House Rules Governing Committee Markup Procedures

August 31, 2015 (98-312)

The rules of the House provide only general guidance to committees for conducting meetings to mark up legislation. There are no House rules that explicitly govern the various aspects of markup procedure. Instead, clause 1(a)(1) of Rule XI provides in part that "the Rules of the House are the rules of its committees and subcommittees so far as applicable.... " And clause 2(a)(1) of the same rule directs each standing committee to adopt written rules governing its own procedures that "may be not inconsistent with the Rules of the House.... " (Italics added).

These requirements leave many questions unanswered. The House can apply different rules to the consideration of measures on the floor; for example, the House can consider one bill under suspension of the rules and then debate the next bill in Committee of the Whole. It is not obvious, therefore, which House rules are to be applicable to committees. Further, it would not be possible for committees to adopt rules that would be "not inconsistent" with all of these different rules.

The House parliamentarian provides helpful guidance when he notes in the commentary accompanying Sec. XXX of Jefferson's Manual that "[t]he procedures applicable in the House as in the Committee of the Whole generally apply to proceedings in committees of the House of Representatives." The House does not often consider measures in the House as in Committee of the Whole, as distinguished from considering bills either in the House or in Committee of the Whole. Furthermore, as the parliamentarian explains, the procedures that govern floor action in the House as in Committee of the Whole are different in several respects from the procedures applicable in committee.

Based on the parliamentarian's guidance, it is possible to identify the key procedures that House committees are to follow during the markup process.

It is left largely to each committee to enforce its procedures governing the process of debate and amendment during markup sessions. In the commentary accompanying Rule XI, clause 2(a)(1), the House parliamentarian explains that "a point of order does not ordinarily lie in the House against consideration of a bill by reason of defective committee procedures occurring prior to the time the bill is ordered reported to the House."

Author Contact Information

[author name scrubbed], Specialist on the Congress ([email address scrubbed], [phone number scrubbed])