    [Constitution, Jefferson's Manual, and the Rules of the House of Representatives, 119th Congress]
    [119th Congress]
    [House Document 118-187]
    [Jeffersons Manual of ParliamentaryPractice]
    [Pages 230-231]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                         sec. xxviii--bill, recommitment

    Sec. 420. Recommittal of a bill to a committee.

      After  a bill
    has been committed and reported, it ought not, in any ordinary course,
    to be recommitted; but in cases of importance, and for special reasons,
    it is sometimes recommitted, and usually to the same committee. Hakew,
    151. If a report be recommitted before agreed to in the House, what has
    passed in committee is of no validity; the whole question is again
    before the committee, and a new resolution must be again moved, as if
    nothing had passed. 3 Hats., 131--note.

      In Senate, January, 1800, the salvage bill was recommitted three times
    after the commitment.

    [[Page 231]]

      Before the motion to recommit with instructions was eliminated, where
    a matter was recommitted with instructions, the committee had to confine
    itself within the instructions (IV, 4404), and if the instructions
    related to a certain portion only of a bill, other portions could not be
    reviewed (V, 5526). When a report has been disposed of adversely a
    motion to recommit it is not in order (V, 5559). Bills are sometimes
    recommitted to the Committee of the Whole as the indirect result of the
    action of the House (clause 9 of rule XVIII; IV, 4784) or directly on
    motion either with or without instructions (V, 5552, 5553).

    Sec. 421. Division of matters for reference to
    committees.

      A  particular clause of a bill may be committed without the
    whole bill, 3 Hats., 131; or so much of a paper to one and so much to
    another committee.

      In the usage of the House before the rules provided that petitions
    should be filed with the Clerk instead of being referred from the floor,
    it was the practice to refer a portion of a petition to one committee
    and the remainder to another when the subject matter called for such
    division (IV, 3359). Clause 2 of rule XII now permits the Speaker to
    refer bills, and resolutions, with or without time limitations, either
    (1) simultaneously to two or more committees for concurrent
    consideration, while indicating one committee of primary jurisdiction
    (except under extraordinary circumstances), (2) sequentially to
    appropriate committees after the report of the committee or committees
    initially considering the matter, (3) to divide the matter for referral,
    (4) to appoint an ad hoc committee with the approval of the House, or
    (5) to make other appropriate provisions, in order to assure that to the
    maximum extent feasible each committee with subject matter jurisdiction
    over provisions in that measure may consider and report to the House
    with respect thereto. Under former precedents a bill, resolution, or
    communication could not be divided for reference (IV, 4372, 4376).