Organizing Resolutions for the House

H. Res. 5 (115th Congress)
Separate Orders

H.Res.5
Adopting rules for the One Hundred Fifteenth Congress
115th Congress (2017-2018)

H. Res. 5 of the 115th Congress

H. Res. 5 of the 115th Congress (PDF)

Section-by-Section on H. Res. 5 (115th Rules)

Sec. 3. Separate Orders.

(a) Holman Rule.—During the first session of the One Hundred Fifteenth Congress, any reference in clause 2 of rule XXI to a provision or amendment that retrenches expenditures by a reduction of amounts of money covered by the bill shall be construed as applying to any provision or amendment (offered after the bill has been read for amendment) that retrenches expenditures by—

(1) the reduction of amounts of money in the bill;

(2) the reduction of the number and salary of the officers of the United States; or

(3) the reduction of the compensation of any person paid out of the Treasury of the United States.

(b) Staff Deposition Authority .—

(1) During the One Hundred Fifteenth Congress, the chair of a standing committee (other than the Committee on House Administration or the Committee on Rules), and the chair of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, upon consultation with the ranking minority member of such committee, may order the taking of depositions, including pursuant to subpoena, by a member or counsel of such committee.

(2) Depositions taken under the authority prescribed in this subsection shall be subject to regulations issued by the chair of the Committee on Rules and printed in the Congressional Record.

(3) At least one member of the committee shall be present at each deposition taken under the authority prescribed in this subsection, unless—

(A) the witness to be deposed agrees in writing to waive this requirement; or

(B) the committee authorizes the taking of a specified deposition without the presence of a member during a specified period, provided that the House is not in session on the day of the deposition.

(c) Independent Payment Advisory Board.—Section 1899A(d) of the Social Security Act shall not apply in the One Hundred Fifteenth Congress.

(d) Providing For Transparency With Respect To Memorials Submitted Pursuant To Article V Of The Constitution of the United States.—With respect to any memorial presented under clause 3 of rule XII purporting to be an application of the legislature of a State calling for a convention for proposing amendments to the Constitution of the United States pursuant to Article V, or a rescission of any such prior application—

(1) the chair of the Committee on the Judiciary shall, in the case of such a memorial presented in the One Hundred Fourteenth Congress or the One Hundred Fifteenth Congress, and may, in the case of such a memorial presented prior to the One Hundred Fourteenth Congress, designate any such memorial for public availability by the Clerk; and

(2) the Clerk shall make such memorials as are designated pursuant to paragraph (1) publicly available in electronic form, organized by State of origin and year of receipt, and shall indicate whether the memorial was designated as an application or a rescission.

(e) Spending Reduction Amendments In Appropriations Bills.—

(1) During the reading of a general appropriation bill for amendment in the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union, it shall be in order to consider en bloc amendments proposing only to transfer appropriations from an object or objects in the bill to a spending reduction account. When considered en bloc under this paragraph, such amendments may amend portions of the bill not yet read for amendment (following disposition of any points of order against such portions) and are not subject to a demand for division of the question in the House or in the Committee of the Whole.

(2) Except as provided in paragraph (1), it shall not be in order to consider an amendment to a spending reduction account in the House or in the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union.

(3) A point of order under clause 2(b) of rule XXI shall not apply to a spending reduction account.

(4) A general appropriation bill may not be considered in the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union unless it includes a spending reduction account as the last section of the bill. An order to report a general appropriation bill to the House shall constitute authority for the chair of the Committee on Appropriations to add such a section to the bill or modify the figure contained therein.

(5) For purposes of this subsection, the term “spending reduction account” means an account in a general appropriation bill that bears that caption and contains only—

(A) a recitation of the amount by which an applicable allocation of new budget authority under section 302(b) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 exceeds the amount of new budget authority proposed by the bill; or

(B) if no such allocation is in effect, “$0”.

(f) Point of Order Against Motion To Rise And Report.—

(1) During the One Hundred Fifteenth Congress, except as provided in paragraph (3), a motion that the Committee of the Whole rise and report a bill to the House shall not be in order if the bill, as amended, exceeds an applicable allocation of new budget authority under section 302(b) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, as estimated by the Committee on the Budget.

(2) If a point of order under paragraph (1) is sustained, the Chair shall put the question: “Shall the Committee of the Whole rise and report the bill to the House with such amendments as may have been adopted notwithstanding that the bill exceeds its allocation of new budget authority under section 302(b) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974?”. Such question shall be debatable for 10 minutes equally divided and controlled by a proponent of the question and an opponent but shall be decided without intervening motion.

(3) Paragraph (1) shall not apply—

(A) to a motion offered under clause 2(d) of rule XXI; or

(B) after disposition of a question under paragraph (2) on a given bill.

(4) If a question under paragraph (2) is decided in the negative, no further amendment shall be in order except—

(A) one proper amendment, which shall be debatable for 10 minutes equally divided and controlled by the proponent and an opponent, shall not be subject to amendment, and shall not be subject to a demand for division of the question in the House or in the Committee of the Whole; and

(B) pro forma amendments, if offered by the chair or ranking minority member of the Committee on Appropriations or their designees, for the purpose of debate.

(g) Limitation On Advance Appropriations.—

(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), any general appropriation bill or bill or joint resolution continuing appropriations, or amendment thereto or conference report thereon, may not provide an advance appropriation.

(2) An advance appropriation may be provided for programs, projects, activities, or accounts identified in a list submitted for printing in the Congressional Record by the chair of the Committee on the Budget (when elected) under the heading—

(A) “Accounts Identified for Advance Appropriations” in an aggregate amount not to exceed $28,852,000,000 in new budget authority; and

(B) “Veterans Accounts Identified for Advance Appropriations” in an aggregate amount not to exceed $66,385,032,000 in new budget authority.

(3) Definition.—The term “advance appropriation” means any new discretionary budget authority provided in a general appropriation bill or bill or joint resolution continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2017, or any amendment thereto or conference report thereon, that first becomes available for the fiscal year following fiscal year 2017.

(h) Point of Order Against Increasing Direct Spending.—

(1) Congressional Budget Office Analysis of Proposals.—The Director of the Congressional Budget Office shall, to the extent practicable, prepare an estimate of whether a bill or joint resolution reported by a committee (other than the Committee on Appropriations), or amendment thereto or conference report thereon, would cause, relative to current law, a net increase in direct spending in excess of $5,000,000,000 in any of the 4 consecutive 10-fiscal year periods beginning with the first fiscal year that is 10 fiscal years after the current fiscal year.

(2) Point of Order.—It shall not be in order to consider any bill or joint resolution reported by a committee, or amendment thereto or conference report thereon, that would cause a net increase in direct spending in excess of $5,000,000,000 in any of the 4 consecutive 10-fiscal year periods described in paragraph (1).

(3) Determinations of Budget Levels.—For purposes of this subsection, the levels of net increases in direct spending shall be determined on the basis of estimates provided by the chair of the Committee on the Budget.

(4) Limitation.—This subsection shall not apply to any bill or joint resolution, or amendment thereto or conference report thereon—

(A) repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and title I and subtitle B of title II of the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010;

(B) reforming the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010; or

(C) for which the chair of the Committee on the Budget has made an adjustment to the allocations, levels, or limits contained in the most recently adopted concurrent resolution on the budget.

(i)  Disclosure of Directed Rule Makings.—

(1) The report of a committee on a bill or joint resolution shall include a list of directed rule makings required by the measure or a statement that the proposition contains no directed rule makings.

(2) For purposes of this subsection, the term “directed rule making” means a specific rule making within the meaning of section 551 of title 5, United States Code, specifically directed to be completed by a provision in the measure, but does not include a grant of discretionary rule making authority.

(j) Exercise Facilities For Former Members.—During the One Hundred Fifteenth Congress—

(1) The House of Representatives may not provide access to any exercise facility which is made available exclusively to Members and former Members, officers and former officers of the House of Representatives, and their spouses to any former Member, former officer, or spouse who is a lobbyist registered under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 or any successor statute or agent of a foreign principal as defined in clause 5 of rule XXV. For purposes of this subsection, the term “Member” includes a Delegate or Resident Commissioner to the Congress.

(2) The Committee on House Administration shall promulgate regulations to carry out this subsection.

(k) Numbering of Bills.—In the One Hundred Fifteenth Congress, the first 10 numbers for bills (H.R. 1 through H.R. 10) shall be reserved for assignment by the Speaker and the second 10 numbers for bills (H.R. 11 through H.R. 20) shall be reserved for assignment by the Minority Leader.

(l)  Inclusion of Citations For Proposed Repeals And Amendments.—To the maximum extent practicable and consistent with established drafting conventions, an instruction in a bill or joint resolution proposing to repeal or amend any law or part thereof not contained in a codified title of the United States Code shall include, in parentheses immediately following the designation of the matter proposed to be repealed or amended, the applicable United States Code citation (which may be a note in the United States Code), or, if no such citation is available, an appropriate alternative citation to the applicable law or part.

(m) Broadening Availability Of Legislative Documents In Machine-Readable Formats.—The Committee on House Administration, the Clerk, and other officers and officials of the House shall continue efforts to broaden the availability of legislative documents in machine readable formats in the One Hundred Fifteenth Congress in furtherance of the institutional priority of improving public availability and use of legislative information produced by the House and its committees.

(n) Congressional Member Organization Transparency Reform.—

(1) Payment of salaries and expenses through account of organization.—A Member of the House of Representatives and an eligible Congressional Member Organization may enter into an agreement under which—

(A) an employee of the Member’s office may carry out official and representational duties of the Member by assignment to the Organization; and

(B) to the extent that the employee carries out such duties under the agreement, the Member shall transfer the portion of the Members’ Representation Allowance of the Member which would otherwise be used for the salary and related expenses of the employee to a dedicated account in the House of Representatives which is administered by the Organization, in accordance with the regulations promulgated by the Committee on House Administration under paragraph (2).

(2) Regulations.—The Committee on House Administration (hereafter referred to in this subsection as the “Committee”) shall promulgate regulations as follows:

(A) Use of mra.—Pursuant to the authority of section 101(d) of the House of Representatives Administrative Reform Technical Corrections Act (2 U.S.C. 5341(d)), the Committee shall prescribe regulations to provide that an eligible Congressional Member Organization may use the amounts transferred to the Organization’s dedicated account under paragraph (1)(B) for the same purposes for which a Member of the House of Representatives may use the Members’ Representational Allowance, except that the Organization may not use such amounts for franked mail, official travel, or leases of space or vehicles.

(B) Maintenance of limitations on number of shared employees.—Pursuant to the authority of section 104(d) of the House of Representatives Administrative Reform Technical Corrections Act (2 U.S.C. 5321(d)), the Committee shall prescribe regulations to provide that an employee of the office of a Member of the House of Representatives who is covered by an agreement entered into under paragraph (1) between the Member and an eligible Congressional Member Organization shall be considered a shared employee of the Member’s office and the Organization for purposes of such section, and shall include in such regulations appropriate accounting standards to ensure that a Member of the House of Representatives who enters into an agreement with such an Organization under paragraph (1) does not employ more employees than the Member is authorized to employ under such section.

(C) Participation in student loan program.—Pursuant to the authority of section 105(b) of the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2003 (2 U.S.C. 4536(b)), relating to the student loan repayment program for employees of the House, the Committee shall promulgate regulations to provide that, in the case of an employee who is covered by an agreement entered into under paragraph (1) between a Member of the House of Representatives and an eligible Congressional Member Organization and who participates in such program while carrying out duties under the agreement—

(i) any funds made available for making payments under the program with respect to the employee shall be transferred to the Organization’s dedicated account under paragraph (1)(B); and

(ii) the Organization shall use the funds to repay a student loan taken out by the employee, under the same terms and conditions which would apply under the program if the Organization were the employing office of the employee.

(D) Access to house services.—The Committee shall prescribe regulations to ensure that an eligible Congressional Member Organization has appropriate access to services of the House.

(E) Other regulations.—The Committee shall promulgate such other regulations as may be appropriate to carry out this subsection.

(3) Eligible congressional member organization defined.—In this subsection, the term “eligible Congressional Member Organization” means, with respect to the One Hundred Fifteenth Congress, an organization meeting each of the following requirements:

(A) The organization is registered as a Congressional Member Organization with the Committee on House Administration.

(B) The organization designates a single Member of the House of Representatives to be responsible for the administration of the organization, including the administration of the account administered under paragraph (1)(B), and includes the identification of such Member with the statement of organization that the organization files and maintains with the Committee on House Administration.

(C) At least 3 employees of the House are assigned to work for the organization.

(D) During the One Hundred Fourteenth Congress, at least 30 Members of the House of Representatives used a portion of the Members’ Representational Allowance of the Member for the salary and related expenses of an employee who was a shared employee of the Member’s office and the organization.

(E) The organization files a statement with the Committee on House Administration and the Chief Administrative Officer of the House of Representatives certifying that it will administer an account in accordance with paragraph (1)(B).

(o) Social Security Solvency.—

(1) Point of Order.—During the One Hundred Fifteenth Congress, it shall not be in order to consider a bill or joint resolution, or an amendment thereto or conference report thereon, that reduces the actuarial balance by at least .01 percent of the present value of future taxable payroll of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund established under section 201(a) of the Social Security Act for the 75-year period utilized in the most recent annual report of the Board of Trustees provided pursuant to section 201(c)(2) of the Social Security Act.

(2) Exception.—Paragraph (1) shall not apply to a measure that would improve the actuarial balance of the combined balance in the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund and the Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund for the 75-year period utilized in the most recent annual report of the Board of Trustees provided pursuant to section 201(c)(2) of the Social Security Act.

(p) Subcommittees.—Notwithstanding clause 5(d) of rule X, during the One Hundred Fifteenth Congress the Committee on Agriculture may have not more than six subcommittees.

(q) Treatment of Conveyances of Federal Land.—

(1) In general.—In the One Hundred Fifteenth Congress, for all purposes in the House, a provision in a bill or joint resolution, or in an amendment thereto or a conference report thereon, requiring or authorizing a conveyance of Federal land to a State, local government, or tribal entity shall not be considered as providing new budget authority, decreasing revenues, increasing mandatory spending, or increasing outlays.

(2) Definitions.—In this subsection:

(A) The term “conveyance” means any method, including sale, donation, or exchange, by which all or any portion of the right, title, and interest of the United States in and to Federal land is transferred to another entity.

(B) The term “Federal land” means any land owned by the United States, including the surface estate, the subsurface estate, or any improvements thereon.

(C) The term “State” means any of the several States, the District of Columbia, or a territory (including a possession) of the United States.

 

 

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