[House Report 104-184]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]



104th Congress                                                   Report
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 1st Session                                                    104-184
_______________________________________________________________________


 
      PROVIDING FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 1977, THE INTERIOR 
                APPROPRIATIONS BILL FOR FISCAL YEAR 1996

                                _______


    July 13 (legislative day, July 12), 1995.--Referred to the House 
                   Calendar and ordered to be printed

_______________________________________________________________________


    Ms. Pryce, from the Committee on Rules, submitted the following

                              R E P O R T

                       [To accompany H. Res. 187]
    The Committee on Rules, having had under consideration 
House Resolution 187, by a non-record vote, report the same to 
the House with the recommendation that the resolution be 
adopted.

       brief summary and explanation of provisions of resolution

    The resolution provides an open rule for the consideration 
of H.R. 1977, the Interior appropriations bill for fiscal year 
1996. The rule provides one hour of general debate divided 
equally between the chairman and ranking minority member of the 
Committee on Appropriations.
    The rule waives the following provisions of the Budget Act 
against consideration of the bill: section 302(f), prohibiting 
the consideration of a measure containing new entitlement 
authority in excess of a committee's allocation; section 306, 
prohibiting the consideration of matters within the Budget 
Committee's jurisdiction in a measure not reported by that 
committee; and section 308(a), prohibiting the consideration of 
a bill containing new entitlement authority if the report does 
not include a cost estimate on such entitlement authority.
    The rule also waives clause 2 of rule XXI, prohibiting 
unauthorized appropriations and legislative provisions in an 
appropriations bill, and clause 6 of rule XXI, prohibiting 
reappropriations in an appropriations bill, against provisions 
in the bill. The rule also waives clause 2(e) of rule XXI, 
prohibiting non-emergency amendments to be offered to a bill 
containing an emergency designation under the Budget Act, 
against amendments offered to the bill.
    The rule provides that the bill be read by title rather 
than by paragraph for amendment, and that each title be 
considered as read. The rule permits the Chair to accord 
priority in recognition to a Member who has pre-printed an 
amendment in the Congressional Record. The rule provides for 
the automatic adoption of the amendment printed in section 2 of 
the rule, and waives points of order against the amendment 
printed in section 3 of the rule if offered by Representative 
Schaefer of Colorado or Representative Tauzin of Louisiana. 
Finally, the rule provides for one motion to recommit, with or 
without instructions.
    Below is an explanation of the waivers provided by the rule 
in addition to the clause 2 and 6 waivers of rule XXI, 
protecting unauthorized and legislative provisions and 
reappropriations in the bill against points of order:
          1. Section 302(f) of the Budget Act, which prohibits, 
        among other things, consideration of legislation 
        containing new entitlement authority in excess of a 
        committee's allocation, is waived because the bill 
        contains what is technically considered an entitlement. 
        On page 75 of the bill, under the paragraph entitled, 
        ``National Capital Planning Commission; Salaries and 
        Expenses,'' is a provision that requires that ``all 
        appointed members will be compensated at a rate 
        equivalent to the rate for Executive Schedule Level 
        IV.'' Since this does not make the amount of salaries 
        either discretionary or a ceiling, but rather mandates 
        a specified amount to be paid for the salaries of 
        appointed members, it is considered an entitlement 
        provision. Under the self-executed amendment contained 
        in section 2 of the rule, this mandatory salary 
        provision is changed to a discretionary provision by 
        changing the rate of pay to a ceiling.
          2. Section 308(a) of the Budget Act, which prohibits 
        the consideration of measures containing new 
        entitlement authority if the report does not contain a 
        cost estimate of such entitlements, is waived because 
        the report does not contain required cost estimates on 
        the salaries for the appointed members of the National 
        Capital Planning Commission described above. Again, 
        this entitlement provision is addressed by the 
        amendment contained in section 2 of the rule making the 
        salary level a ceiling.
          3. Section 306 of the Budget Act, which prohibits the 
        consideration of matters within the jurisdiction of the 
        Budget Committee in a measure not reported by that 
        committee, is waived because the bill contains a change 
        in budget score-keeping. At page 57 of the bill, under 
        the paragraph entitled, ``Strategic Petroleum 
        Reserve,'' is a provision that allows a portion ($100 
        million) of the proceeds from the sale of oil from the 
        SPR to be included in the budget baseline required by 
        the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act 
        ``as an offset to discretionary budget authority and 
        outlays for the purposes of section 251(a)(7) of that 
        Act.'' That section of the Balanced Budget Act relates 
        to CBO and OMB estimates of congressional action on 
        discretionary spending bills for purposes of enforcing 
        discretionary spending limits. The self-executed 
        amendment contained in section 2 of the rule strikes 
        this directed score-keeping provision.
          4. Clause 2(e) of rule XXI, which prohibits the 
        consideration of non-emergency amendments to an 
        appropriations bill containing an emergency designation 
        under section 251(b)(2)(D) or section 252(e) of the 
        Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act, is 
        waived. H.R. 1977 contains at least two such emergency 
        designations: sec. 101 (p. 39, of the bill) contains an 
        emergency designation for funds used for the repair 
        replacement of Interior Department buildings and 
        equipment damaged destroyed in disasters and; and 
        section 102 (p. 41 of the bill) contains an emergency 
        designation for funds to be used for certain agency 
        actions relating to the prevention of or response to 
        various specified natural disasters. Without this 
        waiver of clause 2(e) against amendments, no amendments 
        could be considered to the bill.