115th United States Congress


The 115th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States of America federal government, composed of the [|Senate] and the House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from January 3, 2017, to January 3, 2019, during the final weeks of Barack Obama's presidency and the first two years of Donald Trump's presidency. The seats in the [|House] were apportioned based on the 2010 United States Census.
Several political scientists described the legislative accomplishments of this Congress as modest, considering that both Congress and the Presidency were under unified Republican Party control. According to a contemporary study, "House and Senate GOP majorities struggled to legislate: GOP fissures and an undisciplined, unpopular president frequently undermined the Republican agenda. Most notably, clashes within and between the two parties strained old ways of doing business."

Major events

Enacted

Senate

House of Representatives

Leadership

Senate

The average age of members of the House of Representatives during the 115th Congress was 57.8 years, while the average age of U.S. senators was 61.8 years.
The most common occupation of senators prior to being elected to their posts was law, followed by public service/politics and business. In the House of Representatives, business was the dominant prior occupation, followed by public service/politics and law. In the 115th Congress, 94.1% of House members and 100% of Senators had attained a bachelor's degree or a higher degree; this was a historically high level of education for a United States Congress. In addition, 167 members of the House and 55 members of the Senate had law degrees. Only 18 members of Congress had no college education.
Ethnic minorities in the 115th Congress consisted of 52 African American members, 45 Hispanic or Latino members, 18 Asian-American or Pacific Islander members, and two members of Native American ancestry. Women comprised 20.1% of the membership in the 115th Congress, which had 109 women and 326 men. This represented an increase of 21 women from the 114th Congress.
Seven openly LGBT members served in the 115th Congress. Tammy Baldwin, Jared Polis, Sean Patrick Maloney, Mark Takano, David Cicilline, and Mark Pocan are openly gay, while Kyrsten Sinema is openly bisexual.
The majority of the 115th Congress was religiously affiliated, with 90.7% identifying as Christians. Approximately half of the Christians were Protestant. Other religious faiths of congressmembers in the 115th Congress included Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism.

Members

Senate

The numbers refer to their Senate classes. All of the class 3 seats were contested in the November 2016 elections. Class 1 terms end with this Congress, requiring re-election in 2018; Class 2 began in the last Congress, requiring re-election in 2020; and Class 3 began in this Congress, requiring re-election in 2022.

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House of Representatives

All 435 seats were filled by the regular elections on November 8, 2016, or subsequent special elections thereafter.

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Caucuses

Changes in membership

Senate

House of Representatives

Committees

Section contents: Senate, House, Joint
Listed alphabetically by chamber, including Chairman and Ranking Member.

Senate

CommitteeChairmanRanking Member
Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry
Appropriations
Armed Services, until August 25, 2018
, from September 6, 2018
Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs
Budget
Commerce, Science and Transportation
Energy and Natural Resources
Environment and Public Works
Finance
Foreign Relations
Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Judiciary
Rules and Administration
Small Business and Entrepreneurship
Veterans' Affairs
Aging
Ethics
Indian Affairs
Intelligence
International Narcotics Control

House of Representatives

CommitteeChairmanRanking Member
Agriculture
Appropriations
Armed Services
Budget, until January 11, 2018

, from January 11, 2018
Education and the Workforce
Energy and Commerce
Ethics
Financial Services
Foreign Affairs
Homeland Security
House Administration
Judiciary , until November 26, 2017
Jerrold Nadler, from November 26, 2017
Natural Resources
Oversight and Government Reform, until June 13, 2017
, from June 13, 2017
Rules , until March 16, 2018
Jim McGovern, from March 17, 2018
Science, Space and Technology
Small Business
Transportation and Infrastructure
Veterans' Affairs
Ways and Means
Human Rights
Intelligence

Joint

CommitteeChairmanRanking Member
EconomicRep. , until January 11, 2018
Rep. , from January 11, 2018		Sen.
LibrarySen. Sen.
PrintingSen. Rep.
TaxationRep. Sen.
Budget and Appropriations Process Reform Rep.
Rep. 		Sen.
Inaugural Ceremonies Sen. Rep.
Security and Cooperation in Europe Sen. Rep.
Solvency of Multiemployer Pension Plans Sen.
Sen. 		Rep.

Employees and legislative agency directors

Senate