Congress of the United States

The Senate majority leader has somewhat less official power than the Speaker of the House. This is because the vice president is technically the Senate's presiding officer, a ceremonial position that calls chiefly for casting a vote in the event of a tie. The Senate majority leader's official duties include helping make committee appointments, helping establish a legislative timetable, and directing debate. Notably, in the Senate, these duties usually involve consultation with the leadership of the minority party. The comparatively diminished procedural powers of the majority leader hardly reduce the position's significance. As chief strategist and spokesperson for the majority party, the majority leader exercises considerable influence over political debate, and certain unique duties of the Senate itself lend extra influence to the role.

Differences between the House and Senate account for the contrasts in leadership duties. The House sends bills to the Senate, where they are debated extensively at a slower, more deliberate pace. For this reason, the majority leader is chosen from within the party's caucus less for the Senator's bureaucratic efficiency than for his or her knowledge, experience, and persuasive abilities. The Senate leader does not have the House Speaker's extensive authority over the legislative agenda: instead, bills are called up for debate depending on when the committees report them and on when both parties' leaders have agreed to schedule them. The majority leader can speed up the process for certain bills but requires the unanimous consent of the Senate to do so.

However, the majority leader exercises influence in important areas not open to the House Speaker. Only the Senate can approve treaties with foreign governments, and the Senate alone has the authority to confirm presidential nominations to the cabinet and federal courts. The majority leader, assisted by a lieutenant known as the majority whip, seeks to marshal the votes of the party's members on these matters. The responsiveness of the majority leader to the president's wishes thus plays a crucial role in shaping domestic and foreign policy as well as the composition of the federal judiciary.

The national importance of the majority leader was highlighted in December 2002 when Senator TRENT LOTT (R-MS) was engulfed in a firestorm of public criticism that forced him to give up his position as majority leader in the Congress beginning in January 2003. Lott, who had served as majority leader from 1996 until 2001, ignited the controversy at a 100th-birthday tribute to Sen. STROM THURMOND (RSC). Lott said he was proud Mississippi had voted for Thurmond for president in 1948, when the South Carolinian ran on the segregationist "Dixiecrat" platform. Lott then said: "If the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over the years."

Once this statement was picked up by the press, Lott tried several times to explain that his statement did not mean to imply he supported SEGREGATION or was a racist. President GEORGE W. BUSH, while supporting Lott in his leadership position, chastised his comments; within days commentators speculated how long Lott could hold on to his post. Three weeks after he made the comments, Lott resigned his leadership position. Senator Bill Frist (R-TN) succeeded Lott as majority leader. The episode made clear that Senate majority leaders have both an institutional role and a national leadership role in U.S. government.