How Measures Are Brought to the House
Floor: A Brief Introduction
Christopher M. Davis
Analyst on Congress and the Legislative Process
November 2, 2012
Congressional Research Service
7-5700
www.crs.gov
RS20067
CRS Report for Congress
Pr
epared for Members and Committees of Congress
How Measures Are Brought to the House Floor: A Brief Introduction
Summary
This report presents a brief description of the five parliamentary methods used to bring proposed
legislation to the House floor for consideration. These methods allow for consideration as a
privileged matter, under the limited privilege of a special calendar or day, under suspension of the
rules, under the terms of a special rule, or by unanimous consent. This report will be updated to
reflect changes in the rules or practices of the House.
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How Measures Are Brought to the House Floor: A Brief Introduction
Contents
Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 1
Privileged Measures ......................................................................................................................... 1
Special Calendars or Days ............................................................................................................... 2
Discharge Calendar.................................................................................................................... 2
District Days .............................................................................................................................. 3
Private Calendar ........................................................................................................................ 3
Calendar Wednesday ................................................................................................................. 3
Suspension of the Rules ................................................................................................................... 4
Special Rules ................................................................................................................................... 5
Unanimous Consent ......................................................................................................................... 5
Contacts
Author Contact Information............................................................................................................. 6
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How Measures Are Brought to the House Floor: A Brief Introduction
Introduction
There is no single method that the House must employ in calling up or considering proposed
legislation. Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution allows each house of Congress to determine for
itself the “Rules of its Proceedings,” and the House has used this freedom to provide itself several
alternative procedures for raising measures for consideration. These procedures allow the House
to tailor its consideration depending on the circumstances and content of the measure.
When a measure is reported by a House committee, it is placed on a calendar. Tax, authorization,
and appropriation measures are placed on the Union Calendar (so-called because such measures
are to be considered in the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union, known as
the Committee of the Whole).1 Other matters go on the House Calendar. These calendars are
essentially lists of measures that committees have recommended for further consideration by the
House. It would be virtually impossible for the House to consider all of the proposed legislation
on these lists and it would be equally impractical and perhaps undesirable for the House to
attempt to consider each of these measures in the order in which they appear on these lists.
Therefore, the House has evolved a system for establishing priorities. This system is based on a
concept called “privilege.”
The rules and practices of the House provide five methods by which a measure may be raised for
consideration. A measure may be brought to the floor as a privileged matter, under the limited
privilege of a special calendar or day, under suspension of the rules, under the terms of a special
rule, or by unanimous consent.
Privileged Measures
House Rule XIV, clause 1, specifies a daily order of business for the House to follow. In practice,
that order is not usually observed because House rules also specify several types of measures that
are privileged, and therefore may interrupt the order of business. These types of measures may be
called up on the floor whenever another matter is not already pending. They are then considered
only when the House agrees to do so by agreeing to a unanimous consent request, voting to
resolve into Committee of the Whole (in the case of general appropriation bills), or raising and
voting on the question of consideration. In this way the House gives precedence to important
classes of business without losing its power to decide (by majority vote) to consider any measure
it chooses. Currently, privileged measures include
• bills and resolutions reported under the right of a committee to report at any time
(Rule XIII, clause 5(a)); this category includes
-general appropriations bills,
-continuing resolutions after September 15,
-concurrent resolutions on the budget,
1 For more on Committee of the Whole, see CRS Report RS20147, Committee of the Whole: An Introduction, by Judy
Schneider.
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How Measures Are Brought to the House Floor: A Brief Introduction
-budget reconciliation bills,
-resolutions from the Committee on Rules concerning the rules, joint rules, or the order of
business of the House (known as “special rules”),2
-resolutions from the Committee on Ethics recommending action as a result of an
investigation, and
-measures reported from the Committee on House Administration concerning enrolled
bills, contested elections, printing for the use of the House, expenditures from the
contingent fund (including committee funding resolutions), or noncurrent records of the
House;
• conference reports after three days (Rule XXII, clause 7(a));
• motions to discharge or instruct conferees (Rule XXII, clause 7(c));
• questions of the privileges of the House or questions of personal privilege (Rule
IX, clause 2);
• resolutions of inquiry (Rule XIII, clause 7); and
• measures vetoed by the President (Article I, Section 7 of the U.S. Constitution).3
Special Calendars or Days
Other measures may be accorded a more limited form of privilege. These measures may interrupt
the order of business, but only in certain specified circumstances. This limited privilege can apply
to special calendars (i.e., lists of legislation), such as the Discharge or Private Calendars. It can
also apply to special types of legislation regardless of which calendar they appear on, such as the
special days on which District of Columbia business is privileged, or even to committees, such as
with Calendar Wednesday. These special procedures allow the House to set aside predictable
periods of time when it may consider various categories of proposed legislation. Currently, a
small number of measures are brought to the House floor in this way.
Discharge Calendar4
Under House Rule XV, clause 2, if a committee fails to report a measure, a motion to discharge
the committee from further consideration of the measure may be made on the second or fourth
2 Privileged reports by the Committee on Rules are further specified in Rule XIII, clause 6.
3 The constitution mandates that the House “shall proceed to reconsider” a vetoed bill. It is the usual, but not invariable,
rule that a bill returned with the objections of the President shall be read and considered at once [Hinds, Asher C.,
Precedents of the House of Representatives of the United States, including references to the Constitution, the laws, and
decisions of the United States Senate, vol. IV, sections 3534-3536 (Washington: GPO, 1907).] However, it has also
been interpreted as complied with by laying the bill on the table, referring it to a committee, postponing consideration
to a day certain, or immediately voting on reconsideration [Cannon, Clarence, Precedents of the House of
Representatives of the United States, including references to provisions of the Constitution, the laws, and decisions of
the United States Senate, vol. VII, section 1105 (Washington: GPO, 1935).]
4 For more detail, see CRS Report 97-552, The Discharge Rule in the House: Principal Features and Uses, by Richard
S. Beth.
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How Measures Are Brought to the House Floor: A Brief Introduction
Monday of a month if 218 Members have signed a petition for that purpose and certain waiting
periods are met. If the motion is agreed to, a further motion is in order to consider the measure
discharged. If the measure coming up by discharge is a special rule for considering another
measure, the special rule is automatically considered. A measure called up from the Discharge
Calendar is considered in the House or in the Committee of the Whole, as appropriate. Although
several discharge petitions are usually filed in each Congress, it has been several years since one
has achieved the requisite number of signatures.
District Days
Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution grants Congress the power to “exercise exclusive
legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by
cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of
the United States.... ” Because of this special responsibility over the District of Columbia, House
rules provide that measures from either the House or Union Calendar dealing with District
business are privileged for consideration on the second and fourth Mondays of each month (Rule
XV, clause 4. The District Day procedure has been unused by the House in recent Congresses.
Private Calendar5
Private legislation concerns measures of a private, rather than a public, nature (i.e., those that
apply only to specified individuals, corporations, institutions, etc.), and typically involve such
things as claims against the government and immigration problems. Such measures are privileged
for consideration on the first and third Tuesdays of each month (Rule XV, clause 5). The Speaker
is required to direct the clerk to call measures on the Private Calendar on the first Tuesday, but
consideration on the third Tuesday is discretionary. Consideration of measures on the Private
Calendar may also be dispensed with on either the first or third Tuesday by two-thirds vote.
On days when the Private Calendar is privileged the Speaker directs the clerk to call each bill on
the Private Calendar. The measures are then passed by unanimous consent with little or no debate
if no Member objects. If one Member objects, the measure is “passed over without prejudice” for
later consideration. If two or more Members object, the measure is automatically recommitted to
the committee that reported it. The rule also allows that on the third Tuesday, omnibus measures,
embodying those private bills that have been previously rejected, may have preference (although
this procedure is now rarely used). Each party appoints Members (currently three) as “official
objectors” to act as watchdogs over private legislation. In recent practice, the House has used the
Private Calendar procedure to consider a small handful of bills in each Congress.
Calendar Wednesday
The Calendar Wednesday procedure has not been used by the House in recent Congresses. Also
known as the “Call of Committees,” this rule allows a committee to overcome what it feels is
inaction or indifference by the majority leadership or the Rules Committee, or both, if the House
wishes to consider a measure (Rule XV, clause 6). The rule allows each committee in turn to call
up bills not otherwise privileged that have been reported but that have not reached the House
5 For more detail, see CRS Report 98-628, Private Bills: Procedure in the House, by Richard S. Beth.
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How Measures Are Brought to the House Floor: A Brief Introduction
floor through a more conventional route. The Call of Committees is only undertaken, however,
when the chair of a committee, or other Member authorized by a committee, has announced to the
House a request for such a call on the preceding legislative day.
Suspension of the Rules
Suspension of the rules is used to provide expedited consideration of relatively non-controversial
legislation. It is the most commonly used method for raising measures for consideration in the
House. Between two-thirds and three-quarters of measures that became public laws in recent
Congresses have been considered by this method.6
The procedure for suspension of the rules is spelled out in House Rule XV, clause 1. Under this
rule, the Speaker may recognize a Member to move to suspend the rules and pass a particular
measure on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and the last six days of a session. Suspensions may
also be authorized at other times by unanimous consent or by the adoption of a special rule. There
is no requirement limiting suspension motions to measures reported from committees.
A suspension motion may be debated for 40 minutes (equally divided between a proponent and
opponent); may not be amended from the floor (although the motion itself may include changes
to the measure); and must pass by a two-thirds vote of those present and voting. The suspension
procedure effectively waives all rules of the House that would prevent consideration of a
measure, so that no points of order may be made against the measure on the floor.
Unlike other special days, the suspension procedure is not designed to grant limited privilege to a
specific class of legislation or empower the House to circumvent a recalcitrant committee or
leadership. The Speaker’s authority with regard to suspension motions is not limited by the rules
of the House. Rules and guidelines adopted by the House party caucuses, however, theoretically
place some limits on the use of the procedure. The rules of the House Democratic Caucus, for
example, among other limits, direct the Democratic leadership not to consent to the consideration
of measures under suspension that would make or authorize appropriations in excess of $100
million in any fiscal year. In the 112th Congress, Republican Conference Rule 28 provides that the
Republican leadership should not schedule any bill for consideration under the suspension
procedure that, among other things, does not include a cost estimate; has not been cleared by the
minority; was opposed by more than one-third of a reporting committee’s members; creates a new
program unless it also eliminates or reduces a program of equal or greater size; extends an
authorization whose originating statute contained a sunset provision; or authorizes an increase in
authorizations, appropriations, or direct spending in any given year, unless fully offset by at least
an equal reduction in current spending. The same rule limits the use of the suspension procedure
to consider certain kinds of commemorative or “honorific” legislation and for certain
Congressional Gold Medal legislation. Rule 28 may be waived by a majority of the party’s
elected leadership.
6 For more detail, see CRS Report RL32474, Suspension of the Rules in the House of Representatives, by Thomas P.
Carr.
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How Measures Are Brought to the House Floor: A Brief Introduction
Special Rules
The House Committee on Rules is authorized to report resolutions on the order of business. These
resolutions, called special rules, are privileged under Rule XIII, clause 5(a), and generally provide
for the House to make in order floor consideration of a measure.7 In effect, special rules allow the
House to take a measure from the House or Union Calendar (or even one not reported by a
committee), and give it privilege to be considered. Most major and controversial legislation is
considered under this method. Otherwise privileged measures, such as appropriations bills and
budget resolutions, may come before the House through the adoption of a special rule as well.
Special rules are considered in the House under the one-hour rule, but the measure covered by the
special rule is typically considered in the Committee of the Whole (although consideration in the
House can be specified if it is appropriate).
Special rules set the terms and conditions for consideration of the specified measure. Special rules
typically state a period for general debate on the measure as a whole, and expedite final action
after the Committee of the Whole is finished with consideration. Special rules may include
provisions to structure the amending process for a measure and may also waive points of order
against consideration of a bill, against specified provisions, or against amendments.
Unanimous Consent
For some noncontroversial matters, the Speaker will recognize a Member to ask for unanimous
consent that a measure be passed. If any Member objects to the request, the measure will fail to
pass. In this circumstance, no formal debate can take place, but Members may sometimes reserve
the right to object to clarify the content or purposes of a measure. Unanimous consent requests
can also be made to provide for consideration of a measure, although this is rare. The request may
designate a procedure under which debate may take place and amendments may be offered.
Under a long-standing policy, the Speaker will generally not recognize a Member to make a
unanimous consent request relating to the consideration of measures unless that request has been
cleared in advance by both the majority and minority. Furthermore, under the same policy, with
respect to unanimous consent requests to dispose of Senate amendments to House bills on the
Speaker’s table, the chair will generally only entertain such a request if it is made by the chairman
of the committee of jurisdiction or another committee member who has been authorized to make
the request.8
7 For more detail on special rules, see CRS Report 98-354, How Special Rules Regulate Calling up Measures for
Consideration in the House, by Richard S. Beth. Rule XIII, clause 6(e) and Rule XV, clause 3 also provide that an
adverse report by the Committee on Rules on a special rule is privileged for consideration on the second and fourth
Mondays of a month, and may be called up by any Member.
8 U.S. Congress, House, Constitution, Jefferson’s Manual, and Rules of the House of Representatives, H.Doc. 111-157,
111th Cong., 2nd sess. (Washington: GPO, 2011), §956.
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How Measures Are Brought to the House Floor: A Brief Introduction
Author Contact Information
Christopher M. Davis
Analyst on Congress and the Legislative Process
cmdavis@crs.loc.gov, 7-0656
Congressional Research Service
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