United States Senate Committee on Rules and Administration

The Senate Committee on Rules and Administration (also called the Senate Rules Committee) is responsible for the rules of the United States Senate, with administration of congressional buildings, and with credentials and qualifications of members of the Senate, including responsibility for dealing with contested elections.

The committee is not as powerful as its House counterpart, the House Committee on Rules: it does not set the terms of debate for individual legislative proposals, since the Senate has a tradition of open debate.

Some members of the committee are also ex officio members of the Joint Committee on Printing.

History

The Committee was first created as the Select Committee to Revise the Rules of the Senate on December 3, 1867. On December 9, 1874, it became a standing committee: Committee on Rules.

On January 2, 1947, its name was changed to the Committee on Rules and Administration, and it took over the functions of the following committees:

• Committee to Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses of the Senate
• Committee on Education and Labor (functions were later transferred to Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee)
• Committee on Enrolled Bills
• Committee on Privileges and Elections

Members, 112th Congress

The Committee is chaired by Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York, and the Ranking Member is Republican Lamar Alexander of Tennessee.

Majority	Minority
Chuck Schumer, New York, Chairman Daniel Inouye, Hawaii Dianne Feinstein, California Dick Durbin, Illinois Ben Nelson, Nebraska Patty Murray, Washington Mark Pryor, Arkansas Tom Udall, New Mexico Mark Warner, Virginia Patrick Leahy, Vermont	Lamar Alexander, Tennessee, Ranking Member Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Thad Cochran, Mississippi Saxby Chambliss, Georgia Kay Bailey Hutchison, Texas Pat Roberts, Kansas Richard Shelby, Alabama Roy Blunt, Missouri

Source: 2011 Congressional Record, Vol. 157, Page S557

Chairmen

Select Committee to Revise the Rules of the Senate, 1867–1874

• 1867–1871: Henry B. Anthony (R-RI)
• 1871–1873: Samuel Pomeroy (R-KS)
• 1873–1874: Thomas Ferry (R-MI)

Committee on Rules, 1874–1947

• Thomas Ferry (R-MI) 1874–1877
• James G. Blaine (R-ME) 1877–1879
• John T. Morgan (D-AL) 1879–1881
• William P. Frye (R-ME) 1881–1887
• Nelson W. Aldrich (R-RI) 1887–1893
• Joseph C. S. Blackburn (D-KY) 1893–1895
• Nelson W. Aldrich (R-RI) 1895–1899
• John C. Spooner (R-WI) 1899–1907
• Philander C. Knox (R-PA) 1907–1909
• W. Murray Crane (R-MA) 1909–1913
• Lee S. Overman (D-NC) 1913–1919
• Philander C. Knox (R-PA) 1919–1921
• Charles Curtis (R-KS) 1921–1929
• George H. Moses (R-NH) 1929–1933
• Royal S. Copeland (D-NY) 1933–1936
• Matthew M. Neely (D-WV) 1936–1941
• Harry F. Byrd (D-VA) 1941–1947

Committee on Rules and Administration, 1947–present

• C. Wayland Brooks (R-IL) 1947–1949
• Carl Hayden (D-AZ) 1949–1953
• William E. Jenner (R-IN) 1953–1955
• Theodore F. Green (D-RI) 1955–1957
• Thomas C. Hennings, Jr. (D-MO) 1957–1960
• Mike Mansfield (D-MT) 1960–1963
• B. Everett Jordan (D-NC) 1963–1973
• Howard W. Cannon (D-NV) 1973–1978
• Claiborne Pell (D-RI) 1978–1981
• Charles McC. Mathias, Jr. (R-MD) 1981–1987
• Wendell H. Ford (D-KY) 1987–1995
• Ted Stevens (R-AK) 1995
• John W. Warner (R-VA) 1995–1999
• Mitch McConnell (R-KY) 1999–2001
• Christopher Dodd (D-CT) 2001
• Mitch McConnell (R-KY) 2001
• Christopher Dodd (D-CT) 2001–2003
• Trent Lott (R-MS) 2003–2007
• Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), 2007–2009
• Chuck Schumer (D-NY), 2009-

External links

• Official site
• Members of the Rules Committee
• Senate Rules and Administration Committee member profiles at WhoRunsGov at The Washington Post