Order Code 98-383 GOV
Updated August 30, 2007
Motions to Recommit in the House
Betsy Palmer
Analyst on the Congress and Legislative Process
Government and Finance Division
The rules of the House permit motions to recommit under two different
circumstances. First, immediately before the House votes on passing a bill or joint
resolution, a Member can move to recommit that measure to the House standing
committee that had considered and reported it. Second, before the House votes to accept
or reject a conference report, a Member sometimes can move to recommit the report to
the conference committee. In each case, the right to make recommittal motions is a
prerogative of the minority party. For more information on legislative process, see
[http://www.crs.gov/products/guides/guidehome.shtml].1
Recommitting a Bill or Joint Resolution
Under clause 2 of Rule XIX, one motion is in order to recommit a bill or joint
resolution after the House has ordered the previous question on the measure and before
the vote on passing it. The Speaker gives preference in recognition for this purpose to a
Member of the minority party who opposes the bill. A member of the committee that
reported the bill is likely to be recognized before a non-committee member, and any
member of the minority party is recognized before a member of the majority party. House
resolutions and concurrent resolutions are not subject to recommittal motions.
This motion to recommit can take two different forms. A simple or straight motion
only proposes to recommit (or send back) the bill or joint resolution to the committee that
reported it. This motion is not debatable and, if adopted, has the effect of killing the
measure. The House does not often adopt a motion to recommit in this form. More
common is the motion to recommit with instructions. In this form, a recommittal motion
proposes to return the measure to committee with certain instructions that the committee,
as an agent of the House, is obligated to follow. For example, the motion may direct the
committee to hold additional hearings before deciding whether to report the bill back to
the House for further consideration.
1 This report was originally written by Stanley Bach, formerly a Senior Specialist in the
Legislative Process at CRS. Mr. Bach has retired, but the listed author updated the report and is
available to answer questions concerning its contents.
CRS-2
Most frequently, Members move to recommit measures to committee with
amendatory instructions. Such a motion typically proposes to recommit a bill or joint
resolution to the committee that had reported it with instructions that the committee report
the measure back to the House “forthwith” with a certain amendment, the text of which
is included in the recommittal motion.
If the House adopts such a motion, the committee to which the measure has been
recommitted is given no time in which to act and no discretion about how to act. As a
result, the recommitted measure never actually leaves the House floor. Instead, the
committee chair immediately rises and, on behalf of the committee and pursuant to the
House’s instruction, reports the bill back to the House with the amendment contained in
the recommittal motion. The measure then is back before the House with that amendment
pending. The House votes on agreeing to the amendment and then on final passage of the
bill, as it may just have been amended.
A motion to recommit with instructions also may propose to recommit a bill or joint
resolution to the committee that had reported it with instructions that the committee report
the measure back to the House “promptly.” If this motion is successful, the bill or joint
resolution is no longer before the House and would return to the specified committee for
further action as per the instructions contained in the motion to recommit.
In effect, therefore, a motion to recommit with amendatory instructions provides one
last opportunity for a Member, almost always from the minority party, to offer an
amendment to the bill or joint resolution the House is considering. However, this
amendment and, therefore, the recommittal motion that contains it, must meet the same
requirements as any other amendment. For example, the amendment must be germane
and it may not propose only to amend a portion of the measure that already has been
amended. If a point of order is sustained against a motion to recommit, a valid
recommittal motion remains in order.
A motion to recommit a measure with instructions is debatable for 10 minutes unless
the majority floor manager of the measure asks that the time for debate be extended to an
hour. In either case, the time is equally divided between the Member making the motion
and a Member opposing it. The motion is amendable if the previous question is not
moved or if that motion is made and rejected. The Rules Committee is prohibited by Rule
XIII, clause 6(c), from reporting a special rule that precludes a recommittal motion with
amendatory instructions if the minority leader or his designee seeks recognition to make
the motion (except when the House considers a Senate bill only for the purpose of
arranging a conference with the Senate).
Recommitting a Conference Report
After the House orders the previous question on a conference report, a Member may
move to recommit the report to conference if the House is the first chamber to act on it.
If the Senate has already approved the report, the effect of that vote is to discharge the
Senate’s conferees, so there no longer is a conference committee to which the House
might recommit the report. (The same holds true in reverse: if the House acts first on the
conference report, then the Senate may not offer a motion to recommit that measure to
conference.)
CRS-3
One valid motion to recommit is in order. That motion may propose simply to return
the report to the conference committee. Almost always, however, the motion recommits
the report with instructions to the conferees to present a new report that meets whatever
criteria are contained in the instructions: for example, to insist on a certain House position
or to reach a different compromise with the Senate that satisfies certain conditions.
However, the instructions contained in the recommittal motion may not include argument
or instruct the House’s conferees to reach some agreement that exceeds their authority as
conferees. No point of order lies against any conference report for failing to comply with
instructions that the House had voted to give its conferees.
In this form also, making the motion to recommit remains the prerogative of the
minority party unless no minority party member seeks recognition to offer the motion.
The motion to recommit a conference report is amendable if the House does not vote to
order the previous question on the motion.