The Role of House Majority Leader

Shikra · 02-04-2008, 03:45 AM

A Majority leader of the United States House of Representatives acts as the leader of the party that has a majority of the seats in the house (currently at least 218 of the 435 seats). This officer is charged with scheduling legislation for floor consideration, planning the daily, weekly, and annual legislative agendas, consulting with Members to gauge party sentiment, and, in general, working to advance the goals of the majority party. The role of House Majority Leader was created as the role of Speaker had become more nationally prominent and the size of the House had grown from 105 at the beginning of the century to 356.
The Constituency of Texas 22 nd Congressional District was previously represented by the House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, before it was taken over by incumbent Nick Lampson. DeLay was elected House Majority Leader after the 2002 midterm elections, and compelled House Republicans to unite to an unprecedented degree, especially in support of President George W. Bush’s agenda. In the early 2000s, DeLay helped to coordinate efforts to redistrict congressional districts in Texas to favor the election of more Republicans. In 2005, a Texas grand jury indicted DeLay on criminal charges that he had conspired to violate campaign finance laws during that period. DeLay denied the charges, saying that they were politically motivated, but Republican Conference rules forced him to resign temporarily from his position as Majority Leader. In January 2006, under pressure from fellow Republicans, DeLay announced that he would not seek to return to the position.
In the following general election there were three main candidates. Democrat and former US Representative Nick Lampson, Libertarian Party candidate Bob Smither, and Republican Sekula-Gibbs. Only Lampson’s and Smither’s names appeared on the ballot, as Shelley Sekula-Gibbs had to run as a write-in candidate because DeLay had previously won the Republican primary.