# Who can fire a House committee chairman? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 31, 2017, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-can-fire-a-house-committee-chairman/783447 "2017-03-31T20:43:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ricksummon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ricksummon/32/3333_2.png) [@ricksummon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricksummon)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2017, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-can-fire-a-house-committee-chairman/783447/1 "2017-03-31T20:43:56Z")
If the US House of Representatives ever decides they’re fed up with Devin Nunes being the head of the House Intelligence Committee, who has the authority to remove him as chairman? Does the committee get to vote, does the whole House have to vote, or is just Paul Ryan’s decision? ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2017, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-can-fire-a-house-committee-chairman/783447/2 "2017-03-31T21:42:03Z")
Committee chairs serve at the pleasure of the Speaker of the House. I’m pretty sure the mechanism for overturning a move by the Speaker to remove a chairman is to force a vote on who the Speaker should be. :o ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2017, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-can-fire-a-house-committee-chairman/783447/3 "2017-04-01T08:31:02Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > Committee chairs serve at the pleasure of the Speaker of the House. Is that really true? I looked up the [House Rules](http://clerk.house.gov/legislative/house-rules.pdf) (PDF file), and they say (in Rule X, Section 5(c)(1) - terribly complicated to navigate that document, it’s on p. 12 of this file: > [@Rules of the House of Representatives](#): > > One of the members of each standing committee shall be elected by the House, on the nomination of the majority party caucus or conference, as chair thereof. In the absence of the member serving as chair, the member next in rank (and so on, as often as the case shall happen) shall act as chair. Rank shall be determined by the order members are named in resolutions electing them to the committee. In the case of a vacancy in the elected chair of a committee, the House shall elect another chair. Of course the Speaker’s power to schedule voting gives him considerable control over this, and on top of that there might be some kind of convention that the House follows the Speaker’s views in electing committee chairs. But at least formally, it sounds to me as if the appointment of committee chairs is a prerogative of the full house rather than the Speaker. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2017, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-can-fire-a-house-committee-chairman/783447/4 "2017-04-01T12:30:59Z")
Officially, committee chairs are nominated by the majority caucus and elected by the House. Unofficially, the Speaker makes it very clear whom he wishes the majority caucus to nominate for each chair. A chairperson can resign their assignment at will, but can’t be forcibly replaced without a resolution stripping him of the chairmanship. (Some rules result in automatic suspensions of committee activity, such as if you are under investigation by the Ethics Committee.) In practice, a good Speaker can make your life very difficult if you refuse to resign a chair when asked. Of course, eventually they will just schedule a vote on the issue of your ouster. But it’s embarrassing for the majority to have to directly fire someone, so it doesn’t happen frequently. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2017, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-can-fire-a-house-committee-chairman/783447/5 "2017-04-01T12:34:32Z")
If the House majority changes, then the chairmanship changes as well. You as a voter get to influence this every two years.