[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 54 Introduced in House (IH)]
103d CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 54
To amend the Rules of the House of Representatives to provide for
reform of the House of Representatives, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
January 27, 1993
Mr. Hefley (for himself, Mr. Inglis, Mr. Shays, Mr. Schiff, Mr. Goss,
Mr. McHugh, Mr. Zeliff, Mr. Baker of Louisiana, Mr. Porter, Mr. Walsh,
Mr. Stump, Mr. Hancock, Mr. Doolittle, and Mr. Rohrabacher) submitted
the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Rules
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
To amend the Rules of the House of Representatives to provide for
reform of the House of Representatives, and for other purposes.
Resolved,
SECTION 1. TASK FORCE TO REDUCE THE NUMBER OF COMMITTEES IN THE HOUSE
OF REPRESENTATIVES.
Not later than 10 days after the date on which this resolution is
agreed to, the Speaker shall appoint a task force for the purpose of
restructuring the committee system in order to reduce the number of
standing committees to not more than 15 and to establish their
jurisdictions. The task force shall--
(1) be composed of 10 Members of the House, of whom 5
Members shall be appointed upon the recommendation of the
majority leader and 5 Members shall be appointed upon
recommendation of the minority leader; and
(2) report its recommendations to the House not later than
the end of the One Hundred Third Congress.
SEC. 2. SUBCOMMITTEE LIMITS.
Clause 6(d) of rule X of the Rules of the House of Representatives
is amended to read as follows:
``(d)(1) Each standing committee of the House (except the Committee
on the Budget which shall have no subcommittees and the Committee on
Rules which shall have 2 subcommittees) shall establish not more than 4
subcommittees, except the Committee on Appropriations (which may have
the same number of subcommittees that it had in the One Hundred Second
Congress).
``(2) For the purposes of this paragraph, the term `subcommittee'
includes any panel, task force, special subcommittee, or any subunit of
a standing committee, or any select committee which is established for
a period of longer than 6 months in any Congress.''.
SEC. 3. COMMITTEE STAFFING.
Clause 5 of rule XI of the Rules of the House of Representatives is
amended by redesignating paragraphs (a) through (f) as paragraphs (b)
through (g), respectively, and by inserting at the beginning the
following new paragraph:
``(a)(1) It shall not be in order to consider any primary expense
resolution until the Committee on House Administration has reported,
and the House has adopted, a resolution establishing an overall ceiling
for House committee staff personnel for that year, and any such
resolution shall be privileged.
``(2) In developing any primary expense resolution, the Committee
on House Administration shall specify in the resolution the number of
staff positions authorized by the resolution. The committee shall
verify in the report accompanying any such primary expense resolution
that the number of staff positions authorized by such resolution is in
conformity with the overall ceiling on such positions established by
the House.
``(3) In no event shall the total number of additional staff
positions authorized by all such primary expense resolutions, taken
together with the number of staff positions authorized by clause 6 of
this rule (providing for professional and clerical staff), exceed the
ceiling established by the House for that year.
``(4) In allocating staff positions pursuant to the overall ceiling
established by the House, the committee shall take into account the
past and anticipated legislative and oversight activities of each
committee.
``(5) In any supplemental expense resolution, and in any amendment
thereto, the committee shall specify the number of additional staff
positions, if any, authorized by such resolution, and shall indicate in
the report accompanying any such resolution whether the additional
staff positions are in conformity with or exceed the overall ceiling
established by the House.
``(6) It shall not be in order to consider any supplemental expense
resolution, or any amendment thereto, authorizing additional staff
positions in excess of the overall ceiling established by the House
except by a vote of two-thirds of the Members voting, a quorum being
present.
``(7) It shall not be in order to consider any primary or
supplemental expense resolution for one or more committees unless the
report on such resolution includes a statement verifying that each such
committee has adopted and complied with a committee rule entitling the
minority party on such committee, upon the request of a majority of
such minority, to not less than one-third of the funds provided for
committee staff pursuant to each primary or supplemental expense
resolution.
``(8) For the purposes of the One Hundred Third Congress, the
overall ceiling for committee staff in a resolution reported by the
committee pursuant to subparagraph (1), or contained in any amendment
thereto, shall not exceed 50 percent of the total committee staff
personnel employed at the end of the One Hundred Second Congress.''.
SEC. 4. PROXY VOTING BAN.
Clause 2(f) of rule XI of the Rules of the House of Representatives
is amended to read as follows:
``(f) No vote by any member of any committee or subcommittee with
respect to any measure or matter may be cast by proxy.''.
SEC. 5. COMMITTEE RATIOS.
(a) Clause 6(a) of rule X of the Rules of the House of
Representatives is amended by adding at the end the following new
subparagraph:
``(3) The membership of each committee (and each subcommittee, task
force, or other subunit thereof) shall reflect the ratio of majority to
minority party Members of the House at the beginning of the Congress.
This subparagraph shall not apply to the Committee on Standards of
Official Conduct or the Committee on House Administration. For the
purposes of this clause, the Resident Commissioner from Puerto Rico and
the Delegates to the House shall not be counted in determining the
party ratio of the House.''.
(b) Clause 6(f) of rule X of the Rules of the House of
Representatives is amended by inserting after the second sentence the
following: ``The membership of each such select committee (and of any
subcommittee, task force, or subunit thereof), and of each such
conference committee, shall reflect the ratio of the majority to
minority party Members of the House at the time of its appointment.''.
(c) Effective at the beginning of the One Hundred Third Congress,
except as provided by clause 6(a)(3) of rule X, the ratio of majority
party to minority party staff positions, consultants, details, and
funding for each committee of the House of Representatives shall be the
ratio of majority party to minority party Members of the House of
Representatives.
SEC. 6. ELIMINATION OF JOINT REFERRALS OF LEGISLATION.
Clause 5(c) of rule X of the Rules of the House of Representatives
is amended to read as follows:
``(c) In carrying out paragraphs (a) and (b) with respect to any
matter, the Speaker shall initially refer the matter to one committee
which he shall designate as the committee of principal jurisdiction.''.
SEC. 7. LIMITATION ON LENGTH OF SERVICE ON ANY COMMITTEE.
Clause 6 of rule X of the Rules of the House of Representatives is
amended by inserting at the end the following:
``(j)(1) Notwithstanding any other provision of these rules, no
Member shall serve as a member of any committee for more than 8 years
or as chairman of any committee for more than 4 years.
``(2) For purposes of paragraph (1)--
``(A) any service performed as a member or chairman of any
committee for less than a full session in any Congress shall be
disregarded; and
``(B) previous service on any committee before the One
Hundred Third Congress shall be disregarded.''.
SEC. 8. MAKING THE COMMITTEE ON HOUSE ADMINISTRATION BIPARTISAN.
Clause 6(a) of rule X of the Rules of the House of Representatives
(as amended by section 5) is amended by adding at the end the
following:
``(4)(A) One-half of the members of the Committee on House
Administration shall be from the majority party and one-half shall be
from the minority party.
``(B) In the case of the Committee on House Administration,
subpoenas may be authorized and issued as provided by clause 2(m) of
rule XI, except that either the chairman or ranking minority party
member of that committee may authorize and issue subpoenas under that
clause.''.
SEC. 9. PERMITTING INSTRUCTIONS IN MOTIONS TO RECOMMIT.
The second sentence in clause 4(b) of rule XI of the Rules of the
House of Representatives is amended by striking ``nor'' and all that
follows and inserting the following: ``nor shall it report any rule or
order which would prevent the motion to recommit from being made as
provided in clause 4 of rule XVI, including a motion with amendatory
instructions (except in the case of a Senate measure for which the
language of a House-passed measure has been substituted).''.
SEC. 10. TWO-THIRDS VOTE REQUIRED TO WAIVE POINTS OF ORDER.
Clause 4 of rule XI of the Rules of the House of Representatives is
amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
``(e) It shall not be in order to consider a resolution which
waives any point of order, except by a vote of two-thirds of those
Members voting.''.
SEC. 11. APPLICABILITY OF CERTAIN LAWS TO THE HOUSE.
(a) It is the policy of the House that the laws of the United
States set forth in subsection (b) should be amended to apply to the
House of Representatives in the same or similar manner as such laws
apply to the Executive Branch.
(b) Not later than September 15, 1993, the standing committees of
the House with subject matter jurisdiction over the following laws of
the United States shall report to the House legislation to implement
subsection (a):
(1) The National Labor Relations Act.
(2) The Occupational Safety Act and Health Act of 1970.
(3) The Equal Pay Act of 1963.
(4) The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967.
(5) Section 552 of title 5, United States Code (popularly
known as the Freedom of Information Act).
(6) Section 552a of title 5, United States Code (popularly
known as the Privacy Act of 1974).
(7) Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (relating to
equal employment opportunity).
(c) The Committee on Rules shall, not later than 10 legislative
days after any such legislation has been reported, report a resolution
providing for the consideration of such measure in the Committee of the
Whole House on the State of the Union under an open amendment process.
(d) If such legislation is not reported by all the committees named
above by the date specified, the first bill introduced which implements
the policy referred to in subsection (a) and which encompasses all the
laws referred to in subsection (b) shall be considered as having been
discharged from all the committees to which it was referred. It shall
be in order on any day after September 30, 1993, for any Member of the
House (after consultation with the Speaker as to the most appropriate
time for consideration), as a matter of highest privilege, to move to
resolve into the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union
for its consideration, and the bill shall be subject to four hours of
general debate to be equally divided and controlled by the majority and
minority leaders, or their designees, followed by consideration of the
measure for amendment under the five-minute rule.
<all>