§074.116 Reference Information for the Rules of the 116th Congress

Organizing Resolutions for the House of Representatives

Reference Information for the
Rules of the 116th Congress

The House of Representatives adopts its organizing resolution at the beginning of each Congress in the form of a simple House resolution. For the 116th Congress, H. Res. 6 served the purpose of extending the rules of the previous Congress and making the desired amendments. Because the 116th Congress saw the House change the party of its majority from Republican to Democratic, the rules changes were somewhat more significant. In addition, while the usual numbering of the resolution would be H. Res. 5, in this case, H. Res. 5 (116th Congress) served to set the terms for the debate on the various titles of H. Res. 6 (116th Congress), which contained the various amendments to the House Rules. It also included the Separate Orders that are part of any organizing resolution. These are for practical purposes provisions enforceable and of the same status as the Standing Rules of the House, but they only apply to the Congress for which the resolution is adopted and not automatically carried forward automatically when the Standing Rules are extended. Instead they must be specifically identified to be extended into a new Congress, and are in that way considered more tentative than those included in House Rules I through XXIX.

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