FACILITATING PASSAGE OF MEASURES

Rise and Report. With the exception of appropriations bills, special rules generally make this automatic upon completion of the amendment process to avoid a vote on a motion to rise and report to the House with amendments adopted in the Committee of the Whole.

Separate votes on amendments. House rules require the House to vote on each amendment that the Committee of the Whole has approved. But when a special rule makes in order a committee substitute as an original bill for purposes of amendment, it provides that separate votes may be demanded on the substitute and any amendment to the substitute. Otherwise, the only separate vote allowed under House rules would be on the substitute.

Ordering the previous question. Special rules automatically impose the previous question on a measure reported from the Committee of the Whole. This precludes the offering of intervening debate or motions which could delay or prevent passage of the bill.

Motion to recommit. House rules prohibit the Rules Committee from reporting a special rule that denies the minority a motion to recommit, with or without amendatory instructions. However, special rules that make in order a committee substitute as an original bill provide explicitly for such a motion to recommit with or without instructions because the substitute amends the bill in every respect and, like other amendments, recommittal instructions may not re-amend text that has already been amended.

Engrossment. The measure is reprinted in the form in which it is passed by the House.

Lay on the table. A special rule may permanently dispose of consideration of an alternative to the measure passed by the House without a direct vote on its substance.