As being the Presiding Officer in the Senate may not be fully aware on the parliamentary situation currently facing the Senate, staff on the Senate Parliamentarian’s office sit on the Senate dais to advise the Presiding Officer the way to respond to inquiries and motions from Senators. The role on the parliamentary staff is strictly advisory; the Presiding Officer is certainly not required to follow their advice, though they almost always do so. The office also refers bills for the appropriate committees on behalf of the Senate’s Presiding Officer. If facing the dais, the Parliamentarian is second from the left.

The existing parliamentarian is Alan Frumin, who succeeded Robert Dove, who was Parliamentarian within the mid-to-late 1990s. Frumin also preceded him from the late-1980s as Parliamentarian, insofar while they switched positions as the Parliamentarian and also the second most senior parliamentarian due to changes in partisan control in the Senate. The first female assistant parliamentarian on the United States Senate was Gail M. Cowper from the early 1980s.

There are also two Senior Assistant Parliamentarians: Elizabeth MacDonough and Peter Robinson, the other Assistant Parliamentarian: Leigh Hildebrand. They also have a Parliamentary Assistant: Melissa Carmichael.

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