| Floor Services Chief of United States House of Representatives | |
|---|---|
 Seal of the United States House of Representatives | |
Incumbent since Appointed by SpeakerJohn Boehner (Harroun), SpeakerNancy Pelosi (Sullivan)Timothy J. Harroun (Republican Cloakroom), Barry K. Sullivan (Democratic Cloakroom) | |
| Office of the Speaker or Majority Leader | |
| Appointer | Speaker of the House or Majority Leader |
Floor Services Chief is the title of the staff member in thespeaker's ormajority leader's office who runs the majority cloakroom in theUnited States House of Representatives.[1][2] The current floor services chief for the Republican Cloakroom is Timothy J. Harroun, appointed byRepublican SpeakerJohn Boehner. The Democratic floor chief is Barry K. Sullivan, who was appointed byDemocratic SpeakerNancy Pelosi.[3] Sullivan's predecessor was Donald Anderson, who was appointed by Speaker Thomas P O'Neill. When Harroun is floor services chief, Sullivan is minority cloakroom manager. Similarly, when Sullivan was floor services chief, Harroun was minority cloakroom manager.
The position is informally known as the "cloakroom manager",[4] as it has traditionally included responsibility for overseeing the operations of the majority party's cloakroom, such as the snack bar,[5][6] telephones,[7] and clothing storage.[7]
From the2007 State of the Union Address through the2010 State of the Union Address (i.e. the110th and111th Congresses), the floor services chief announced the entry of the:
at eachjoint session of Congress that the president addressed (i.e., excluding the joint session for the counting of electoral votes).[4][8][9]
When the president spoke at a joint session, the floor services chief and theHouse sergeant at arms together announced his presence, with the floor services chief loudly stating the phrase: "Madame Speaker" (this responsibility existed only under SpeakerNancy Pelosi), to which the sergeant at arms rejoined: "The President of the United States."[8] (The announcement of the president has been solely the role of the House Sergeant at Arms since 2011, as it was before 2007, when Floor Services Chief Barry K. Sullivan was accorded the responsibility of uttering the first part by Speaker Pelosi.[4])
During the sixjoint meetings of Congress (bicameral gatherings at which the president did not speak, but at which a foreignhead of state orhead of government did) in the 110th and 111th Congresses, the floor services chief likewise announced all of the other persons listed above.[10] Then, unlike in a joint session, the floor services chief alone performed the complete announcement of the foreign head of government, while the House sergeant at arms simply physically escorted the visiting dignitary to the speaker's rostrum.[10]