Ranking Minority Member / Ranking Member (CongressionalGlossary.com)

From the Congressional Glossary – Including Legislative and Budget Terms

Ranking Minority Member / Ranking Member

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The highest ranking (and usually longest serving) minority-party member of a standing committee or subcommittee. Senators may not serve as ranking minority member on more than one standing committee.

The “Ranking Member” is the minority party leader on a congressional committee and frequently the minority committee member with the most seniority. The ranking member often serves, along with the chairman, as an ex officio member of all of the committee’s subcommittees. Some Senate committees refer to their highest ranking minority members as vice-chairman. A chair or ranking minority member on a committee or subcommittee also wears a second hat as manager of resources for that entity.

Party leaders meet with committee chairs and ranking minority members to discuss political strategies and legislative priorities, assess support and opposition to the leadership’s initiatives, round up votes, and serve as congressional spokesmen for their parties’ positions.

Ranking Member is the minority party leader on a congressional committee and frequently the minority committee member with the most seniority. The ranking member often serves, along with the chairman, as an ex officio member of all of the committee’s subcommittees. Some Senate committees refer to their highest ranking minority members as vice-chairman.

 
Also see

• Congressional Leadership and Committees
• Gang of Four
• Party Leaders and Leadership
• Seniority
• Speaker (CongressionalGlossary.com)
• § 5.50 Party Leadership, § 5.90 Committee Leadership, § 5.91 House Committee Chairs and Ranking Minority Members and Their Tenure, § 5.92 Senate Committee Chairs and Ranking Minority Members and Their Tenure, § 6.110 Committee of the Whole: Debate, in Congressional Deskbook
• § 8.18 Making a Target List for Ranking Legislators’ Positions, in Lobbying and Advocacy
• Chapter 3.C. Committee Chairs; Chapter 3.D. Hearings in Committees; Chapter 8.E. Congressional Oversight; in Congressional Procedure

More

• Congressional Leadership and Committees
• Majority Leader (CongressionalGlossary.com)
• Speaker (CongressionalGlossary.com)
• Whip, Majority Whip, Minority Whip (CongressionalGlossary.com)
• “House Standing Committee Chairs and Ranking Minority Members,” CRS Report RS21165 (10-page PDF)
• “‘Gang of Four’ Congressional Intelligence Notifications,” CRS Report R40698 (14-page PDF)
• “House Committees: Categories and Rules for Committee Assignments,” CRS Report 98-151 (8-page PDF)
• “Committee System: Rules Changes in the House, 104th Congress,” CRS Report 95-187 (5-page PDF)
• “House Subcommittees: Assignment Process,” CRS Report 98-610 (6-page PDF)
• “Subcommittees in the House of Representatives,” CRS Report 98-544 (4-page PDF)
• “House Leadership Structure: Overview of Party Organization,” CRS Report RS20930 (3-page PDF)
• “Committee Assignment Process in the U.S. Senate: Democratic and Republican Party Procedures,” CRS Report RL30743 (19-page PDF)

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