Congress

House of Representatives Overview

• Unified majority can control the agenda

• Speaker and Rules Committee play central role

• Rules Committee prescribes terms of floor debate

• Debate and amendments must be germane

• Minority party’s tools to affect agenda are limited mainly to messaging (unless majority is fractured on “must-pass” bill)

• Parties are more unified ideologically today, but small factions can have impact in a closely divided House

Role of the House Speaker

• Spokesperson for majority and controls floor agenda through Rules Committee

• Polarization has led to more centralized power in Speaker’s office

House Floor Debate: Overview

• Outcome is rarely in doubt (because Majority leader and rules committee)
  Debate must be germane to issue at hand

• The number of amendments is typically restricted and they must be germane to the bill (per rules committee)

• simple Majority can end debate and force a vote on a rule, an amendment or final passage of a bill

House Floor Managers

Typically chair and ranking member of committee of jurisdiction

House Rule XIX (nineteen) — Previous Question

• “There shall be a motion for the previous question, which, being ordered, shall have the effect of cutting off all debate and bringing the House to a direct vote on the immediate question or questions on which it is ordered….” (emphasis added)”

• Motion is approved by a majority vote

Ends debate on an amendment or bill

What The Rule is

• Gives the bill priority for floor consideration

• Governs length of floor debate

• Can limit the number of amendments, designate which members can offer the amendments, and specify the time allowed to debate the amendments

• Can waive points of order
  
  

• Only in the House

Point of Order

• A point of order is a formal request made during a meeting to call attention to a violation of the rules or procedures

• significant in the fact that calling a point of order in the senate is how the nuclear option was achieved

Significance of the Rule

The Rule is key to majority control

• The rule is designed to maximize the chance of passing something on the floor that the majority wants to do

• Defeat of the rule is considered an affront to the Rules Committee and the Speaker

• You might be for the bill if you’re the minority but you vote against the rule because the rule is what empowers the majority party

• You must separate the rule from the substance of the bill, which is dangerous to leadership

• If you’re a dem, voting for the rule doesn’t mean you’re supporting the bill, it means you’re supporting Mike Johnson and the Republican Party

If you’re in the majority, you vote for the rule, if you’re in the minority, you vote against the rule.

Thus controversy with Golden and Perez

The House and the Principle of Majority Rule

• Characteristic of the House

• majority rule means that in the House, a united and determined voting majority will prevail over resolute opposition. In the polarized environment of the contemporary House, majority rule typically means extensive control of decision making by the majority party.

Types of House Rules (aka “Special Rules”)

Closed Rule

Open Rule

Structured Rule

Closed Rule definition

• Prohibits all amendments

• Limits time for general debate on the bill

• While no amendments can be offered, the motion to recommit is allowed

• Can waive points of order

• tax bills have typically been considered under closed rules

• In recent years, its use has expanded to include a variety of bill types, even the Big Beautiful Bill

The previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill, as amended…to final passage without intervening motion except: (1) one hour of debate equally divided among and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on the Budget or their respective designees and the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Ways and Means or their respective designees; and (2) one motion to recommit.

• Used to be a smaller amount but now closed rules only make up more than 50% of bills with the other percentage being structured rules

Open Rule definition

• Any amendment may be offered by any member (as long as it is germane) - no limit on the number

• In the modern House, has been used mainly for appropriations bills

  • (These bills have to pass, so amendments are allowed for pork barrel spending— to build consensus on appropriations bill, to keep the government open)

• With appropriations bills, amendments are germane if they cut spending, move spending from one place to another, or attach restrictions on spending (enables Christmas tree bills)

• Open Rule can waive points of order

• “Modified Open Rule” might require pre-printing of amendments or exempt part of the bill from amendment

• Open Rule represents ability of representatives to represent their constituents

General debate shall be confined to the bill and shall not exceed one hour equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Appropriations. After general debate the bill shall be considered for amendment under the five-minute rule….

Maloney Amendment 2017

There re no open rules in legislation now (Post-Maloney amendment). Only closed and Structured. About half of all bills used to be open.

Maloney Amendment 2017

Effectively ended the practice of Open Rule

• Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney offered amendment under the open rule governing debate on the fiscal year 2017 Energy and Water Appropriations bill

• Would have preserved Obama executive order barring federal contractors from discriminating based on sexual orientation and gender identity

• House passed Maloney amendment 223-195, mostly Dem. votes (made uncontroversial open rule bill more partisan)

• Conservative House Republicans ralied against the Energy and Water bill after the amendment was adopted, and they along with Democrats defeated the bill on the final passage

• Speaker Ryan says Democrats were not looking to advance an issue but to sabotage the appropriations process

• “Poison pill” amendment

There re no open rules in legislation now (Post-Maloney amendment). Only closed and Structured. About half of all bills used to be open.

Structured Rule

• Limits amendments to those it specifies

• Controls the number, order, and offeror of floor amendments

• Usually, but not always, very limited in number and type

• Structured rule can waive points of order

• Time limits on each amendment

• Greater use of structured and closed rules has helped create a more restrictive amendment environment in the modern House

Amendments need to be in the Rule. In other words, pre-approved by Rules Committee and thus the speaker of the house.

• “No further amendments can be offered except for those listed in section B…”

Structured and closed rules provide predictability in floor proceedings and prevent amendments viewed as politically troublesome by the majority leadership.

Suspension of the Rules

Bills considered under “Suspension of the Rules” are…

• Non-controversial and/or matters that have broad support

  • Debate time is limited to 40 minutes

  • No amendments are allowed (and no motion to recommit)

  • Must pass by two-thirds vote of members present and voting

Can be a point of leverage for minority party, whose votes are needed to meet the supermajority threshold

Significance

• McCarthy used suspension of Rules (with support of Democrats) to pass a continuing resolution (same bill as previous year) and avoid a government shutdown.

• Essentially ceded power to Democrats. McCarthy would rather have an appropriations bill favorable to Dems than shut down the government

• The motion to vacate the speakership soon followed and he was ousted

• Mike Johnson used the same tactics for two years to avoid shutdown.

This shows that this can be a leverage tool for Dems.

Self-Executing Rule

• The rule itself includes an amendment that becomes part of the accompanying bill through adoption of the rule

• The amendment is “considered as adopted” as part of the rule and no separate vote is held

• Can be used to avoid controversial recorded voting record

Discharge Petition

An alternate path to the floor

• The House allows a majority of members (218) to bring a bill or resolution to the floor for consideration even if the measure hasn’t been reported by the committee or is not supported by House Leadership

• After a bill or resolution has been introduced and referred to a House Committee for at least 30 legislative days, the petition may be filed to discharge that committee from the further consideration of the bill.

Like defeating a rule, this is a direct to a Speaker’s power and rarely done, such as Epstein Transparency Act

Floor Managers’ Role (in House)

Typically chair and ranking member of committee of jurisdiction plan strategy and parliamentary maneuvers, but role limited by whatever rule has been adopted

• Respond to points of order

• Whip vote

• Advise members on amendments

• Arrange sequence of speakers

• Mobilize outside support to build coalitions

Amendment Types (degrees) Basics:

Only two degrees allowed (Rules committee rarely allows 2nd degree amendments, but common in Senate).

• “Perfecting” amendment changes

• “Substitute” amendment replaces

Germaneness

Amendments must be “Germaine” to underlying bill (key difference from the Senate)

• Must relate to fundamental purpose and subject matter of the bill

• House standing rules require germaneness

• Rationale is to keep House focused on one subject

Significance: Facilitates majority control so the minority can’t just do anything

Motion to Recommit

• Significance in being a minority party tactic

Motion to recommit (the rule cannot disallow) — usually includes language that may be politically embarrassing to the majority.

• The goal is usually more about messaging than substance

• Normally they are rejected on a party-line vote by the majority,

• Majority Party is instructed to vote against it no matter how embarrassing.

  • Part of keeping party together

• If the motion to recommit is with instructions to report a bill or joint resolution ‘back to the House with the following amendment’, the amendment is immediately incorporated into the bill”

• If the motion to recommit is without instructions, adoption of the motion sends the bill back to committee without a final vote on its passage

In 2021, Democrats changed the standing rule to prevent MTRs from being used to amend bills on the floor. They removed the “with instructions” part of the standing rule and only allowed the bill to be sent back to committee.

• Republicans have not changed it back.