Congressional caucus

A congressional caucus is a group of members of the United States Congress that meets to pursue common legislative objectives. Formally, caucuses are formed as congressional member organizations (CMOs) through the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate and governed under the rules of these chambers. In addition to the term caucus, they are sometimes called conferences (especially Republican ones), coalitions, study groups, task forces, or working groups.^[1] Many other countries use the term "parliamentary group"; for example, the UK Parliament has many all-party parliamentary groups. ^[2]

Party caucuses and conferences in the United States Congress

The largest caucuses are the party caucuses and conferences in the United States Congress, which are the partisan caucuses comprising all members of one house from one party (either the Democrats or the Republicans). These are the House Democratic Caucus, House Republican Conference, Senate Democratic Caucus, and Senate Republican Conference.

The caucuses meet regularly in closed sessions to set legislative agendas, select committee members and chairs, and hold elections to choose various floor leaders. They also oversee the four Hill committees, political party committees that work to elect members of their own party to Congress.

Ideological conferences

Some caucuses are organized political factions with a common ideological orientation:

On the Democratic side:
- Congressional Progressive Caucus [CPC] (liberal and progressive Democrats)
- New Democrat Coalition [NDC] (moderate Democrats)
- Blue Dog Coalition [BDC] (conservative Democrats).
On the Republican side:
- Tuesday Group [TG] (moderate Republicans)
- Republican Main Street Partnership [MSP] (another group of moderate Republicans)
- Republican Study Committee [RSC] (conservative Republicans)
- Liberty Caucus [LC] (libertarian Republicans)
- House Freedom Caucus [HFC] (a conservative caucus affiliated with the Tea Party Movement).

Most ideological caucuses are confined to the House of Representatives.

Known caucus membership in the *House of Representatives*
Congress	CPC	NDC	BDC	Democrats (in total)	Republicans (in total)	TG	MSP	RSC	LC	HFC	Reference
115th (Jan. '17)	75	46	18	194	241	50	71	172	28	32
114th (Jan. '16)	70	52	15	188	247	53	68	170	36	39	^[3]

^ Total counts may vary, as members are not limited to membership in a single caucus. Also the provided numbers are those of known members of their respective caucuses - this does not necessarily reflect the true numbers (which can easily be higher).

Racial and ethnic caucuses

Among the most visible caucuses are those composed of members sharing the same race or ethnic group. The most high profile of these represent people of color. These include:

The Congressional Black Caucus for African-Americans.
The two Hispanic caucuses:
- The Congressional Hispanic Caucus, for Hispanic Democrats.
- The Congressional Hispanic Conference, for Hispanic Republicans. Congressional Republicans formerly belonged to the Hispanic Caucus but later split off to form the Hispanic Conference.
The Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus represents members who are Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, but they are open to other members as well.
The American Sikh Congressional Caucus to represent the interests of the American Sikh community.^[4]
In addition, there are European American ethnic caucus, such as the Congressional Czech Caucus.

Interest group caucuses

The most common caucuses consist of members united as an interest group. These are often bipartisan (comprising both Democrats and Republicans) and bicameral (comprising both Representatives and Senators). For example, the Congressional Bike Caucus works to promote cycling.

Rules

The House Committee on House Administration prescribes certain rules for Congressional Member Organizations (CMOs). Each Congress, CMOs must electronically register with the Committee on House Administration, providing the name of the caucus, a statement of purpose, the CMO officers, and the employee designated to work on issues related to the CMO.

The Committee on House Administration rules include:

Members of both the House and Senate may participate in CMO, but at least one of the Officers of the CMO must be a Member of the House. The participation of Senators in a CMO does not impact the scope of authorized CMO activities in any regard.
CMOs have no separate corporate or legal identity. A CMO is not an employing authority. The Members' Representational Allowance (MRA) may not directly support a CMO as an independent entity. A CMO may not be assigned separate office space.
Neither CMOs nor individual Members may accept goods, funds, or services from private organizations or individuals to support the CMO. Members may use personal funds to support the CMO.
A Member of a CMO, in support of the objectives of that CMO, may utilize employees (including shared employees) and official resources under the control of the Member to assist the CMO in carrying out its legislative objectives, but no employees may be appointed in the name of a CMO.
CMOs may not use the Frank (congressional free mailing privilege), nor may a Member lend their Frank to a CMO.
A Member may use official resources for communications related to the purpose of a CMO. Any such communications must comply with the Franking regulations.
Members may devote a section of their official website to CMO issues, but CMOs may not have independent web pages.
A Member may use inside mail to communicate information related to a CMO.
Members may prepare material related to CMO issues for dissemination.
Official funds may not be used to print or pay for stationery for the CMO.
Members may refer to their membership in a CMO on their official stationery.

References

↑ Congressional Member Organizations: Their Purpose and Activities, History, and Formation Congressional Research Service
↑ All-party Parliamentary Groups BBC Democracy Live. Retrieved March 2011
↑ Hawkings, David (19 January 2016). "The House's Ideology, in Seven Circles". Roll Call. Retrieved 30 March 2016.
↑ "Congressman Garamendi Selected as Co-Chair of Bipartisan American Sikh Congressional Caucus". U.S. Representative John Garamendi. May 22, 2014.

Current	By length of service Freshmen Youngest members Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico Delegates Longest-serving members ever
Senate	Current by seniority Dean of the Senate Former senators Living Earliest serving Earliest living Expelled or censured Classes Born outside the U.S.
House	Current by seniority Dean of the House Former representatives Living Oldest living Earliest serving Expelled, censured, and reprimanded

Leaders

Senate	President (list) President pro tempore (list) Majority and minority leaders Assistant party leaders Democratic Caucus (Chair Secretary Policy Committee Chair) Republican Conference (Chair Vice-Chair Policy Committee Chair)
House	Speaker Leaders Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group Democratic Caucus Republican Conference

Districts

Caucuses,
women and
minorities

Powers, privileges, procedure, committees, history, and media

Powers	Article I Copyright Commerce (Dormant) Contempt of Congress Declaration of war Impeachment Naturalization "Necessary and Proper" Power of enforcement Taxing/spending
Privileges and benefits	Salaries Franking Immunity
Procedure	Act of Congress (list) Appropriation bill Blue slip Budget resolution Censure Closed sessions House Senate Cloture Concurrent resolution Continuing resolution Dear colleague letter Discharge petition Engrossed bill Enrolled bill Expulsion Joint resolution Joint session (list) Lame-duck session Majority of the majority (Hastert Rule) Multiple referral Procedures (House) Quorum call Reconciliation Rider Saxbe fix Sponsorship Suspension of the rules Unanimous consent Veto Line-item veto Pocket veto Veto override
Senate-specific	Advice and consent Classes Executive communication Executive session Filibuster Jefferson's Manual Senate Journal Morning business Nuclear option Presiding Officer Recess appointment Reconciliation Riddick's Senate Procedure Senate hold Senatorial courtesy Seniority Standing Rules Tie-breaking votes Traditions Treaty Clause
Committees	Chairman and ranking member Of the Whole Conference Discharge petition Hearings Markup Oversight List (Joint) List (House) List (Senate) Select and special Standing Subcommittees
Items	Gavels Mace of the House Seal of the Senate
History	Biographical Directory Divided government House Gerrymandering Party control Senate Senate election disputes Senatorial memoirs Representative memoirs
Media	C-SPAN Congressional Quarterly The Hill Politico Roll Call

Offices, employees, services, and the Capitol Complex

Legislative
offices

Offices

Senate	Curator Historical Library
House	Congressional Ethics Emergency Planning, Preparedness, and Operations Interparliamentary Affairs Legislative Counsel Law Revision Counsel Library

Employees

Senate	Secretary Chaplain Curator Inspector General Historian Librarian Pages Parliamentarian Sergeant at Arms and Doorkeeper
House	Chaplain Chief Administrative Officer Clerk Doorkeeper Floor Operations Floor Services Chief Historian Pages (Page Board) Parliamentarian Postmaster Reading Clerk Sergeant at Arms

Library of
Congress

Government
Publishing Office

Capitol

Office
buildings

Senate	Dirksen Hart Mountains and Clouds Russell
House	Building Commission Cannon Ford Longworth O'Neill Rayburn

Other
facilities

Websites: House of Representatives; Senate

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