[106th Congress House Rules Manual -- House Document No. 106-320]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office Online Database]
[DOCID:hrulest-32]

[Page 211-212]

                     sec. xxviii--bill, recommitment

  After <> a bill
has been committed and reported, it ought not, in any ordinary course,
to be recommitted; but in cases of importance, and for special reasons,
it is sometimes recommitted, and usually to the same committee. Hakew,
151. If a report be recommitted before agreed to in the House, what has
passed in committee is of no validity; the whole question is again
before the committee, and a new resolution must be again moved, as if
nothing had passed. 3 Hats., 131--note.

[[Page 212]]

  In Senate, January, 1800, the salvage bill was recommitted three times
after the commitment.

  Where a matter is recommitted with instructions the committee must
confine itself within the instructions (IV, 4404), and if the
instructions relate to a certain portion only of a bill, other portions
may not be reviewed (V, 5526). When a report has been disposed of
adversely a motion to recommit it is not in order (V, 5559). Bills are
sometimes recommitted to the Committee of the Whole as the indirect
result of the action of the House (clause 9 of rule XVIII; IV, 4784) or
directly on motion either with or without instructions (V, 5552, 5553).

  A <> particular clause of a bill may be committed without the
whole bill, 3 Hats., 131; or so much of a paper to one and so much to
another committee.

  In the usage of the House before the rules provided that petitions
should be filed with the Clerk instead of being referred from the floor,
it was the practice to refer a portion of a petition to one committee
and the remainder to another when the subject matter called for such
division (IV, 3359). Clause 2 of rule XII now permits the Speaker to
refer bills, and resolutions, with or without time limitations, either
(1) simultaneously to two or more committees for concurrent
consideration, while indicating one committee of primary jurisdiction,
(2) sequentially to appropriate committees after the report of the
committee or committees initially considering the matter, (3) to divide
the matter for referral, (4) to appoint an ad hoc committee with the
approval of the House, or (5) to make other appropriate provisions, in
order to assure that to the maximum extent feasible each committee with
subject matter jurisdiction over provisions in that measure may consider
and report to the House with respect thereto. Under former precedents a
bill, resolution, or communication could not be divided for reference
(IV, 4372, 4376).