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
• Committee on Enrolled Bills
• Committee on Privileges and Elections

Members, 110th Congress

Democrats

Senator		State	Dianne Feinstein, Chairman	California	Christopher J. Dodd	Connecticut	Robert Byrd	West Virginia	Daniel Inouye	Hawaii	Charles Schumer	New York	Richard Durbin	Illinois	Ben Nelson	Nebraska	Byron Dorgan	North Dakota	Patty Murray	Washington	Mark Pryor	Arkansas

Republicans

Senator		State	Robert Bennett, Ranking Minority Member	Utah	Ted Stevens	Alaska	Mitch McConnell	Kentucky	Thad Cochran	Mississippi	Trent Lott	Mississippi	Saxby Chambliss	Georgia	Kay Bailey Hutchison	Texas	Chuck Hagel	Nebraska	Lamar Alexander	Tennessee

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 T. 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-

External link

• Official site