Resolutions of Inquiry in the House

Resolutions of Inquiry in the House

Resolutions of Inquiry in the House
Updated July 21, 2022
On July 19, 2022, the House agreed to H.Res. 1232, a special rule reported by the House Committee on
Rules. The adoption of the resolution means that temporary procedures previously in place during the
117th Congress (2021-2022) that “paused” certain deadlines for committee action on resolutions of inquiry
are no longer in force. Any resolution of inquiry submitted after the adoption of H.Res. 1232 are to be
governed by the standing rules of the House, a development that could result in more such resolutions
being introduced and referred to committee for consideration.
A resolution of inquiry is a simple House resolution (H.Res.) making a direct request or demand of the
President or the head of an executive department to provide specific factual information in the
Administration’s possession.
Under clause 7 of House Rule XIII, such resolutions, if properly drafted, are given a special parliamentary
status. If the committee to which such a resolution is referred has not reported the measure back to the
House within 14 legislative days after its introduction, a privileged and non-debatable motion to discharge
the committee of further consideration of the resolution becomes available on the chamber floor. If the
House agrees to such a privileged motion to discharge, the resolution of inquiry would be taken out of
committee and become available for consideration on the House floor.
If the committee of referral reports a resolution of inquiry within the 14-day time frame, however—
regardless of whether the report is favorable, adverse, or made without recommendation—the privileged
resolution can be called up on the floor only by a Member who has been authorized by the reporting
committee to do so. In other words, by reporting a resolution of inquiry, a committee can preclude the
privileged motion to discharge and preserve to itself the decision of whether to call up the measure on the
floor. As such, in recent practice, a House committee will virtually always mark up and report a resolution
of inquiry that has been referred to it—even one it opposes—in order to retain control of the measure and
prevent supporters from triggering floor votes on questions related to considering it.
While resolutions of inquiry have been used since the earliest Congresses to seek information from the
executive branch, the basic form of the present House rule was adopted in 1879. The rule was last
amended in 1983 to lengthen the time period for a committee to report from one week to 14 legislative
days. On occasion, when the House has expected to hold pro forma sessions for extended periods of time
(for example, during the traditional August or December recess), it has adopted an order dictating that
those pro forma days do not count against the 14-day period the committee has to report a resolution of
inquiry. As noted above, until July 19, 2022, the 117th Congress operated under similar temporary
procedures (pursuant to several special rules reported by the Rules Committee and adopted by the House)
that effectively “turned off” the 14-day deadline.
In order to be privileged, a House resolution of inquiry:

Congressional Research Service
2
 must be directed to the President or the head of an executive department (not to a
subordinate official such as the IRS commissioner or the director of the CIA),
 must not have a preamble,
 must request facts in the possession of the official, and
 may not require the official to express an opinion or undertake an investigation.
The House Parliamentarian has summarized relevant chamber rules and precedents related to resolutions
of inquiry and provided citations to additional reading on the subject.
Unlike subpoenas or statutes, resolutions of inquiry do not have legal force, nor is there any direct
enforcement mechanism. Any response by the executive branch to such a request is voluntary. Available
data examined by CRS suggest that over several recent decades, at least 30% of the time, a resolution of
inquiry has resulted in the production of some information to the House. In the majority of cases,
however, it is simply unknown, unclear, or in dispute whether the resolution of inquiry produced any of
the information requested.
Between 1947 and the present, over 300 resolutions of inquiry have been introduced in the House. The
information most commonly sought has related to defense, foreign relations, and intelligence. Two
periods in particular—1971-1975 and 2003-2006—saw the highest levels of activity during the post-war
period. Although Representatives of both political parties have used resolutions of inquiry, in recent
Congresses, such resolutions have overwhelmingly been submitted by minority party Representatives
seeking information from a President of the opposite political party.
Some have charged that minority party Members have in recent Congresses used the privileged status
such resolutions enjoy as a way to “force” committees to act on a given subject or get Members to record
votes on politically controversial policy questions. Those holding this view argue that resolutions of
inquiry, in essence, enable the minority party to “schedule” a committee markup on a subject of its
choosing. Others have argued that resolutions of inquiry have increased in frequency over specific recent
Congresses because the executive branch has often responded to information requests from Congress
grudgingly, if at all. Those holding this view have argued that this has forced minority party Members to
repeatedly turn to one of the few oversight tools at their disposal.
Since 1947, most of the resolutions of inquiry reported by the House committee to which they were
referred were reported adversely, indicating that the committee opposed floor action on the resolution.
The stated reasons for this opposition have included that the resolution had been made moot by the
executive branch complying in whole or in part with the request or because such a request would, in the
view of the committee, compromise an ongoing investigation, endanger sensitive information, or seek
readily available facts. Less than a quarter of the resolutions of inquiry introduced since 1947 reached the
House floor, the last one in 1995.

Author Information

Christopher M. Davis

Analyst on Congress and the Legislative Process

Congressional Research Service
3
Disclaimer
This document was prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). CRS serves as nonpartisan shared staff
to congressional committees and Members of Congress. It operates solely at the behest of and under the direction of
Congress. Information in a CRS Report should not be relied upon for purposes other than public understanding of
information that has been provided by CRS to Members of Congress in connection with CRS’s institutional role.
CRS Reports, as a work of the United States Government, are not subject to copyright protection in the United
States. Any CRS Report may be reproduced and distributed in its entirety without permission from CRS. However,
as a CRS Report may include copyrighted images or material from a third party, you may need to obtain the
permission of the copyright holder if you wish to copy or otherwise use copyrighted material.

IN10661 · VERSION 3 · UPDATED