How Senate Republicans Make Committee Assignments
The Senate assigns senators to serve on its committees at the beginning of every two-year Congress by passing resolutions constituting the majority- and minority-party memberships on each panel. The majority and minority slates are assembled separately by the Democratic Caucus and Republic Conference.
The committee assignment process is regulated by the Standing Rules of the Senate, Democratic Caucus/Republican Conference Rules, and Caucus/Conference precedents (or past practice). Relevant provisions of these procedural authorities limit senators’ total number of committee assignments and the circumstances in which they can serve on specific panels. However, Democrats and Republicans regularly waive these limitations to ensure that they can fill all their committee seats with the most qualified candidates.
Senate Rules
The Senate typically assigns senators to its standing committees by passing a resolution. Rule XXIV stipulates, “In the appointment of the standing committees, or to fill vacancies thereon, the Senate, unless otherwise ordered, shall by resolution appoint the chairman of each committee and the other members thereof.”
Rule XXV limits the number of committees on which a senator may serve. Senators approved the limitation in the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970 (Public Law 91-510). Specifically, the rule stipulates that “each Senator shall serve on two and no more” so-called A committees. The Senate’s A Committees are Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry; Appropriations; Armed Services; Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; Commerce, Science, and Transportation; Energy and Natural Resources; Environment and Public Works; Finance; Foreign Relations; Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions; Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; Judiciary.
Rule XXV also caps the total number of seats on each committee. It authorizes the majority and minority leaders to temporarily increase the size of committees “by such number or numbers as may be required to accord the majority party a majority of the membership of all standing committees.” When that happens, “members of the majority party in such number as may be required for that purpose may serve as members of three standing committees.”
Rule XXV allows only majority party members to serve on more than two committees. It stipulates that “no such temporary increase in the membership of any standing committee…shall be continued in effect after the need therefor has ended.” The Senate must amend the relevant provisions of Rule XXV to change the number of minority party committee seats and to assign minority party members to more than two A Committees (or to waive its provisions regarding majority party members in other ways).
The Senate amends Rule XXV when it constitutes the majority and minority memberships on its committees. Senators may also waive the relevant provisions of Rule XXV by unanimous consent. The Senate last amended Rule XXV’s total seat cap and two-seat per senator limit at the beginning of the 117th Congress. Those changes expired at the end of the 117th Congress. Consequently, senators must amend Rule XXV again to adjust the number of committee seats and senators’ two-seat limit in the 118th Congress.
Senators do not accrue seniority on their third-A committee assignment. Third-A committee senators are listed at the end of each panel’s membership roster.
The Republican Conference
The rules and past practices of the Republican Conference regulate its internal committee assignment process.
Conference Rules
Republican Conference rules regulate how the party selects senators to serve on specific committees. For example, conference Rule V establishes "a Committee on Committees…to prepare and recommend to the Conference the complete assignments of Republican Senators to committees listed in Rule XXV."
Rule V, paragraph 5 allows the Republican Leader to “appoint half of all vacancies of each ‘A’ committee.” The rule allows the Republican Leader to appoint “half plus one” when there are an odd number of vacancies. For example, if there are three vacancies, the Republican Leader appoints two. The Republican Leader does not have to follow seniority when making assignments.
Conference Rule V prohibits senators from serving on more than one Super-A Committee. Paragraph G stipulates, “No Senator shall serve at any time on more than one of the following committees: Committee on Appropriations, Committee on Armed Services, Committee on Finance, and Committee on Foreign Relations.”
Conference Precedents
Republican Conference precedents also limit the committees on which senators can serve. These precedents reflect past practice according to the Conference and the Senate's Standing Rules. They are listed at the end of the Conference rules under "Supplement to the Republican Conference Rules." The Supplement to the Republican Conference Rules lists several informal practices as “previous actions of Republican Conferences and of the Committee on Committees, to be considered as precedents.”
The same-state precedent bars two Republican senators from the same state from serving on the same committee. On January 2, 1947, Edward V. Robertson, R-Wyo., referred to the “understanding” that “no two Senators of the same party from the same State shall be members of the same Committee” when presenting the Committee on Committees report to the Conference. And on February 19, 1963, Minority Leader Everett Dirksen, R-Ill., referred to “the precedent that no two Senators of the same party from the same State shall serve on the same Committee.”
Putting It All Together
Conference Rule V details how Republicans make committee assignments. At the beginning of every Congress, “all Republican Conference members shall be offered two ‘A’ committee slots in order of seniority. Next, newly elected senators are offered one committee slot in order of seniority, followed by another. (Rule V(E) and 5(H) specify how seniority is determined for returning senators and newly elected senators.) Finally, the Republican Leader makes any remaining committee assignments once all senators have chosen two committee slots.
The Republican Leader and Committee on Committees consider several factors when they depart from seniority in making committee assignments. The Committee on Committees summed up those factors in 1947.
“In arriving at our recommendations, we have been guided largely by seniority on existing standing committees – by the Senator’s preferences – by the relative importance of existing committee memberships – by a Senator’s background and experience which is generally evident in his preferences – and by geographic location.”
Once complete, the Committee on Committees reports its proposed committee assignments to the Republican Conference for approval. (Note: The Committee on Committees reported the slate of Republican assignments directly to the Senate, skipping Conference approval, in 1931.) At that point, the Conference considers whether to grant any waivers to the limitations in its rules and precedents. While the Republican Leader and members of the Committee on Committees may base their recommendations on Conference rules and precedents, only the Conference can grant a waiver to its rules and precedents. For example, the Committee on Committees deferred to the Conference the question of why two senators from the same State could not serve on the same committee in 1962. Its members “generally agreed that this being a Conference matter, the Committee on Committees could, of course, raise the question and by motion present the matter to the Conference for its action.”
The Takeaway
The rules and practices that regulate the committee assignment process in the Senate Republican Conference limit the number of committees a senator may serve and the circumstances in which they can serve on each panel. The Republican Conference regularly waives its same-state limit, and the full Senate regularly amends Rule XXV to allow senators to temporarily serve on a third A committee when needed. Waiving Republicans' same-state limit requires the approval of the members of the Republican Conference only. In contrast, waiving the two-committee limit in Rule XXV requires the approval of the full Senate.