[Constitution, Jefferson's Manual, and the Rules of the House of Representatives, 108th Congress]
[108th Congress]
[House Document 107-284]
[Jeffersons Manual of ParliamentaryPractice]
[Pages 199-200]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office, www.gpo.gov]


 

                             sec. xx--motion



Sec. 392. Parliamentary law as to making, withdrawing, and 
reading of motions.

    When a motion has been made, it is not to be put 
to the question or debated until it is seconded. Scob., 21.



  It is then, and not till then, in possession of the House, and can not 
be withdrawn but by leave of the House. It is to be put into writing, if 
the House or Speaker require it, and must be read to the House by the 
Speaker as often as any Member desires it for his information. 2 Hats., 
82.


  The House has long since dispensed with the requirement of a second 
for ordinary motions (clause 1 of rule XVI; V, 5304); and the 
requirement of a second for a motion to suspend the rules was eliminated 
in the 102d Congress (H. Res. 5, Jan. 3, 1991, p. 39). Clause 2 of rule 
XVI provides further that a motion may be withdrawn before decision or 
amendment; and clause 1 of the same rule provides that the motion shall 
be reduced to writing on the demand of any Member. In the practice of 
the House, when a paper on which the House is to vote has been read 
once, the reading may not be required again unless the House shall order 
it read (V, 5260).


[[Page 200]]

ing him to order if he departs from it. And the question of order being 
decided, he is still to be heard through. A call for adjournment, or for 
the order of the day, or for the question, by gentlemen from their 
seats, is <> not a motion. No motion can be 
made without rising and addressing the Chair. Such calls are themselves 
breaches of order, which, though the Member who has risen may respect, 
as an expression of impatience of the House against further debate, yet, 
if he chooses, he has a right to go on.



Sec. 393. Interruptions of the Member having the 
floor.

  It  might be asked whether a motion for adjournment or for the 
orders of the day can be made by one Member while another is speaking? 
It can not. When two Members offer to speak, he who rose first is to be 
heard, and it is a breach of order in another to interrupt him, unless 
by call





  The practice of the House has modified the principle that the Member 
who rises first is to be recognized (clause 2 of rule XVII); but in 
other respects the principles of this paragraph of the law of Parliament 
are in force.