[House Practice: A Guide to the Rules, Precedents and Procedures of the House]
[Front Matter]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
HOUSE
PRACTICE
JOHNSON
SULLIVAN
WICKHAM
2017
U.S. House of
Representatives
HOUSE PRACTICE
A Guide to the Rules,
Precedents, and Procedures
of the House
Charles W. Johnson
John V. Sullivan
Thomas J. Wickham, Jr.
115th Congress, 1st Session
HOUSE
PRACTICE
A Guide to the Rules,
Precedents, and
Procedures of the House
Charles W. Johnson
Parliamentarian of the House
1994-2004
John V. Sullivan
Parliamentarian of the House
2004-2012
Thomas J. Wickham, Jr.
Parliamentarian of the House
2012-
www.gpo.gov/housepractice
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
WASHINGTON : 2017
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Publishing
Office
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ISBN 0-16-053786-X
PREFACE
HOUSE PRACTICE
The Parliamentarian of the House of Representatives is appointed
by the Speaker without regard to political affiliation. The Office of
the Parliamentarian and its subsidiary Office of Compilation of
Precedents comprise attorneys, clerks, and editors who render
nonpartisan assistance to the House on legislative and parliamentary
procedure. The Office is also charged with publishing the
parliamentary precedents of the House.
The parliamentary law of the House of Representatives emanates
from the Constitution and from rules adopted pursuant to section 5 in
article I of the Constitution. These rules include not only the
standing rules adopted from Congress to Congress but also Jefferson's
Manual, as customarily incorporated by reference in the standing
rules. They also include rules enacted as law and special rules
adopted from time to time.
The overarching role of the Office of the Parliamentarian is to
strive for consistency in parliamentary analysis by attempting to
apply pertinent precedent to each procedural question. In resolving
questions of order, the Speaker and other presiding officers of the
House adhere to the jurisprudential principle of stare decisis - a
commitment to stand by earlier decisions. This fidelity to precedent
promotes analytic consistency and procedural predictability and
thereby fosters legitimacy in parliamentary practice.
The compilation of the parliamentary precedents of the House is as
important as any other function of the Office of the Parliamentarian.
For each procedural decision made on the floor of the House, the
Parliamentarian extracts the proceedings from the daily Congressional
Record and writes a parliamentary syllabus. These ``headnotes'' must
be precise, stating the real substance of the decision and its legal
rationale in suitably narrow terms. To ensure a current digest of
these matters, the Parliamentarian biennially publishes a House Rules
and Manual. For the longer term, the Parliamentarian compiles the most
salient precedents for formal, scholarly publication. These precedents
presently fill 29 volumes comprising thousands of decisions over the
227 years of parliamentary practice in the House. They are published
as Hinds' Precedents (1907); Cannon's Precedents (1936); and the
precedents of the House authored by current and former
Parliamentarians.
To bridge the span between a digest of decisions and formally
published precedents, the Parliamentarian also publishes this work as
a condensed compilation of procedures of current application. The
scope of this volume is thus limited. It is a summary review of
selected precedents and not an exhaustive survey of all applicable
rulings. The House Rules and Manual and the published volumes of
precedents remain the primary sources for more comprehensive analysis
and authoritative citation.
An earlier, condensed work of this kind is Cannon's Procedure in
the House of Representatives. That summary by Clarence Cannon was
first published in 1949 and last published in 1959. A later summary,
entitled Deschler's Procedure in the U.S. House of Representatives,
was prepared by Lewis Deschler in 1974 and was revised and updated in
1978, 1979, 1982, 1985, and 1987.
This fourth edition of House Practice reflects the efforts of all
of the members of the Office of the Parliamentarian - Ethan Lauer, Jay
Smith, Anne Gooch, Kyle Jones, Julia Cook, Brian Cooper, Lloyd
Jenkins, Kristen Donahue - and of its Office of Compilation of
Precedents - Andrew Neal, Max Spitzer, Catherine Moran, and Bryan
Feldblum - as well as former Parliamentarian Charles W. Johnson, III.
Their diligence in annotating the decisions of the Chair and other
parliamentary precedents reflected in this edition and their devotion
to the pursuit of excellence in the procedural practices of the House
are gratefully acknowledged. Special recognition goes to Max Spitzer
for his dedication and skilled management of the project.
References to frequently cited works are to the House Rules and
Manual for the 115th Congress, by section (e.g., Manual Sec. 364); to
the volume and section of Hinds' or Cannon's Precedents (e.g., 6
Cannon Sec. 570); to the chapter and section of Deschler's, Deschler-
Brown, Deschler-Brown-Johnson, or Deschler-Brown-Johnson-Sullivan
(e.g., Deschler Ch 5 Sec. 2); to the Congressional Record, by
Congress, session, date and page (e.g., 108-2, May 20, 2004, pp 10618-
29); and to the United States Code, by title and section (e.g., 2 USC
Sec. 287).
Thomas J. Wickham, Jr.
March 1, 2017
Parliamentarian
2012-
CHAPTER OUTLINE
HOUSE PRACTICE
Chapter 1. Adjournment (p. 1)
Chapter 2. Amendments (p. 15)
Chapter 3. Appeals (p. 65)
Chapter 4. Appropriations (p. 71)
Chapter 5. Assembly of Congress (p. 155)
Chapter 6. Bills and Resolutions (p. 165)
Chapter 7. Budget Process (p. 187)
Chapter 8. Calendar Wednesday (p. 221)
Chapter 9. Calendars (p. 229)
Chapter10. Chamber, Rooms, and Galleries (p. 233)
Chapter11. Committees (p. 239)
Chapter12. Committees of the Whole (p. 305)
Chapter13. Conferences Between the Houses (p. 339)
Chapter14. Congressional Procedures Enacted in Law (p. 375)
Chapter15. Congressional Record (p. 379)
Chapter16. Consideration and Debate (p. 387)
Chapter17. Contempt (p. 457)
Chapter18. Delegates and Resident Commissioner (p. 463)
Chapter19. Discharging Measures From Committees (p. 465)
Chapter20. District of Columbia Business (p. 475)
Chapter21. Division of the Question for Voting (p. 481)
Chapter22. Election Contests and Disputes (p. 491)
Chapter23. Election of Members (p. 497)
Chapter24. Electoral Counts; Selection of President and Vice President
(p. 503)
Chapter25. Ethics; Committee on Ethics (p. 509)
Chapter26. Germaneness of Amendments (p. 543)
Chapter27. Impeachment (p. 603)
Chapter28. Journal (p. 621)
Chapter29. Lay on the Table (p. 629)
Chapter30. Messages Between the Houses (p. 637)
Chapter31. Morning Hour; Call of Committees (p. 641)
Chapter32. Motions (p. 645)
Chapter33. Oaths (p. 649)
Chapter34. Office of Speaker (p. 655)
Chapter35. Officers and Offices (p. 663)
Chapter36. Order of Business; Privileged Business (p. 671)
Chapter37. Points of Order; Parliamentary Inquiries (p. 679)
Chapter38. Postponement (p. 695)
Chapter39. Previous Question (p. 701)
Chapter40. Private Calendar (p. 717)
Chapter41. Question of Consideration (p. 723)
Chapter42. Questions of Privilege (p. 729)
Chapter43. Quorums (p. 755)
Chapter44. Reading, Passage, and Enactment (p. 777)
Chapter45. Recess (p. 791)
Chapter46. Recognition (p. 797)
Chapter47. Reconsideration (p. 815)
Chapter48. Refer and Recommit (p. 829)
Chapter49. Resolutions of Inquiry (p. 845)
Chapter50. Rules and Precedents of the House (p. 851)
Chapter51. Senate Bills; Amendments Between the Houses (p. 857)
Chapter52. Special Orders of Business (p. 885)
Chapter53. Suspension of Rules (p. 897)
Chapter54. Unanimous-Consent Agreements (p. 907)
Chapter55. Unfinished Business (p. 919)
Chapter56. Unfunded Mandates (p. 925)
Chapter57. Veto Procedure (p. 929)
Chapter58. Voting (p. 937)
Chapter59. Withdrawal (p. 965)
Index (p. 971)