Speaker of the House
U.S. Naturalization Test (2025 Standard) glossary · Civics
Definition
The leader of the House of Representatives; second in the presidential line of succession.
Speaker of the House in plain English
The House of Representatives has 435 members, and someone has to run the room and keep things organized, sort of like the elected class president who leads the meetings and decides what gets discussed. That leader is the Speaker of the House, chosen by the representatives themselves. The Speaker is also very powerful nationally: if something happened to both the President and the Vice President, the Speaker would become President. That's why we say the Speaker is second in the line of succession.
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