[Constitution, Jefferson's Manual, and the Rules of the House of Representatives, 109th Congress]
[109th Congress]
[House Document 108-241]
[Jeffersons Manual of ParliamentaryPractice]
[Pages 199-200]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing 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.



[[Page 200]]

read to the House by the Speaker as often as any Member desires it for 
his information. 2 Hats., 82.

  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be withdrawn but by leave of the House.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


  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XVI provides further that a motion may be withdrawn before decision or 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 (see Sec. 904, infra); and clause 1 of the same rule provides 
that the motion shall be reduced to writing on the demand of any Member 
(see Sec. 902, infra). 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).




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 calling 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.






  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.