Power comparison of the Speaker, Senate majority leader, and Vice President

Politicians & Power

Power of Selected Politicians

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate Majority Leader, and the Vice President of the United States are all very powerful political figures. Because both houses of the legislature have substantial political power, the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader both have positions where they can influence the legislative process. However, the role of the legislature is not to set policy, but to enact laws. The executive branch is the branch responsible for setting policy, therefore the Vice President, who is the second-most powerful member of the executive branch, has a greater ability to impact the policy-making process than either leader of the two houses of the legislature.

The current Speaker of the House of Representatives is Representative Dennis Hastert of Illinois. The Speaker is the highest officer in the House of Representatives. Speakers are almost always a member of the majority party, and become the de facto leaders of the majority party in the House. In this way, the Speaker's main responsibility is to make sure that any legislation passed by the House is supported by the majority party. The Speaker's powers include determining when a bill reaches the floor and chairing the majority party's House steering committee. Before a member of the House can speak, he must seek permission from the Speaker or the member appointed by the Speaker as a presiding officer. Therefore, the Speaker controls the flow of debates. The Speaker also selects the majority of the members on the Committee of Rules, as well as appointing all members of select and conference committees. Furthermore, the Speaker determines which committee shall consider each bill. Furthermore, the Speaker presides over joint sessions and meetings of both houses of Congress. Finally, the Speaker is second in line to replace the President.

The influence exerted by the Speaker varies with the political climate. For example, when the House majority is a different party than the President, the Speaker's role becomes the de facto leader of his party. On the other hand, when the Speaker and the President are from the same party, the Speaker takes a back seat to the President. Because the current Speaker and the President are both Republicans, one does not hear much about Hastert's role as Speaker. In addition, when a President acts outside of the scope of normal political activity, he can deprive the Speaker of a substantial amount of power because the Speaker's power comes from within the political process. However, the Speaker is the most powerful member of the legislative branch.

The current U.S. Senate Majority Leader is Bill Frist of Kansas. The Majority Leader is a unique position because the powers exerted by the majority leader are not delegated by law, but by custom. The Majority Leader is elected by his party to serve as the majority party's spokesman in the Senate. In addition, the Majority Leader has the power to schedule the Senate's legislative business. However, the Majority Leader is not the Senate's presiding officer is the President of the Senate, which is a role given to the Vice President. In addition, there is a President Pro-Tempore, who leads the Senate when the Vice President is absent. However, those two roles have become antiquated and the Majority Leader is the de facto leader of the Senate. When the Senate majority party differs from the President's political party, the Senate Majority Leader is generally the leader of his party.

The current Vice President of the United States is Richard Cheney. The Vice President succeeds to the office of the President if the President is removed from office, which implies that the Vice President should be the second-most powerful member of the Federal government. In reality, the actual role that the Vice President plays in policymaking depends tremendously on the individual occupying the Presidency. In fact, the Vice President's only official duty is to serve as the President of the Senate. Until recent times Vice Presidents had little power. However, modern Vice Presidents have been included in the President's cabinet meetings, and are statutory members of the National Security Council. Furthermore, the Vice President's role as President of the Senate can be extremely powerful. For example, in 2001, the Senators were evenly split between the political parties; therefore the Vice President cast the tie-breaking vote, which gave the Republicans the Senate majority. Furthermore, Cheney is extremely involved in drafting policy for the current administration.