The motion is caused by electric current passing through a voice coil. As the coil moves back and forth, it creates a magnetic field. Like charges repel and unlike ones attract.
Powers Speaker
A speaker is one of the most powerful positions in Congress. While not on par with the presidency, he or she sets the House’s agenda and work and voting calendar, decides which bills will get voted on and oversees the votes themselves, controls committee assignments, determines how debate on the floor will unfold, and appoints key staffers like the parliamentarian. In addition, the Speaker has second-in-line to the presidency under the Presidential Succession Act and plays a key role in the process of dealing with a president’s disability or incapacity.
The Speaker has many powers and responsibilities, but he or she must exercise them within the context of clear rules laid out in the official parliamentary rulebook, Erskine May. The Speaker must also interpret and enforce these rules in a nonpartisan way. This can lead to the Speaker being criticized for partisan interference in legislation, such as when John Bercow selected which amendments could be proposed on Britain’s departure from the European Union or when he blocked the government’s attempt to repeat a vote on the terms of exit because it violated the rule that a motion may not be repeated in the same session.
Normally, the Speaker exercises all these powers from his or her seat in the chamber, but there are occasions when the Speaker must depart the chamber to attend to urgent business, such as signing enrolled bills. When this occurs, the Speaker designates a member of the House to preside over the House as speaker pro tempore. Traditionally, this has been a senior member of the majority party. However, the Speaker can delegate this power to a junior member for special purposes, such as allowing him or her to gain experience in presiding during important debates.
A Speaker is chosen by a majority of the members of the House, and he or she must be approved by the full House. This is a rigorous process that requires the support of 434 of the 535 House members. The election of the Speaker also involves a series of procedural rules that must be followed.
Responsibilities Speaker
The speaker is charged with regulating debates and proceedings of the House, preserving decorum in the chamber and galleries, and making rulings on matters of House procedure. He or she decides when a Member should be called upon to speak and how long he or she may speak, and imposes time limits on speeches whenever necessary. He or she proposes questions for the consideration of the House and puts them to the vote, and he or she rules on points of order raised by Members.
The Speaker also appoints the members and chairpersons of regular committees, special and select committees, and conference committees. He or she may also appoint a member of the House to preside over committees, a position known as speaker pro tempore. In addition, the speaker has general control and authority of the secretariat of the House, including its staff and precincts.
A speaker must be able to rally the majority party behind his or her legislative agenda and work to ensure that its priorities are voted on and passed by the full House. This includes coordinating with House committees to organize the schedule of legislative business for the chamber, negotiating with the powerful House Rules Committee to structure floor debate and manage House business, and communicating with Congress and the public about congressional priorities.
Speakers must also be able to deal with the complexities of managing a large congressional body. In some cases, they must be able to bridge divides within their own party’s caucus, and they must be able to reach across the aisle in search of bipartisan solutions to complex issues.
In addition, a speaker must be able to navigate and negotiate House rules and procedures with the help of aides and senior staff. This is often a time-consuming and challenging task.
The most important responsibility of the speaker is to lead the House and set policy, even in a divided chamber. The partisan political nature of the job of speaker is one of its unique characteristics, compared to that of most other Westminster-style legislatures, where the office is meant to be scrupulously non-partisan.
Duties Speaker
A speaker has many duties that must be performed to maintain the order of the House and enforce its adherence to its rules. He presides over House sessions and hearings, determines which legislation will be heard on the floor, and rules on matters of procedure. The speaker also oversees the secretariat and its precincts and security arrangements. He must carry out these arduous duties with an uncompromising sense of fairness and justice, free from personal influence or bias.
In addition, a speaker must defend the rights and privileges of Members, especially their freedom of speech. As a part of these duties, he has the authority to turn off the microphones of Members during debate, and can also declare members guilty of contempt of the House when his judgment is deemed necessary and proper. He must defend these decisions in the absence of a request for division or other challenge, and his rulings on points of order are final.
Speakers also have diplomatic and ceremonial duties, including representing the House in relations with the Sovereign and other non-parliamentary bodies. They have the authority to present Addresses to the Crown on behalf of the House, and they may also authorize writs for elections. The speaker also communicates the House’s decisions to outside agencies, and receives letters and other documents addressed to the Speaker or to him as presiding officer of the House.
The speaker has the power to assign certain committees to assist him in executing his legislative duties, and to appoint additional committees when needed. He must also prepare and present an annual report to the House on his activities.
Unlike the president or other cabinet members, who are elected to represent their district, speakers are chosen by the majority of their fellow legislators to serve as the presiding officers for the entire legislature. This gives the speaker an advantage in building a coalition of support to pass legislation and achieve a quorum.
Historically, Speakers have been powerful figures in the House of Representatives. In the 19th century, for example, such eminent Democrats as Samuel J. Randall and John Griffin Carlisle, as well as Republicans Thomas Brackett Reed and James G. Blaine, used their powers to become leaders in their parties and in the nation’s politics.
History Speaker
A speaker is an electroacoustic transducer that converts an electrical signal into a sound. Its development in the 19th century helped create the modern world of music, communication and broadcasting. Invention of the speaker also made it possible to hear voices in a distance, as well as to play back recorded sound. The term “speaker” may also refer to a person who delivers lectures or gives speeches in public.
The office of speaker has a long history, dating back as early as 1258 when Peter de Montfort presided over the so-called Mad Parliament in Oxford. Until the seventeenth century, however, Speakers were considered to act as agents of the King. This made them dangerous, especially if they brought news from the House to the King that the monarch did not like. As a result, seven Speakers were executed between 1394 and 1535.
In the 18th and nineteenth centuries, the speakership began to develop into its modern form, as a neutral and apolitical officer independent of the ruling party. It was Arthur Onslow who established many of the practices associated with the office today.
Speakers in the United States are elected to a two-year term. The length of the term of a speaker is displayed in the Term of service column. The start and end dates of a speaker’s term coincide with the beginning and end of the Congress.
Wrapping It Up
As early as the 1800s, speaker designs began to evolve from the balanced armature speakers used in phonographs and public address systems. The most widely used speaker today is the dynamic speaker, invented in 1925. The speaker driver consists of a wire voice coil suspended in a magnetic field, with the coil’s moving contact with an attached cone vibrating it and producing a sound wave.
When the previous Speaker, Douglas Clifton Brown, retired at the end of the 1951 session, the Labour Party nominated Major James Milner to succeed him. The Conservatives nominated Sir William Shepherd Morrison to oppose him. The vote went down party lines and Morrison won. Milner later received a peerage in recognition of his work as Speaker.