[Constitution, Jefferson's Manual, and the Rules of the House of Representatives, 110th Congress] [110th Congress] [House Document 109-157] [Rules of the House of Representatives] [Pages 614-648] [From the U.S. Government Printing Office, www.gpo.gov] Rule XIII Calendars calendars and committee reports
828. Calendar for reports of committees. | 1. (a) All business reported by committees shall be referred to one of the following three calendars: |
Sec. 830. Motion to discharge. | (b) There is established a Calendar of Motions to Discharge Committees as provided in clause 2 of rule XV. |
831. Nonprivileged reports filed with the Clerk. | 2. (a)(1) Except as provided in subparagraph (2), all reports of committees (other than those filed from the floor as privileged) shall be delivered to the Clerk for printing and reference to the proper calendar under the direction of the Speaker in accordance with clause 1. The title or subject of each report shall be entered on the Journal and printed in the Congressional Record. |
Sec. 832. Adverse reports. | (2) A bill or resolution reported adversely shall be laid on the table unless a committee to which the bill or resolution was referred requests at the time of the report its referral to an appropriate calendar under clause 1 or unless, within three days thereafter, a Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner makes such a request. |
Sec. 833. Requirement that reports of committees be in writing and be printed. | When the House codified its rules in the 106th Congress, it deleted the portion of clause 2 of rule XVIII that required the printing of reports. That provision was redundant because this provision carries the same requirement (H. Res. 5, Jan. 6, 1999, p. 47). Former clause 2 of rule XVIII was adopted in 1880 (V, 5647). |
Sec. 834. Chairman's duty. | (b)(1) It shall be the duty of the chairman of each committee to report or cause to be reported promptly to the House a measure or matter approved by the committee and to take or cause to be taken steps necessary to bring the measure or matter to a vote. |
Sec. 835. Filing by majority of committee. | (2) In any event, the report of a committee on a measure that has been approved by the committee shall be filed within seven calendar days (exclusive of days on which the House is not in session) after the day on which a written request for the filing of the report, signed by a majority of the members of the committee, has been filed with the clerk of the committee. The clerk of the committee shall immediately notify the chairman of the filing of such a request. This subparagraph does not apply to a report of the Committee on Rules with respect to a rule, joint rule, or order of business of the House, or to the reporting of a resolution of inquiry addressed to the head of an executive department. |
Sec. 836. Filing with minority views. | (c) All supplemental, minority, or additional views filed under clause 2(l) of rule XI by one or more members of a committee shall be included in, and shall be a part of, the report filed by the committee with respect to a measure or matter. When time guaranteed by clause 2(l) of rule XI has expired (or, if sooner, when all separate views have been received), the committee may arrange to file its report with the Clerk not later than one hour after the expiration of such time. This clause and provisions of clause 2(l) of rule XI do not preclude the immediate filing or printing of a committee report in the absence of a timely request for the opportunity to file supplemental, minority, or additional views as provided in clause 2(l) of rule XI. |
837. Single volume. | 3. (a)(1) Except as provided in subparagraph (2), the report of a committee on a measure or matter shall be printed in a single volume that-- |
Sec. 838. Technical error. | (2) A committee may file a supplemental report for the correction of a technical error in its previous report on a measure or matter. A supplemental report only correcting errors in the depiction of record votes under paragraph (b) may be filed under this subparagraph and shall not be subject to the requirement in clause 4 or clause 6 concerning the availability of reports. |
Sec. 839. Vote on reporting. | (b) With respect to each record vote on a motion to report a measure or matter of a public nature, and on any amendment offered to the measure or matter, the total number of votes cast for and against, |
Sec. 840. Content of reports. | (c) The report of a committee on a measure that has been approved by the committee shall include, separately set out and clearly identified, the following: |
Sec. 841. Constitutional authority. | (d) Each report of a committee on a public bill or public joint resolution shall contain the following: |
Sec. 842. Application of laws to legislative branch. | Under the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995, each report accompanying a bill or joint resolution relating to terms and conditions of employment or access to public services or accommodations must describe the manner in which the provisions apply to the legislative branch or a statement of the reasons the provisions do not apply; and any Member may raise a point of order against the consideration of a bill or joint resolution not complying with this requirement, which may be waived in the House by majority vote (sec. 102(b)(3), P.L. 104-1; 109 Stat. 6). |
Sec. 843. Unfunded mandates. | The Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (P.L. 104-4; 109 Stat. 48) added a new part B to title IV of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 658-658g) that imposes several requirements on committees with respect to measures effecting ``Federal mandates'' (secs. 423-424; 2 U.S.C. 658b-c) and establishes points of order to permit separate votes on whether to enforce those requirements (sec. 425; 2 U.S.C. 658d). See Sec. 1127, infra. |
Sec. 844. Estimate of cost. | (2)(A) An estimate by the committee of the costs that would be incurred in carrying out the bill or joint resolution in the fiscal year in which it is reported and in each of the five fiscal years following that fiscal year (or for the authorized duration |
Sec. 845. Unfunded mandates. | The Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (P.L. 104-4; 109 Stat. 48) added a new part B to title IV of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 658-658b-c) that imposes several requirements on the Director of the Congressional Budget Office and on committees of the House with respect to measures effecting ``Federal mandates'' (secs. 423-424; 2 U.S.C. 658b-c) and establishes points of order to permit separate votes on whether to enforce those requirements (sec. 425; 2 U.S.C. 658d). See Sec. 1127, infra, and Sec. 843, supra. |
Sec. 846. ``Ramseyer Rule.'' | (e)(1) Whenever a committee reports a bill or joint resolution proposing to repeal or amend a statute or part thereof, it shall include in its report or in an accompanying document-- |
Sec. 847. Content of reports on appropriation bills. | (f)(1) A report of the Committee on Appropriations on a general appropriation bill shall include-- |
Sec. 848. Comparative print. | (g) Whenever the Committee on Rules reports a resolution proposing to repeal or amend a standing rule of the House, it shall include in its report or in an accompanying document-- |
Sec. 849. Tax complexity analysis. | (h)(1) It shall not be in order to consider a bill or joint resolution reported by the Committee on Ways and Means that proposes to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 unless-- |
850. Threeday layover. | 4. (a)(1) Except as specified in subparagraph (2), it shall not be in order to consider in the House a measure or matter reported by a committee until the third calendar day (excluding Saturdays, Sundays, or legal holidays except when the House is in session on such a day) on which each report of a |
Sec. 851. Oneday layover. | A committee expense resolution reported by the Committee on House Administration pursuant to clause 5 of rule XIII need only be available for one day. However, other resolutions reported from that committee that are privileged (such as a resolution authorizing the printing of material as a House document), but that do not constitute questions of the privileges of the House, are subject to this clause (Speaker Albert, Mar. 6, 1975, p. 5537). |
Sec. 852. Printed hearings on appropriation bills. | (c) A general appropriation bill reported by the Committee on Appropriations may not be considered in the House until the third calendar day (excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays except when the House is in session on such a day) on which printed hearings of the Committee on Appropriations thereon have been available to Members, Delegates, and the Resident Commissioner. |
853. Privileged reports. | 5. (a) The following committees shall have leave to report at any time on the following matters, respectively: |
Sec. 854. Privileged reports defined. | The matters reported under the provisions of this clause are denominated ``privileged reports'' or ``privileged questions,'' and since the privilege relates merely to the order of business under the rules, they must be distinguished from ``questions of privilege'' that relate to the safety or dignity of the House itself defined in rule IX (III, 2718). Therefore, ``questions of privilege'' take precedence over these matters that are privileged under the rules (III, 2426-2530; V, 6454; VIII, 3465). |
Sec. 855. The privilege of individual committees for reports. | The privilege given by this clause to the Committee on Rules is confined to ``action touching rules, joint rules, and order of business'' and this committee may not report as privileged a concurrent resolution providing for a Senate investigating committee (VIII, 2255), or provide for the appointment of a clerk (VIII, 2256); but the privilege has been held to include the right to report special orders for the consideration of individual bills or classes of bills (V, 6774), or the consideration of a specified amendment to a bill and prescribing a mode of considering such amendment (VIII, 2258). A special rule providing for the consideration of a bill is not invalidated by the fact that at the time the rule was reported, the bill was not on the calendar (VIII, 2259; Speaker McCormack, Aug. 19, 1964, p. 20212). The authority to report special orders of business includes authority to recommend consideration of measures and amendments thereto the subject of which might be separately pending before a standing committee (Apr. 15, 1986, p. 7531); to make in order the consideration of the text of an introduced bill as original text in a reported bill (Oct. 9, 1986, p. 29973); to permit consideration of a previously unnumbered and unsponsored measure that comes into existence by virtue of adoption by the House of the special order (Speaker O'Neill, Apr. 16, 1986, p. 7610); to recommend a ``hereby'' resolution, for example, that a concurrent resolution correcting the enrollment of a bill be considered as adopted by the House upon the adoption of the special order (Speaker Wright, May 4, 1988, p. 9865), or that a Senate amendment pending at the Speaker's table and otherwise requiring consideration in Committee of the Whole under clause 3 of rule XXII (formerly clause 1 of rule XX) be ``hereby'' considered as adopted upon adoption of the special order (Deschler, ch. 21, Sec. 16.11; Feb. 4, 1993, p. 2500); to provide that an amendment containing an appropriation in violation of clause 4 of rule XXI (formerly clause 5(a)) be considered as adopted in the House when the reported bill is under consideration (Feb. 24, 1993, p. 3542); to provide that an amendment containing an appropriation in violation of clause 2 of rule XXI be considered as adopted in the House when the reported bill is under consideration (July 27, 1993, p. 17129); and to provide that a nongermane amendment otherwise in violation of clause 7 of rule XVI be considered as adopted in the House when the bill |
Sec. 856. Privileged motion for consideration of revenue and appropriation bills. | As early as 1835 the necessity of giving appropriation bills precedence became apparent, and in 1837 former clause 9 of rule XVI was adopted to establish that principle, but was deleted in recodification as redundant to this rule. Former clause 4(a) of rule XI was amended by the Committee Reform Amendments of 1974, effective January 3, 1975 (H. Res. 988, 93d Cong., Oct. 8, 1974, p. 34470) to eliminate the authority of the Committee on Ways and Means to report as privileged bills raising revenue, and former clause 9 of rule XVI was amended in the 104th Congress (H. Res. 254, Nov. 30, 1995, p. 35077) to delete as obsolete the reference to bills raising revenue (see Sec. 853, supra). However, the privilege to call up general appropriation bills in both rules was retained. When both types of reports were privileged under the rule before the 94th Congress, motions to consider revenue bills and appropriation bills were of equal privilege (IV, 3075, 3076). |
857. Reports from Committee on Rules. | 6. (a) A report by the Committee on Rules on a rule, joint rule, or the order of business may not be called up for consideration on the same day it is presented to the House except-- |
Sec. 858. Dilatory motions not permitted. | In the later practice it has been held that the question of consideration may not be raised against a report from the Committee on Rules (V, 4961-4963; VIII, 2440, 2441). The clause forbidding dilatory motions has been construed strictly (V, 5740-5742), and in the later practice the following have been excluded: (1) the motion to commit after the ordering of the previous question (V, 5593-5601; VIII, 2270, 2750; Feb. 22, 1984, p. 2965); (2) an appeal from the Chair's decision not to entertain the question of consideration or a motion to lay the pending resolution on the table (V, 5739); and (3) the motion to postpone to a day certain (Oct. 9, 1986, p. 29972). A motion to reconsider the vote on ordering the previous question has been held not dilatory (V, 5739). Before debate has begun on a report from the Committee on Rules, a question of the privileges of the House takes precedence (VIII, 3491; Mar. 11, 1987, p. 5403). In the event that the previous question is rejected on a privileged resolution from the Committee on Rules, the provisions of clause 6(b) prohibiting ``dilatory'' motions no longer strictly apply; the resolution is subject to proper amendment, further debate, or a motion to table or refer, and the Member who led the opposition to the previous question has the prior right to recognition (Oct. 19, 1966, pp. 27713, 27725-29; May 29, 1980, pp. 12667-78), subject to being preempted by a preferential motion offered by another Member (Aug. 13, 1982, pp. 20969, 20975-78). The member of the Committee on Rules calling up a privileged resolution on behalf of the committee may offer an amendment, and House rules do not require a specific authorization from the committee |
Sec. 859. Restrictions on authority of Committee on Rules. | From 1934 until the amendment to this provision in the 104th Congress (sec. 210, H. Res. 6, Jan. 4, 1995, p. 468), it was consistently held that the Committee on Rules could recommend a special order that limited, but did not totally prohibit, a motion to recommit pending passage of a bill or joint resolution, as by precluding the motion from containing instructions relating to specified amendments (Speaker Rainey, Jan. 11, 1934, pp. 479-83 (sustained on appeal)); or by omitting to preserve the availability of amendatory instructions in the case that the bill is entirely rewritten by the adoption of a substitute made in order as original text (Speaker Foley, June 4, 1991, p. 13170; Speaker Foley, Nov. 25, 1991, p. 34460); or by expressly allowing only a simple (``straight'') motion to recommit (without instructions) (Oct. 16, 1990, p. 29657 (sustained by tabling of appeal); Feb. 26, 1992, p. 3441 (sustained by tabling of appeal); May 7, 1992, p. 10586 (sustained by tabling of appeal); June 16, 1992, p. 14973 (sustained by tabling of appeal); Nov. 21, 1993, p. 31544; Nov. 22, 1993, p. 31815). A special order providing for consideration of a bill under suspension of the rules does not prevent a motion to recommit from being made ``as provided in clause 4 of rule XVI,'' i.e., after the previous question is ordered on passage, a procedure not applicable to a motion to suspend the rules (VIII, 2267; Speaker Foley, June 21, 1990, p. 15229). See Deschler, ch. 21, Sec. 26.11; see generally Deschler, ch. 23, Sec. 25. |
Sec. 860. Unfunded mandates. | The Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (P.L. 104-4; 109 Stat. 48) added a new part B to title IV of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 658-658g) that, effective on January 1, 1996, or 90 days after appropriations are made available to the Congressional Budget Office pursuant to the 1995 Act (whichever is earlier), imposes several requirements on committees with respect to ``Federal mandates'' (secs. 423, 424; 2 U.S.C. 658b, 658c), establishes points of order to permit separate votes on whether to enforce those requirements (sec. 425; 2 U.S.C. 658d), and permits a vote on the consideration of a rule or order waiving such points of order in the House (sec. 426(a); 2 U.S.C. 658e(a)). See Sec. 1127, infra. |
Sec. 861. Filing reports. | (d) The Committee on Rules shall present to the House reports concerning rules, joint rules, and the order of business, within three legislative days of the time when they are ordered. If such a report is not considered immediately, it shall be referred to the calendar. If such a report on the calendar is not called up by the member of the committee who filed the report within seven legislative days, any member of the committee may call it up as a privileged question on the day after the calendar day on which the member announces to the House his intention to do so. The Speaker |
Sec. 862. Privileged motion. | (f) If the House has adopted a resolution making in order a motion to consider a bill or resolution, and such a motion has not been offered within seven calendar days thereafter, such a motion shall be privileged if offered by direction of all reporting committees having initial jurisdiction of the bill or resolution. |
Sec. 863. Specifying waivers. | (g) Whenever the Committee on Rules reports a resolution providing for the consideration of a measure, it shall (to the maximum extent possible) specify in the resolution the object of any waiver of a point of order against the measure or against its consideration. |
864. Resolution of inquiry. | 7. A report on a resolution of inquiry addressed to the head of an executive department may be filed from the floor as privileged. If such a resolution is not reported to the House within 14 legislative days after its introduction, a motion to discharge a committee from its consideration shall be privileged. |
Sec. 865. Forms of resolutions of inquiry and delivery thereof. | Resolutions of inquiry are usually simple rather than concurrent in form (III, 1875), and are never joint resolutions (III, 1860). A resolution authorizing a committee to request information has been treated as a resolution of inquiry (III, 1860). It has been considered proper to use the word |
Sec. 866. Privileged status of resolutions of inquiry. | The practice of the House gives to resolutions of inquiry a privileged status. Thus, they are privileged for report and consideration at any time after their reference to a committee (III, 1870; VI, 413, 414), but not before (III, 1857), and are in order for consideration only on motion directed to be made by the committee reporting the same (VI, 413; VIII, 2310). They are privileged for consideration on ``Suspension days'' (except on Calendar Wednesday (VII, 896-898)) and took precedence of the former Consent Calendar (VI, 409) before its abolishment in the 104th Congress (H. Res. 168, June 20, 1995, p. 16574). Only resolutions addressed to the President and the heads of the executive departments have the privilege (III, 1861-1864; VI, 406). To enjoy the privilege a resolution should call for facts rather than opinions (III, 1872, 1873; VI, 413, 418-432; July 7, 1971, pp. 23810-11), should not require investigations (III, 1872-1874; VI, 422, 427, 429, 432), and should not present a preamble (III, 1877, 1878; VI, 422, 427); but if a resolution on its face calls for facts, the Chair will not investigate the probability of the existence of the facts called for (VI, 422). However, a resolution inquiring for such facts as would inevitably require the statement of an opinion to answer such inquiry is not privileged (Speaker Longworth, Feb. 11, 1926, p. 3805). |
Sec. 867. Discharge of a committee from a resolution of inquiry. | Committees are required to report resolutions of inquiry back to the House within one week (now 14 days) of the reference, and this time is construed to be legislative days (VIII, 3368; Speaker Rayburn, Feb. 9, 1950, p. 1755) exclusive of the day of introduction and the day of discharge (III, 1858, 1859). If a committee refuses or neglects to report the resolution back, the House may reach the resolution only by a motion to discharge the committee (III, 1865). The ordinary motion to discharge a committee is not privileged (VIII, 2316); but the practice of the House has given privi |
Sec. 868. Resolutions of inquiry as related to the Executive. | The President having failed to respond to a resolution of inquiry, the House respectfully reminded him of the fact (III, 1890). In 1796 the House declared that its constitutional requests of the Executive for information need not be accompanied by a statement of purposes (II, 1509). As to the kind of information that may be required, especially as to the papers that may be demanded, there has been much discussion (III, 1700, 1738, 1888, 1902, 1903; VI, 402, 435). There have been several conflicts with the Executive (II, 1534, 1561; III, 1884, 1885-1889, 1894) over demands for papers and information, especially when the resolutions have called for papers relating to foreign affairs (II, 1509-1513, 1518, 1519). |