[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.
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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
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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).