LegiStorm

Summary:

House procedures are based not only on the rules the chamber adopts at the start of each Congress but also on constitutional mandates, published precedents, procedural principles detailed in a manual written by Thomas Jefferson, rulemaking statutes, and informal practices. In addition, House committee and conference rules may influence House procedures. Various reference sources contain the text of the different parliamentary authorities that establish the parameters by which the House conducts its business. These resources provide insight into the daily proceedings of the House, and it may be necessary to review a combination of sources to understand specific procedural situations. This report reviews the coverage of House parliamentary reference sources and provides information about their availability to Members and their staff. Among the sources presented in this report, five may be especially useful to understanding and following House procedure: House Practice, the House Manual, Deschler's Precedents, resolutions containing "special rules" from the House Committee on Rules, and the rules of the standing committees of the House. House Practice presents information about contemporary procedure in the House. It includes chapters that summarize House practice on topics such as amendments, points of order, and voting. House Practice is often a good place to begin research into House procedure, because it contains numerous references to other procedural authorities, such as the rules and selected precedents. It can be found via govinfo.gov, a website of the Government Publishing Office, at https://www.govinfo.gov/collection/house-practice?path=/GPO/House%20Practice, or through Congress.gov, a website of the Library of Congress, at https://www.congress.gov/resources/display/content/House+of+Representatives. The main procedural authorities of the House are set forth in the House Manual. They include the Constitution, portions of Jefferson's Manual, the adopted rules of the House, and provisions of statutes with procedural effects. The different authorities are accompanied by the Parliamentarian's annotations, which include citations to precedents interpreting those provisions. The current version of the House Manual can be accessed online through govinfo.gov at https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/HMAN-116/pdf/HMAN-116.pdf, or via Congress.gov at https://www.congress.gov/resources/display/content/House+of+Representatives. Deschler's Precedents presents and summarizes significant precedents of the House established at various points of time since 1936. This series of 18 volumes often provides the text of the procedural exchange during which the precedent was established. Deschler's Precedents is available through govinfo.gov at https://www.govinfo.gov/collection/precedents-of-the-house?path=/gpo/Precedents%20of%20the%20U.S.%20House%20of%20Representatives/010-Deschler%27s%20Precedents and Congress.gov at https://www.congress.gov/resources/display/content/House+of+Representatives. The House often adopts simple resolutions ("special rules") that establish the floor procedures for considering a measure. These special rules may, for example, identify which amendments to a measure are in order and who may offer those amendments. Resolutions containing these special rules are reported from the Committee on Rules and made available on their website at https://rules.house.gov/, and through Congress.gov at https://www.congress.gov/. House rules require each standing committee to adopt its own rules of procedure. These rules cover topics such as the procedures for issuing subpoenas. The House Committee on Rules prepares a catalog of all House committee rules for each Congress, titled Rules Adopted by the Committees of the House of Representatives. The version prepared for the 116th Congress is available via govinfo.gov at https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CPRT-116HPRT36537/pdf/CPRT-116HPRT36537.pdf.