Answer(s)
• Visit uscis.gov/citizenship/testupdates for the na me of the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
• Visit uscis.gov/citizenship/testupdates for the na me of the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The leader of the House of Representatives, elected by House members.
The order of who becomes president if the current one cannot serve.
The political party with more than half the seats in a legislative body.
A vote where each member's name is called and their vote recorded.
JUDGE DOUGLAS H. GINSBURG:
The name of the speaker of the House of Representatives can be found on House’s website. The speaker is one of the most powerful figures under our Constitution. For starters, he or she is a president-in-waiting – coming right after the vice president in the line of succession, though no speaker has yet become president in this fashion.
And of course, the speaker is the most powerful figure in the House. The Constitution requires the House to elect a speaker by roll call vote on the first day of each new Congress: that’s in January of every odd-numbered year.
A majority vote decides the speaker, so inevitably the speaker belongs to the majority party. And the speaker wields a lot of power.
The speaker appoints the chairs and members of all the committees, and decides whether a bill comes up for a debate or a vote.
Sam Rayburn – a Democrat from Texas – served longer than any other speaker: seventeen years between 1940 and 1961; during World War II, the onset of the Cold War, and the early years of the Civil Rights movement. A legacy that makes him one of the most important speakers in history.
Recent speakers, though, have had much shorter tenures.
