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Suspension of the Rules in the House:
Principal Features
Elizabeth Rybicki
Specialist on the Congress and the Legislative Process
November 30, 2010
Congressional Research Service
7-5700
www.crs.gov
98-314
CRS Report for Congress
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repared for Members and Committees of Congress
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Suspension of the Rules in the House: Principal Features
Summary
“Suspension of the rules” is a procedure that the House of Representatives often uses on the floor
to act expeditiously on legislation. This procedure is governed primarily by clause 1 of House
Rule XV. When a bill or some other matter is considered “under suspension,” floor debate is
limited to 40 minutes, all floor amendments are prohibited, and a two-thirds vote is required for
final passage.
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Suspension of the Rules in the House: Principal Features
uspension of the rules is a procedure that the House of Representatives often uses on the
floor to act expeditiously on legislation. This procedure is governed primarily by clause 1
S of House Rule XV. When a bill or some other matter is considered “under suspension,”
floor debate is limited, all floor amendments are prohibited, and a two-thirds vote is required for
final passage.
Typically, a Member whom the Speaker has recognized will say, for example, “Mr. Speaker, I
move to suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 1234.” By making that motion, the Member
triggers the use of the suspension procedure under Rule XV. However, this same procedure can be
used for other legislative purposes. For example, a Member can move to suspend the rules and
agree to a conference report, or concur in a Senate amendment to a House bill, or take some other
action.
There are nine principal features of the suspension procedure.
1. The Speaker controls the use of this procedure. No Member has a right to make a
suspension motion. The Speaker decides who to recognize for suspension motions.
2. Suspension motions are in order only on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays,
and during the final days of the annual congressional session. The House
sometimes agrees to consider suspension motions on other days, by agreeing to either
a unanimous consent request or a special rule for that purpose.
3. There are only 40 minutes of debate on a suspension motion and the bill (or
other action) to which it relates. Time control is usually divided between the
chairman and the ranking minority member of the committee or subcommittee with
jurisdiction over the bill. However, if the ranking minority member supports the bill,
another Member who opposes it can claim control of half the time for debate.
4. When a bill is considered under suspension, no floor amendments are in order.
The Member making the motion, however, can include amendments as part of his or
her motion. In that case, the Member moves to suspend the rules and pass the bill as
amended.
5. After the 40 minutes of debate, there is a single vote on suspending the rules and
passing the bill. The House does not vote first on whether to suspend the rules and
then on whether to pass the bill. Both questions are decided by one vote.
6. A two-thirds vote of the House is required to pass a bill under suspension of the
rules. This is a two-thirds vote of the Members present and voting, a quorum being
present. If a suspension motion fails to receive the required two-thirds vote, the
House can consider the bill in question again, often under procedures that require
only a simple majority vote to pass it.
7. The Speaker can postpone rollcall votes on suspension motions until later on the
same day or within the next two legislative days,1 and cluster them to occur one
1 A “legislative day” begins the first time the House meets after an adjournment and ends when the House adjourns
again.
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Suspension of the Rules in the House: Principal Features
after the other. When there is a series of such rollcall votes, Members have 15
minutes to vote on the first motion but they usually have only five minutes to vote on
each of the other motions.
8. There is no requirement that a bill must be reported from committee before the
House can consider it under suspension. One advantage of the suspension
procedure is that the committee to which a bill was referred does not have to meet
formally to vote on reporting it or to prepare a written report on the bill.
9. The suspension procedure automatically waives all points of order against the
bill (or other action) and against its consideration. The procedure suspends all
rules of the House except those that govern the suspension procedure itself.
There is no suspension calendar. Instead, during the last floor session of each week, a member of
the majority party leadership usually makes a public announcement on the floor about the bills
that have been scheduled tentatively for consideration under suspension during the following
week.
For additional information, see the Parliamentarian’s notes following clause 1 of Rule XV in the
House Rules and Manual; pages 871-879 of House Practice; and volume 6, chapter 21, sections
9-15 of Deschler’s Precedents.
Author Contact Information
Elizabeth Rybicki
Specialist on the Congress and the Legislative
Process
erybicki@crs.loc.gov, 7-0644
Acknowledgments
This report was written by Stanley Bach, a former Senior Specialist in the Legislative Process at CRS. The
listed author updated the report and can respond to inquiries on the subject.
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