Amendments: Amendments are formal proposals to change part or all of the underlying text of a bill or another amendment. They must be formally adopted by a majority of the members present and voting, and if they pass, are made part of the pending bill.
Calendar: An agenda or list of bills, resolutions and joint resolutions that have passed the various committees and which await possible action by the House or Senate.
Committee: This is a formal subdivision of the House which has specific duties that it must perform for the entire House. Most standing committees are legislative committees, that is they are sent proposals for laws (bills) and they examine them, conduct hearings and decide which measures should be sent to the entire House. They are usually divided into subcommittees.
Committee of the Whole: This is a very old parliamentary device used to speed up the work of the House during debate and amendment on bills. A quorum in the Committee of the Whole consists of at least any 100 Members (218 Members in the full House). The Speaker is not the presiding officer in the Committee of the Whole, instead, he appoints a Member of his political party to preside.
Congressional Record: This is the official account or report regarding debate on matters before the House of Representatives and Senate when in open session. Words that are spoken will appear in Roman Type, words that were submitted in general debate on matters but not spoken, appear in different typeface. Each House and Senate office have a certain number of subscriptions to the Congressional Record that they may grant to individuals or organizations.
Conference Committee: A temporary Joint House-Senate committee formed for the purpose of eliminating the differences between House and Senate versions of a bill.
Conference Committee Report: The recommendations agreed to separately by a simple majority of House and Senate conferees regarding the bill in conference.
Discharge Petition: The purpose of a discharge petition is to bring a bill to the floor of the House which has not been reported by the legislative committee to which it was assigned. It is a parliamentary device for bypassing the normal operation of the various legislative committees. A discharge petition may be filed by any House Member after any introduced bill has been referred to committee for thirty legislative days or more. Previously, the public was not allowed to learn what Members had signed a discharge petition unless a majority of the House (at least 218 Members) had signed it. But since the 103rd Congress, the Members’ signatures on a discharge petition are made available daily to public by the Clerk of the House. And, the names of new signatories are printed in the Congressional Record on the last legislative day of each week. If a successful motion is made to discharge a bill, the House may then immediately begin consideration of the matter discharged. A rule governing the terms of a bill may also be discharged from the Rules Committee.
Constitutional Amendments have been brought to the Floor of the House by this procedure as when Cong. Linthicim (D-MD) filed a discharge petition during the 2nd session of 72nd Congress to discharge the House Judiciary Committee from further consideration of an Amendment repealing prohibition. On March 14, 1932 Linthicim, having gotten enough signatures, called up his proposal for a vote before the House. The prohibition repeal measure failed on a vote of 187 yeas, 227 nays, with 18 not voting. However, this vote enabled “wet” citizens to vote out enough “drys” in November 1932 to change matters in the 73rd Congress which sent a Constitutional Amendment to the states repealing prohibition on February 20, 1933.
Germaneness: The rule requiring that debate and amendments to bills, etc., be related to the matter at hand. Non-germane debate or proposed amendments may be ruled out of order.
Legislative Day: The “legislative” day extends from one adjournment to another. Since the House may recess to stop business at the end of a calendar day, rather than adjourn, at times a legislative day is not the same as a calendar day.
Marking Up a Bill: The process in committee of changing, deleting, adding to or keeping the original language of a bill or resolution in order to report the bill to the House.
Point of Order: An objection made by a Member to the Speaker or to the Chairman of the Committee of the Whole to proceeding with the business at hand because the pending matter, or a portion of it (bill, amendment, motion, etc.) is thought to violate a standing rule of the House. The presiding officer rules on points of order. (Special rules, if adopted, can preempt points of order from being made against bills.)
Quorum: The minimum number of Members who must be present to conduct official business. Proof that a minimum number are present may be had by a quorum call during which Members answer their name when called by the Clerk, or register their presence by putting their electronic voting card in slots situated around the floor of the House.
Recommit, Motion to: A motion that sends a bill back to committee, or sends it back with a requirement that it be amended as provided and reported back to the House immediately.
Report: This is the action taken by a committee in sending or “reporting” a bill to the House. It also means the document explaining the committee’s action in sending the bill to the House. Members sign the reports. When the report is not unanimous, Members opposed to the bill file a “minority” report as part of the committee report on the bill.
Speaker: The Speaker is the chief officer of the House of Representatives, and presides at all sessions unless he appoints a “Speaker pro tempore” for a period of up to three legislative days. The Speaker interprets and applies the Rules of the House. His decisions prevail, subject to an appeal from the Chair. The Speaker also appoints Members to standing legislative committees, and conference committees.
One of the more important powers the Speaker has is that of recognition of Members who wish make a motion, offer an amendment or otherwise actively participate in the proceedings of the House. For example, suppose the Speaker knows ahead of time, that a certain Member wishes to offer a controversial amendment to a bill. If he wants to “protect” his party colleagues from having to face the particular issue, he simply can refuse to recognize his fellow member and thus prevent the offering of a controversial amendment. Alternately, the Speaker can accomplish the same thing by simply “provisionally” recognizing a Member as follows: “For what purpose does the Gentleman from (name state) wish to be recognized?” The Member seeking recognition might state, “For the purpose of offering an amendment to the pending legislation..” The Speaker could decline at that point to grant recognition to the requesting Member.
Suspending the Rules: House Rule XXVII provides that on certain prescribed days the Speaker may accept motions from Members to suspend the Rules and pass bills or resolutions. Such a motion requires the support of at least two-thirds of the Members present and voting. Amendments are not allowed, except when the manager of the bill submits them when he offers the motion to suspend the rules. Usually, it is only non-controversial bills that are brought up under suspension of the rules. Debate is limited to 40 minutes, 20 minutes of which are controlled by a Member in support of the bill, and 20 by a Member against the bill.
Special Rules: All major legislation is considered by the House of Representatives under conditions that are called “special rules.” Appropriations bills are normally exempt from the “special rule” requirement. However, if they have matters in them that could be stricken from the bill because they would be subject to a point of order for violating the procedural rules of the House, they may be considered under a special rule which “waives” any such points of order. The special rules proposed by the House Rules Committee govern the terms of debate and the offering of amendments, if any. These special rules are unique in that they only apply to the matter at hand, and no other bill, standing rule or policy is affected by them. When the Rules Committee “reports” a rule (called a simple resolution) for a bill it must be approved by a majority of the House before the bill itself can be considered. If the rule fails to get a majority, it is not before the House.
Types of Rules considered by the Committee of the Whole:
1) An “open” rule allows Members to debate bills for a specific period of time, and also allows any Member the right to offer an amendment that is in order under the standing Rules of the House and the Budget Act.
2) A “modified open” rule allows general debate for a limited period of time but restricts the number or type of amendments that may be offered, or may require pre-printing of amendments in the Congressional Record.
3) A “modified closed” rule provides for general debate for a limited period of time and restricts the amendments which may be offered or prohibits amendments to certain parts of the bill.
4) A “closed” rule allows general debate for a specific period of time, and prohibits Members from offering “floor” amendments, but will allow any amendments recommended by the reporting committee.
5) A “self-executing” rule provides that once the House adopts the special resolution or rule, that it also adopts the particular amendments included in the report on the rule. This means, that no separate vote on the amendment(s) is allowed.
6) A “waiver” in a rule usually means that another regular or standing rule of the House (such as suspending the requirement of germaneness, or not enforcing the prohibition on legislating in an Appropriations bill) is being suspended. Without the waiver, a point of order could be made by a Member against consideration of the bill, or a part of it.
Votes, Type of: There are three ways of voting: viva voca or voice vote is taken by the presiding officer by asking all those Members in favor of a measure to say “Aye,” (or “yes”) and those opposed to say “Nay” (or “no”); A vote by “division” occurs when the Members who support a measure stand and are counted, and then the Members opposed to a measure stand and are counted; Recorded votes are the only type of votes that are taken in which the Member goes on public record as to how they voted. The demand for a recorded vote must be seconded by a total at least 25 Members who stand on a measure in the Committee of the Whole. When the entire House is voting on matters, one fifth of a quorum of the number of Members (44 of 218) are needed to second the demand for a record vote.
Votes, Postponement: Clause 5(b)(1), Rule I, allows the Speaker to postpone votes, including final passage of a bill, for up to two legislative days on a number of questions. Other questions of procedure can also be postponed by the Speaker.
Votes, Pairs: A Member who misses a vote may go or record by being “paired” with another Member who is also absent. One Member is listed in the Congressional Record as “for” a bill, and another is “paired” with that Member “against” the bill. If a Member cannot find another Member to be paired with, he still has the option of indicating in the Congressional Record how he would have voted had he been present.