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[106th Congress House Rules Manual -- House Document No. 105-358]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office Online Database]
[Page i-xviii]
                         

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105th Congress, 2d Session -  -  -  -  -   - House Document No. 105-358

________________________________________________________________________


 
      CONSTITUTION, JEFFERSON'S MANUAL, AND RULES OF THE HOUSE OF
                 REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES


                       ONE HUNDRED SIXTH CONGRESS

                           CHARLES W. JOHNSON

                             PARLIAMENTARIAN

 <GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT>


                     U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

51-800                      WASHINGTON : 1999       

________________________________________________________________________

 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing 
                                 Office

                          Washington, DC 20402


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                          HOUSE RESOLUTION 607

                            In the House of Representatives, U.S.,      
                                                     October 20, 1998.  
    Resolved, That a revised edition of the Rules and Manual of the 
House of Representatives for the One Hundred Sixth Congress be printed 
as a House document, and that three thousand additional copies shall be 
printed and bound for the use of the House of Representatives, of which 
nine hundred copies shall be bound in leather with thumb index and 
delivered as may be directed by the Parliamentarian of the House.
    Attest:
                                                   Robin H. Carle,      
                                                                Clerk.  

                                  (III)

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                              P R E F A C E

    The House Rules and Manual contains the fundamental source material 
for parliamentary procedure used in the House of Representatives: the 
Constitution of the United States; applicable provisions of Jefferson's 
Manual; rules of the House (as of the date of this preface); provisions 
of law and resolutions having the force of rules of the House; and 
pertinent decisions of the Speakers and other presiding officers of the 
House and Committee of the Whole interpreting the rules and other 
procedural authority used in the House of Representatives.
    The rules for the One Hundred Sixth Congress were adopted on January 
6, 1999, when the House agreed to House Resolution 5 and, later, House 
Resolution 9. House Resolution 5 consisted of (1) a recodification of 
the rules of the House for the One Hundred Fifth Congress in a revised 
structural format that reduces their number from 52 to 28 in a logical 
sequence, (2) a series of substantive changes to various standing rules 
as so recodified, and (3) separate free-standing orders constituting 
procedures to be followed in the One Hundred Sixth Congress, including 
the immediate consideration of House Resolution 9. House Resolution 9, 
adopted later the same day, changed the recodified clause 5 of rule XXVI 
on the acceptance of gifts. Explanations of the derivations of the 
recodified rules from the rules of the prior Congress, and of 
substantive changes, appear in the annotations following each rule in 
the text of this manual. Additionally, a table of cross-references 
showing major rule citation changes resulting from the recodification 
follows this preface.
    The recodified format arranges the rules by addressing the 
organization and operation of the House as follows: duties of officers 
and Members (rules I-III), administration of the House (rules IV-VI), 
institutional prerogatives (rules VII-IX), committees (rules X-XI), 
consideration of legislation (rules XII-XXIII), conduct of Members, 
officers, and employees (rules XXIV-XXVII), and miscellaneous provisions 
(rule XXVIII). The recodification minimizes the change of some major 
rule citations in order to retain consistency with precedent and 
practice volumes already pub

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lished (e.g.,  germaneness remains clause 7 of rule XVI, and general 
appropriation bill matters remain clause 2 of rule XXI), although cross-
references will be necessary in subsequent precedent and practice 
volumes where rule citations have changed.
    References were changed in the recodification to incorporate 
accepted understandings without substantive change. For instance, 
``Delegates'' and ``the Resident Commissioner'' are mentioned along with 
``Members'' in those situations where the rules do not distinguish 
between statuses. They are omitted in rules addressing authorities or 
responsibilities that are limited to Members (such as voting, Committee 
of the Whole, and selection of presiding officers). Gender references 
are treated as in the United States Code, whereby a reference to ``he'' 
or ``his'' is defined in rule XXVIII to constitute a reference to 
``she'' or ``hers'' where applicable. Provisos have been replaced by 
sentence restructuring to ensure clarity of meaning. The concept of a 
``privileged question'' or ``privileged motion'' has been regularized, 
placing sundry references to matters ``of highest privilege'' or ``in 
order at any time'' or that ``shall always be in order.'' The generic 
reference to votes by the yeas and nays and recorded votes has been 
changed from ``rollcall'' to ``record'' votes. Supermajority voting 
requirements are consistently referred to as two-thirds or three-fifths 
``of the Members voting, a quorum being present.''
    The substantive changes provided by House Resolution 5 included:
    (1) authorization for the Speaker to appoint and set pay for 
employees of the Office of the Historian (clause 7 of rule II);
    (2) authorization to dispense by unanimous consent oral announcement 
of the form of a resolution offered as a question of privilege noticed 
under rule IX (clause 2(a)(1) of rule IX);
    (3) redesignation of the Committee on House Oversight as the 
Committee on House Administration, of the Committee on Government Reform 
and Oversight as the Committee on Government Reform, and of the 
Committee on National Security as the Committee on Armed Services 
(clause 1 of rule X);
    (4) elimination of the exception for the Budget Committee from 
general oversight responsibilities (clause 2(b) of rule X);

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    (5) elimination of a provision added in the 104th Congress making 
consideration of resolutions funding each committee contingent on 
submission of its oversight plans (clause 2(d)(2) of rule X);
    (6) modification of the deadline for submitting views and estimates 
to the Budget Committee (clause 4(f)(1) of rule X);
    (7) specification of the size of the Committee on Standards of 
Official Conduct at 10 members (which was the de facto size of the 
committee in the 105th Congress, notwithstanding that the Ethics Reform 
Act of 1989 required each party caucus to nominate seven Members) and 
deletion of the requirement adopted in the 105th Congress that two 
Members from each party rotate off the committee each Congress (clause 
5(a) of rule X);
    (8) elimination of the Committee on Transportation and 
Infrastructure from the list of exceptions to the general rule limiting 
each committee to five subcommittees, and addition of an exception for 
committees that maintain a subcommittee on oversight (clause 5(d) of 
rule X);
    (9) clarification of the procedure to permit staff questioning of 
witnesses in committee (clause 2(j) of rule XI);
    (10) clarification that committees may specify in a subpoena duces 
tecum terms of return other than at a meeting or hearing (clause 
2(m)(3)(B) of rule XI);
    (11) elimination of general pairs (rule XX);
    (12) expansion of the Speaker's authority to postpone further 
proceedings to include motions to instruct conferees pending their 
appointment (clause 8(a) of rule XX);
    (13) expansion of Speaker's authority to reduce to five minutes the 
minimum time for electronic voting on a question postponed under clause 
8 of rule XX to include questions incidental thereto and to permit the 
first postponed vote in a series to be a five-minute vote if it 
immediately follows a 15-minute vote (clause 8(c) and clause 9 of rule 
XX);
    (14) elimination of the prohibition against including a provision 
for a specific road in a bill providing for another specific road or in 
a general road bill (rule XXI).
    (15) provisions amending the Code of Official Conduct to: (1) permit 
telecommuting by House employees (clause 8 of rule XXIV); and (2) 
include consultants among employees covered by certain provisions of the 
code of conduct (clause 14 of rule XXIV);
    (16) provisions amending limitations on outside earned income to: 
(1) permit certain House employees to receive

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honoraria; and (2) clarify the definition of ``honorarium'' (clause 1 
and clause 4 of rule XXVI);
    House Resolution 5 also included a special order of business 
permitting a separate vote on a resolution to amend the gift rule to 
conform it to the Senate rule (H. Res. 9, amending clause 5 of rule 
XXVI).
    The recodification project was first inspired by Wm. Holmes Brown, 
who retired as Parliamentarian in 1994 and who had prepared in 1985 a 
preliminary draft that served as a basis for the current restructuring. 
Special appreciation is extended to the members and staff of the 
Committee on Rules who served on the bi-partisan Task Force on 
Recodification during the 105th Congress for their cooperation with the 
Office of the Parliamentarian in its preparation. Deputy 
Parliamentarians John Sullivan and Tom Duncan, and Assistant 
Parliamentarians Muftiah McCartin, Tom Wickham, and Ethan Lauer worked 
diligently to prepare the codification and to annotate the decisions of 
the Chair and other parliamentary precedents of the 105th Congress and 
of the 106th Congress to date of publication. Gay Topper, Deborah 
Khalili, and Brian Cooper contributed their clerical skills to the 
preparation of this edition. All of their contributions, especially 
those of Muftiah McCartin in the preparation of this Manual, are 
gratefully acknowledged.
    Citations in this edition refer to:
    (1) Hinds' Precedents of the House of Representatives of the United 
States (volumes I through V) and Cannon's Precedents of the House of 
Representatives of the United States (volumes VI through VIII), by 
volume and section (e.g., V, 5763; VIII, 2852);
    (2) Deschler's Precedents of the U. S. House of Representatives 
(volumes 1 through 9) and the Deschler-Brown Precedents of the U. S. 
House of Representatives (volumes 10 through 15), by volume, chapter, 
and section (e.g., Deschler's Precedents, vol. 8, ch. 26, sec. 79.7; 
Deschler-Brown Precedents, vol. 10, ch. 28, sec. 4.26);
    (3) the Congressional Record, by date and page (e.g., Jan. 29, 1986, 
p. 684);
    (4) House Practice (1996), by page (e.g., House Practice, p. 293);
    (5) Deschler-Brown Procedure in the U.S. House of Representatives 
(4th edition and 1987 supplement), by chapter and section (e.g., 
Procedure, ch. 5, sec. 8.1);
    (6) the United States Code, by title and section (e.g., 2 U.S.C. 
287); and

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    (7) the United States Reports, by volume and page (e.g., 395 U.S. 
486).
                                                    Charles W. Johnson  
  September 20, 1999

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                             C O N T E N T S

                               __________

                            THE CONSTITUTION
                                                                    Page
Preamble..........................................................     3
            Article I.--The legislative power.....................     4
                   II.--The executive power.......................    62
                  III.--The judicial power........................    74
                   IV.--Obligations, duties, etc., of the States..    76
                    V.--Amendments to.............................    78
                   VI.--Law of the land, etc......................    80
                  VII.--Ratification of...........................    84
                        Amendments ratified.......................    86

                           JEFFERSON'S MANUAL

            Section I.--Importance of adhering to rules...........   119
                  III.--Privilege.................................   122
                   VI.--Quorum....................................   141
                  VII.--Call of the House.........................   142
                   IX.--Speaker...................................   142
                    X.--Address...................................   144
                   XI.--Committees................................   145
                  XII.--Committee of the Whole....................   148
                 XIII.--Examination of witnesses..................   157
                  XIV.--Arrangement of business...................   163
                   XV.--Order.....................................   165
                  XVI.--Order respecting papers...................   165
                 XVII.--Order in debate...........................   166
                XVIII.--Orders of the House.......................   186
                  XIX.--Petition..................................   190
                   XX.--Motions...................................   191
                  XXI.--Resolutions...............................   192
                XXIII.--Bills, leave to bring in..................   194
                 XXIV.--Bills, first reading......................   195
                  XXV.--Bills, second reading.....................   195
                 XXVI.--Bills, commitment.........................   196
                XXVII.--Report of committee.......................   206
                                                                    Page

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       Section XXVIII.--Bill, recommitment........................   208
                 XXIX.--Bills, reports taken up...................   209
                  XXX.--Quasi-committee...........................   211
                 XXXI.--Bill, second reading in the House.........   215
                XXXII.--Reading papers............................   217
               XXXIII.--Privileged questions......................   219
                XXXIV.--The previous question.....................   233
                 XXXV.--Amendments................................   234
                XXXVI.--Division of the question..................   243
               XXXVII.--Coexisting questions......................   246
              XXXVIII.--Equivalent questions......................   247
                XXXIX.--The question..............................   250
                   XL.--Bills, third reading......................   251
                  XLI.--Division of the House.....................   255
                 XLII.--Titles....................................   260
                XLIII.--Reconsideration...........................   260
                 XLIV.--Bills sent to the other House.............   263
                  XLV.--Amendments between the Houses.............   264
                 XLVI.--Conferences...............................   274
                XLVII.--Messages..................................   286
               XLVIII.--Assent....................................   290
                 XLIX.--Journals..................................   293

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