Seniority in the United States House of Representatives

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.

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.

• California 22: Devin Nunes (R) resigned January 1, 2022, to join the Trump Media & Technology Group as chief executive officer. The special election will be held on June 7, 2022.
• Minnesota 1: Jim Hagedorn (R) died February 17, 2022. The special election will be held on August 9, 2022.
• Alaska at-large: Don Young (R) died March 18, 2022. The special election will be held on August 16, 2022.
• Nebraska 1: Jeff Fortenberry (R) resigned March 31, 2022. The special election will be held on June 28, 2022.
• Texas 34: Filemon Vela Jr. (D) resigned March 31, 2022. The special election will be held on June 14, 2022.

Delegates are non-voting members of the United States House of Representatives.

• Current members of the United States House of Representatives
• List of United States congressional districts
• List of members of the United States Congress by longevity of service
• Seniority in the United States Senate

• "Terms of Service for Members of the House of Representatives in the 116th Congress" (PDF). September 24, 2019. Retrieved September 26, 2019 – via Clerk of the House of Representatives.