Constitution, Jefferson's Manual, and the Rules of the House of Representatives, 117th Congress-Preface

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

[[Page i]]

_______________________________________________________________________________

116th Congress, 2d Session - - - - - - - - House Document No. 116-177

CONSTITUTION

JEFFERSON'S MANUAL

AND

RULES OF THE HOUSE OF

REPRESENTATIVES

OF THE UNITED STATES

ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

JASON A. SMITH

PARLIAMENTARIAN

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

44-700 U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE

________________________________________________________________________

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Publishing
WASHINGTON : 2021

Office

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Washington, DC 20402

HOUSE RESOLUTION 1233

In the House of Representatives, U.S.,

November 20, 2020.

Resolved, That a revised edition of the Rules and Manual of the
House of Representatives for the One Hundred Seventeenth Congress be
printed as a House document, and that three thousand additional copies
shall be printed and bound for the use of the House of Representatives,
of which nine hundred eighty copies shall be bound in leather with thumb
index and delivered as may be directed by the Parliamentarian of the
House.

Attest:

Cheryl L. Johnson,

Clerk.

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(III)

P R E F A C E

The House Rules and Manual contains the fundamental source material
for parliamentary procedure used in the House of Representatives: the
Constitution of the United States; applicable provisions of Jefferson's
Manual; Rules of the House (as of the date of this preface); provisions
of law and resolutions having the force of Rules of the House; and
pertinent decisions of the Speakers and other presiding officers of the
House and Committee of the Whole interpreting the rules and other
procedural authority used in the House of Representatives.

The rules for the One Hundred Seventeenth Congress were adopted on
January 4, 2021, when the House agreed to House Resolution 8. In
addition to a series of changes to various standing rules, House
Resolution 8 included separate free-standing orders constituting
procedures to be followed in the One Hundred Seventeenth Congress.
Explanations of the changes to the standing rules appear in the
annotations following each rule in the text of this Manual.

The substantive changes in the standing rules made by House
Resolution 8 of the One Hundred Seventeenth Congress included:

(1) removal of outdated authority for Clerk maintenance of former
Speaker staff on the House payroll (clause 2(i) of rule II);

(2) codification of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and Office
of the Whistleblower Ombuds and establishment of policy direction and
oversight thereof (clauses 9 and 10 of rule II; clause 4(d) of rule X);

(3) clarification that continuing litigation authority includes the
authority to issue subpoenas (clause 8(c) of rule II);

(4) expansion of admission in the Hall of the House to the Mayor of
the District of Columbia and prohibition of admission in the Hall of the
House for former Members, officers, and staff convicted of any crime
related to the individual's election or service to the House (clause 2
and 4 of rule IV);

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der-neutrality clause (rules
X, XXIII, XXVII, and clause 2 of rule XXIX);
(5) modification of numerous provisions to establish gender-neutral
terminology and elimination of a blanket gen-

(6) clarification of the jurisdiction of the Committee on Armed
Services to include the Space Force and Marine Corps (clause 1(c) of
rule X);

(7) modification to the committee oversight plan requirement to
require priority consideration of diversity-related inequities in the
development of such plans (clause 2(d) of rule X);

(8) elimination of the printing requirement for availability of a
report by the Committee on House Administration on expense resolutions
(clause 6 of rule X);

(9) modification of the availability requirement for the report on a
Senate amendment reported in disagreement to permit availability
pursuant to clause 3 of rule XXIX (clause 8(b) of rule XXII);

(10) removal of the requirement that committee votes be made
available by the committee for physical inspection in the committee
offices, and expansion of amendment text availability requirement to
include all amendments disposed of or withdrawn (clause 2(e) of rule
XI);

(11) expansion of the committee hearing witness disclosure
requirements to include disclosure of any fiduciary interest in an
entity with an interest in the subject matter of the hearing, to include
grants as part of the foreign government disclosure, and to extend the
disclosure window to 36 months (clause 2(g) of rule XI);

(12) codification of a prior separate order to allow electronic
filing of reports and to permit electronic signatures to satisfy certain
signature requirements under the rules (rules XIII, XXV, and XXVII);

(13) clarification of the application of committee subpoena
authority to all persons, including current and former Presidents and
Vice Presidents, as well as current or former employees of Presidential
offices (clause 2(m) of rule XI);

(14) modernization of the restriction on the use of committee audio
and visual coverage for partisan political campaign purposes (clause
4(b) of rule XI);

(15) modification of the cosponsorship process to permit Members to
remove themselves as cosponsors as a matter of right (clause 7(b) of
rule XII);

(16) elimination of certain comparative print requirements (clause
12 of rule XXI);

(17) codification of points of order against

[[Page vii]]

the consideration of an
unreported bill or joint resolution and against the consideration of a
reported bill or joint resolution that fails to include in the report a
list of related committee and subcommittee hearings and the designation
of at least one committee or subcommittee hearing used to develop or
consider such bill or joint resolution (clause 3(c) of rule XIII; clause
12 of rule XXI);

(18) elimination of the motion to recommit with instructions and of
debatability of the motion to recommit, and establishment of automatic
ordering of previous question thereon (clause 2 of rule XIX; clause 7(d)
of rule XXII), and conforming modification to the restriction of the
authority of the Committee on Rules to report a special order of
business preventing the offering of a motion to recommit (clause 6(c) of
rule XIII);

(19) elimination of the special days for the consideration of
District of Columbia business (clause 4 of rule XV);

(20) restriction of the authority to offer a motion to amend the
title of a measure to the Majority Leader or a designee (clause 6 of
rule XVI);

(21) elimination of a point of order against consideration of a
concurrent resolution on the budget containing reconciliation directives
that specify changes in law that would require reported reconciliation
legislation to cause an increase in net direct spending (clause 7 of
rule XXI);

(22) modification of the availability requirement for unreported
bills and joint resolutions to allow the publicly-available text of an
unintroduced bill or joint resolution to count for purposes of
availability under the rule (clause 11 of rule XXI);

(23) removal of outdated proscriptive regulatory requirement for the
ethics rule prohibiting Members from serving as an officer or director
of a public company (clause 19(c) of rule XXIII);

(24) prohibition against the prevention of or retaliation for the
provision of truthful information by an individual to the Committee on
Ethics, the Office of Congressional Ethics, the Office of Congressional
Workplace Rights, or law enforcement (clause 20 of rule XXIII);

(25) prohibition against the disclosure of the identity of or
personally identifiable information about individuals providing
information pursuant to specified whistleblower laws (clause 21 of rule
XXIII); and

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(26) conforming update to the name of the House Communications
Standards Commission (clause 5 of rule XXIV).

In addition to the amendments cited above, the definition of ``mass
mailing'' in clause 9 of rule XXIV was expanded (P.L. 116-260, Dec. 27,
2020) and clause 3(g) of rule II was modified to conform the Committee
on Ethics appeals process under such clause to similar appeals processes
established in the 117th Congress (sec. 8, H. Res. 85, Feb. 2, 2021, p.
_).

Citations in this edition refer to:

(1) Hinds' Precedents of the House of Representatives of the United
States (volumes I through V) and Cannon's Precedents of the House of
Representatives of the United States (volumes VI through VIII), by
volume and section (e.g., V, 5763; VIII, 2852);

(2) Deschler's Precedents of the U.S. House of Representatives
(volumes 1 through 9), Deschler-Brown Precedents of the U.S. House of
Representatives (volumes 10 through 16), Deschler-Brown-Johnson
Precedents of the U.S. House of Representatives (volume 17), and
Deschler-Brown-Johnson-Sullivan Precedents of the U.S. House of
Representatives (volume 18), by chapter and section (e.g., Deschler, ch.
26, Sec. 79.7; Deschler-Brown, ch. 28, Sec. 4.26);

(3) Precedents of the U.S. House of Representatives (volumes 1
through 2), by Parliamentarian last name, chapter and section (e.g.,
Precedents (Wickham), ch. 1, Sec. 1.1);

(4) the Congressional Record, by date and page (e.g., Jan. 29, 1986,
p. 684);

(5) House Practice (2017), by chapter and section (e.g., House
Practice, ch. 1, Sec. 2);

(6) Deschler-Brown Procedure in the U.S. House of Representatives
(4th edition and 1987 supplement), by chapter and section (e.g.,
Procedure, ch. 5, Sec. 8.1);

(7) the United States Code, by title and section (e.g., 2 U.S.C.
287); and

(8) the United States Reports, by volume and page (e.g., 395 U.S.
486).

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All of the members of the Office of the Parliamentarian - Anne
Gooch, Kyle T. Jones, Julia Cook, Ben Osheroff, Christina Reid, Lloyd
Jenkins, Kristen Donahue, and Matthew Kowalewski, as well as Charles
Johnson, Max Spitzer, Andrew Neal, Catherine Moran, and Bryan Feldblum -
worked diligently to annotate the decisions of the Chair and other
parliamentary precedents of the 116th Congress and of the 117th Congress
to the date of publication of this edition. Their contributions, and
their devotion to the pursuit of excellence in the procedural practices
of the House, are gratefully acknowledged.

Finally, we take a moment to express our gratitude to Thomas J.
Wickham, Jr., not only for his significant contribution to this
publication but for his decades of service to the office. Tom's
immeasurable knowledge and adroit application of House procedure were
matched only by his reverence for the institution and his commitment to
mentorship. Like his predecessors, Tom has left an indelible mark on his
colleagues and on the procedure of the House.

Jay Smith

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March 31, 2021

C O N T E N T S

__________

THE CONSTITUTION

Page
Preamble.......................................................... 3

Article I.--The legislative power..................... 4

II.--The executive power....................... 68

III.--The judicial power........................ 81

IV.--Obligations, duties, etc., of the States.. 83

V.--Amendments to............................. 85

VI.--Law of the land, etc...................... 87

VII.--Ratification of........................... 92

Amendments ratified....................... 94

JEFFERSON'S MANUAL

Section I.--Importance of adhering to rules........... 129

III.--Privilege................................. 132

VI.--Quorum.................................... 153

VII.--Call of the House......................... 154

IX.--Speaker................................... 154

X.--Address................................... 157

XI.--Committees................................ 157

XII.--Committee of the Whole.................... 161

XIII.--Examination of witnesses.................. 170

XIV.--Arrangement of business................... 175

XV.--Order..................................... 176

XVI.--Order respecting papers................... 177

XVII.--Order in debate........................... 178

XVIII.--Orders of the House....................... 203

XIX.--Petition.................................. 207

XX.--Motion.................................... 208

XXI.--Resolutions............................... 209

XXIII.--Bills, leave to bring in.................. 211

XXIV.--Bills, first reading...................... 212

XXV.--Bills, second reading..................... 212

XXVI.--Bills, commitment......................... 213

XXVII.--Report of committee....................... 224

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Page

Section XXVIII.--Bill, recommitment........................ 225

XXIX.--Bills, reports taken up................... 226

XXX.--Quasi-committee........................... 228

XXXI.--Bill, second reading in the House......... 231

XXXII.--Reading papers............................ 234

XXXIII.--Privileged questions...................... 236

XXXIV.--The previous question..................... 249

XXXV.--Amendments................................ 251

XXXVI.--Division of the question.................. 260

XXXVII.--Coexisting questions...................... 263

XXXVIII.--Equivalent questions...................... 264

XXXIX.--The question.............................. 266

XL.--Bills, third reading...................... 267

XLI.--Division of the House..................... 271

XLII.--Titles.................................... 276

XLIII.--Reconsideration........................... 276

XLIV.--Bills sent to the other House............. 280

XLV.--Amendments between the Houses............. 281

XLVI.--Conferences............................... 291

XLVII.--Messages.................................. 304

XLVIII.--Assent.................................... 309

XLIX.--Journals.................................. 311

L.--Adjournment............................... 314

LI.--A session................................. 315

LII.--Treaties.................................. 319

LIII.--Impeachment............................... 322

RULES OF THE HOUSE

Rule I.--The Speaker............................... 345

II.--Other Officers and Officials.............. 371

III.--The Members, Delegates, and Resident

Commissioner of Puerto Rico............... 396

IV.--The Hall of the House..................... 401

V.--Broadcasting the House.................... 410

VI.--Official Reporters and News Media

Galleries................................. 412

VII.--Records of the House...................... 425

VIII.--Response to Subpoenas..................... 429

IX.--Questions of Privilege.................... 432

X.--Organization of Committees................ 454

XI.--Procedures of Committees and Unfinished

Business.................................. 567

XII.--Receipt and Referral of Measures and

Matters................................... 639

XIII.--Calendars and Committee Reports........... 655

XIV.--Order and Priority of Business............ 691

XV.--Business in Order on Special Days......... 701

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Page

Rule XVI.--Motions and Amendments.................... 720

XVII.--Decorum and Debate........................ 776

XVIII.--The Committee of the Whole House on the

state of the Union........................ 809

XIX.--Motions Following the Amendment Stage..... 840

XX.--Voting and Quorum Calls................... 854

XXI.--Restrictions on Certain Bills............. 884

XXII.--House and Senate Relations................ 943

XXIII.--Code of Official Conduct.................. 970

XXIV.--Limitations on Use of Official Funds...... 987

XXV.--Limitations on Outside Earned Income and

Acceptance of Gifts....................... 992

XXVI.--Financial Disclosure...................... 1021

XXVII.--Disclosure by Members and Staff of

Employment Negotiations................... 1047

XXVIII.--Statutory Limit on the Public Debt........ 1048

XXIX.--General Provisions........................ 1051

Provisions of Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946, as Amended by the

Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970, Applicable to Both Houses
Congressional adjournment......................................... 1057
Preservation of committee hearings................................ 1058

Joint and Select Committees
Economic Committee, Joint......................................... 1059
Taxation, Joint Committee on...................................... 1059
Library, Joint Committee of Congress on the....................... 1060
Printing, Joint Committee on...................................... 1060
Inaugural Ceremonies, Joint Congressional Committee on............ 1060
Select committees................................................. 1060

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House and Congressional Offices
House Communications Standards Commission......................... 1063
House Office Building Commission.................................. 1063
Government Accountability Office.................................. 1063
Office of Congressional Workplace Rights.......................... 1063
Congressional Research Service.................................... 1064
Legislative Counsel............................................... 1064
Congressional Budget Office....................................... 1064
Law Revision Counsel.............................................. 1064
Technology Assessment............................................. 1064
Office of the Parliamentarian..................................... 1064
Speaker's Office for Legislative Floor Activities................. 1065

Page
Office of Interparliamentary Affairs.............................. 1065
House Recording Studio............................................ 1065
United States Capitol Preservation Commission..................... 1065
Office of General Counsel......................................... 1065
Former Office of Emergency Planning, Preparedness, and Operations. 1066
Office of Attending Physician..................................... 1066
Office of Architect of the Capitol................................ 1066
House Democracy Partnership....................................... 1066
Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission................................ 1066
Office of Congressional Ethics.................................... 1067
Early organization of the House................................... 1069

Miscellaneous Provisions of Congressional Budget Laws
Congressional Budget Act of 1974.................................. 1075
Budget Enforcement Act of 1990.................................... 1157
Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010............................... 1161

Legislative Procedures Enacted in Law
Measures privileged for consideration in House.................... 1165

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Index
Index............................................................. 1361

GENERAL ORDER OF BUSINESS

Rule XIV

First. Prayer by Chaplain.

Second. Approval of Journal.

Third. The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.

Fourth. Correction of reference of public bills.

Fifth. Disposal of business on Speaker's table.

Sixth. Unfinished business.

Seventh. The morning hour for the consideration of bills.

Eighth. Motions to go into Committee of the Whole.

Ninth. Orders of the day.

SPECIAL ORDER OF BUSINESS

Every Monday:

Mondays

Motions to suspend rules. Rule XV, clause 1.

First Tuesday:

Tuesdays

Private Calendar. Rule XV, clause 5. Individual private bills

Every Tuesday:

considered on first Tuesday of each month.

Motions to suspend rules. Rule XV, clause 1.

Call of Committees under Calendar Wednesday. Rule XV, clause 6.

Every Wednesday:

Wednesdays

Motions to suspend rules. Rule XV, clause