Cannon's allies initiated, which went on for 26 hours, but in the end, his power was dramatically reduced, and the Speaker was no longer the chair of the Rules Committee and could no longer make committee assignments. Since the Cannon Revolt, the power of the Speaker has ebbed and flowed. Political party structures have become more powerful, and they're responsible for appointing members to committees.

It's now the party caucuses that determine how much of the House operates. The longest-serving Speaker in the history of the House was Sam Rayburn and Texas, who served three different terms for a total of 17 years. His term as Speaker was after the post-canon reforms, which put more power in the hands of committee chairs. So he had to rule more through persuasion than with an Iron Fist as his predecessors could. The election of the Speaker, as determined by the House rules, requires a majority of the votes cast by name. Since the founding of the Congress, there have been 127 elections for Speaker of the House. Only 15 of those have required multiple ballots. Fifty-four men and women have served as Speaker of the House since

1789. Due to the strong nature of party caucuses, the election is usually perfunctory. Each party will nominate someone, and the majority party usually wins. There have been minor cases of party defections. In 2001, Democrat Representative James Trafficant voted for the Republican Dennis Hazard for Speaker. As a result, the Democrat stripped him of all seniority and committee assignments, as the Republicans didn't give him any committee assignments either, he became the first representative in over a century to not sit on any committees. And it was all because of a defection in the Speaker election. When a new Congress sits for the first time every two years,

the very first order of business is always the election of a Speaker. The election of a Speaker is necessary because the Speaker administers the oath of office to all incoming representatives. Until the issue of the Speaker is resolved, nothing else can happen. When the Speaker is chosen, they are administered the Oath of Office by the Dean of the House of Representatives. The Dean is a largely ceremonial position, which is held by whoever is the longest continually serving member of the House, regardless of party. While the Speaker isn't as powerful as they used to be in the past, they still have significant power. The Speaker gets to nominate nine of the 13 members of the House Rules Committee.

They oversee the administration of the House, including the Sergeant-at-Arms, Clerk, Chaplain, Parliamentarian, Historic, in General Counsel and Inspector General. They also, in theory, serve as the actual presiding officer on the floor of the House, managing debate, and parliamentary procedure. However, in reality, other representatives often stand in unless it's a very important vote. They also, of course, serve the role of being the leader of the majority party. After the election of a speaker, by rule, there to provide the clerk of the House a confidential list of names of who would perform the duties of Speaker in the event that the Speaker is incapacitated. Should a speaker die in office, resign, or be removed from office, then the House would just elect a new speaker.

I should also note that there is no constitutional requirement that the Speaker of the House actually be a member of Congress. It simply says that the Congress must select someone to be Speaker, but it puts no limits whatsoever on who. While the actual management of the House isn't specified in the Constitution and is subject to the rules created by Congress, there are limited constitutional roles and duties of the Speaker. The Speaker of the House is second in line to the Presidency in the event that both the President and the Vice President are incapacitated. Also, in the event that the President can't discharge the duties of the Presidency, according to the 25th Amendment, the President or the Cabinet,

has to give notification to the Speaker of the House. So, the Speaker of the House is a really important position, one of the most important in the federal government. However, over almost 250 years, the nature of the position has changed, as has the power wielded by the speaker, which is substantially less than it was over a century ago. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett. I just want to thank everyone, including the show's producers, who support the show over on Patreon. If you'd like to support

the show, just head over to patreon.com, which is currently the only place where you can get show merchandise. Also, if you want to talk to other listeners about the show, head over to our Facebook group or Discord server, both of which have links in the show notes.