Congress Leadership

Design and status for US House and Senate leadership roles. The underlying presiding-officer election framework is shared across countries; see Chamber Leadership by Country for the DE Bundestagspraesident, NG National Assembly presiding officers, and CN CPPCC Chairman / NPCSC Chairman variants.

Current implementation#

House, Speaker, Majority Leader, Minority Leader (24-hour plurality)#

• Status: Implemented.
• Flow: These elections now auto-open for 24 hours each time a House general election resolves. The sitting Speaker is automatically nominated if they still hold a House seat. The sitting Majority Leader is automatically nominated when they are still seated and still belong to the national party with the most House seats. The sitting Minority Leader is automatically nominated when they are still seated and remain outside the majority bloc. Speaker is bloc-gated to the majority bloc; House Majority Leader is restricted to the single national party with the most House seats; Minority Leader is open to all non-majority parties. Plurality winner (top vote-getter when the window ends) wins; no absolute majority required.
• Eligibility: U.S. congressional leadership elections are now player-only. NPPs cannot run for or vote in Speaker, House Majority Leader, or House Minority Leader races.
• API: GET/POST /api/congress/speaker (Speaker), GET/POST /api/congress/house-leadership (Majority/Minority Leader; body role: "majority_leader" | "minority_leader", actions: start_election | declare | withdraw | vote).
• Data: congressLeaders, speakerElections, speakerNominations; houseLeadershipElections, houseLeadershipNominations. Helper: getHouseComposition() in src/lib/congress/houseComposition.ts10d ago.

House, Whips#

• Majority Whip, Minority Whip: Admin assign only via Congress > Leadership > Assign.

Senate, President Pro Tempore, Majority Leader, Minority Leader (24-hour plurality)#

• Status: Implemented. Leadership elections are 24-hour plurality races. President Pro Tempore is gated to the majority bloc; Senate Majority Leader is restricted to the single national party with the most Senate seats; Minority Leader is open to all non-majority parties.
• Trigger cadence: President Pro Tempore and Minority Leader reopen whenever a Senate Class I election resolves. Majority Leader also reopens on every Class I resolve, and additionally reopens after any Class II or Class III resolve whenever the top national Senate party changes. The sitting Pro Tempore is automatically nominated if still seated; the sitting Majority or Minority Leader is automatically nominated when still seated and still eligible for that side of the chamber.
• Eligibility: U.S. congressional leadership elections are player-only. NPPs cannot run for or vote in Senate Pro Tempore, Senate Majority Leader, or Senate Minority Leader races.
• API: GET/POST /api/congress/senate-leadership (body role: "pro_tempore" | "majority_leader" | "minority_leader", actions: start_election | declare | withdraw | vote).
• Data: congressLeaders, senateLeadershipElections, senateLeadershipNominations. Helper: getSenateComposition() in src/lib/congress/senateComposition.ts10d ago.

Senate, Whips#

• Majority Whip, Minority Whip: Admin assign only.

Data model#

• congressLeaders: One document per role. Fields: role, characterId, characterName, party, nominatedBy, electedAt, createdAt, updatedAt.
• House: speakerElections (_id: "current"), speakerNominations; houseLeadershipElections (_id: majority_leader | minority_leader), houseLeadershipNominations (role field).
• Senate: senateLeadershipElections (_id: pro_tempore | majority_leader | minority_leader), senateLeadershipNominations (role field).

UI#

• Congress → Composition: Member list shows leader badges (Speaker, Maj. Leader, Min. Leader, Pro Tempore, etc.) next to the name for the current holder.
• Congress → Leadership: House and Senate each show Majority/Minority sections with bloc-aware seat counts; each elected role (Speaker, Pro Tempore, Majority Leader, Minority Leader) has election UI (start 24h election, declare, vote, candidacy cards with plurality wording). Whips and other roles use Assign/Clear. Portraits and name (D-TX) for each leader.

Cabinet Nominations (Senate Role)#

Cabinet nominations are initiated by the President but require Senate confirmation before a character is installed in a cabinet position.

• Trigger: President posts a nomination via /api/whitehouse/cabinet/nominations
• Senate action: Active nominations appear on both the Cabinet page and the Congress Senate tab; senators vote For / Against / Abstain
• Window: 24 hours from nomination
• Threshold: Simple majority of votes cast (not of all senators)
• Resolution: On timer expiry or when vote window closes, system tallies votes and confirms or rejects
• Rejection: Position remains vacant; President may re-nominate
• Confirmed: Nominee added to cabinetMembers collection; displayed on /whitehouse/cabinet

See Cabinet for full position list and lifecycle details.

Future work#

1. Leadership effects on agenda, committee assignments, or persuasion, to be defined later.
2. Cabinet resign (member voluntarily leaving), not yet implemented.