It is free. It is easily accessible. It is all there at cspan. Org. Matthew green, John Nance Garner, who was speaker of the house from 1931 to 1933 and president s vice said the speaker of the house drop is the hardest job in washington. Do you agree . When the framers created the position, what were they thinking about . A kind of model of the speakership where it was a position that had some parliamentary responsibilities, so its job was to preside over the chamber and make sure the rules were being followed fairly, but they also understood could take onion other responsibilities. It is telling it is mentioned only once in the constitution and says the house shall choose it speaker and leaves the rest up to the house to determine what the speaker responsibilities will be. Over time, has it evolved as the institution changed or a combination . I think it is a combination. Certainly the larger context with which speakers have to operate, the house itself, national governments, the larger political context have changed. With that, there have been new response abilities and duties imposed on speakers. But at the same time, there have been individuals who have made a profound impact on the speakership and changed the way it governs and operates. Our viewers see nancy pelosi on the news every day and on cspan. We thought we would learn from you about some of the powerful people of the past who have shaped the role and also shaped the country through legislation. But along the way, lets start with the modern speaker. If you can give us an overview of how the Speakers Office is organized today, what are the tools . How large is the staff . Give us some sense of what nancy pelosi really oversees in congress. Sure. To think about it in the broader context, the speaker of the house has a number of possibilities. Part of it is just presiding over the house chamber, although they really do that. They have someone who is doing that for them, but they are technically responsible for making sure the rules are followed. They are also the leader of the party. With that comes expectations they will help their party past legislative agenda. They might help set the agenda. They are expected to help with campaigns, raising money, these kinds of things to help their fellow partisans get elected. They also have a public role to play, so they are expected to do interviews, to be in the public sphere, and to represent their party as well as the house as a whole. Those are some of the many response abilities they have, which is why it is such a difficult job. Do you have a sense of how large the staff is or how large the budget of the speaker has . Professor green i do not know offhand what the number is, but it has grown significantly over the last several decades. It has become a position with a lot of staff and a large budget. Susan what are the tools they have in order to keep their caucus or the entire congress in line . Professor green speakers have formal and informal tools at their disposal. They do have the power of recognition. They can decide who gets to speak on the house floor. They also have within their party a number of powers. The republicans and democrats differ here. They usually have the power to influence Committee Assignments. They can decide who is on what committee to some degree and who also who chairs committees. That way, they can reward who are loyal and punish those who are disloyal and shape the legislative agenda. Susan how about their ability to raise money . Professor green that is one of the things speakers are expected to do. It is not a formal job. You will not find it in the rules of the house of representatives, but they are expected to do it. It is one of the things speakers simply have to do. They need to go out and raise money. They need to do fundraisers. They go to member districts when they are running for reelection or election. There are doing a lot of the Campaign Work to help members of their party. Susan in recent years there have been some organizational changes to the congress under various speakers. One of those is the end of earmarks. Off, explain what earmarks are, and did that change the power of the Speakers Office . Professor green earmarks are basically putting special targeted funding into a larger spending bill. You might have a bill for transportation, for example, that allocates x billions of dollars for roads. In that bill, it might say or in some other related language, x amount of money might go for this road or that bridge. Those are targeted to districts. This was something that was traditional in congress. Members would do this. They grew in size and expense in late 1990s, early 2000s. So when republicans took control of the house, they banned earmarks. One of the criticisms that have been made of the ban of earmarks is it takes away a tool available to speakers who wish to build a majority for legislation. They cannot say anymore if you , both for this bill, you will put in some money for something in the district. There are informal and indirect ways to do that but it is no longer allowed under the rules to put those explicit earmarks into bills. Susan another thing that has changed in somewhat recent congresses is the seniority of the Committee Chairs. Tenure is the word i am looking for. Sorry. The tenure of Committee Chairs. In past congresses, Committee Chairs were every bit as powerful. Now, they have a tenure under which they can serve. Does that give more power to the speaker . Professor green that is one of the reasons speakers are more powerful. That started under speaker Newt Gingrich, imposed limits. That was something the party had done before he became speaker and they maintain that rule. With the term limits, do not have folks who are chair for 10, 20, 30 years treating their committee as some sort of personal fiefdom. They have to constantly be moved out. That weakens their institutional authority. That has come, i would argue, largely that their power has declined. Susan on the senate side of congress, the majority of minority leaders are the powerful ones. We see them all the time in their public roles shepherding legislation on the floor. In the house, there is the both the speaker and the majority leader. How does that relationship work . Between the two . Professor green the easiest way to think about this is both the house and senate have a top constitutional officer. In the house, it is the speaker of the house. In a the senate, it is the Vice President. The key difference is that the Vice President s are elected by the Electoral College and the public at large. Speakers are not. The senate did not always have a Vice President who was of the same party. From the Majority Partys view, giving power to the Vice President to the same degree the Majority Party in the house my give to the speaker could cause a lot of problems if the Vice President was of the other party. In the senate, each party established their Top Party Leader whom they elect as effectively the most powerful person in the senate. In the house, the speaker , because the speaker is chosen by the whole house but effectively by the Majority Party, the majority felt more comfortable giving the speaker more authority. There is a majority leader. The top leader of the Majority Party in the house is the speaker of the house. Susan before we delve into history, i want our audience to know who they are listening to. You are teaching now at catholic university. What kind of courses do you teach . Professor green i teach introduction to american politics. I also teach a number of courses on political institutions. I teach classes on the u. S. Congress. I teach a class called power in american politics. We talk about the executive how power is exercised in the executive branch and the legislative branch and interest groups. We talk about trumps election, why that happened, and the politics that surround the trump presidency. Susan how did you get into teaching and join the academy . Professor green my father was a professor actually a history , professor. I ended up after College Going to capitol hill and working as a legislative aid for a number of years. I ended up combining my interest in academia with my fascination and love for legislative politics into the job i have now. Susan what period of time were you on the hill . Professor green i was there from 1993 to 1998. How close were you to witness leadership . Whet yourwhat you interest . Professor green i do not know how close i got. I was not working for a leader. I was there for the 1994 election, which was a phenomenal experience because the democrats had lost control of the house for the first time in four years. You really got a sense of how consequential elections can be when you see a switch in power. Which i saw. I tell the story of walking down the Office Building hallway and the next day. You could tell who was a democrat and who was a republican by the looks on their faces. The democrats looked like death had passed over them. The republicans were jubilant. It was a phenomenal experience. And then being there for Newt Gingrichs early months as speaker made a big impression on me about the power of the speaker. Susan he is on our list. So we are going to talk more about him in our conversation later on. As people search for you, they will find you are a participant in a blog called mischief of faction, which is all college professors, political scientists. What do you do in that blog . Professor green it is about Political Parties. That is what unifies the group of contributors. What we write about are everything from the Majority Party in congress and leadership in congress to the democratic primaries. We write about the power of the president. There are also contributions about parties in other countries like in south america. How do other parties work in Different Countries . To the subject from a different perspective. We are writing about Political Parties went large in contemporary politics. Susan where does the name come from . Professor green i believe it comes from the federalist papers. I believe. It was alexander hamilton. Im pretty sure that is it. Susan we will send people in that direction. They can find more about its origin. There have been 54 people who have served as speaker of the house over time. How many of them are history making percentage wise . Professor green percentagewise . I would say depending on how you count it, maybe 10 to 15 . Susan what makes for a successful or powerful speaker . Professor green from my perspective, i think several things make for a powerful or important speaker. One is, it could be any combination of these things. One is exercising significant influence on major legislation. Helping get major bills passed in your chamber. Another is bringing about significant institutional change in the house of representatives. Changing the way the house works or the structure. Another is finding new ways to use the powers you already have to get things through. Maybe in terms of how you appoint folks to committees. , for example. Those are some of the ways speakers have distinguished themselves from others. Susan are important speakers always significant parliamentary tacticians . Professor green not necessarily. Others defer to their staff or the parliamentarian and instead are more effective at influencing politics through their relationships with other members. , for example. Susan to get started, this is peaking my interest. I thought it would be interesting to start with speakers the house itself considered were so important that they named major Office Buildings after them. Canon come alon cannon, longworth, and rayburn. We are going to start with joe cannon. He served from 1903 to 1911. He had a nickname, uncle joe. Tell me about him. Professor green uncle joe cannon was a character. He had a white beard, a stovepipe hat. Always had a cigar in his mouth. He was quite a distinguished character on the hill. But what really made him stand out was his use of power. I would say he represented the apex of power in the house of speakership in the house of representatives. He was the chair of the rules committee, which is the committee that decides what can come to the house floor. And what terms can come to the floor. There were only three members on the committee. He effectively could decide what bills came to the floor and what did not. It was entirely up to him. He was also not afraid to use his power to block legislation even if a lot of members wanted it. He was also not afraid to punish members of his party who were he felt were insufficiently loyal. He famously punished some insurgents in his party who were causing trouble, kicking them off committees, moving them to bad committees. He moved one member to the committee of ventilation and which is probably one of the worst committees you could be on in the house. Susan it does not exist today. Professor green it does not exist today. It is a there is a story about a member of congress who got a letter from a constituent saying, could you please send me the rules of the house of representatives . The congressman sent back a picture of joe cannon. He was the rules of the house. Susan just so people who do not follow closely, today, the rules committee is not presided over by the speaker of the house. Professor green correct. The speaker does not serve on the rules committee or chair the rules committee. Susan this description of how he wanted power sounds counterintuitive to someone called uncle joe. Do you know how we got the nickname . Professor green i dont. I dont actually. Susan it was someone who was affable rather than someone cutting off people at the knees. To achieve legislative means. Professor green he was not disliked. Slikableot a thidi person. What was the problem from members was his use of power. Particularly, the insurgents. The democrats were not happy either, but most members of his party were perfectly happy with him and his use of power. Susan the time in which he was served was also the time of theodore roosevelt. You know about their relationship . Professor green there was certainly conflict between the roosevelt was advocating for two. More progressive legislation than joe cannon wanted. There were times when roosevelt would be writing letters to joe cannon saying, could you please let this bill come to the floor . There was no sense that the speaker should just do what the president said. There was an understanding the speaker had the power and the president just needed to ask. Cannon often said no. He said i do not agree with the progressive legislation. It is not coming to the floor. I dont care what you have to say. It is not going to happen. They often did not see eye to eye on policy. It was very frustrating for roosevelt and the progressive insurgents in the republican conference. Susan what legislative achievements did he accomplish . Professor green i would put him more in the category of what things that he prevent from passing . There was a lot of progressive legislation that simply did not get to the floor. Did not move its way through. Some things did. But it was often because of his great reluctance or some other means that progressives managed to get things to the floor. I think what cannon is most famous for is inadvertently being the last speaker to have that much power because of a rebellion that took place against his authority in 1910. Susan it was also the age of muckraking newspapers. So how did they treat him and vice versa . Professor green certainly cannon got a lot of criticism from the press. Democrats in particular had a field day with that and would he is as a czar, dictator. Put us in charge and we will not govern the way joe cannon does. Some of that muckraking journalism was useful for the progressives because they would bring up things like unsanitary food conditions or canning facilities. This would create pressure on congress to enact progressive legislation, regulating food supply for example. Cared howink cannon people saw him. He saw his role as being leader of his party in the house. Susan it came to a head with a revolt inside the house on march 17, 1910. That is st. Patricks day. Is that at all significant to the story . Professor green i do not really think of it in terms of st. Patricks day. I think of it more in terms of how procedure happened to be used that particular day. This was a group of insurgents who were plotting with democrats to try to weaken the speakers power. Susan were they generally the progressives . Professor green the progressives in the Republican Party working with democrats. What they wanted to do is change the rules so that cannon could not control the house floor through the rules committee. To make a long story short, they managed to bring to the floor a privileged motion that would take the speaker off the rules committee and expand the rules committee from three members to 15. Cannon fought it vehemently from the chair. He spent hours trying to get absent republicans to show up to defeat this motion. He ultimately failed. A coalition of democrats and republicans were able to pass this and effectively strip the speaker of one of his most important tools of power. Susan did he stay in the congress after he lost that power . Professor green he did actually, interestingly enough. There was an election and republicans lost the house. But as memory serves, he did in fact stay in the house. You had former uncle joe cannon, the most powerful speaker ever, now just a regular member of Congress Like everybody else. Susan next on our list is the longworth building, named after nicholas longworth. Also a republican who served from 1925 to 1931. Wheres his home state . Professor green ohio. Susan what should we know about him . Professor green so longworth was an interesting character. I think of him as a quintessential 1920s leader. He is dapper. He and his wife, Alice Longworth, formerly alice roosevelt, daughter of former president roosevelt, would have