[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 59 (Tuesday, May 12, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H3058-H3059]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       PROCEDURE FOR CONSIDERATION OF CAMPAIGN REFORM LEGISLATION

  (Mr. SOLOMON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, on April 22, the leadership issued a 
statement committing that campaign reform legislation would be brought 
to the floor and fully debated under an open rule permitting 
substitutes an amendments. The statement provided that the base bill 
would be H.R. 2183, the bipartisan freshman bill.
  The leadership statement further provided that substitutes would be 
printed in the Congressional Record prior to consideration of the 
legislation.
  While the Committee on Rules will not actually vote on a rule until 
next week, it is necessary to lay the ground work in order to carry out 
the commitment by the Republican leadership.
  Since the House will not be conducting business on either this Friday 
or next Monday, any Member who has an amendment in the nature of a 
substitute for the campaign reform bill should submit it for printing 
in the Congressional Record by the close of business this Thursday, May 
14. That is two days from now, two full days.
  At the same time, a brief explanation of the substitute should be 
submitted to the Committee on Rules so that the Committee on Rules will 
be able to compile a list of all the substitutes that are filed and 
make those available to the public. Filing substitutes this Thursday 
means that Members who want to offer perfecting, second degree, 
amendments to those substitutes will have time to prepare them.

                              {time}  1715

  Under an open amending process, any Member may offer any perfecting 
amendment that complies with the rules of the House to any of the 
substitutes; that means any germane amendment.
  If any Member wants to offer a perfecting amendment which does not 
comply with the rules of the House to any of these substitutes, that 
means any nongermane amendment, then they are going to have to submit 
that

[[Page H3059]]

by noon on Tuesday, May 19, to the Committee on Rules in my office 
upstairs.
  May 19 is the next day the House will be conducting business after 
the filing of those substitutes, but it is actually 5 calendar days 
after the filing of those substitutes. This should allow sufficient 
time for preparation of perfecting amendments.
  I want to stress that only the perfecting amendments to be filed with 
the Committee on Rules are those which do not comply with the rules. So 
if Members have perfecting amendments that are germane, you do not have 
to file them, although it might be a good idea to receive priority 
recognition if they were to file those with the desk. But if they are 
nongermane to those substitutes, then you should file 55 copies with my 
Committee on Rules upstairs by May 19.
  I would hope that there would be very few of those. Perfecting 
amendments which do comply with the rules, again, in the House do not 
need to be filed with the Committee on Rules.
  I hope Members will call the Committee on Rules to get a 
clarification of what I just said. It is very important.

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