History of the Chairs of the Standing House Committee on Rules

(1849-1850; 1880 to present)

The House established a standing Committee on Rules by resolution on December 27, 1849, at the opening of the 31st Congress (1849-1851). It was terminated as a standing committee in the second session of that Congress, when the House reverted to its longtime practice of appointing a temporary select committee on rules at the opening of each Congress. On March 2, 1880, during the 46th Congress, the Committee on Rules was again re-established as a standing committee, and that status was continued under the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946.

• Twenty-seven individuals have chaired the standing Committee on Rules; the very first chairman was David Kaufman of Texas.
• The longest-serving chairman was Howard Smith of Virginia who chaired the committee from 1955 to 1967.
• More Members from New York (5) have chaired the committee than any other state: Bertrand Snell, John O'Conner, James Delaney, Gerald Solomon, and Louise Slaughter. Slaughter is the first woman to have chaired the committee.
• Seven Speakers of the House chaired the committee from 1880 until 1910 when House Rules were modified after the Cannon Revolt to remove the Speaker from the chairmanship: Samuel Randall of Pennsylvania, J. Warren Keifer of Ohio, John Carlisle of Kentucky, Thomas Brackett Reed of Maine, Charles Crisp of Georgia, David Henderson of Iowa, and Joseph Cannon of Illinois.[1]