Introducing a House Bill or Resolution
Betsy Palmer
Analyst on Congress and the Legislative Process
November 24, 2010
Congressional Research Service
7-5700
www.crs.gov
98-458
CRS Report for Congress
P
repared for Members and Committees of Congress
Introducing a House Bill or Resolution
Developing Ideas for Legislation
Ideas and recommendations for legislation come from a wide variety of sources, such as
individual Representatives, committees and other House working groups, party and chamber
leaders, executive branch agencies and the White House, states and localities, and citizens or
interest groups. Any or all of these individuals or entities may participate in drafting legislation,
although only a Member may formally introduce legislation.
Some of the most common considerations that might be taken into account when drafting a bill
are
• To what committee or committees is the measure likely to be referred?
• Will the bill attract cosponsors?
• Does the measure have bipartisan appeal?
• Is the measure best introduced at the beginning or toward the end of a Congress?
• What are the budgetary or appropriations implications?
• Should there be a companion measure introduced in the Senate?
Drafting Legislation
Although there is no requirement that bills and other measures introduced in the House be
prepared by the House Office of Legislative Counsel, the office plays an important role in
drafting legislation. Its staff attorneys are both subject-matter specialists and experts in legislative
drafting. Legislative counsel staff are often assigned to serve a specific committee or committees
and focus almost exclusively on related policy areas in which they are expert. They act as
nonpartisan, shared staff, working closely with committee members and staff. Numerous drafts of
a bill or resolution may be required before a measure is formally introduced.
Those drafting legislation may seek assistance from legislative counsel at any stage. All
communications with the office are considered confidential. The office is located at 136 Cannon
House Office Building (5-6060).
Under House Rule XII, the Speaker of the House refers legislation based on recommendations
from the Office of the Parliamentarian. After introduction, a bill will normally be referred to the
committee (or committees) having jurisdiction, as defined in House Rule X, over the subject (or
subjects) addressed in the bill. (For detail, see CRS Report 98-175, House Committee Jurisdiction
and Referral: Rules and Practice, by Judy Schneider.) Members and staff drafting legislation may
consult the Office of the Parliamentarian on the referral that a draft bill would be likely to receive.
Introducing a Bill
The formal procedures that govern the practical activity of introducing legislation are few and are
found in House Rule XII. Former House Parliamentarian Wm. Holmes Brown in House Practice:
A Guide to the Rules, Precedents and Procedures of the House (Washington: GPO, 2003) has
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Introducing a House Bill or Resolution
stated: “The system for introducing measures in the House is a relatively free and open one.”
House rules do not limit the number of bills a Representative may introduce.
When a Representative who is the primary sponsor has determined that a bill or resolution is
ready for introduction, the measure is printed in a form that leaves room for the parliamentarian’s
office to note the committee or committees of referral and for a clerk to insert a number. The
Member must sign the measure and attach the names of any cosponsors on the form provided by
the Clerk’s office (cosponsors do not sign the bill). The Member then deposits the measure in the
box, or “hopper,” at the bill clerk’s desk in the House chamber when the House is in session. A
Member need not seek recognition in order to introduce a measure.
If a Member has second thoughts after introducing a measure, he or she may reclaim it from the
clerk so long as the measure has not been assigned a number and referred to committee (a process
that normally takes one day). Once a measure has been numbered and referred, it becomes the
property of the House and cannot be reclaimed. The House has the authority to consider an
introduced bill or resolution even if the sponsor resigns from the House or dies.
In the first days of a new Congress, hundreds of bills and resolutions are introduced. Measures are
numbered sequentially and Representatives may seek to reserve numbers, as these are sometimes
seen as providing a shorthand meaning to the legislation, or having some other symbolic
meaning. In recent Congresses, the House has ordered that bill numbers one through 10 be
reserved for majority party leaders.
Author Contact Information
Betsy Palmer
Analyst on Congress and the Legislative Process
bpalmer@crs.loc.gov, 7-0381
Acknowledgments
This report was originally prepared by former CRS Specialist Richard C. Sachs. Please direct any inquiries
to the listed author.
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