Shirt a Phobia

Sample Page

In the United States House of Representatives, the two major political parties maintain policy and steering committees. Their primary purpose is to assign fellow party members to other House committees, and they also advise party leaders on policy.

The House Democratic Caucus has a combined single steering and policy committee, while the House Republican Conference divides the duties between two groups: a policy committee and a steering committee.[1]

House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee

The House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee is chaired by the party leader in the House, which has been Hakeem Jeffries since 2023, in his capacities as Minority Leader. The party leader also appoints three co-chairs to assist him on the committee. For the 117th Congress, the co-chairs were Reps. Eric Swalwell (CA-15), Barbara Lee (CA-13), and Cheri Bustos (IL-17).[2]

The statutory members include the full caucus leadership and chief deputy whip team and the chairs or ranking members (depending on a majority or minority, respectively) of the exclusive committees: Appropriations, Budget, Energy, Financial Services, Rules, and Ways and Means. Additional members are either directly appointed by the caucus leader (Speaker in the majority or Minority Leader in the minority), elected as regional representatives, and an elected representative of the freshman class.

On November 28, 2018, Pelosi, the Speaker of the 116th Congress, announced that the Committee would now have three co-chairs instead of two.[3][4]

As of the 119th Congress, Democratic Representatives are no longer grouped into official regions.

Membership

119th Congress

117th Congress

The members of the committee for the 117th Congress (2021–2022) were:[6]

115th Congress

The members of the committee for the 115th Congress (2017–2018) were:[7][8]

House Republican Policy Committee

Jay Obernotle currently chairs the Policy Committee. When the Republicans are in the majority, the chair of the House Republican Policy Committee ranks fifth, below the Speaker of the House, Majority Leader, Majority Whip, and the Republican Conference Chairman. When the Republicans are in the minority, the Policy Committee chair ranks fourth, behind the Minority Leader, Minority Whip and Conference Chairman.

Statutory members include the full conference leadership, the committee chairs or ranking members (depending on a majority or minority) of Appropriations, Budget, Energy, Rules, and Ways and Means, and the elected leaders of the sophomore and freshman classes. Appointed members include regional representatives, at-large members, members from the standing committees, and designated appointees by the sophomore (2) and freshman (1) class leaders.

119th Congress

Regional Representatives are restructured to reflect as closely as possible an equal number of Republican members from each region; the small state group is an additional region composed of states that have one or two Republican members.[8] As of the 116th Congress, the regions are:[10]

  • 1: Maryland (1), New Jersey (1), New York (6), West Virginia (3) – 11 members total
  • 2: Kentucky (5), Pennsylvania (9) – 14 members total
  • 3: North Carolina (10), Virginia (4) – 14 members total
  • 4: Georgia (9), South Carolina (5) – 14 members total
  • 5: Alabama (6), Tennessee (7) – 13 members total
  • 6: Illinois (5), Indiana (7) – 12 members total
  • 7: Michigan (7), Wisconsin (5) – 12 members total
  • 8: Arkansas (4), Louisiana (5), Mississippi (3), Puerto Rico (1) – 13 members total
  • 9: Kansas (3), Colorado (3), Nebraska (3), Oklahoma (4) – 13 members total
  • 10: American Samoa (1), Iowa (1), Minnesota (3), Missouri (6), North Dakota (1), South Dakota (1) – 13 members total
  • 11: Alaska (1), Idaho (2), Montana (1), Nevada (1), Oregon (1), Utah (3), Washington (3), Wyoming (1) – 13 members total
  • 12: Arizona (4), California (7) – 11 members total
  • Small States: Alaska, America Samoa, Idaho, Iowa, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oregon, Puerto Rico, South Dakota, Wyoming – 14 members total
  • Florida Region: 14 members total
  • Ohio Region: 12 members total
  • Texas Regions I and II: 14 members total

The members of the committee for the 115th Congress were:[11]

Policy Committee Chairs
Name Start End District
Joe Martin January 3, 1949 January 3, 1959 MA-14
John Byrnes January 3, 1959 February 23, 1965 WI-08
John Rhodes February 23, 1965 December 7, 1973 AZ-01
Barber Conable December 7, 1973 January 3, 1977 NY-35
Del Clawson January 3, 1977 December 31, 1978 CA-33
Bud Shuster January 3, 1979 January 3, 1981 PA-09
Dick Cheney January 3, 1981 June 4, 1987 WY-AL
Jerry Lewis June 4, 1987 January 3, 1989 CA-35
Mickey Edwards January 3, 1989 January 3, 1993 OK-05
Henry Hyde January 3, 1993 January 3, 1995 IL-06
Chris Cox January 3, 1995 January 26, 2005 CA-47
CA-48
John Shadegg January 26, 2005 January 13, 2006 AZ-03
Adam Putnam February 1, 2006 January 3, 2007 FL-12
Thad McCotter January 3, 2007 January 3, 2011 MI-11
Tom Price January 3, 2011 January 3, 2013 GA-06
James Lankford January 3, 2013 January 3, 2015 OK-05
Luke Messer January 3, 2015 January 3, 2019 IN-06
Gary Palmer January 3, 2019 January 3, 2025 AL-06
Kevin Hern January 3, 2025 March 11, 2026 OK-01
Jay Obernolte April 15, 2026 present CA-23

House Republican Steering Committee

For House Republicans, the steering committee is chaired by the party leader in the House, either the Speaker (if Republicans are in the majority) or the Minority (Floor) Leader (if Republicans are in the minority). Under rules adopted after the 1994 Republican Revolution, the House party leader (Speaker/Minority Leader) had five votes on the committee, the deputy leader (Majority Leader/Minority Whip) receives 2 votes, and all other members receive 1 vote for a total of 35 votes; a quorum requires 18 members. The current chairman of the Republican Steering Committee is Mike Johnson.

The Republican counterpart in the Senate is the Committee on Committees. Senate Republicans also operate a steering committee to discuss policy issues.[12]

The members of the committee for the 117th Congress (2021–2022) were:[10]

The House Republican Conference approved changes to the steering committee’s structure on November 19, 2015. These changes include a reduction in the Speaker’s weighted votes from five to four (while giving him the right to appoint a new at-large member) and phased membership adjustments. The six committee leaders that were all previously given standing membership (Appropriations, Budget, Energy and Commerce, Financial Services, Rules, and Ways and Means) were removed and immediately replaced by six at-large members. Additionally, any committee leader whose committee membership is under consideration by the Steering panel will sit on a rotating basis. The committee leaders’ six vacant seats are to be elected by the whole Conference at-large by the end of 2015, and they will serve until the end of the 114th Congress (January 3, 2017). Following the 2016 general election for the next Congress, these at-large elected seats will be replaced by six additional regional representatives, with the new regions to be determined at that time.[13][14][15]

See also

References

  1. ^ “House Standing Committee Chairs and Ranking Minority Members: Rules Governing Selection Procedures” (PDF). www.everycrsreport.com. Retrieved September 22, 2023.
  2. ^ “Congresswoman Bustos Nominated to Co-Chair Steering and Policy Committee for 117th Congress”. Congresswoman Cheri Bustos. November 12, 2020. Retrieved August 24, 2022.
  3. ^ “Newsroom”.
  4. ^ “Pelosi creates leadership position for Barbara Lee”. Politico. November 30, 2018.
  5. ^ “House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee – Summary from LegiStorm”. www.legistorm.com. Retrieved October 22, 2025.
  6. ^ Strauss, Amelia (December 9, 2020). “Who Steers the Ship in the 117th Congress? An Examination of House Steering and Policy Committee Membership”. Demand Progress. Retrieved August 24, 2022.
  7. ^ “Newsroom”.
  8. ^ a b “House Standing Committee Chairs and Ranking Minority Members: Rules Governing Selection Procedures” (PDF). sgp.fas.org. Retrieved September 22, 2023.
  9. ^ “Congratulations to Republican Policy Committee Chairman Jay Obernotle!”. Official House Republican’s X Page.
  10. ^ a b “Steering Committee List for the 117th Congress”.
  11. ^ “Leadership”. house.gov. Retrieved September 22, 2023.
  12. ^ cqpolitics.com Archived November 4, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  13. ^ Sherman, Jake (November 19, 2015). “House GOP Overhauls Steering Committee”. Politico. Retrieved November 21, 2015.
  14. ^ Dumain, Emma (November 19, 2015). “House Republicans OK Changes to Steering Panel”. Roll Call. Retrieved November 21, 2015.
  15. ^ Wong, Scott (November 19, 2015). “House GOP Approves Overhaul of Powerful Steering Panel”. The Hill. Retrieved November 21, 2015.