The United States federal government has three separate parts. One of those is the legislative branch. The legislative branch is made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The House has 435 members, representing every state in the union. The Speaker of the House leads the House. They are usually a member of the party that makes up the majority of the members of the House, and they are elected by the members of the House. The Speaker is an essential part of the government, but not everyone knows what they do.  

Presidential Line of Succession

If the President of the United States cannot do their job, the Vice President steps in and starts doing the job. If something happens and both POTUS and VPOTUS are unable to do the job of the office of the Vice President is empty, the Speaker of the House steps up into that role until the President or the VP is able to step in and take over their duties. 

Committee Members

The House is broken down into various committees. The committees are in charge of looking at prospective bills and deciding whether or not they should go in front of the full House for a vote. Because of that, the committees can be very powerful, and being on any committee is a high responsibility. The Speaker of the House is in charge of appointing members to the various committees. That means that the Speaker can have a lot of impact on how the committees handle any particular issue. On top of appointing members to committees, the Speaker also sends bills to the appropriate committees so that the members can research the issues and make decisions about what needs to happen with the bill. 

Permission to Speak

For the Representatives to be able to speak on the floor of the House, they have to have permission. The Speaker of the House is the one who grants and revokes permission for anyone to speak. Without that permission, discussions and debates could fall into chaos since people would be able to speak over each other and there would be no order. 

The Speaker of the House is integral to how the United States government works. On top of making sure that their constituents are represented, they also need to make sure that the House runs appropriately and everything happens the way that it should.