Speaker of the House

1. The Constitution does not define the job requirements to be Speaker of the House, they only say that it is chosen by the House of Representatives.
2. 1) House of Representatives
       a. Speaker of the House-elected by majority caucus
       b. Majority(Republican) Caucus
          I. Majority Leader- elected by members of the majority, represents the majority
         II. Majority Whip- second in command, counts votes
       c. Minority(Democratic) Caucus
          I. Minority Leader
         II. Minority Whip
    2) Senate
        a. President of the Senate- Vice President of the U.S.
        b. President Pro Tempore- longest serving member of the majority party
        c. Majority Caucus
           I. Majority Leader
          II. Majority Whip
        d. Minority Caucus
           I. Minority Leader
          II. Minority Whip
Structure of Congress
3. The President and the Vice President would both have to die
4. Samuel Rayburn was the longest serving Speaker of the House
5. Nancy Pelosi was the first and only female Speaker of House. She served from 2007-2011.
6. Newt Gingrich is famous for leading the Republican Revolution in Congress and for having to resign from Speaker of the House for an ethics violation. He was a president hopeful.
7. John Boehner has been serving as Speaker of the House since 2011 and is now resigning to avoid the government shutting down. John Boehner resigns
8. Kevin McCarthy was going to run for Speaker of the House, but the ultraconservatives do not like him because he is too moderate and they didn't want him to compromise. Why Kevin McCarthy isn't running for Speaker of the House 
9. Republicans want Paul Ryan to run because he is very conservative. He has not yet made an announcement on whether he is running or not.
10. Paul Ryan currently chairs the Ways and Means Committee. It is the chief tax-writing committee.
11. There are over 50 committees in Congress and over 100 if one includes sub-committees.
12. According to the Huffington Post, Paul Ryan's main reason he might not want to run is that he is a family man, with three children that he does not want to be apart from too much.
13. I think I would take the job. The best reason would be to be in a position of high authority, where one has a lot of influence and can fix problems one finds to be of importance.
14. It is not really a stepping stone, James K. Polk was the only former Speaker of the House to become president.
15. "A congressional caucus is a group of members of the United States Congress that meets to pursue common legislative objectives."-Wikipedia.  There are over 100 caucuses in the United States Congress. Committees focus on a specific duty of congress while caucuses focus on legislature.
16. The House Freedom Caucus is an ultraconservative caucus in favor of limited government. They opposed John Boehner and Kevin McCarthy, forcing the former to resign from his position and the latter to drop his campaign.