Senate Republicans meet at the beginning of every Congress to adopt rules to regulate how they make collective decisions. The Republicans’ conference rules set leadership elections and determine the process by which they allocate committee assignments and select chairs/ranking members for each panel. At those meetings, Republicans may also approve “sense of the conference” resolutions (i.e., the earmark moratorium) and clarify important precedents regarding how they resolved conference debates in the past when their rules were silent. (i.e., senatorial courtesy in the confirmation process for judicial nominees).
Rules I and V(B) limit the time Republicans can serve in a leadership position or as a committee chair/ranking member, respectively. The Republican leader (i.e., floor leader) and the president pro tempore (if Republicans are the majority) are exempted from the term limits specified in Rule I. Efforts to eliminate this exemption have been unsuccessful due to opposition from Republican leaders. They argue that removing the exemption would constitute a public criticism of their leadership and undermine their future effectiveness.
Background
Republicans adopted their two term limit rules in 1995 as part of a package of reforms. The package included:
https://www.legislativeprocedure.com/blog/2018/10/25/leadership-term-limits
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