Majority leader

In U.S. politics, the majority floor leader is a partisan position in a legislative body.

In the federal Congress, the role differs slightly in the two houses. In the House of Representatives, which chooses its own presiding officer, the leader of the majority party is elected the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. The position of Majority Leader of the House of Representatives is something of a misnomer then, as the title is given to the majority party's second in command.

In the United States Senate, its president is ex officio the Vice-President of the United States, and the President pro tempore is a largely ceremonial position, so the majority leader is the actual leader of the majority party.

The role of majority leader thus differs slightly between the two chambers.

Given the two-party nature of the U.S. system, the majority leader is almost inevitably either a Republican or a Democrat.

The majority leader is often assisted in his role by whips, whose job is to enforce party discipline on votes deemed to be crucial by the party leadership and to ensure that members do not vote in a way not approved of by the party. Some votes are deemed to be so crucial as to lead to punitive measures (such as demotion from choice committee assignments) if the party line is violated; decisions such as these are often made by the majority leader in conjunction with other senior party leaders.

In the various states, the majority leader of a state legislative chamber usually performs a similar role to the federal counterpart.

See also

• Specific majority leaders
  • Majority Leader of the United States House of Representatives
  • Majority Leader of the United States Senate
• Minority leader