The Senate Committee on Rules and Administration (also called the Senate Rules Committee) is responsible for the rules of the United States Senate, administration of congressional buildings, and with credentials and qualifications of members of the Senate, including responsibility for dealing with contested elections.
The committee is not as powerful as its House counterpart, the House Committee on Rules as it does not set the terms of debate for individual legislative proposals, since the Senate has a tradition of open debate.
Some members of the committee are also ex officio members of the Joint Committee on Printing.
The Committee was first created as the Select Committee to Revise the Rules of the Senate on December 3, 1867. On December 9, 1874, it became a standing committee.
On January 2, 1947, its name was changed to the Committee on Rules and Administration, and it took over the functions of the following committees:
Committee to Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses of the SenateCommittee on Education and Labor (functions were later transferred to Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee)Committee on Enrolled BillsCommittee on Privileges and ElectionsSource
Source: 2013 Congressional Record, Vol. 159, Page S296 to 297
1867–1871: Henry B. Anthony (R-RI)1871–1873: Samuel Pomeroy (R-KS)1873–1874: Thomas Ferry (R-MI)Thomas Ferry (R-MI) 1874–1877James G. Blaine (R-ME) 1877–1879John T. Morgan (D-AL) 1879–1881William P. Frye (R-ME) 1881–1887Nelson W. Aldrich (R-RI) 1887–1893Joseph C. S. Blackburn (D-KY) 1893–1895Nelson W. Aldrich (R-RI) 1895–1899John C. Spooner (R-WI) 1899–1907Philander C. Knox (R-PA) 1907–1909W. Murray Crane (R-MA) 1909–1913Lee S. Overman (D-NC) 1913–1919Philander C. Knox (R-PA) 1919–1921Charles Curtis (R-KS) 1921–1929George H. Moses (R-NH) 1929–1933Royal S. Copeland (D-NY) 1933–1936Matthew M. Neely (D-WV) 1936–1941Harry F. Byrd (D-VA) 1941–1947Committee on Rules and Administration, 1947–present
C. Wayland Brooks (R-IL) 1947–1949Carl Hayden (D-AZ) 1949–1953William E. Jenner (R-IN) 1953–1955Theodore F. Green (D-RI) 1955–1957Thomas C. Hennings, Jr. (D-MO) 1957–1960Mike Mansfield (D-MT) 1960–1963B. Everett Jordan (D-NC) 1963–1973Howard W. Cannon (D-NV) 1973–1978Claiborne Pell (D-RI) 1978–1981Charles McC. Mathias, Jr. (R-MD) 1981–1987Wendell H. Ford (D-KY) 1987–1995Ted Stevens (R-AK) 1995John W. Warner (R-VA) 1995–1999Mitch McConnell (R-KY) 1999–2001Christopher Dodd (D-CT) 2001Mitch McConnell (R-KY) 2001Christopher Dodd (D-CT) 2001–2003Trent Lott (R-MS) 2003–2007Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), 2007–2009Chuck Schumer (D-NY), 2009–2015Roy Blunt (R-MO), 2015-2017Richard Shelby (R-AL), 2017-Present