In United States politics, a ranking member is the most senior member of a congressional or state legislative committee from the minority party.
When party control of a legislative chamber changes, a committee's ranking minority member is generally ensured to become the next chairman of the committee, and vice versa.
[citation needed] Four Senate committees refer to the ranking minority member as vice chairman.
[4] The House of Representatives normally does not use the term vice chairman for the ranking minority member, though some committees do have a vice-chairman position, usually assigned to a senior member of the majority party other than the chairman.
House committees that follow this structure are: The position of vice chair as the designation for the ranking minority member has been used for the House January 6 Committee.