[Constitution, Jefferson's Manual, and the Rules of the House of Representatives, 117th Congress]
[117th Congress]
[House Document 116-177]
[Jeffersons Manual of ParliamentaryPractice]
[Pages 161-170]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                    sec. xii--committee of the whole




Sec. 326. Parliamentary usage as to Committee of the 
Whole.

  The  speech, messages, and other matters of great concernment are 
usually referred to a Committee of the Whole House (6 Grey, 311), where 
general principles are digested in the form of resolutions, which are 
debated and amended till they get into a shape which meets the 
approbation of a majority. These being reported and confirmed by the 
House are then referred to one or more select committees, according as 
the subject divides itself into one or more bills. Scob., 36, 44. 
Propositions for any charge on the people are especially to be first 
made in a Committee of the Whole. 3 Hats., 127. The sense of the whole 
is better taken in committee, because in all committees everyone speaks 
as often as he pleases. Scob., 49. * * *



[[Page 162]]

tained in the State of the Union Message are referred by the Speaker to 
the various committees having jurisdiction over the subject matter 
therein.
  This provision is largely obsolete, the House having by its rules and 
practice provided specifically for procedure in the Committee of the 
Whole, and having also by its rules for the order of business left no 
privileged status for motions to go into Committee on matters not 
already referred there. The Committee no longer originates resolutions 
or bills, but receives such as have been formulated by standing or 
select committees and referred to it; and when it reports, the House 
usually acts at once on the report without reference to select or other 
committees (IV, 4705). The practice of referring annual messages of the 
President to the Committee, to be there considered and reported with 
recommendations for the reference of various portions to the proper 
standing or select committees (V, 6621, 6622), was discontinued in the 
64th Congress (VIII, 3350). The current practice is to refer the annual 
message to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union 
and order it printed (Jan. 14, 1969, p. 651). Executive communications 
submitted to implement the proposals con




Sec. 327. Selection of Chair of Committee of the 
Whole.

  * * *  They generally acquiesce in the chairman named by the Speaker; 
but, as well as all other committees, have a right to elect one, some 
member, by consent, putting the question, Scob., 36; 3 Grey, 301. * * *



  The House (by clause 1 of rule XVIII) gives the authority to appoint 
the chair of the Committee of the Whole to the Speaker (IV, 4704).




Sec. 328. Form of going into Committee of the 
Whole.

  * * *  The form of going from the House into committee, is for the 
Speaker, on motion, to put the question that the House do now resolve 
itself into a Committee of the Whole to take into consideration such a 
matter, naming it. If determined in the affirmative, he leaves the chair 
and takes a seat elsewhere, as any other Member; and the person 
appointed chairman seats himself at the Clerk's table. Scob., 36. * * *



  This is the form in the House, except that the chair of the Committee 
of the Whole sits in the Speaker's chair. Clause 1(b) of rule XVIII 
(former rule XXIII) was adopted to authorize the Speaker, and it is the 
modern practice, when no other business is pending, to declare the House 
resolved into the Committee to consider a measure at any time after the 
House has adopted a special order of business providing for 
consideration of such measure (and not require a motion), unless the 
resolution specifies otherwise (H. Res. 5, Jan. 3, 1983, p. 34).


[[Page 163]]

port than to inform the House of the cause of their dissolution. * * *



Sec. 329. Quorum in Committee of the Whole.

  * * *  Their 
quorum is the same as that of the House; and if a defect happens, the 
chairman, on a motion and question, rises, the Speaker resumes the chair 
and the chairman can make no other re



  Until 1890 a quorum of the Committee of the Whole was the same as the 
quorum of the House; but in 1890 the rule (formerly clause 2 of rule 
XXIII, current clause 6 of rule XVIII) fixed it at one hundred (IV, 
2966). Clause 6 of rule XVIII provides the procedure that is followed in 
the Committee in case of failure of a quorum.




Sec. 330. Rising of Committee for reception of 
messages.

  * * *  If a message is announced during a committee, the Speaker 
takes the chair and receives it, because the committee can not. 2 Hats., 
125, 126.



  In the House, the Committee rises informally to receive a message, or 
to enable the Speaker to sign and lay before the House an enrolled bill, 
at the direction of the Chair without a formal motion from the floor 
(IV, 4786, footnote; Jan. 28, 1980, p. 888; Feb. 8, 1995, p. 4112); but 
at this rising the House may not have the message read or transact other 
business except by unanimous consent (IV, 4787-4791). However, it is the 
general custom for the Speaker to decline to entertain a unanimous-
consent request during an informal rising of the Committee (IV, 4789, 
Apr. 6, 2000, p. 4778).


[[Page 164]]

had happened in the grand committee, which was done. 3 Grey, 128.



Sec. 331. Quarrels in Committee of the Whole, and duty of 
the Speaker in relation thereto.

  In  a Committee of the Whole, the tellers 
on a division differing as to numbers, great heats and confusion arose, 
and danger of a decision by the sword. The Speaker took the chair, the 
mace was forcibly laid on the table; whereupon the Members retiring to 
their places, the Speaker told the House ``he has taken the chair 
without an order to bring the House into order.'' Some excepted against 
it; but it was generally approved as the only expedient to suppress the 
disorder. And every Member was required, standing up in his place, to 
engage that he would proceed no further in consequence of what


  In the House the Speaker has on several occasions taken the chair 
``without an order to bring the House into order'' (II, 1648-1653), but 
that being accomplished the Speaker may yield to the chair that the 
committee may rise in due form (II, 1349). In one instance, the Chair, 
having been defied and insulted by a Member, left the chair; and, on the 
chair being taken by the Speaker, he reported the facts to the House 
(II, 1653). In several cases Members who have quarreled have made 
explanation and reconciled their difficulties (II, 1651), or have been 
compelled by the House to apologize ``for violating its privilege and 
offending its dignity'' (II, 1648, 1650).




Sec. 332. Effect of breaking up of Committee of the Whole by 
disorder.

  A  Committee of the Whole being broken up in disorder, and the 
chair resumed by the Speaker without an order, the House was adjourned. 
The next day the committee was considered as thereby dissolved, and the 
subject again before the House; and it was decided in the House, without 
returning into committee. 3 Grey, 130.



  This provision is obsolete, because in the practice of the House there 
is but one Committee of the Whole, which is in its nature a standing 
committee with calendars of business. It is never dissolved, and bills 
remain on its calendar until reported in the regular manner after 
consideration (IV, 4705). After restoring order, the Speaker usually 
leaves the chair, thus permitting the committee later to rise in due 
form (II, 1349).


[[Page 165]]

put on their having leave, and on the time the House will again resolve 
itself into a committee. Scob., 38. But if they have gone through the 
matter <> referred to them, a member moves that the committee may 
rise, and the chairman report their proceedings to the House; which 
being resolved, the chairman rises, the Speaker resumes the chair, the 
chairman informs him that the committee have gone through the business 
referred to them, and that he is ready to make report when the House 
shall think proper to receive it. If the House have time to receive it, 
there is usually a cry of ``now, now,'' whereupon he makes the report; 
but if it be late, the cry is ``to-morrow, to-morrow,'' or ``Monday,'' 
etc., or a motion is made to that effect, and a question put that it be 
received to-morrow, &c. Scob., 38.



Sec. 333. Motions for previous question and to adjourn not 
used in Committee of the Whole.

  No  previous question can be put in a 
committee; nor can this committee adjourn as others may; but if their 
business is unfinished, they rise, on a question, the House is resumed, 
and the chairman reports that the Committee of the Whole have, according 
to order, had under their consideration such a matter, and have made 
progress therein; but not having had time to go through the same, have 
directed him to ask leave to sit again. Whereupon a question is



[[Page 166]]

after the Committee rises (May 19, 2016, p. _). For a further discussion 
of the motion to rise, see Sec. 983, infra.
  In the practice of the House the previous question and motion to 
adjourn are not admitted in the Committee of the Whole (e.g., June 12, 
2019, p. _); but the rules (clause 8 of rule XVIII) provide for closing 
five-minute debate by motion. When the Committee rises without 
concluding a matter the Chair reports that it ``has come to no 
resolution thereon''; but leave to sit again is not asked in the modern 
practice. The permission of the House is not asked when the Chair 
reports a matter concluded in Committee. The report is made and received 
as a matter of course, and is thereupon before the House for action. 
When the House has vested control of general debate in certain Members, 
their control may not be abrogated during general debate by another 
Member moving to rise, unless they yield for that purpose (May 25, 1967, 
p. 14121; June 10, 1999, p. 12471). A Member yielded time in general 
debate may not yield to another for such motion (Feb. 22, 1950, p. 2178; 
May 17, 2000, p. 8200). The motion is privileged during debate under the 
five-minute rule, and may be offered during debate on a pending 
amendment, except where a Member has the floor (Aug. 13, 1986, p. 21215; 
Mar. 22, 1995, p. 8770). The motion may not include restrictions on the 
amendment process or limitations on future debate on amendments (June 6, 
1990, p. 13234), is not debatable (May 17, 2000, p. 8203), may be 
withdrawn only by unanimous consent (June 12, 2019, p. _), and a demand 
for a recorded vote thereon is untimely



Sec. 335. Duties of Speaker and House as to reception of 
reports of Committee of the Whole.

  The  Speaker recognizes only reports 
from the Committee of the Whole made by the chair thereof (V, 6987), and 
a matter alleged to have arisen therein but not reported may not be 
brought to the attention of the House (VIII, 2429, 2430) even on the 
claim that a question of privilege is involved (IV, 4912; V, 6987), but 
the Speaker has responded to a parliamentary inquiry regarding events 
occurring during an earlier vote in the Committee of the Whole by 
advising on a general principle of the operation of the electronic 
voting system (May 19, 2016, p. _). In one instance, however, the 
Committee reported with a bill a resolution relating to an alleged 
breach of privilege (V, 6986). When a bill is reported the Speaker must 
assume that it has passed through all the stages necessary for the 
report (IV, 4916). When the Committee reported not only what it had done 
but by whom it had been prevented from doing other things, the Speaker 
held that the House might not amend the report, which stood (IV, 4909). 
When an amendment is reported by the Committee it may not be withdrawn, 
and a question as to its validity is not considered by the Speaker (IV, 
4900). When a Committee, directed by order of the House to consider 
certain bills, reported also certain other bills, the Speaker held that 
so much of the report as related to the latter bills could be received 
only by unanimous consent (IV, 4911). When a report is ruled out as in 
excess of the Committee's power, the accompanying bill stands 
recommitted (IV, 4784, 4907). A former rule prohibited a Committee's 
report from being received in the absence of a quorum (VI, 666; clause 7 
of rule XX).



[[Page 167]]

on a rule (IV, 4904), requires amendments to be reported from the 
Committee in their perfected forms, and this holds good even in the case 
of an amendment in the nature of a substitute, which may have been 
amended freely (IV, 4900-4903). If the Committee amends a paragraph and 
subsequently strikes the paragraph as amended, the first amendment 
fails, and is not reported to the House or voted on (IV, 4898; V, 6169; 
VIII, 2421, 2426), and when the Committee adopts two amendments that are 
subsequently deleted by an amendment striking and inserting new text, 
only the latter amendment is reported to the House (June 20, 1967, p. 
16497). Where two amendments proposing inconsistent motions to strike 
and insert a pending section are considered as separate first degree 
amendments (not one as a substitute for the other) before either is 
finally disposed of under a special procedure permitting the Chair to 
postpone requests for a recorded vote, the Chair's order of voting on 
the matter as unfinished business determines which amendment (if both 
were adopted) would be reported to the House (Aug. 6, 1998, pp. 19098-
107). Normally, if the Committee perfects a bill by adopting certain 
amendments and then adopts an amendment striking all after section one 
of the bill and inserting a new text, only the bill, as amended by the 
motion to strike and insert, is reported to the House; but when the bill 
is being considered under a special rule permitting a separate vote in 
the House on any of the amendments adopted in the Committee to the bill 
or to the committee substitute, all amendments adopted in the Committee 
are reported to the House regardless of their consistency (May 26, 1960, 
pp. 11302-04). Where a separate vote is demanded in this type of 
situation in the House only on an amendment striking a section of a 
committee substitute, but not on perfecting amendments that have been 
previously adopted in the Committee of the Whole to that section, 
rejection in the House of the motion to strike the section results in a 
vote on the committee substitute in its original form and not as 
perfected, because the perfecting amendments have been displaced in the 
Committee of the Whole and have not been revived on a separate vote in 
the House (Speaker O'Neill, Oct. 13, 1977, pp. 33622-24). But if the 
Committee of the Whole reports a bill to the House with an adopted 
amendment in the nature of a substitute and the special order of 
business in question does not provide for separate House votes on 
amendments thereto, a separate vote may not be demanded on an amendment 
to such amendment, because only one amendment in its perfected form has 
been reported back to the House (Nov. 17, 1983, p. 33463).


Sec. 336. Amendments in Committee of the 
Whole.

  The Committee of the  Whole, like any other committee, may amend a proposition either 
by an ordinary amendment or by a substitute amendment (IV, 4899), but 
these amendments must be reported to the House for action. Amendments 
rejected by the Committee are not reported (IV, 4877). Ordinarily all 
amendments must be disposed of before the Committee may report (IV, 
4752-4758); but sometimes a special order of business requires a report 
at a specified time, in which case pending amendments are reported (IV, 
3225-3228) or not (IV, 4910) as the terms of the order may direct. In 
the 98th Congress, clause 2 of rule XXI was amended to give precedence 
to the motion that the Committee rise and report a general appropriation 
bill at the conclusion of its reading for amendment and before or 
between consideration of amendments proposing certain limitations or 
retrenchments (H. Res. 5, Jan. 3, 1983, p. 34). The 104th Congress 
further amended clause 2 to permit only the Majority Leader or a 
designee to offer that motion (sec. 215(a), H. Res. 6, Jan. 4, 1995, p. 
468). The 105th Congress elevated the Majority Leader's preferential 
motion in clause 2 to take precedence of any motion to amend at that 
stage (H. Res. 5, Jan. 7, 1997, p. 121). The practice of the House, 
based originally



[[Page 168]]

other (IV, 4905); and an entire and distinct amendment may not be 
divided, but must be voted on by the House as a whole (IV, 4883-4892; 
VIII, 2426). It is a frequent practice for the House by unanimous 
consent to act at once on all the amendments to a bill reported from the 
Committee, but it is the right of any Member to demand a separate vote 
on any amendment (IV, 4893, 4894; VIII, 2419) unless a special rule 
mandates that sundry amendments be put en gros (June 24, 2009, p. 
16147). Where a special rule permits en bloc consideration of certain 
amendments in the Committee, those amendments if reported back to the 
House may also be considered en bloc for a separate vote in the House on 
demand of any Member (Speaker O'Neill, Sept. 7, 1978, p. 28425). A 
Member may demand a separate vote in the House on an amendment to a 
committee amendment in the nature of a substitute adopted in the 
Committee of the Whole where the bill is being considered under a 
special rule permitting separate votes in the House on any of the 
amendments adopted in the Committee of the Whole to the bill or 
committee amendment (Sept. 30, 1971, p. 34337), but where a special rule 
``self-executes'' an amendment as a modification of an amendment in the 
nature of a substitute to be considered as an original bill, that 
modification is not separately voted on upon demand in the House 
(Speaker Foley, Feb. 3, 1993, p. 2043). A Member may withdraw a demand 
for a separate vote in the House on an amendment reported from the 
Committee before the Speaker's putting the question thereon, and 
unanimous consent is not required (May 28, 1987, p. 14030). When demand 
is made for separate votes in the House on several amendments adopted in 
the Committee, the amendments are voted on in the House in the order in 
which they appear in the bill (July 24, 1968, pp. 23093-95; May 28, 
1987, p. 14030; June 11, 1997, p. 10654), except when amendments have 
been considered under a special rule prescribing the order for their 
consideration where the bill is considered as read, in which case they 
are voted on upon demand in the order in which considered in the 
Committee (Mar. 11, 1993, p. 4733; Mar. 25, 1993, pp. 6358, 6359). For 
automatic reconsideration in the House of amendments if the votes of 
Delegates and the Resident Commissioner are decisive, see Sec.  985, 
infra.


Sec. 337. Committee of the Whole amendments in the 
House.

  All  amendments to a bill reported from the Committee of the Whole 
stand on an equal footing and must be voted on by the House (IV, 4871) 
in the order in which they are reported, although they may be 
inconsistent, one with another (IV, 4881, 4882), and are subject to 
amendment in the House unless the previous question is ordered (VIII, 
2419). Two amendments being reported as distinct were considered 
independently, although apparently one was a proviso attaching to the



[[Page 169]]

Committee is treated like any other amendment (V, 5341), and if the 
House rejects the substitute the original bill without amendment is 
before the House (VIII, 2426).
  Depending on the will of the House as expressed on the question of 
ordering the previous question (IV, 4895; V, 5794; VIII, 2419), when a 
bill is reported with amendments from the Committee of the Whole, it is 
in order to submit additional amendments after disposition of the 
Committee amendments (IV, 4872-4876). However, in modern practice the 
opportunity to submit amendments is normally foreclosed by the ordering 
of the previous question under a special rule. The fact that a 
proposition has been rejected by the Committee does not prevent it from 
being offered as an amendment when the subject comes up in the House 
(IV, 4878-4880; VIII, 2700). A substitute amendment may be offered to a 
bill reported from the Committee, and then the previous question may be 
ordered on the substitute, on all other amendments, and on the bill to 
final passage (V, 5472). An amendment in the nature of a substitute 
reported from the



Sec. 338. Bills from Committee of the Whole in the 
House.

  Where  a series of bills are reported from Committee of the Whole, the 
House considers them in the order in which they are reported (IV, 4869, 
4870; VIII, 2417). A proposition reported for action has precedence over 
an independent resolution on the same subject offered by a Member from 
the floor (V, 6986), and where a bill and a resolution relating to an 
alleged breach of privilege were reported together the question was put 
first on the bill (V, 6986). A bill read in full and considered in the 
Committee (IV, 3409, 3410), or presumed to have been so read (IV, 4916), 
is not read in full again in the House when reported and acted on. The 
chair of the Committee of the Whole who reports a bill does not become 
entitled to prior recognition for debate in the House (II, 1453); but on 
an adverse report an opponent is recognized to offer a motion for 
disposition of the bill (IV, 4897; VIII, 2430), or for debate (VII, 
2629). The recommendation of the Committee being before the House, the 
motion to carry out the recommendation is usually considered as pending 
without being offered from the floor (IV, 4896), but when a bill was 
reported with a recommendation that it lie on the table, a question was 
raised as to whether or not this motion, which prevents debate, should 
be considered as pending (IV, 4897). The House considers an amendment 
reported from the Committee to the preamble of a Senate joint resolution 
following disposition of amendments to the text and pending third 
reading (May 25, 1993, pp. 11036, 11037).




Sec. 339. Discharge of the Committee of the Whole.

  A  motion 
to discharge the Committee of the Whole from the consideration of a 
matter committed to it is not privileged as against a demand for the 
regular order (IV, 4917). When the Committee is discharged from 
consideration of a bill the House, in lieu of the report of the chair, 
accepts the minutes of the Clerk as evidence of amendments agreed to 
(IV, 4922).





Sec. 340. Application of House rules in Committee of the 
Whole.

    In other things the rules or proceedings are to be the same as 
in the House. Scob., 39.



[[Page 170]]



  The House provides by rule (clause 11 of rule XVIII) that the rules of 
proceeding in the House shall apply in the Committee of the Whole so far 
as they may be applicable.