[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4971 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4971

To amend the Rules of the House of Representatives to prohibit behavior 
        that threatens that institution, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 22, 2004

    Mrs. Maloney (for herself, Ms. Lee, Ms. Watson, Mr. Jackson of 
 Illinois, Mr. Clay, Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, Mr. Crowley, 
    Mr. Davis of Illinois, Mr. Owens, Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas, Mr. 
  Chandler, Ms. McCarthy of Missouri, Mr. Grijalva, Mr. Sherman, Mr. 
    McDermott, Mr. Conyers, Mr. Sanders, and Mr. Meeks of New York) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
Rules, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period 
    to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for 
consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the 
                          committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Rules of the House of Representatives to prohibit behavior 
        that threatens that institution, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Restoring Democracy to the U.S. 
Congress Act of 2004''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds that, while the United States is 
endeavoring to bring democracy to countries such as Iraq and 
Afghanistan, recent events in the Congress have battered the pillars of 
our democratic system here at home within the world's greatest 
deliberative body.
    (b) Purpose.--The purpose of this Act is to stop this loss of 
democracy here at home and prevent further occurrences of recent 
injustices including--
            (1) barring Members appointed to conference committees from 
        attending meetings of those committees;
            (2) calling the Capitol Police to forcibly remove Members 
        from legislative meetings;
            (3) extending the time limit on recorded votes from minutes 
        to hours to alter the outcome;
            (4) attaching special-interest amendments to conference 
        reports that have not been the subject of hearings or votes in 
        either House or contained in the underlying legislation as 
        passed either House;
            (5) redrawing congressional districts for partisan 
        political gains in between censuses;
            (6) requiring Members to vote on legislation that has not 
        been circulated or read;
            (7) allegedly offering a bribe on the House floor;
            (8) allegedly stealing confidential documents from a 
        committee's computer server; and
            (9) spending committee funds to pay for mass mail 
        communications to individual Members' districts.

SEC. 3. TIME LIMIT ON ROLL CALL VOTES.

    The last sentence of clause 2(a) of rule XX of the House of 
Representatives is amended by inserting ``and, except by unanimous 
consent or mutual agreement of the majority and minority leaders, the 
maximum time shall be 17 minutes'' before the period at the end.

SEC. 4. ACTUAL VOTING REQUIRED IN CONFERENCE COMMITTEE MEETINGS.

     Clause 8(a) of rule XXII of the Rules of the House of 
Representatives is amended by adding at the end the following new 
subparagraph:
    ``(3) It shall not be in order to consider a conference report 
unless the senior manager from the majority party on the part of the 
House as so designated for that purpose by the majority leader and the 
senior manager from the minority party on the part of the House as so 
designated for that purpose by the minority leader include in the 
statement of managers accompanying such conference report a signed 
statement that all House managers have been afforded an opportunity at 
a meeting of the committee on conference to vote on all amendments and 
other propositions considered by that committee.''.

SEC. 5. GERMANENESS REQUIREMENT FOR CONFERENCE REPORTS MAY NOT BE 
              WAIVED.

    Clause 6(c) of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of 
Representatives is amended by adding at the end the following new 
subparagraph:
            ``(3) a rule or order that would prevent a Member from 
        making a point of order against nongermane matter in a 
        conference agreement pursuant to clause 9 of rule XXII.''.

SEC. 6. REMOVAL OF MEMBERS FROM COMMITTEE MEETINGS.

    Clause 3 of rule II of the Rules of the House of Representatives is 
amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
    ``(g) The duty to forcibly remove a Member, Delegate, or Resident 
Commissioner from any committee meeting room shall reside exclusively 
with the Sergeant-at-Arms and such removal may only be executed at the 
request of any other such individual.''.

SEC. 7. LIMIT ON REDISTRICTING AFTER AN APPORTIONMENT OF 
              REPRESENTATIVES.

    The Act entitled ``An Act for the relief of Doctor Ricardo Vallejo 
Samala and to provide for congressional redistricting'', approved 
December 14, 1967 (2 U.S.C. 2c), is amended by adding at the end the 
following: ``A State that has been redistricted in the manner provided 
by the law thereof after an apportionment under section 22(a) of the 
Act entitled `An Act to provide for the fifteenth and subsequent 
decennial censuses and to provide for an apportionment of 
Representatives in Congress', approved June 18, 1929 (2 U.S.C. 2a), may 
not be so redistricted until after the next apportionment of 
Representatives under such section 22(a), unless the State is ordered 
by a Federal court to conduct such subsequent redistricting in order to 
comply with the Constitution of the United States or to enforce the 
Voting Rights Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 1973 et seq.).''.

SEC. 8. AVAILABILITY OF LEGISLATION ON THE INTERNET.

    Clause 6(c) of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of 
Representatives is amended by striking the period at the end of 
subparagraph (2) and inserting a semicolon and by adding at the end the 
following new subparagraph:
            ``(3) a rule or order eliminating the reading in full of 
        any bill, resolution, conference report, or amendment unless 
        such measure is available to all Members and made available to 
        the general public by means of the Internet for at least 24 
        hours before its consideration.''.

SEC. 9. BRIBERY PROHIBITED ON HOUSE FLOOR.

    The Congress hereby reiterates that the bribery of a Member of 
Congress on the floor of the House of Representatives or the Senate is 
a violation of section 201 (bribery of public officials and witnesses) 
of title 18, United States Code, and should be prosecuted whenever it 
occurs.

SEC. 10. HACKING INTO OTHER MEMBERS' COMPUTER FILES PROHIBITED.

    Congress hereby reiterates that accessing a computer of a Member of 
Congress without authorization or exceeding authorized access is a 
violation of section 1030 (fraud and related activity in connection 
with computers) of title 18, United States Code, and should be 
prosecuted whenever it occurs.

SEC. 11. CAP ON MAILING EXPENSES OF COMMITTEES.

    Rule X of the Rules of the House of Representatives is amended by 
adding at the end the following new clause:
    ``12. No Committee may expend more than $25,000 for mailing 
expenses during a session of Congress.''.

SEC. 12. REQUIRING AT LEAST ONE-THIRD OF COMMITTEE BUDGET TO BE 
              PROVIDED TO MINORITY.

    Rule X of the Rules of the House of Representatives, as amended by 
section 11, is further amended by adding at the end the following new 
clause:
    ``13. Of the total amounts provided to any Committee for its 
expenses (including expenses for staff) during a session of Congress, 
\1/3\ of such amount, or such greater percentage as may be agreed to by 
the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee, shall be 
expended at the direction of the ranking minority member.''.

SEC. 13. EXERCISE OF RULEMAKING POWERS.

    The provisions of this Act are enacted by the Congress--
            (1) as an exercise of the rulemaking power of the House of 
        Representatives and the Senate, respectively, and as such they 
        shall be considered as part of the rules of each House, 
        respectively, or of that House to which they specifically 
        apply, and such rules shall supersede other rules only to the 
        extent that they are inconsistent therewith; and
            (2) with full recognition of the constitutional right of 
        either House to change such rules (so far as relating to such 
        House) at any time, in the same manner, and to the same extent 
        as in the case of any other rule of such House.
                                 <all>