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This is a complete list of current members of the United States House of Representatives based on seniority. For the most part, representatives are ranked by the beginning of their terms in office. Representatives whose terms begin the same day are ranked alphabetically by last name.
Members of the House are arranged by the number of terms they have served, before being arranged by the beginning date of their most recent continuous service. Where members have served the same number of terms and have the same date of service, they are arranged alphabetically by last name.[1]
Representatives who return to the House after having previously served in the House may be credited with service equal to one less than the number of terms they served. For example, Rep. Steve Chabot had previously served seven terms, from 1995 to 2009, when he was once again elected in 2010. Instead of holding seniority with others whose terms began January 3, 2011, he was credited with six terms, and holds seniority above all representatives whose terms began on or after January 3, 1999. When a representative has served a prior tenure of fewer than two terms (i.e., elected in a special election to fill a vacancy, so their prior tenure length measured in terms, minus one, equals less than one), they are ranked above all others whose service begins on the same day.[citation needed]
Committee leadership in the House is often associated with seniority, especially in the Democratic Caucus. The Republican leadership, in comparison with the Democratic Party, prioritizes voting records and campaign fundraising over seniority for committee leadership.[2] Party leadership in the House is not strictly associated with seniority.
Seniority also affects access to more desirable office space in the House Office Buildings.
The more senior a representative is, the more likely the representative is to receive desirable committee assignments or leadership posts such as the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee or Republican Policy Committee. Normally, the more senior a representative is in a committee, the more likely the representative will be chosen to be the committee chair (if a member of the majority party) or ranking member (if a member of the minority party). However, in some more powerful and exclusive committees like the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and House Committee on Appropriations, even the most senior member is not guaranteed to be selected as the chair.[citation needed]
Delegates are non-voting members of the United States House of Representatives.
Rank | Delegate | Party | District | Seniority date (Previous service, if any) |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Eleanor Holmes Norton | D | District of Columbia at-large | January 3, 1991 |
2 | Gregorio Sablan | I[c] | Northern Mariana Islands at-large | January 3, 2009 |
3 | Stacey Plaskett | D | United States Virgin Islands at-large | January 3, 2015 |
4 | Amata Coleman Radewagen | R | American Samoa at-large | |
5 | Jenniffer González Colón | NPP/R | Puerto Rico at-large | January 3, 2017 |
6 | Michael San Nicolas | D | Guam at-large | January 3, 2019 |