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House Practice: About
The House Practice: A Guide to the Rules, Precedents and Procedures of
the House is a reference source for information on the rules and selected
precedents governing the House procedure. This one volume publication
was prepared by William Holmes Brown, House Parliamentarian from 1974
to 1994, and was published at the end of the 104th Congress after the
Office of the House Parliamentarian made modifications. This reference
source was designed to replace the Procedure in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Periodic preparation by the House parliamentarian of condensed and amplified
versions of House precedents is required by Public Law 91-510.
The House Practice is organized into unnumbered chapters covering fifty-nine
subjects of House procedures. These chapters are listed alphabetically.
Each chapter opens with an outline of the chapter’s main topics and
their House Practice section numbers. Documents are available in ASCII
text and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF).
The latest edition reflects the modern practice of the House as of the
108th Congress by integrating the long-established norms of House procedure
with the innovations made possible by technological advances and by reforms
and disciplines introduced by laws such as the Legislative Reorganization
Act of 1970 and the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, by resolutions such
as the Committee Reform Amendments of 1974, and by changes in the House
rules adopted at the beginning of recent Congresses, including a recodification
of all the standing rules of the House in 1999.
The House Practice is a summary review of selected precedents and not
an exhaustive survey of all applicable rulings. The House Rules and Manual
and the published volumes of House precedents remain the primary sources
for in-depth analysis and authoritative citations. As required by law,
the House Practice is a concordance or quick reference guide to those
works.
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