[Constitution, Jefferson's Manual, and the Rules of the House of Representatives, 118th Congress]
[118th Congress]
[House Document 117-161]
[Rules of the House of Representatives]
[Pages 433-436]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


 
                                Rule VIII


                          response to subpoenas



Sec. 697. Response to subpoenas.

  1. (a)  When a Member, 
Delegate, Resident Commissioner, officer, or employee of the House is 
properly served with a judicial subpoena or order, such Member, 
Delegate, Resident Commissioner, officer, or employee shall comply, 
consistently with the privileges and rights of the House, with the 
judicial subpoena or order as hereinafter provided, unless otherwise 
determined under this rule.


  (b) For purposes of this rule, ``judicial subpoena or order'' means a 
judicial subpoena or judicial order directing appearance as a witness 
relating to the official functions of the House or for the production or 
disclosure of any document relating to the official functions of the 
House.

  2. (a) Upon receipt of a properly served judicial subpoena or order, a 
Member, Delegate, Resident Commissioner, officer, or employee of the 
House shall promptly notify the Speaker in writing of its receipt 
together with either:

      (1) a determination as to whether the issuance of the judicial 
subpoena or order is a proper exercise of jurisdiction by the court and 
is consistent with the privileges and rights of the House; or

      (2) a statement that such Member, Delegate, Resident Commissioner, 
officer, or employee of the House intends to make a determination with 
respect to the matters described in subparagraph (1).

  (b) The notification required by paragraph (a) shall promptly be laid 
before the House by the Speaker.

  3. (a) Except as specified in paragraph (b) or otherwise ordered by 
the House, upon notification to the House that a judicial subpoena or 
order is a proper exercise of jurisdiction by the court and is 
consistent with the privileges and rights of the House, the Member, 
Delegate, Resident Commissioner, officer, or employee of the House shall 
comply with the judicial subpoena or order by supplying copies.

  (b) Under no circumstances may minutes or transcripts of executive 
sessions, or evidence of witnesses in respect thereto, be disclosed or 
copied. During a period of recess or adjournment of longer than three 
days, the Speaker may authorize compliance or take such other action as 
the Speaker considers appropriate under the circumstances. Upon the 
reconvening of the House, all matters that transpired under this clause 
shall promptly be laid before the House by the Speaker.


  4. Nothing in this rule shall be construed to deprive, condition, or 
waive the constitutional or legal privileges or rights applicable or 
available at any time to a Member, Delegate, Resident Commissioner, 
officer, or employee of the House, or of the House itself, or the right 
of such Member, Delegate, Resident Commissioner, officer, or employee, 
or of the House itself, to assert such privileges or rights before a 
court in the United States.


[[Page 436]]

authority was clarified and revised later in the 96th 
Congress (H. Res. 722, Sept. 17, 1980, pp. 25777-90) and formed the 
basis for the present rule. In the 107th Congress the rule was amended 
to broaden its application to administrative subpoenas (sec. 2(c), H. 
Res. 5, Jan. 3, 2001, p. 25), but this change was reversed in the 115th 
Congress (sec. 2(k), H. Res. 5, Jan. 3, 2017, p. 37). The rule was re-
written entirely in the 115th Congress to consolidate and clarify the 
notification process and eliminate a requirement that the Clerk transmit 
a copy of this rule to the court (sec. 2(k), H. Res. 5, Jan. 3, 2017, p. 
37).
  Before the House recodified its rules in the 106th Congress, this 
provision was found in former rule L (H. Res. 5, Jan. 6, 1999, p. 47). 
It was added initially in the 97th Congress (H. Res. 5, Jan. 5, 1981, p. 
98). Until the 95th Congress, whenever a Member, officer, or employee 
received a subpoena, the House would adopt a resolution authorizing the 
person to respond. In the 95th and 96th Congresses general authority was 
granted to respond to subpoenas without the necessity of a House vote 
(H. Res. 10, Jan. 4, 1977, p. 73; H. Res. 10, Jan. 15, 1979, p. 19). 
This standing 

  In the 102d Congress the House considered as questions of the 
privileges of the House resolutions: responding to a subpoena for 
records of the ``bank'' in the Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms 
(Precedents (Wickham), ch. 6, Sec. 26.3); responding to a 
contemporaneous request for such records from a Special Counsel 
(Precedents (Wickham), ch. 6, Sec. 26.3); and authorizing an officer of 
the House to release certain documents in response to another such 
request from the Special Counsel (Precedents (Wickham), ch. 6, 
Sec. 26.6).

  A response to an administrative subpoena also raises a question of the 
privileges of the House (Deschler, ch. 11, Sec. 14.8). A Member or 
employee receiving such a subpoena may inform the House (July 30, 1998, 
p. 18298; May 3, 1999, p. 8040).



  Although clause 2 requires the Speaker to promptly lay before the 
House a communication notifying the Speaker of the receipt of a 
subpoena, the rule does not require that the text of a subpoena be 
printed in the Record (July 31, 1992, p. 20602).