[Constitution, Jefferson's Manual, and the Rules of the House of Representatives, 117th Congress]
[117th Congress]
[House Document 116-177]
[Rules of the House of Representatives]
[Pages 1048-1051]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


 
                               Rule XXVIII


                   statutory limit on the public debt


[[Page 1049]]

joint resolution, the vote by which the concurrent resolution on the 
budget was adopted by the House shall also be considered as a vote on 
passage of the joint resolution in the House, and the joint resolution 
shall be considered as passed by the House and duly certified and 
examined. The engrossed copy shall be signed by the Clerk and 
transmitted to the Senate for further legislative action.


Sec. 1104. Public debt limit.

  1.  Upon adoption by the House 
of a concurrent resolution on the budget under section 301 or 304 of the 
Congressional Budget Act of 1974, the Clerk shall prepare an engrossment 
of a joint resolution suspending the statutory limit on the public debt 
in the form prescribed in clause 2. Upon engrossment of the


  2. The matter after the resolving clause in a joint resolution 
described in clause 1 shall be as follows: ``Section 3101(b) of title 
31, United States Code, shall not apply for the period beginning on the 
date of enactment and ending on September 30, ___.'' with the blank 
being filled with the budget year for the concurrent resolution.

  3. Nothing in this rule shall be construed as limiting or otherwise 
affecting--

       (a) the power of the House or the Senate to consider and pass 
bills or joint resolutions, without regard to the procedures under 
clause 1, that would change the statutory limit on the public debt; or

       (b) the rights of Members, Delegates, the Resident Commissioner, 
or committees with respect to the introduction, consideration, and 
reporting of such bills or joint resolutions.


[[Page 1050]]

United States (except such guaranteed obligations as may be held by the 
Secretary of the Treasury), as determined under section 3101(b) of such 
title after the application of section 3101(a) of such title, that may 
be outstanding at any one time.

  4. In this rule the term ``statutory limit on the public debt'' means 
the maximum face amount of obligations issued under authority of chapter 
31 of title 31, United States Code, and obligations guaranteed as to 
principal and interest by the


[[Page 1051]]

  This rule was added in the 96th Congress by Public Law 96-78 (93 Stat. 
589) and was originally applicable to concurrent resolutions on the 
budget for fiscal years beginning on or after October 1, 1980 (fiscal 
year 1981). However, in the 96th Congress (H. Res. 642, Apr. 23, 1980, 
p. 8800), the provisions of that public law amending the Rules of the 
House were made applicable to the third concurrent resolution on the 
budget for fiscal year 1980 as well as the first concurrent resolution 
on the budget for fiscal year 1981 (H. Con. Res. 307, June 12, 1980, pp. 
14505-19; see H.J. Res. 569 and H.J. Res. 570, June 13, 1980, p. 14609). 
Conforming changes were made in clauses 2 and 5 of this rule with the 
codification of title 31, United States Code, by Public Law 97-258 (96 
Stat. 1066). The rule was amended in the 98th Congress (H. Res. 241, 
June 23, 1983, p. 17162) to reflect the enactment into law (P.L. 98-34) 
of a new permanent, rather than temporary, debt limit. Clause 2 was 
rewritten, and clause 1 modified, to change the form of the joint 
resolution engrossed pursuant to the rule in order to delete references 
to a temporary debt limit and to reflect instead changes in a permanent 
debt limit. The rules change also provided that where a budget 
resolution contains more than one public debt limit figure (for the 
current and the next fiscal year), only one joint resolution be 
engrossed, containing the debt limit figure for the current fiscal year 
with a time limitation, and the debt limit figure for the following 
fiscal year as the permanent limit. Another conforming change in clause 
1 was made in the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 
1985 (P.L. 99-177, Dec. 12, 1985, p. 36209) to delete reference to a 
second concurrent resolution on the budget (no longer required under 
section 310 of the Budget Act). Before the House recodified its rules in 
the 106th Congress, this provision was found in former rule XLIX. 
Recodification placed it as rule XXIII (H. Res. 5, Jan. 6, 1999, p. 47). 
The rule was repealed in the 107th Congress (sec. 2(s), H. Res. 5, Jan. 
3, 2001, p. 24), reinstated in the 108th Congress as rule XVII (sec. 
2(t), H. Res. 5, Jan. 7, 2003, p. 7), redesignated in the 110th Congress 
as rule XXVIII (sec. 301, P.L. 110-81), repealed again in the 112th 
Congress (sec. 2(d)(2), H. Res. 5, Jan. 5, 2011, p. 80), and reinstated 
in the 116th Congress with the following modifications: (1) changing the 
form of the joint resolution to make the debt limit inapplicable during 
the remainder of the budget year of the concurrent resolution on the 
budget; and (2) triggering the engrossment of a joint resolution upon 
House adoption of the concurrent resolution on the budget (sec. 102(jj), 
H. Res. 6, Jan. 3, 2019, p. _).

  During the 117th Congress, the House adopted a special order of 
business rendering this rule inapplicable with respect to the adoption 
of any concurrent resolution on the budget for a specified fiscal year 
(sec. 6, H. Res. 85, Feb. 2, 2021, p. _).




  A former version of this rule has been ordered inapplicable to a 
conference report on a concurrent resolution on the budget (e.g., H. 
Res. 131, Mar. 25, 1999, p. 5671; H. Res. 446, Mar. 23, 2000, p. 3442). 
Under a former version of this rule, the date of final House action in 
adopting the conference report on the concurrent resolution on the 
budget, rather than the date of final Senate action, when later, was the 
appropriate date for deeming the House to have passed the joint 
resolution (July 14, 1986, p. 16316; Speaker Wright, June 25, 1987, p. 
17424).