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Parliamentary Rights of the Delegates and
Resident Commissioner Fromfrom Puerto Rico
Christopher M. Davis
Analyst on Congress and the Legislative Process
June 18, 2009March 13, 2015
Congressional Research Service
7-5700
www.crs.gov
R40170
CRS Report for Congress
Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress
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Parliamentary Rights of the Delegates and Resident Commissioner Fromfrom Puerto Rico
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Summary
As officers who represent territories and properties possessed or administered by the United
States but not admitted to statehood, the five House Delegates and the Resident Commissioner
from Puerto Rico are not Members of Congress, anddelegates and the resident commissioner from
Puerto Rico do not enjoy all the same parliamentary
rights as Members of the House. They may
vote and otherwise act similarly to Members in legislative
committee; committee. They may not vote in the House,on the
House floor but may participate in debate and make most motions
there; and, under there. Under the rules of the 111th Congress (2009-2010), may preside over, and vote in,
Committee of the Whole subject to an immediate revote in the House if their votes are decisive
114th Congress (2015-2016), the delegates and resident commissioner may not vote in, or preside
over, the Committee of the Whole.
This report will be updated as circumstances warrant.
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Parliamentary Rights of the Delegates and Resident Commissioner Fromfrom Puerto Rico
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Contents
Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 1
In Legislative Committee ................................................................................................................. 1
In the House ..................................................................................................................................... 1
In Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union ......................................................... 1
Contacts
Author Contact Information .............................................................................................................3 3
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Parliamentary Rights of the Delegates and Resident Commissioner Fromfrom Puerto Rico
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Introduction
The offices of the Resident Commissionerresident commissioner from Puerto Rico and the Delegatesdelegates to the House of
Representatives from American Samoa, the District of Columbia, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands,
and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands are created by statute, not by the
Constitution. Because they represent territories and associated jurisdictions, not states, they are
not Members of Congress and do do
not possess the same parliamentary rights afforded Members.
This report examines the
parliamentary rights of the Delegates and the Resident Commissioner in
delegates and the resident commissioner in legislative committee, in
the House, and in the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the
Union.
In Legislative Committee
Under Clause 3 of Rule III, the Delegates and the Resident Commissionerdelegates and the resident commissioner are elected to serve on
standing committees in the same manner as Representatives and have the same parliamentary
powers and privileges as Representatives there—the right to question witnesses, to debate, offer
amendments, vote, offer motions, raise points of order, include additional views in committee
reports, accrue seniority, and chair committees and subcommittees. The same rule authorizes the
Speaker of the House to appoint Delegates and the Resident Commissionerdelegates and the resident commissioner to conference
committees as well
as to service on as to select and joint committees.
In the House
The Delegates and the Resident Commissionerdelegates and the resident commissioner may not vote in or preside over the House.1 While
Although they take an oath to uphold the Constitution, they are not included on the Clerk’s roll of
Members-elect, and may not vote for Speaker. They may not file or sign discharge petitions. They
may, however, sponsor and cosponsor legislation, participate in debate, —including managing time,
time—and offer any motion whichthat a Representative may make, except the motion to reconsider. 2 A
Delegate2 A
delegate or resident commissioner may raise points of order and questions of personal privilege,
call a Member to order,
appeal rulings of the chair, file reports for committees, object to the
consideration of a bill, and
move impeachment proceedings.
In Committee of the Whole House on the State of
the Union
Under Rule III and Rule XVIII, as adopted in the 111th Congress, when the House is sitting as the
the rules of the 114th Congress, the delegates and the resident commissioner may not vote
in or preside over the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, the Delegates and Resident
Commissioner have the same right to vote as Representatives, subject to immediate. Under Rules III
and XVIII, as adopted in both the 110th and 111th Congresses (2007-2010), when the House was
sitting as the Committee of the Whole, the delegates and resident commissioner had the same
1
Legislation has been introduced in the 111th Congress whichprevious Congresses that would add to the House a full voting representative from
the District of Columbia. For more information on this and similar proposals, see CRS Report RL33830, District of
Columbia Voting
Representation in Congress: An Analysis of Legislative Proposals, by Eugene Boyd.
2
Recognition to offer the motion to reconsider is dependent on having voted on the prevailing side of a question—
something the Delegates and the Resident Commission may not do since they can notdelegates and the resident commissioner may not do because they cannot vote in the House.
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Parliamentary Rights of the Delegates and Resident Commissioner From Puerto Rico
from Puerto Rico
ability to vote as Representatives, subject to immediate reconsideration in the House when their
recorded votes “havehad been “decisive” in the Committee.
committee. These prior House rules also authorize the authorized the
Speaker to appoint a Delegate or the Resident Commissioner to
preside as Chairman of the delegate or the resident commissioner to preside as chairman of the
Committee of the Whole.
TheThese rules of the 111th Congress are110th and 111th Congresses were identical in effect to those in force in the 110th Congress
(2007-2008) and before that, in the 103rd 103rd
Congress (1993-1994), which permitted the Delegates
and the Resident Commissioner to vote in, delegates and the resident commissioner to vote in,
and to preside over, the Committee of the Whole.
These provisions were stricken from the rules
as adopted in the 104th Congress (1995-1996) and
remained out of effect until readopted in the 110th Congress.3
110th Congress.3 They were again removed from House rules at the beginning of the 112th
Congress (2011-2012).4 At the time of the adoption of the
1993 rule, then-Minority Leader Robert
H. Michel and 12 other Representatives filed suit against
the Clerk of the House and the territorial delegates,
delegates seeking a declaration that the rule was
unconstitutional. The constitutionality of the rule
was ultimately upheld on appeal based on its
inclusion of the mechanism for automatic
reconsideration of votes in the House.45
The votes of the Delegates and the Resident Commissionerdelegates and the resident commissioner were decisive, and thus subject to
automatic revote by the House, on three occasions in the 103rd Congress.56 There were no
instances identified in the 110th Congress in which the votes of the Delegates and the Resident
Commissioner were decisive. As of this writing, in the 111th Congress (2009-2010), the votes of
delegates and the resident
commissioner were decisive. In the 111th Congress, the votes of the delegates were decisive, and
subject to an automatic revote, on one occasion. 67
The prior rule governing voting in the Committee of the Whole by Delegates and the Resident
Commissioner has not been delegates and the resident
commissioner was not interpreted to mean that any recorded vote with a difference of six
votes or less is
fewer was subject to automatic reconsideration. In determining whether the votes of the
Delegates and the Resident Commissioner delegates
and the resident commissioner were decisive, the Chair followschair followed a “but for” test—
namely, would
the result of a vote have been different if the Delegatesdelegates and the Commissioner had
commissioner had not voted?78 If
the votes of the Delegates and Resident Commissiondelegates and resident commissioner on a question arewere determined
to be
decisive by this standard, the committee automatically risesrose and the Speaker putsput the
question to a
vote. The vote iswas first put by voice, and any Representative maycould, with a sufficient
second,
obtain a record vote. Once the final result of the vote iswas announced, the Committee of the
Whole automatically resumesresumed its sitting. 8
3
9
3
U.S. Congress, House, Constitution, Jefferson’s Manual, and Rules of the House of Representatives, H.Doc. 109-157,
109th Cong., 2nd sess. (Washington: GPO, 2007), §985.
4
See H.Res. 5, 112th Congress.
5
Michel v. Anderson, 14 F.3d 623 (D.C. Cir. 1994).
56
See roll call #63, March 17, 1994; roll call #267, June 23, 1994; and roll call #277, June 24, 1994. The result of roll
call #267 changed when the question was revoted in the House.
67
See roll call #360, June 18, 2009. The result of the roll call did not change when the question was revoted.
78
On May 19, 1993, a series of parliamentary inquiries were directed to the Chairchair about how the “but for” test is
applied.
Congressional Record, vol. 139, (May 19, 1993), pp. 10408-10409.
8 The chair responded to another series of
parliamentary inquiries about the mechanism on February 8, 2007. Congressional Record, daily edition, vol. 153
(February 18, 2007), pp. H1350-H1351.
9
It should be noted that these provisions, by which the House automatically reconsidersreconsidered such decisive votes, arewere a
different procedure apart from the right of any Member to demand a separate vote in the House on any first degree
amendment reported from the Committee of the Whole.
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Parliamentary Rights of the Delegates and Resident Commissioner Fromfrom Puerto Rico
Author Contact Information
Christopher M. Davis
Analyst on Congress and the Legislative Process
cmdavis@crs.loc.gov, 7-0656
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Congressional Research Service
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