[Deschler's Precedents, Volume 7, Chapters 22 - 25]
[Chapter 22. Calendars]
[C. Private Calendar; Private Bills]
[Â§ 14. Private Bills and House-Senate Relations]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[Page 4511-4515]
 
                               CHAPTER 22
 
                               Calendars
 
                   C. PRIVATE CALENDAR; PRIVATE BILLS
 
Sec. 14. Private Bills and House-Senate Relations

Resolving Omnibus Bill Into Individual Bills

Sec. 14.1 Under the Private Calendar rule omnibus bills upon their 
    passage are resolved into the several original bills of which they 
    are composed and are messaged to the Senate as individual bills and 
    not as an omnibus bill.

    On Jan. 27, 1936,(17) Mr. John J. Cochran, of Missouri, 
raised a parliamentary inquiry:
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17. 79 Cong. Rec. 1047, 74th Cong. 2d Sess.
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        Mr. Cochran: In the last session of Congress the House passed 
    an omnibus-claims bill. That bill went to the Senate and one bill I 
    have in mind was passed by the Senate with amendments and is now in 
    conference. I desire to inquire if that conference report will come 
    back to the House on that particular bill or will it come back to 
    the House as a conference report on the omnibus claims bill?

[[Page 4512]]

        The Speaker: (18) The conferees will report on the 
    individual bill which was passed by the two Houses. The gentleman 
    understands that under the Private Calendar rule, after an omnibus 
    bill is passed by the House, it is resolved into the several bills 
    of which it is composed so that each bill contained therein again 
    assumes its original form. The Chair thinks the gentleman will find 
    that there are no omnibus-claims bills in conference but that there 
    may be some individual bills in conference that were at one time 
    incorporated in an omnibus bill. In that case the conferees could 
    only report on the individual bills committed to them.
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18. Joseph W. Byrns (Tenn.).
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        Mr. Cochran: Then it will come back here as a conference report 
    on an individual bill and considered under the general rules of the 
    House?
        The Speaker: The gentleman is correct.

Considering Senate Bill by Resolution

Sec. 14.2 Parliamentarian's Note: Where a private Senate bill resulting 
    in the expenditure of public funds (and thus requiring 
    consideration in the Committee of the Whole) is not privileged and 
    cannot be taken from the Speaker's table for direct action by the 
    House, the House may adopt a resolution taking the bill from the 
    table and providing for its consideration.

    On Mar. 14, 1961,(19) the House considered and adopted 
House Resolution 224, called up from the Committee on Rules, providing 
for the taking from the Speaker's table and considering in the 
Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union the bill (S. 
1173) to authorize the appointment of Dwight David Eisenhower to the 
active list of the regular Army.
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19. 107 Cong. Rec. 3911, 3914, 87th Cong. 1st Sess.
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Tabling Part of an Omnibus Bill

Sec. 14.3 After passage of an omnibus private bill on the calendar, 
    Senate bills pending on the Speaker's table which are identical or 
    similar to those contained in the omnibus bill may be disposed of 
    in the House by unanimous consent. After disposition of a Senate 
    bill, the similar House bill--a component of the omnibus bill--may 
    be laid on the table by unanimous consent so that two measures 
    involving the same private relief will not be messaged to the 
    Senate.

    On Sept. 17, 1968,(20) Mr. Herbert Tenzer, of New York, 
asked

[[Page 4513]]

 unanimous consent for the immediate consideration of the bill (S. 857) 
for the relief of Puget Sound Plywood, Inc., of Tacoma, Wash. This bill 
was similar to title IX (H.R. 4949) of the omnibus bill (H.R. 16187) 
which the House had just passed.(1)
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20. 114 Cong. Rec. 27184, 27185, 90th Cong. 2d Sess.
 1.  Id. at p. 27184.
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    There was no objection.
    Mr. Tenzer then offered an amendment to the Senate bill reducing 
the amount of the claim provided for in the bill from $44,016.62 to 
$9,593.72, so that the Senate bill as amended would be identical to the 
House bill just passed.
    The amendment was agreed to, the Senate bill was passed, and by 
unanimous consent the proceedings whereby the identical House bill 
(H.R. 4949) was passed were vacated and the House bill laid on the 
table.

Considering Similar Senate and House Bills

Sec. 14.4 After the passage in the House of an omnibus private bill it 
    is in order by unanimous consent to take from the Speaker's table 
    and pass a similar Senate bill, in which event the proceedings 
    whereby the House bill passed should be vacated and the bill laid 
    on the table.

    On Apr. 22, 1936,(2) Mr. Clyde Williams, of Missouri, 
asked unanimous consent for the present consideration of the bill (S. 
713) granting jurisdiction to the Court of Claims to hear the case of 
David A. Wright, which was identical to the bill H.R. 2713 in the 
(omnibus) bill (H.R. 8524, title IV) just passed:
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 2. 80 Cong. Rec. 5897, 5898, 74th Cong. 2d Sess.
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        The Speaker: (3) Is there objection?
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 3. Joseph W. Byrns (Tenn.).
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        There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be read a 
    third time, was read the third time, and passed, and a motion to 
    reconsider was laid on the table.
        Mr. Williams: Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to vacate 
    the proceedings of the House by which H.R. 2713 was passed.
        The Speaker: The gentleman from Missouri asks unanimous consent 
    to vacate the proceedings of the House whereby H.R. 2713 was passed 
    and to lay that bill on the table. Is there objection?
        There was no objection.

Sec. 14.5 Where an omnibus private bill is passed containing House 
    bills similar to Senate bills on the Speaker's table the Speaker 
    recognizes Members for unanimous-consent requests to take up such 
    Senate bills for consideration; upon passage of the Senate

[[Page 4514]]

    bill, the House vacates action on the similar House bill.

    On Aug. 21, 1935,(4) the Chair made the following 
statement:
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 4. 79 Cong. Rec. 13993, 74th Cong. 1st Sess.
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        The Speaker: (5) In the omnibus bills which were 
    passed on yesterday there were included several bills which had 
    previously passed the Senate and were on the Speaker's table. The 
    Chair feels that those Members who are interested in those 
    particular bills should have an opportunity to ask unanimous 
    consent for the immediate consideration of the Senate bills, so 
    that they can be taken out of the omnibus bills when they are 
    reported to the Senate. . . .
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 5. Joseph W. Byrns (Tenn.).
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        Mr. [William A.] Pittenger [of Minnesota]: Mr. Speaker, I ask 
    unanimous consent for the immediate consideration of the bill (S. 
    1448) for the relief of certain claimants who suffered loss by fire 
    in the State of Minnesota during October 1918.
        The Speaker: Is that one of the bills in the omnibus bill that 
    was passed yesterday?
        Mr. Pittenger: It is one of the bills in the omnibus bill 
    passed on yesterday.(6)
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 6. By this Mr. Pittenger meant that the Senate bill in question was 
        the same as the House bill (H.R. 3662) which was passed the 
        previous day as part of the omnibus bill (H.R. 8108, 79 Cong. 
        Rec. 13842-55, 74th Cong. 1st Sess., Aug. 20, 1935), while its 
        counterpart, S. 1443, remained at the Speaker's table.
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        The Clerk read the title of the bill.
        The Speaker: Is there objection to the request of the gentleman 
    from Minnesota?
        There was no objection.
        The bill was ordered to be read a third time, was read the 
    third time, and passed, and a motion to reconsider was laid on the 
    table.
        The Speaker: Without objection the procedure by which title IV 
    of the omnibus bill (H.R. 3662) was passed on yesterday will be 
    vacated, and the House bill laid on the table.
        There was no objection.

Private Senate Bills at the Speaker's Table

Sec. 14.6 The House by resolution provided for the consideration of 
    private Senate bills on the Private Calendar as well as private 
    Senate bills on the Speaker's table, where similar House bills have 
    been favorably reported and were on the Private Calendar.

    On Feb. 25, 1933,(7) the House considered House 
Resolution 398, called up by Mr. Henry T. Rainey, of Illinois:
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 7. 76 Cong. Rec. 5021, 72d Cong. 2d Sess.
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        Resolved, That on Wednesday, March 1, 1933, it shall be in 
    order to move that the House take a recess until 8 o'clock p.m., 
    and that at the evening session until 10:30 p.m. it shall be in 
    order to consider Senate bills on the Private Calendar and Sen

[[Page 4515]]

    ate bills on the Speaker's table where similar House bills have 
    been favorably reported and are now on the Private Calendar, the 
    call of said bills to begin where the last call of the Private 
    Calendar ended. In order to expedite the consideration of said 
    bills the Clerk shall prepare a special Private Calendar of Senate 
    bills eligible to be considered under this resolution, and the 
    bills on said special calendar unobjected to shall be considered in 
    their numerical order on said calendar in the House as in Committee 
    of the Whole: Provided, That after the completion of the call of 
    bills on said special Private Calendar of Senate bills it shall be 
    in order to call the bills on the Private Calendar where the last 
    call on the Private Calendar ended.

House Bills and Unrelated Amendments

Sec. 14.7 The House has suspended the rules and agreed to a private 
    House bill with a Senate amendment extending the life of the Civil 
    Rights Commission.

    On Oct. 7, 1963,(8) Mr. Emanuel Celler, of New York, 
moved that the House suspend the rules and adopt a resolution (H. Res. 
541) that the private bill (H.R. 3369) for the relief of Elizabeth G. 
Mason, with a Senate amendment thereto extending the life of the Civil 
Rights Commission for one year, be taken from the Speaker's table and 
agreed to.
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 8. 109 Cong. Rec. 18851-64, 88th Cong. 1st Sess.
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    The motion and the resolution were agreed to.(9)
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 9. Id. at pp. 18863, 18864.
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