AP Gov- Speaker of the House

1. In Article 1, Section 2 of the United States Constitution states that the "House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker". The Speaker is the presiding officer of the House and serves as second in line for the U.S. presidential line of succession. The Speaker's jobs include administering the oath of office to Members, calling order, preserving order and decorum within the House, recognizing speaking members, and determining rulings on House procedures.

2. House leadership includes the Speaker of the House, the majority leader, and the minority leader. The Speaker "presides over proceedings on the House floor", "influences which bills go to which committees", "influences committee assignments for new members", "appoints the party's other leaders", and "rules on questions of parliamentary procedure". The majority leader helps to plan the party's legislative program. The minority leader heads and organizes the minority party.
Senate leadership includes the Vice President who serves as the President of the Senate and can only cast a vote in case of tie. However, a President Pro Tempore usually takes the Vice President's place because he rarely sits with the Senate.

3. For the Speaker of the House to become President, both the President and the Vice President would have to be unable to serve as President. The Speaker of the House is second in line for the President.

4. The longest-serving Speaker was Samuel Rayburn of Texas. He served for 17 years, two months, and two days.

5. On January 4, 2007, the first woman Speaker became Nancy Pelosi (D) of California.

6. Newt Gingrich served as the 58th Speaker of the House under Bill Clinton from January 4, 1995- January 3, 1999. He is known for leading the Republican Revolution.

7. John Boehner just resigned as Speaker because he no longer believes he can lead the Republicans in Congress. He had been serving as the Speaker since 2011.

8. Kevin McCarthy was considered to be a likely successor because he is the majority leader of the House. However, he recently decided to withdraw from the Speaker race. He chose to do this because he realized that his support for speaker was crumbling.

9. Many Republicans believe that Paul Ryan will be the right man to unite the party. He is a great communicator and the Republicans need a good messenger. He has repeatedly stated that he does not want to be the Speaker, but will keep it in consideration.

10. Paul Ryan is the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. The responsibility of the Committee on Ways and Means is to serve as the primary tax-writing committee in the House. The committee exercises authority over revenue, tariffs, trade agreements, the U.S. debt, the Social Security system, Medicare, and social service programs.

11. A congressional committee is "a legislative sub-organization in the United States Congress that handles a specific duty (rather than the general duties of Congress)". Currently, there are 21 permanent committees in the House, 21 permanent committees in the Senate, and five joint committees which operate with both houses.

12. Some of the reasons why Paul Ryan chose not to take the job are that he believes Republicans won't be able to get much done while President Obama is still in the White House and he absolutely is in love with his job as Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

13. If I were Paul Ryan I would not take the job. He expresses his love and enthusiasm for his current job and does not want to be the Speaker. Paul Ryan is a very smart and successful man and I think he could handle the job as Speaker, but he may not be able to if he really didn't want it.

14. No, the Speaker of the House is not a stepping stone to the Presidency because the only Speaker to serve as President was James K. Polk.

15. A congressional caucus is "a group of members of the United States Congress that meets to pursue common legislative objectives". There are dozens of caucuses. Caucuses are different from committees because they come together under one specific goal to achieve power, whereas committees have a role in the legislature.

16. The House Freedom Caucus is "a congressional caucus consisting of conservative Republican members of the United States House of Representatives". The House Freedom Caucus is extremely rigorous in finding a new leader for Speaker of the House. By doing this, they are demonstrating leadership. They want a leader with new perspective, a wide range of experience, and a positive view for American in the future.

17. Blog post.