ABSTRACT
The majority party dominates the organization of both houses. In the House, the majority party’s elected leader, the Speaker, has extensive power over the chamber’s operations. The majority party leadership controls the action in committees and on the floor and chooses the chairs of all the committees. Each party creates its own leadership structure in each house of Congress; the individual leaders are elected by the entire party membership of the chamber. Party leaders in Congress are chosen by the votes of all members of their legislative party. The House Democratic caucus first gave itself the right to vote by secret ballot on whether each committee chair would be retained. The Republican minority had no input into the Democratic procedural reforms of the 1970s and 1980s. Congressional Republicans were becoming more ideologically unified as well and had been energized by the conservative policy leadership coming from President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.
