Clerk of the United States House of Representatives

"Clerk of the House of Representatives" redirects here. For the Australian office, see Clerk of the Australian House of Representatives. For the New Zealand office, see Clerk of the New Zealand House of Representatives.
Clerk of the United States House of Representatives
Incumbent
Karen L. Haas
since January 5, 2011
Style Madam Clerk
Appointer Elected by the House
Term length Pleasure of the House (nominally a two-year Congress)
Inaugural holder John Beckley
Website Office of the Clerk

The Clerk of the United States House of Representatives is an officer of the United States House of Representatives, whose primary duty is to act as the chief record-keeper for the House.

Along with the other House officers, the Clerk is elected every two years when the House organizes for a new Congress. The majority and minority caucuses nominate candidates for the House officer positions after the election of the Speaker. The full House adopts a resolution to elect the officers, who will begin serving after they have taken the oath of office.

The current Clerk is Karen L. Haas, of Maryland. She replaced Lorraine C. Miller at the beginning of the 112th Congress. Robert Reeves is Deputy Clerk and Gigi Kelaher is Senior Advisor to the Clerk.[1]

The Constitution of the United States[2] states in Article 1, Section 2, “The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers...” On April 1, 1789, when the House of Representatives convened with its first quorum,[3] its initial order of business was the election of the Speaker, Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg, a Representative from Pennsylvania. The next order of business was the election of the Clerk, John Beckley, Esquire, a citizen of Virginia.

The first five Clerks of the House also served as Librarian of Congress, which became a separate position in 1815. South Trimble, a former Representative from Kentucky, who served as Clerk from 1911 to 1919 and again from 1931 to 1946, is the longest-tenured Clerk in House history.[4]

Duties

Every two years regular congressional elections are held. Only one-third of Senators' terms expire at each of these elections, but the terms of office of the entire House end. The Senate has remained in constant existence since it first went into session in 1789 but the House goes out of existence (and hence a "new" Congress takes office) every two years. To preserve the legal continuity of the House, the existence of the House is vested in the Clerk at the end of each two-year term. Thus, when the newly elected members of the House gather on January 3, it is the Clerk who summons Representatives and convenes the new Congress for the first time. Accordingly, the Clerk gavels the House into session, chairs the body as it adopts its rules of order, and oversees the election of a Speaker under those rules. The Speaker then takes the chair and the House proceeds with its business (which includes electing a Clerk for the new session). Were the House not to vest such personality in the Clerk, there would be no legally empowered authority to convene the session and lead the House in its first few acts.

As stated in Rule II of the House Rules, the Clerk is required to:

In addition, the Clerk:

History

On April 1, 1789, the House of Representatives convened with its first quorum. Its initial order of business was the election of the Speaker, Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg, a Representative from Pennsylvania. The next order of business was the election of the Clerk, John Beckley, a citizen of Virginia. Although the Clerk's title is derived from that of the Clerk of the British House of Commons, the duties are similar to those prescribed for the Secretary of the Continental Congress in March 1785.

In addition to the duties involved in organizing the House and presiding over its activities at the commencement of each Congress, the Clerk is charged with a number of legislative functions; some of these, such as the constitutional requirement of maintaining the House Journal, have existed from the time of the first Congress, whereas others have been added over the years because of changes in procedure and organization.

List of Clerks

Name State Years
John Beckley Virginia 1789–1797
Jonathan W. Condy Pennsylvania 1797–1799
John H. Oswald Pennsylvania 1799–1801
John J. Beckley Virginia 1801–1807
Patrick Magruder Maryland 1807–1815
Thomas Dougherty Kentucky 1815–1822
Matthew St. Clair Clarke Pennsylvania 1822–1833
Walter S. Franklin Pennsylvania 1833–1838
Hugh A. Garland Virginia 1837–1841
Matthew St. Clair Clarke Pennsylvania 1841–1843
Caleb J. McNulty Ohio 1843–1845
Benjamin B. French New Hampshire 1845–1847
Thomas J. Campbell Tennessee 1847–1850
Richard M. Young Illinois 1850–1851
John W. Forney Pennsylvania 1851–1856
William Cullom Tennessee 1856–1857
James C. Allen Illinois 1857–1860
John W. Forney Pennsylvania 1860–1861
Emerson Etheridge Tennessee 1861–1863
Edward McPherson Pennsylvania 1863–1875
George M. Adams Kentucky 1875–1881
Edward McPherson Pennsylvania 1881–1883
John B. Clark, Jr. Missouri 1883–1889
Edward McPherson Pennsylvania 1889–1891
James Kerr Pennsylvania 1891–1895
Alexander McDowell Pennsylvania 1895–1911
South Trimble Kentucky 1911–1919
William Tyler Page Maryland 1919–1931
South Trimble Kentucky 1931–1947
John Andrews Massachusetts 1947–1949
Ralph R. Roberts Indiana 1949–1953
Lyle O. Snader Illinois 1953–1955
Ralph R. Roberts Indiana 1955–1967
W. Pat Jennings Virginia 1967–1977
Edmund L. Henshaw, Jr. Virginia 1977–1983
Benjamin J. Guthrie Maryland 1983–1987
Donnald K. Anderson California 1987–1995
Robin H. Carle Idaho 1995–1998
Jeff Trandahl South Dakota 1999–2005
Karen L. Haas Maryland 2005–2007
Lorraine C. Miller Texas 2007–2011
Karen L. Haas Maryland 2011–Present

Offices and Services

In addition to the Clerk's Main Office, located in H154 of the U.S. Capitol, there are nine offices that fall under the Clerk's jurisdiction.

Capitol Service Groups

The Capitol Service Groups provide support services to the maintenance of the Republican and Democratic Cloakrooms, the Lindy Claiborne Boggs Congressional Women’s Reading Room, the Members and Family Committee Room, and the Capitol Prayer Room.

House Page Program

Pages were high school juniors who served as support staff for the U.S. House of Representatives, either for one of two school semester sessions or one of two summer sessions. The program was discontinued in 2011.

Legislative Computer Systems (LCS)

The Legislative Computer Systems office provides technical support for offices under the Clerk and maintains the electronic voting system on the House floor.

Legislative Resource Center (LRC)[5]

The Legislative Resource Center (LRC), a division of the Office of the Clerk, supports House legislative functions and keeps the public informed about the House and its legislative activities. LRC ensures that House-related information is accessible to all.

Legislative Information

LRC supplies House Members with the documents under consideration on the House Floor. LRC also gathers and verifies information on actions by House Committees and the President of the United States regarding legislation. The data are stored in the Legislative Information Management System (LIMS), an in-house system that tracks all legislation from its introduction on the Floor to its signing by the President.

Through two functions, the United States House of Representatives Library and the House Document Room, LRC serves as the repository and a disseminator of official House legislative documents and publications. The Library’s collection comprises more than 200,000 volumes, as well as legislative and legal databases. The House Document Room stores hard copies of legislative documents and publications from the current and two preceding Congresses, and makes them available to the public upon request, free of charge.

In addition, LRC responds to inquiries from congressional staff and the public regarding legislative information about Congress.

Public Disclosure

LRC manages and serves as the customer service contact for lobbying disclosure filings, as well as public disclosure forms from all House Officers, Members, and staff. The Center provides filers with forms and guidance on filing procedures, and responds to inquiries about disclosure from filers and others.

LRC gathers, organizes, and retains disclosure registrations and reports, and makes them accessible to the public, on-site and virtually.

House Membership Information

LRC compiles and publishes these official lists and informational publications about the House:

Support for Congressional Offices

LRC works with the Government Printing Office to support congressional offices with orders for official stationery and envelopes and other print services.

Office of Art and Archives

The Office of Art and Archives collects, preserves, and interprets the artifacts and records of the House. The office is responsible for the House's historical documentation, the House Collection of Fine Art and Artifacts, and the official records of the House from 1789 to the present. The House Curator and Chief of the office, Farar Elliott, curates the House Collection of several thousand objects. The House Archivist, Robin Reeder, processes the records of the House and oversees their eventual safe transfer to the National Archives. Together with the Historian of the House, the Curator and Archivist oversee the institution's website History, Art & Archives of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Office of House Employment Counsel (OHEC)

This office provides advice about employment practices and acts as legal representation for all employing authorities in the House.

Office of Legislative Operations

This office coordinates the services of the Bill and Enrolling Clerks, the Journal Clerks, the Tally Clerks, the Daily Digests, and the Floor Action Reporting.

The Office of Legislative Operations provides support pertaining to the Clerk's legislative duties. Among the duties of this office are receiving and processing official papers; compiling and publishing the daily minutes of House proceedings; operating the electronic voting system and overseeing the recording of votes; preparing messages to the Senate regarding passed legislation; and reading the bills, resolutions, amendments, motions, and Presidential messages that come before the House. The Office of Legislative Operations also prepares the summaries and schedules of House activities published in the Daily Digest section of the Congressional Record.

Bill Clerks

A Bill Clerk receives and processes official papers including introduced bills and resolutions, amendments and additional co-sponsors.

Journal Clerks

A Journal Clerk compiles the daily minutes of House proceedings and publishes these in the House Journal at the end of each session. The House Journal is the official record of the proceedings maintained in accordance with Article I, Section 5 of the U.S. Constitution.

Tally Clerks

A Tally Clerk operates the electronic voting system, oversees the recording of votes on the House Floor, receives reports of Committees, and prepares the Calendar of the United States House of Representatives and History of Legislation.

Enrolling Clerks

An Enrolling Clerk prepares all messages to the Senate regarding passed legislation, the official engrossed copy of all House-passed measures, and the official enrollment of all House-originated measures that have cleared both bodies of Congress.

Reading Clerks

A Reading Clerk is responsible for the reading of all bills, resolutions, amendments, motions and Presidential Messages that come before the House; reports formally to the Senate all legislative actions taken by the House.

Office of Publication Services (OPS)

This office processes official print orders, such as those for letterhead and envelopes, for the House and produces official House publications, including the Official List of Members, the Capitol Directory Card, and the House Telephone Directory. This office also develops and maintains the Clerk’s official Web site and the Kids in the House Web site.

Official Reporters

This office transcribes House proceedings verbatim for publication in the Congressional Record and provides stenographic support to committees for all hearings, meetings, and mark-up sessions.

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://clerk.house.gov/about
  2. ↑ "United States Constitution". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  3. ↑ Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States Volume 1. A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 - 1875. 1789. p. 6.
  4. ↑ "History of the Office". Office of the Clerk. United States House of Representatives. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  5. ↑ "The Legislative Resource Center (LRC)". Retrieved 24 February 2015.

External links

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