Contents

• Introduction
• House Rules Governing the Motion to Recommit
• Effects of the Motion to Recommit
• Characterization of the Motion to Recommit by the Minority Party
• Recent Changes to the Motion to Recommit
• Connecting the Motion to Recommit to Policy Proposals

Summary

The motion to recommit in the House of Representatives proposes to send legislation under consideration on the floor back to committee. A Member may move to recommit a measure prior to a vote on final passage or adoption, providing a late-stage opportunity for a vote in relation to the legislation. Priority in recognition to offer the motion is given to an opponent of the measure, and the motion is considered to be a minority party right.

The motion to recommit is one of the most common roll call votes taken on the House floor, as House rules guarantee the opportunity to offer the motion during initial consideration of a bill or joint resolution under the terms of a special rule. Specifically, the Committee on Rules cannot report a special rule that precludes the minority leader or a designee from moving to recommit the underlying legislation.

Historically, a motion to recommit could include "instructions" that proposed to immediately amend a measure on the House floor. Oftentimes, the minority party would use such a motion to obtain a vote in connection to a favored policy. Since the 117^th Congress, however, Members may no longer use a recommittal motion to directly propose changes to a legislative text. Nevertheless, minority Members often connect the vote on the motion to recommit to a policy proposal during general debate on the bill. They sometimes present an amendment they would like to have offered, if allowed, or that they would like the committee to consider if the motion to recommit is successful.

Introduction

The rules and procedures of the House of Representatives are designed to allow a numerical majority to work its will on the floor. Major legislation is considered under special orders of business—more often called rules or special rules—which determine the text that will be brought before the full House for consideration and what changes, if any, may be proposed from the floor.¹ Special rules, if they are approved on the House floor after being reported by the Committee on Rules, allow a voting majority to control the floor agenda, with few limits on the parameters they may set.

Some standing rules of the House, however, protect the ability of members of the minority party to participate in the legislative process. Perhaps most significantly, prior to final passage of a bill, members opposed to the measure have an opportunity to propose that it be sent to committee. They do this by offering a motion to recommit—or, if the measure has not yet been sent to committee, a motion to commit.² This motion is permitted whenever the House is considering a measure under the terms of a special rule, even a special rule that precludes all other motions and amendments. In recent Congresses, Members have used the motion in approximately half of the circumstances during which it was available, making the vote on the motion to recommit one of the most common roll call votes taken in the House.

This report describes the rules and precedents governing the motion to recommit, the potential effects of the motion, and the minority Member practice of connecting the motion to recommit to specific policy proposals during debate on the bill.

House Rules Governing the Motion to Recommit

House Rule XIX, clause 2, permits a motion to recommit prior to a vote on final passage or adoption of a measure. More precisely, it allows the motion even if the previous question has been ordered or proposed on a measure.³ The previous question is used to bring the House to an immediate vote on the main question under consideration. If the House votes to order the previous question on a measure, it prevents further debate, amendment, and motions—except that clause 2 of Rule XIX allows a single motion to recommit. In current practice, it is almost always the case that during floor consideration when this motion to recommit would be permitted, the House is considering legislation under the terms of a special rule reported by the Rules Committee.⁴

Clause 2 of Rule XIX directs the Speaker to give priority in recognition for this form of a motion to recommit to a Member opposed to the measure. Preference in recognition among those opposed is given first to the minority leader or a Member designated by the minority leader, then to minority party members of the committee that reported the measure (in order of seniority), then to other minority party Members, and, finally to majority party Members.⁵ In practice, the minority leader arranges in advance of floor consideration which Member of the minority party will offer the motion.⁶

Since the start of the 117^th Congress (2021-2022), the motion to recommit offered pursuant to House Rule XIX cannot include "instructions" to the committee and is not subject to debate. As discussed below, previous forms of House Rule XIX allowed for instructions as well as 10 minutes of debate.⁷

House Rule XIII, clause 6(c), prohibits the Rules Committee from reporting a special rule for the consideration of a bill or joint resolution that precludes the minority leader or a designee from offering the motion to recommit permitted by House Rule XIX, clause 2.⁸ There is an exception, however, if the House has agreed to an amendment to a Senate-passed bill or joint resolution that substitutes the text of a House-passed measure. In that case, Members would have had a chance to offer the motion to recommit when the House-passed measure was initially considered.

Rule XIII does not protect the motion to recommit during consideration of simple and concurrent resolutions. For example, a special rule precluding a recommittal motion on a congressional budget resolution (concurrent resolution) or a "sense of the House" resolution (simple resolution) would not violate House rules.

Further, House Rule XIII does not protect the motion to recommit during consideration of Senate amendments, as the protection applies only to initial passage.⁹ For instance, a special rule may make in order a motion to concur in a Senate amendment with an amendment consisting of language the House has not previously considered. House rules would not require such a special rule to guarantee the minority a motion to recommit, even though the special rule was providing for action on what is effectively a new proposal.¹⁰

Effects of the Motion to Recommit

Simply stated, the motion to recommit proposes to send the measure under consideration back to committee. Although a successful motion does not preclude future procedural action on the legislation, it may effectively kill a measure or prompt significant modification. Motions to recommit almost always fail, typically along party lines.

Oftentimes, a Member requests that the question of adopting a motion to recommit be decided by roll call vote, wherein Members cast their votes on the floor by electronic device, establishing a record of how each Member voted. In such cases, the Speaker may put the vote to the House immediately but has authority to postpone the vote within two additional legislative days.¹¹

House approval of a motion to recommit could send a bill back to the committee from which it was reported for further work on the measure. Members often discuss desired modifications during general debate on the bill, which may provide the committee with a non-binding understanding of how to improve the legislation if it chooses to take additional action. If the underlying legislation was not reported by a committee—either because it was never referred to committee or because a committee was discharged from further consideration of the bill—the minority might try to use the motion to provide for a markup process. A motion to recommit can also send a measure to a different committee than the one that reported it, perhaps to facilitate the inclusion of provisions outside the original committee's jurisdiction.

Proponents of a measure sometimes argue that a successful motion to recommit effectively disposes of the underlying measure because a committee is not required to take further action on a recommitted measure. In some political contexts, a committee may interpret a vote to remove a bill from the floor as a rejection of the legislation altogether.

Characterization of the Motion to Recommit by the Minority Party

The motion to recommit has existed since the First Congress, although its form and function have evolved.¹² Oftentimes, modifications of procedure have reflected attempts to balance the minority's right to have its positions considered with the majority's need to control floor action.¹³ Previous iterations of the motion to recommit shape the manner in which the motion is understood and characterized today, particularly with regard to its effect on policy outcomes.

Recent Changes to the Motion to Recommit

Most notably in recent history, the rules package adopted at the start of the 117^th Congress (2021-2022) contained several revisions to House Rule XIX that affected the motion to recommit.¹⁴ The rule prior to the 117^th Congress provided for 10 minutes of debate on the motion and the option of making a motion to recommit with instructions "in the form of a direction to report an amendment or amendments back to the House forthwith."¹⁵ Such a motion would direct the committee of referral to immediately report the bill back to the House with any amendment(s) contained within the instructions. If successful, a motion to recommit with instructions effectively provided the minority an opportunity to offer an amendment before final passage. For instance, the House adopted a motion to recommit H.R. 2102 in the 110^th Congress (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Offering a Motion to Recommit with Instructions

Immediately after the motion's approval, the chair of the Committee on the Judiciary reported the bill back to the House with the specified amendment, and the House agreed to the amendment by voice vote.

Since the 117^th Congress, both the 10 minutes of debate on the motion to recommit and the option to include instructions have been eliminated. To date, only one motion to recommit offered after the rules change of the 117^th Congress has succeeded.¹⁶

Connecting the Motion to Recommit to Policy Proposals

As House rules exist now, the motion to recommit may not include instructions and therefore cannot directly propose modifications to a legislative text. However, since the 117^th Congress, and regardless of which political party controls the House, members of the minority party have often characterized the motion to recommit vote as a vote on a policy position.

During general debate, Members may discuss amendments they would have offered using a motion to recommit with instructions to report back "forthwith," if it were allowed. For example, during floor consideration of H.R. 140 in the 118^th Congress, a minority party Member made such a statement (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. Connecting the Motion to Recommit to Policy

The Member then provided the amendment he would have offered as text inserted in the Congressional Record at the conclusion of his remarks (see Figure 3).

Figure 3. Inserting the Text of an Amendment into the Congressional Record

Minority Members sometimes ask unanimous consent to include the text of an amendment they would like to have offered in the Congressional Record immediately prior to the vote on the motion to recommit.¹⁷ Oftentimes, this text will have been drafted as a motion to recommit with instructions.

For example, during floor consideration of H.R. 4468 in the 118^th Congress, a minority party Member made the following request:

Ms. STEVENS. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of my amendment in the Record immediately prior to the vote on the motion to recommit.

At the appropriate time, the Member moved to recommit the bill without instructions. Text of a motion to recommit with instructions was then inserted into Congressional Record directly after (see Figure 4).

Figure 4. Inserting the Text of a Motion to Recommit with Instructions into the Congressional Record

Although the text inserted into the Congressional Record appears in the form of a motion, the Member inserting the text into the Congressional Record is not offering a motion to recommit the bill with instructions, as House rules do not permit such a motion. Rather, such insertions highlight a policy change the proponent could have offered under the previous version of Rule XIX. During general debate, the proponents of such motions sometimes indicate they would like the committee to consider the proposed changes if the motion to recommit were successful.

CRS Visual Information Specialist Amber Wilhelm assisted in creating the graphics in this report.

Footnotes