Standing Rules of the Senate
RULE VII
MORNING BUSINESS
1. On each legislative day after the Journal is read, the Presiding
Officer on demand of any Senator shall lay before the Senate messages from the
President, reports and communications from the heads of Departments, and other
communications addressed to the Senate, and such bills, joint resolutions, and
other messages from the House of Representatives as may remain upon his table
from any previous day's session undisposed of. The Presiding Officer on demand
of any Senator shall then call for, in the following order:
The presentation of petitions and memorials.
Reports of committees.
The introduction of bills and joint resolutions.
The submission of other resolutions.
All of which shall be received and disposed of in such order, unless unanimous
consent shall be otherwise given, with newly offered resolutions being called
for before resolutions coming over from a previous legislative day are laid
before the Senate.
2. Until the morning business shall have been concluded, and so
announced from the Chair, or until one hour after the Senate convenes at the
beginning of a new legislative day, no motion to proceed to the consideration
of any bill, resolution, report of a committee, or other subject upon the Calendar
shall be entertained by the Presiding Officer, unless by unanimous consent:
Provided, however, That on Mondays which are the beginning of a legislative
day the Calendar shall be called under rule VIII, and until two hours after
the Senate convenes no motion shall be entertained to proceed to the consideration
of any bill, resolution, or other subject upon the Calendar except the motion
to continue the consideration of a bill, resolution, or other subject against
objection as provided in rule VIII, or until the call of the Calendar has been
completed.
3. The Presiding Officer may at any time lay, and it shall be
in order at any time for a Senator to move to lay, before the Senate, any bill
or other matter sent to the Senate by the President or the House of Representatives
for appropriate action allowed under the rules and any question pending at that
time shall be suspended for this purpose. Any motion so made shall be determined
without debate.
4. Petitions or memorials shall be referred, without debate, to
the appropriate committee according to subject matter on the same basis as bills
and resolutions, if signed by the petitioner or memorialist. A question of receiving
or reference may be raised and determined without debate. But no petition or
memorial or other paper signed by citizens or subjects of a foreign power shall
be received, unless the same be transmitted to the Senate by the President.
5. Only a brief statement of the contents of petitions and memorials
shall be printed in the Congressional Record; and no other portion of any petition
or memorial shall be printed in the Record unless specifically so ordered by
vote of the Senate, as provided for in paragraph 4 of rule XI, in which case
the order shall be deemed to apply to the body of the petition or memorial only;
and names attached to the petition or memorial shall not be printed unless specially
ordered, except that petitions and memorials from the legislatures or conventions,
lawfully called, of the respective States, Territories, and insular possessions
shall be printed in full in the Record whenever presented.
6. Senators having petitions, memorials, bills, or resolutions
to present after the morning hour may deliver them in the absence of objection
to the Presiding Officer's desk, endorsing upon them their names, and with the
approval of the Presiding Officer, they shall be entered on the Journal with
the names of the Senators presenting them and in the absence of objection shall
be considered as having been read twice and referred to the appropriate committees,
and a transcript of such entries shall be furnished to the official reporter
of debates for publication in the Congressional Record, under the direction
of the Secretary of the Senate. |