[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 162 Introduced in House (IH)]







104th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 162

 Amending the Rules of the House of Representatives to provide for the 
 consideration in each Congress of a congressional reform resolution, 
                        and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              June 7, 1995

Mr. Hamilton submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
                         the Committee on Rules

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Amending the Rules of the House of Representatives to provide for the 
 consideration in each Congress of a congressional reform resolution, 
                        and for other purposes.
    Resolved, That clause 4 of rule X of the Rules of the House of 
Representatives is amended by adding at the end the following new 
paragraph:
    ``(j)(1) During each Congress, the Committee on Rules shall 
consider submitting to the House a bill or resolution to improve the 
functioning of the legislative branch. To obtain this objective, this 
bill or resolution may change the rules of the House of Representatives 
and its organization, operations, and procedures (such as committee 
jurisdictions, floor procedures, scheduling of committee activities and 
hearings, referral of legislation, staffing, and bicameral relations), 
the congressional budget process, and relations between Congress and 
the executive branch. If the Committee on Rules does not submit such a 
bill or resolution during a Congress, then it shall include in the 
report referred to in subparagraph (3) for that Congress an explanation 
of why such a bill or resolution was not needed.
    ``(2) During general debate in the House on a bill making 
appropriations for the legislative branch and pursuant to specific time 
set aside for that purpose, members of the Committee on Rules and 
members of other committees with jurisdiction over the organization, 
operations, procedures, and structure of the legislative branch shall 
be given time to conduct a general discussion of the functioning of the 
legislative branch, including House processes and procedures, with a 
view toward identifying problem areas and suggesting improvements.
    ``(3) To facilitate implementation of subparagraphs (1) and (2), 
and to provide continuing review and analysis of the standing rules and 
other legislative branch procedures, statutes, and operations related 
directly or indirectly thereto, in its report submitted under clause 
1(d) of rule XI, the Committee on Rules shall (after consultation with 
the Committees on Appropriations, Government Reform and Oversight, and 
House Oversight) include a separate and clearly identified section on 
the organization, operations, procedures, and workload of the House of 
Representatives during the Congress ending at noon on January 3 of the 
year that report is required to be filed. The report should address 
such issues as the effectiveness of floor procedures, the committee 
system, oversight, and use of staff resources, the need for budget 
process reform, and the effectiveness of the application of the 
requirements of certain laws to Congress.''.
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