[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 689 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 689

   Amending the Rules of the House of Representatives to ensure that 
  Members, Delegates, and the Resident Commissioner have a reasonable 
  amount of time to read legislation that will be voted upon, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 29, 2009

   Mr. Posey (for himself, Mr. Daniel E. Lungren of California, Mr. 
 Shadegg, Mr. Herger, Mr. McCaul, Mr. Pitts, Mr. Bartlett, Mr. Putnam, 
Mr. Brady of Texas, Mr. Linder, Mr. Burton of Indiana, Mr. Burgess, Mr. 
   Souder, Mr. Lucas, Mr. Boozman, Mr. Wilson of South Carolina, Mr. 
Graves, Mr. Latham, Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Inglis, Mr. Bilbray, Mr. Brown of 
 South Carolina, Mrs. Bachmann, Mr. Lamborn, Mr. Coffman of Colorado, 
 Mr. Kline of Minnesota, Mr. Luetkemeyer, Mr. Latta, Mr. McHenry, Mr. 
   Broun of Georgia, Ms. Fallin, Mr. Scalise, Mr. Fleming, and Mrs. 
 Lummis) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
                           Committee on Rules

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
   Amending the Rules of the House of Representatives to ensure that 
  Members, Delegates, and the Resident Commissioner have a reasonable 
  amount of time to read legislation that will be voted upon, and for 
                            other purposes.

    Resolved, That (a) the Rules of the House of Representatives are 
amended by redesignating rule XXIX as rule XXX and by inserting after 
rule XXVIII the following new rule:

                              ``RULE XXIX

                ``Time to Read Legislation Before Voting

    ``1. Notwithstanding any provision of these rules, no bill, joint 
resolution, conference report, or amendment between the Houses shall be 
considered in the House unless the text of that measure (and the 
accompanying comparative print relating to that measure as required by 
clause 9 of rule XVI) has been available to all Members, Delegates, and 
the Resident Commissioner and their staffs in both printed and 
electronic format for at least 3 legislative days and any manager's 
amendment or other amendment which makes substantive changes to the 
legislation has been made available in both printed and electronic 
versions for at least 3 legislative days before such legislation may be 
considered in the House.
    ``2. Clause 1 shall not apply to--
            ``(1) the intelligence authorization bill or other 
        legislation containing classified information, or any 
        conference report thereon, if Members have at least 7 days to 
        study the contents of such measure; and
            ``(2) congressional declarations of war or authorization of 
        military force to respond to attacks on the United States.''.
    (b) Clause 6(c) of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of 
Representatives is amended by inserting before the period at the end 
thereof the following: ``, or a rule or order that would waive the 
provisions of rule XXIX or of clause 9 of rule XVI''.
    Sec. 2.  Rule XVI of the House of Representatives is amended by 
adding at the end the following new clause:
``Comparative print
    ``9. (a) Any bill, joint resolution, or conference report that 
amends existing law, or any manager's amendment, amendment between the 
Houses, or other amendment which makes substantive changes to any bill, 
joint resolution, or conference report that amends existing law may not 
be considered in the House unless the chair of the applicable committee 
or the Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner proposing the 
amendment also presents to the Clerk, at least 3 legislative days 
before the applicable measure may be considered in the House, an 
electronic version of a comparative print of any part of the bill, 
joint resolution, or conference report or any amendment proposing to 
amend any statute and of the statute or part thereof proposing to be 
amended, showing by appropriate typographical devices the omissions and 
insertions proposed.
    ``(b) The Clerk shall post on website of the Clerk the electronic 
version of each comparative print presented under paragraph (a) at 
least 3 legislative days before the underlying amendment may be 
considered in the House.''.
                                 <all>