[Constitution, Jefferson's Manual, and the Rules of the House of Representatives, 105th Congress] [105th Congress] [House Document 104-272] [Rules of the House of Representatives] [Pages 474-541] [From the U.S. Government Printing Office, www.gpo.gov] [[Page 474]] Rule XI. rules of procedures for committees. In General
Sec. 703a. Committee procedure. | 1. (a)(1) The Rules of the House are the rules of its committees and subcommittees so far as applicable, except that a motion to recess from day to day, and a motion to dispense with the first reading (in full) of a bill or resolution, if printed copies are available, are nondebatable motions of high privilege in committees and subcommittees. |
Sec. 703b. Investigative authority. | (b)(1) Each committee is authorized at any time to conduct such investigations and studies as it may consider necessary or appropriate in the exercise of its re- |
Sec. 703c. Printing and binding. | (c) Each committee is authorized to have printed and bound testimony and other data presented at hearings |
Sec. 703d. Activity reports. | (d)(1) Each committee shall submit to the House not later than January 2 of each odd-numbered year, a report on the activities of that committee under this rule and rule X during the Congress ending on January 3 of such year. |
704a. Committee rules. | 2. (a) Each standing committee of the House shall adopt written rules governing its procedure. Such rules-- |
Sec. 704b. Committee procedure generally. | Failure to follow certain procedural requirements imposed on committees by this rule may invalidate committee actions. Violation of the requirements as to open meetings and hearings and other hearing irregularities improperly over- |
705. Committee meetings. | (b) Each standing committee of the House shall adopt regular meeting days, which shall be not less frequent than monthly, for the conduct of its business. Each such committee shall meet, for the consideration of any bill or resolution pending before the committee or for the transaction of other committee business, on all regular meeting days |
706a. Required records. | (e)(1) Each committee shall keep a complete record of all committee action which shall include-- |
Sec. 706b. Public availability. | (B) a record of the votes on any question on which a rollcall vote is demanded. The result of each such rollcall vote shall be made available by the committee for inspection by the public at reasonable times in the offices of the committee. Information so available for public inspection shall include a description of the amendment, motion, order, or other proposition and the name of each Member voting for and each Member voting against such amendment, motion, order, or proposition, and the names of those Members present but not voting, except that in the case of rollcall votes in the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct taken in executive session, the result of any such vote shall not be made available for inspection by the public without an affirmative vote of a majority of the members of the committee. |
Sec. 706c. Committee files. | (2) All committee hearings, records, data, charts, and files shall be kept separate and distinct from the congressional office records of the Member serving as |
707. Ban on proxies. | (f) No vote by any member of any committee or subcommittee with respect to any measure or matter may be cast by proxy. |
708. | (g)(1) Each meeting for the transaction of business, including the markup of legislation, of each standing committee or subcommittee thereof (except the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct) shall be open to the public, including to radio, television, and still photography coverage, except as provided by clause 3(f)(2), except when the committee or subcommittee, in open session and with a majority present, determines by rollcall vote that all or part of the remainder of the meeting on that day shall be closed to the public because disclosure of matters to be considered would endanger na- |
709. Quorum of two; of onethird. | (h)(1) Each committee may fix the number of its members to constitute a quorum for taking testimony and receiving evidence which shall be not less than two. |
710. Committees not to sit. | (i) No committee of the House may sit during a joint session of the House and Senate or during a recess when a joint meeting of the House and Senate is in progress. |
711. | (j)(1) Whenever any hearing is conducted by any committee upon any measure or matter, the minority party Members on the committee shall be entitled, upon request to the chairman by a majority of them before the completion of the hearing, to call witnesses selected by the minority to testify with respect to that measure or matter during at least one day of hearing thereon. |
712. | (k)(1) The chairman at an investigative hearing shall announce in an opening statement the subject of the investigation. |
713a. Chairman's duty. | (l)(1)(A) It shall be the duty of the chairman of each committee to report or cause to be reported promptly to the House any measure approved by the committee and to take or cause to be taken necessary steps to bring the matter to a vote. |
Sec. 713b. Filing by majority of committee. | (B) In any event, the report of any committee on a measure which has been approved by the committee shall be filed within seven calendar days (exclusive of days on which the House is not in session) after the day on which there has been filed with the |
Sec. 713c. Requirement of quorum. | (2)(A) No measure or recommendation shall be reported from any committee unless a majority of the committee was actually present. |
Sec. 713d. Vote on reporting. | (B) With respect to each rollcall vote on a motion to report any measure or matter of a public character, and on any amendment offered to the measure or matter, the total number of votes cast for and against, and the names of those members voting for and against, shall be included in the committee report on the measure or matter. The preceding sentence shall not apply to votes taken in executive session by the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct. |
Sec. 713e. Content of reports. | (3) The report of any committee on a measure which has been approved by the committee shall include (A) the oversight findings and recommendations required pursuant to clause 2(b)(1) of rule X separately set out and clearly identified; (B) the statement required by section 308(a)(1) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, separately set out and clearly identified, if the measure provides new budget authority (other than continuing appropriations), new entitlement authority as defined in section 3(9) of such Act, new credit authority, or an increase or decrease in revenues or tax expenditures, except that the estimates with respect to new budget authority shall include, when practicable, a comparison of the total estimated funding level for the relevant program (or programs) to the appropriate levels under current law; (C) the estimate and comparison prepared by the Director of the Congressional Budget Office under section 402 of such Act, separately set out and clearly identified, whenever the Director (if timely submitted prior to the filing of the report) has submitted such estimate and comparison to the committee; and |
Sec. 713f. Constitutional authority. | (4) Each report of a committee on a bill or joint resolution of a public character shall include a statement citing the specific powers granted to the Congress in the Constitution to enact the law proposed by the bill or joint resolution. |
Sec. 713g. Application of laws to Legislative branch. | Under the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995, each report accompanying a bill or joint resolution relating to terms and conditions of employment or access to public services or accommodations must describe the manner in which the provisions apply to the Legislative branch or a statement of the reasons the provisions do not apply; and any Member may raise a point of order against the consideration of a bill or joint resolution not complying with this requirement, which may be waived in the House by majority vote (sec. 102(b)(3), P.L. 104-1; 109 Stat. 6). |
Sec. 713h. Unfunded mandates. | The Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (P.L. 104-4; 109 Stat. 48 et seq.) added a new part B to title IV of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 658-658g) that imposes several requirements on committees with respect to measures effecting ``Federal mandates'' (secs. 423-424; 2 U.S.C. 659b-c) and establishes points of order to enforce those requirements (sec. 425; 2 U.S.C. 658d). See Sec. 1007, infra. |
Sec. 714. Minority views. | (5) If, at the time of approval of any measure or matter by any committee, other than the Committee on Rules, any member of the committee gives notice of intention to file supplemental, minority, or additional views, that member shall be entitled to not less than two additional calendar days after the day of such notice (excluding Saturdays, Sundays, or legal holidays except when the House is in session on such a day) in which to file such views, in writing and signed by that member, with the clerk of the committee. All such views so filed by one or more members of the committee shall be included within, and shall be a part of, the report filed by the committee with respect to that measure or matter. When time guaranteed by |
Sec. 716. Oneday layover. | A committee expense resolution reported by the Committee on House Oversight pursuant to clause 5 of rule XI need only be available for one day. However, other resolutions reported from that committee which are privileged (such as a resolution authorizing the printing of material as a House document), but which do not constitute questions of the privileges of the House, are subject to this clause (Speaker Albert, Mar. 6, 1975, p. 5537). |
Sec. 717. | (7) If, within seven calendar days after a measure has, by resolution, been made in order for consideration by the House, no motion has been offered that the House consider that measure, any member of the committee which reported that measure may be recognized in the discretion of the Speaker to offer a motion that the House shall consider that measure, if that committee has duly authorized that member to offer that motion. |
718. Administration of oaths to witnesses. | (m)(1) For the purpose of carrying out any of its functions and duties under this rule and rule X (including any matters referred to it under clause 5 of rule X), any committee, or any subcommittee thereof, is authorized (subject to subparagraph (2)(A) of this paragraph)-- |
Sec. 719a. Committee travel. | (A) No member or employee of the committee shall receive or expend local currencies for subsistence in any country for any day at a rate in excess of the |
Sec. 719b. Travel reports. | (B) Each member or employee of the committee shall make to the chairman of the committee an itemized report showing the dates each country was visited, the amount of per diem furnished, the cost of transportation furnished, any funds expended for any other official purpose and shall summarize in these categories the total foreign currencies and/or appropriated funds expended. All such individual reports shall be filed no later than sixty days following the completion of travel with the chairman of the committee for use in complying with reporting requirements in applicable Federal law and shall be open for public inspection. |
Sec. 720. | 3. (a) It is the purpose of this clause to provide a means, in conformity with acceptable standards of dignity, propriety, and decorum, by which committee hearings, or committee meetings, which are open to the public may be covered, by television broadcast, radio broadcast, and still photography, or by any of such methods of coverage-- |
Sec. 721. Media coverage. | (c) It is, further, the intent of this clause that the general conduct of each meeting (whether of a hearing or otherwise) covered, under authority of this clause, by television broadcast, radio broadcast, and still photography, or by any of such methods of coverage, and the personal behavior of the committee members and staff, other Government officials and personnel, witnesses, television, radio, and press media personnel, and the general public at the hearing or other meeting shall be in strict conformity with and observance of the acceptable standards of dignity, propriety, courtesy, and decorum traditionally observed by the House in its operations and shall not be such as to-- |
Sec. 722. When permitted. | (e) Whenever a hearing or meeting conducted by any committee or subcommittee of the House is open to the public, those proceedings shall be open to coverage by television, radio, and still photography, except as provided in paragraph (f)(2). A committee or subcommittee chairman may not limit the number of television or still cameras to fewer than two representatives from each medium (except for legitimate space or safety considerations, in which case pool coverage shall be authorized). |
Sec. 723. Committee rules. | (f) Each committee of the House shall adopt written rules to govern its implementation of this clause. Such rules shall include provisions to the following effect: |
Sec. 724. Press photographers. | (8) In the allocation of the number of still photographers permitted by a committee or subcommittee chairman in a hearing or meeting room, preference shall be given to photographers from Associated Press Photos and United Press International Newspictures. If requests are made by more of the media than will be permitted by a committee or subcommittee chairman for coverage of the hearing or meeting by still photography, that coverage shall be made on the basis of a fair and equitable pool arrangement devised by the Standing Committee of Press Photographers. |
Sec. 725. Accreditation. | (11) Personnel providing coverage by the television and radio media shall be then currently accredited to the Radio and Television Correspondents' Galleries. |
Sec. 726. | 4. (a) The following committees shall have leave to report at any time on the matters herein stated, namely: The Committee on Appropriations--on general appropriation bills and on joint resolutions continuing appropriations for a fiscal year if reported after September 15 preceding the beginning of such fiscal year; the Committee on the Budget--on the matters required to be reported by such committee under Titles III and IV of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974; the Committee on House Oversight--on enrolled bills, contested elections, and all matters referred to it of printing for the use of the House or the two Houses, and on all matters of expenditure of the applicable accounts of the House described in clause 1(h)(1) of rule X, and on all matters relating to preservation and availability of noncurrent records of the House under rule XXXVI; the Committee on Rules--on rules, joint rules, and the order of business; and the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct--on resolutions recommending action by the House of Representatives with respect to an individual Member, officer, or employee of the House of Representatives as a result of any investigation by the committee relating to the official conduct of such Member, officer, or employee of the House of Representatives. |
Sec. 727. Privileged reports defined. | The matters reported under the provisions of this clause are denominated ``privileged reports'' or ``privileged questions,'' and since the privilege relates merely to the order of business under the rules, they must be distinguished from ``questions of privilege'' which relate to the safety or dignity of the House itself defined in rule IX (III, 2718). Therefore, ``questions of privilege'' take precedence over these matters which are privileged under the rules (III, 2426-2530; V, 6454; VIII, 3465). |
Sec. 728. The privilege of individual committees for reports. | The privilege given by this clause to the Committee on Rules is confined to ``action touching rules, joint rules, and order of business'' and this committee may not report as privileged a concurrent resolution providing for a Senate investigating committee (VIII, 2255), or provide for the appointment of a clerk (VIII, 2256); but the privilege has been held to include the right to report special orders for the consideration of individual bills or classes of bills (V, 6774), or the consideration of a specified amendment to a bill and prescribing a mode of considering such amendment (VIII, 2258). A special rule providing for the consideration of a bill is not invalidated by the fact that at the time the rule was reported, the bill was not |
Sec. 729a. Reports from Committee on Rules. | (b) It shall always be in order to call up for consideration a report from the Committee on Rules on a rule, joint rule, or the order of business (except it shall not be called up for consideration on the same day it is presented to the House, unless so determined by a vote of not less than two-thirds of the Members voting, but this provision shall not apply during the last three days of the session), and, pending the consideration thereof, the Speaker may entertain one motion that the House adjourn; but after the result is announced the Speaker shall not entertain any other dilatory motion until the report shall have been fully disposed of. The Committee on Rules shall not report any rule or order which provides that business under clause 7 of rule XXIV shall be set aside by a vote of less than two-thirds of the Members present; 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 to recommit with instructions to report back an amendment otherwise in order (if offered by the Minority Leader or a designee), except with respect to a Senate bill or resolution for which the text of a House-passed measure has been substituted. |
Sec. 729b. Dilatory motions not permitted. | In the later practice it has been held that the question of consideration may not be raised against a report from the Committee on Rules (V, 4961-4963; VIII, 2440, 2441). The clause forbidding dilatory motions has been construed strictly (V, 5740-5742), and in the later practice the following have been excluded: (1) the motion to commit after the ordering of the previous question (V, 5593-5601; VIII, 2270, 2750; Feb. 22, 1984, p. 2965); (2) an appeal from the Chair's decision not to entertain the question of |
Sec. 729c. Restrictions on authority of Committee on Rules. | From 1934 until the amendment of clause 4(b) in the 104th Congress (sec. 210, H. Res. 6, Jan. 4, 1995, p. ----), it was consistently held that the Committee on Rules could recommend a special order that limited, but did not totally prohibit, a motion to recommit pending passage of a bill or joint resolution, as by precluding the motion from containing instructions relating to specified amendments (Speaker Rainey, sustained on appeal, Jan. 11, 1934, pp. 479-83); or by omitting to preserve the availability of amendatory instructions in the case that the bill is entirely rewritten by the adoption of a substitute made in order as original text (Speaker Foley, June 4, 1991, p. 13170; Speaker Foley, Nov. 25, 1991, p. 34460); or by expressly allowing only a simple (``straight'') motion to recommit |
Sec. 729d. Unfunded mandates. | The Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (P.L. 104-4; 109 Stat. 48 et seq.) added a new part B to title IV of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 658-658g) that, effective on January 1, 1996, or 90 days after appropriations are made available to the Congressional Budget Office pursuant to the 1995 Act (whichever is earlier), imposes several requirements on committees with respect to ``Federal mandates'' (secs. 423-424; 2 U.S.C. 658b-c), establishes points of order to enforce those requirements (sec. 425; 2 |
Sec. 730. Filing reports. | (c) The Committee on Rules shall present to the House reports concerning rules, joint rules, and order of business, within three legislative days of the time when the bill or resolution involved is ordered reported by the committee. If any such rule or order is not considered immediately, it shall be referred to the calendar and, if not called up by the Member making the report within seven legislative days thereafter, any member of the Committee on Rules may call it up as a question of privilege (but only on the day after the calendar day on which such Member announces to the House his intention to do so) and the Speaker shall recognize any member of the Committee on Rules seeking recognition for that purpose. If the Committee on Rules makes an adverse report on any resolution pending before the committee, providing for an order of business for the consideration by the House of any public bill or joint resolution, on days when it shall be in order to call up motions to discharge committees it shall be in order for any Member of the House to call up for consideration by the House such adverse report, and it shall be in order to move the adoption by the House of such resolution adversely reported notwithstanding the adverse report of the Committee on Rules, and the Speaker shall recognize the Member seeking recogni- |
Sec. 731. Comparative print. | (d) Whenever the Committee on Rules reports a resolution repealing or amending any of the Rules of the House of Representatives or part thereof it shall include in its report or in an accompanying document-- |
Sec. 731a. Specifying waivers. | (e) Whenever the Committee on Rules reports a resolution providing for the consideration of any measure, it shall, to the maximum extent possible, specify in the resolution the object of any waiver of a point of order against the measure or against its consideration. |
Sec. 732a. Primary expense resolution. |
5. (a) Whenever any
committee, commission, or other entity (except the Committee on
Appropriations) is to be granted authorization for the payment of its
expenses (including all staff salaries) for a Congress, such
authorization initially shall be procured by one primary expense
resolution reported by the Committee on House Oversight. A
primary < |
Sec. 732c1. Additional expense resolution. | (b) After the date of adoption by the House of any such primary expense resolution for any such committee, commission, or other entity for any Congress, authorization for the payment of additional expenses (including staff salaries) in that Congress may be procured by one or more supplemental expense resolutions reported by the Committee on House Oversight, as necessary. Any such supplemental expense resolution reported to the House shall not be considered in the House unless a printed report on that resolution has been available to the Members of the House for at |
Sec. 732c2. Exception for certain initial funding. | (1) any resolution providing for the payment from committee salary and expense accounts of the House of sums necessary to pay compensation for staff services performed for, or to pay other expenses of, any committee, commission or other entity at any time from and after the beginning of any odd-numbered year and before the date of adoption by the House of the primary expense resolution providing funds to pay the expenses of that committee, commission or other entity for that Congress; or |
Sec. 732d. Funds for committee staffs; expense resolutions. | (d) From the funds made available for the appointment of committee staff pursuant to any primary or additional expense resolution, the chairman of each committee shall ensure that sufficient staff is made available to each subcommittee to carry out its responsibilities under the rules of the committee, and that the minority party is fairly treated in the appointment of such staff. |
Sec. 732e. Travel by members not reelected. | (e) No primary expense resolution or additional expense resolution of a committee may provide for the payment or reimbursement of expenses incurred by any member of the committee for travel by the member after the date of the general election of Members in which the Member is not elected to the succeeding Congress, or in the case of a Member who is not a candidate in such general election, the earlier of the date of such general election or the adjournment sine die of the last regular session of the Congress. |
Sec. 732f. Interim funding. | (f)(1) For continuance of necessary investigations and studies by-- |
Sec. 733a. Thirty professional staff. |
6. (a)(1) Subject to
subparagraph (2) and paragraph (f), each standing committee may appoint,
by majority vote of the committee, not more than thirty professional
staff members from the funds provided for the appointment of
committee < |
Sec. 733c. Minority. | (2) Subject to paragraph (f) of this clause, whenever a majority of the minority party members of a standing com- |
Sec. 733d. Consultants and training. | Committees may, with the approval of the Committee on House Oversight, procure the temporary or intermittent services of consultants and obtain specialized training for professional staff, subject to expense resolutions, under the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970, sections 303 and 304 (2 U.S.C. 72a(i) and (j)). |
Sec. 734a. Staff duties. | (b)(1) The professional staff members of each standing committee-- |
Sec. 734b. ``Associate'' or ``shared'' staff. | (2) Subparagraph (1) does not apply to any staff designated by a committee as ``associate'' or ``shared'' staff who are not paid exclusively by the committee, provided that the chairman certifies that the compensation paid by the committee for any such employee is commensurate with the work performed for the committee, in accordance with the provisions of clause 8 of rule XLIII. |
Sec. 735. Pay. | (c) Each employee on the professional and investigative staff of each standing committee shall be entitled to pay at a single gross per annum rate, to be fixed by the chairman, which does not exceed the maximum rate of pay, as in effect from time to time, under applicable provisions of law. |
Sec. 736. Staff, Committees on Appropriations. | (d) Subject to appropriations hereby authorized, the Committee on Appropriations may appoint such staff, in addition to the clerk thereof and assistants for the minority, as it determines by majority vote to be necessary, such personnel, other than minority assistants, to possess such qualifications as the committee may prescribe. |
Sec. 737. | (e) No committee shall appoint to its staff any experts or other personnel detailed or assigned from any department or agency of the Government, except with the written permission of the Committee on House Oversight. |
Sec. 738. Nonpartisan staff. | (i) Notwithstanding paragraph (a)(2), a committee may employ non-partisan staff, in lieu of or in addition to committee staff designated exclusively for the majority or minority party, upon an affirmative vote of a majority of the members of the majority party and a majority of the members of the minority party. |
Sec. 739. Reports on staff. | Effective in the 95th Congress (H. Res. 5, Jan. 4, 1977, pp. 53-70), former clause 6(j), which was added on January 3, 1953 (p. 24) and which was contained in section 134(b) of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1945, was deleted; that clause required committees to report semiannually to the Clerk, for printing in the Congressional Record, on the names, professions and salaries of committee employees. |