[Deschler's Precedents, Volume 4]
[Chapter 17. Committees]
[D. Jurisdiction of Committees]
[§ 26. Introduction]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office, www.gpo.gov]
[Page 2760-2764]
CHAPTER 17
Committees
C. COMMITTEE PROCEDURE
Sec. 26. Introduction
The Speaker's referral of private and public bills and resolutions,
petitions, and memorials is authorized by Rule XXII clauses 1 and 4:
(6)
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6. House Rules and Manual Sec. Sec. 849, 854 (1979). Clauses 2 and 3
of Rule XXII restrict the introduction of certain private bills
and provide for the correction in errors of reference of
private bills.
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1. Members having petitions or memorials or bills of a private
nature to present may deliver them to the Clerk indorsing their
names and reference or disposition to be made thereof; and said
petitions and memorials and bills of a private nature, except such
as, in the judgment of the Speaker, are of an obscene or insulting
character, shall be entered on the Journal, with the names of the
Members presenting them, and the Clerk shall furnish a transcript
of such entry to the official reporters of debates for publication
in the Record. . . .
4. All other bills, memorials, and resolutions may, in like
manner, be delivered, indorsed with the names of Members
introducing them, to the Speaker, to be by him referred, and the
titles and references thereof and of all bills, resolutions, and
documents referred under the rules shal1 be entered on the Journal
and printed in the Record of the next day, and correction in case
of error of reference may be made by the House, without debate, in
accordance with Rule XI, on any day immediately after the reading
of the Journal, by unanimous consent, or on motion of a committee
claiming jurisdiction, or on the report of the committee to which
the bill has been erroneously referred.
Messages from the President and communications are referred
pursuant to Rule XXIV clause 2: (7)
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7. Senate bills are referred similarly to House bills except where a
House committee has reported or is about to report a similar
bill, in which case the Senate bill is customarily held at the
Speaker's table. Although the Speaker has the authority under
this rule to refer bills with amendments between the Houses to
committee, he rarely does so.
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[[Page 2761]]
2. Business on the Speaker's table shall be disposed of as
follows:
Messages from the President shall be referred to the
appropriate committees without debate. Reports and communications
from heads of departments, and other communications addressed to
the House, and bills, resolutions, and messages from the Senate may
be referred to the appropriate committees in the same manner and
with the same right of correction as public bills presented by
Members; but House bills with Senate amendments which do not
require consideration in a Committee of the Whole may be at once
disposed of as the House may determine, as may also Senate bills
substantially the same as House bills already favorably reported by
a committee of the House, and not required to be considered in
Committee of the Whole, be disposed of in the same manner on motion
directed to be made by such committee.
The rules of the House of Representatives as in effect in the 93d
Congress listed, in Rule XI, the subject-matter jurisdiction of each
standing committee of the House; the Committee Reform Amendments of
1974 (8) transferred the list of committees and their
respective jurisdictions, as modified by those amendments, to Rule X.
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8. H. Res. 988, 120 Cong. Rec. 34447-70, 93d Cong. 2d Sess., Oct. 8,
1974, effective Jan. 3, 1975.
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Prior to the adoption of the Committee Reform Amendments of 1974,
the rules permitted neither the division of a bill for reference to
more than one committee nor the simultaneous referral of a bill to more
than one committee, except by way of a motion to refer or to
recommit.(9) Thus the reference of bills and resolutions was
based on the principle of primary jurisdiction over the subject matter.
On occasion, the committee of reference operated under an informal
agreement whereby the recommendations of another committee with
jurisdiction over a portion of the legislation would be incorporated
into the report of the reporting committee,(10) and the
Committee on Rules has the authority to recommend in an order of
business resolution that a committee other than the reporting committee
be permitted to control some general debate in Committee of the Whole
and offer its informal work product as an amendment in Committee of the
Whole.
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9. See 5 Hinds' Precedents Sec. 5558; Sec. 29, infra. A motion to
recommit (or to commit or refer) may specify reference to any
committee regardless of rules for jurisdiction, and may refer
the bill to other than the reporting committee. 4 Hinds'
Precedents Sec. 4375; 8 Cannon's Precedents Sec. Sec. 2696,
2736.
10. See, i.e., Sec. 29.1, infra.
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Some statutes prescribe the reference to a designated committee or
committees of a particular kind
[[Page 2762]]
of communication from the executive branch.(11) And messages
from the President which overlap the subject-matter jurisdiction of
more than one committee may be referred to the Committee of the Whole
House on the state of the Union rather than to a specific standing
committee.
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11. See Sec. 29.3, infra.
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The Committee Reform Amendments delegated new powers to the Speaker
in the referral of bills, resolutions, and other matters, allowing
referrals to more than one committee by various methods:
(12)
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12. Rule X clause 5, House Rules and Manual Sec. 700 (1979), as added
by H. Res. 988, 93d Cong., effective Jan. 3, 1975.
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5. (a) Each bill, resolution, or other matter which relates to
a subject listed under any standing committee named in clause 1
shall be referred by the Speaker in accordance with the provisions
of this clause.
(b) Every referral of any matter under paragraph (a) shall be
made in such manner as to assure to the maximum extent feasible
that each committee which has jurisdiction under clause 1 over the
subject matter of any provision thereof will have responsibility
for considering such provision and reporting to the House with
respect thereto. Any precedents, rulings, and procedures in effect
prior to the Ninety-Fourth Congress shall be applied with respect
to referrals under this clause only to the extent that they will
contribute to the achievement of the objectives of this clause.
(c) In carrying out paragraph (a) and (b) with respect to any
matter, the Speaker may refer the matter simultaneously to two or
more committees for concurrent consideration or for consideration
in sequence (subject to appropriate time limitations in the case of
any committee), or divide the matter into two or more parts
(reflecting different subjects and jurisdictions) and refer each
such part to a different committee, or refer the matter to a
special ad hoc committee appointed by the Speaker with the approval
of the House (from the members of the committees having legislative
jurisdiction) for the specific purpose of considering that matter
and reporting to the House thereon, or make such other provision as
may be considered appropriate.
(d) After the introduction in the House of each bill or
resolution the Congressional Research Service of the Library of
Congress shall prepare a factual description of the subject
involved therein not to exceed one hundred words; such description
shall be published in the Congressional Record and the Digest of
Public General Bills and Resolutions as soon as possible after
introduction.
(e) No bill or resolution introduced or received in the House
shall be referred to the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy.
As indicated in the new clause 5(b), Rule X, precedents as to
referral occurring prior to the effective date of the Committee Reform
Amendments of 1974 were to remain controlling only to the ex
[[Page 2763]]
tent necessary to carry out the purposes of the new clause, thereby
modifying the previous principle that the erroneous reference of a
public bill, if uncorrected, effectively granted jurisdiction to the
committee receiving it.(13) Furthermore, the Speaker's new
power to sequentially refer a bill once reported from the initial
committee or committees to which referred indicates that the Speaker's
initial referral under the new rule does not preclude other committees
from obtaining subsequent consideration of the bill, and in some cases,
in addition to the bill, of a committee amendment reported by the first
committee or committees.
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13. See House Rules and Manual Sec. 854 (note) (1979). Rule XXII clause
3 specifically states that an erroneous reference of a private
bill shall not confer jurisdiction over the committee to
consider or report the same.
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A bill may be rereferred in the House by unanimous consent, by a
motion authorized by a committee claiming jurisdiction, or on the
report of the committee to which the bill has been erroneously
referred.(14) But once a committee has reported a bill and
it has been placed on the appropriate calendar, a motion for
rereference or a point of order that the bill was improperly referred
comes too late.(15)
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14. Rule XXII clause 4, House Rules and Manual Sec. 854 (1979).
15. Rule XXII clause 4, House Rules and Manual Sec. 854 (note) (1979).
See also Sec. 27.7, infra.
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Wherever possible, the discussion of the jurisdiction of the
respective standing committees of the House in this division will
include pertinent information and changes resulting from the adoption
of the Committee Reform Amendments of 1974, but any precedents arising
under those new rules of jurisdiction, and the scope of the Speaker's
new powers of referral, will be preserved for later editions of this
work.
Further insight into the jurisdiction of committees may be found in
the legislative subject categories lists dealing with the various
committees prepared by the staff of the Select Committee on
Committees.(16)
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16. ``Monographs on the Committees of the House of Representatives'',
93d Cong. 2d Sess., Dec. 13, 1974, committee print.
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Collateral References
Committee Reform Amendments of 1974, Explanation of H. Res. 998 as
Adopted by the House of Representatives, Oct. 8, 1974, Staff Report
of the Select Committee on Committees, House of Representatives,
93d Cong. 2d Sess. (1974).
Committee Organization in the House, Hearings and Panel Discussions
before
[[Page 2764]]
the Select Committee on Committees, House of Representatives, 93d
Cong. 2d Sess., H. Doc. No. 94-187 (3 volumes).