H.Res. 305 - Providing for the Consideration of Motions to Suspend the Rules 1. Provides that certain suspensions will be in order at any time on the legislative day of Thursday, December 6, 2001.
--------- RESOLUTION Resolved, That it shall be in order at any time on the legislative day of Thursday, December 6, 2001, for the Speaker to entertain motions that the House suspend the rules relating to the following measures:
(1) The bill (H.R. 3008) to reauthorize the trade adjustment assistance program under the Trade Act of 1974.
(2) The bill (H.R. 3129) to authorize appropriations for fiscal years 2002 and 2003 for the United States Customs Service for antiterrorism, drug interdiction, and other operations, for the Office of the United States Trade Representative, for the United States International Trade Commission, and for other purposes.
TEXT OF AMENDMENTS TO BE OFFERED ALONG WITH THE MOTIONS TO SUSPEND THE RULES
Amendment to H.R. 3129 - Customs Border Security Act of 2001 (.pdf)
The latest version of Acrobat Reader can be downloaded from Adobe Systems.
QUESTION: HOW ARE MEASURES CONSIDERED UNDER SUSPENSION OF THE RULES?
ANSWER: Under House Rule XXVII, it is in order on Monday and Tuesday of each week, and during the last six days of a session (unable to determine unless an adjournment resolution has been adopted in advance), for the Speaker to entertain motions to suspend the Rules and pass legislation. Bills brought up under suspension of the Rules are referred to as "suspensions". There is not a suspension calendar. The purpose of considering bills under suspension is to dispose of non-controversial measures expeditiously. Consideration of legislation under suspension of the Rules on other days of the week is possible by unanimous consent or by a special rule reported by the Rules Committee.
A motion to suspend the Rules requires a vote of two-thirds of the Members present and voting, and no amendments are in order unless submitted with the bill by its manager at the time the motion to suspend the Rules is offered.
Debate on a bill brought up under suspension is limited to 40 minutes -- 20 minutes controlled by a Member who supports the bill and 20 minutes controlled by a Member in opposition. A division does not always follow party lines depending on the issue. For control of the opposition time, priority is given to a Minority Member of the committee which has jurisdiction over the bill. Often the 20 minutes "in opposition" is controlled by the ranking Minority member of the committee or subcommittee who may not be opposed to the measure because no one rises in opposition, but he may be challenged for control of the opposition time by another Minority party member.
The Majority Leadership usually schedules several bills under suspension of the Rules on the same day and the Chair announces beforehand that recorded votes on passage of each suspension, if ordered, will be postponed until the debate is concluded on all such suspensions (or for up to two legislative days).
At the conclusion of debate, the postponed votes may be "clustered" and put before the House. If several votes have been ordered and the Chair has announced that the time for voting will be reduced, the first vote in the series will consume not less than 15 minutes and all subsequent roll calls will take not less than 5 minutes each. It is important to know when a 5-minute vote is expected, so that it will not be missed.
In the case of a series of two or more votes in which any votes after the first one are five minute votes, Members will be summoned to the Floor by two bells followed by five bells.