[Constitution, Jefferson's Manual, and the Rules of the House of Representatives, 118th Congress]
[118th Congress]
[House Document 117-161]
[Jeffersons Manual of ParliamentaryPractice]
[Pages 269-270]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                        sec. xxxix--the question




Sec. 489. Putting the question.

    The question is to be put 
first on the affirmative, and then on the negative side.



  Clause 6 of rule I provides more fully for putting the question.


[[Page 270]]

negative be put; because it is no full question till the 
negative part be put. Scob., 23; 2 Hats., 73.



Sec. 490. Effect of putting the question in ending 
debate.

  After the  Speaker has put the affirmative part of the question, any 
Member who has not spoken before to the question may rise and speak 
before the 



  After the Chair has put the affirmative part of the question, any 
Member who seeks to debate the matter or offer a motion may be 
recognized (V, 5925; June 22, 2006, pp. 12298, 12299), and such 
recognition is not subject to appeal (June 22, 2006, p. 12299). On one 
occasion, the Chair refused to entertain a motion to lay on the table 
after putting the affirmative part of the pending question where the 
Chair had affirmed the admissibility of that motion before putting the 
main question, and that motion nevertheless was not then offered (Sept. 
20, 1979, p. 25512). Where not pertinent to the pending parliamentary 
situation, a parliamentary inquiry regarding whether the Chair heard the 
ayes on a prematurely-commenced vote by voice was not entertained (June 
22, 2006, p. 12299).




Sec. 491. Informal putting of the question.

  But in  small 
matters, and which are of course, such as receiving petitions, reports, 
withdrawing motions, reading papers, &c., the Speaker most commonly 
supposes the consent of the House where no objection is expressed, and 
does not give them the trouble of putting the question formally. Scob., 
22; 2 Hats., 79, 2, 87; 5 Grey, 129; 9 Grey, 301.