Guide to Legislative Process in the House

V. INTRODUCTION AND REFERENCE TO COMMITTEE

Any Member, the Resident Commissioner from Puerto Rico, and the Delegates in the House of Representatives may introduce a bill at any time while the House is actually sitting by simply placing it in the "hopper" provided for the purpose at the side of the Clerk's desk in the House Chamber. Permission is not required to introduce the measure. Printed blank forms for use in typing the original bill are supplied through the Clerk's office. The name of the sponsor is endorsed on the bill. A public bill may be sponsored by an unlimited number of Members. A Member may not be added as a sponsor after the bill has been reported by the last committee authorized to consider it. For a discussion of "Reported bills," see Part VII. In addition, a Member listed as a sponsor (other than the first sponsor) may have the Member's name deleted as a sponsor no later than the day the bill is reported to the House by the last committee authorized to consider it. To forestall the possibility that a bill might be introduced in the House on behalf of a Member without that Member's prior approval, the sponsoring Member's signature must appear on the bill before it is accepted for introduction. When there are multiple sponsors of a bill, the signature must be that of the Member first named thereon. In the Senate, unlimited multiple sponsorship of a bill also is permitted. Occasionally, a Member may insert the words "by request" after the Member's name to indicate that the introduction of the measure is in compliance with the suggestion of some other person or group.

In the Senate, a Senator usually introduces a bill or resolution by presenting it to one of the clerks at the Presiding Officer's desk, without commenting on it from the floor of the Senate. However, a Senator may use a more formal procedure by rising and introducing the bill or resolution from the floor. A Senator usually makes a statement about the measure when introducing it on the floor. Frequently, Senators obtain consent to have the bill or resolution printed in the body of the Congressional Record, following their formal statement.

If any Senator objects to the introduction of a bill or resolution, the introduction of the bill or resolution is postponed until the next day. If there is no objection, the bill is read by title and referred to the appropriate committee.

In the House of Representatives it is no longer the custom to read bills--even by title--at the time of introduction. The title is entered in the Journal and printed in the Congressional Record, thus preserving the purpose of the old rule. The bill is assigned its legislative number by the Clerk and referred, as required by the rules of the House, to the appropriate committees by the Speaker (the Member elected to be the Presiding Officer of the House) with the assistance of the Parliamentarian. These details appear in the daily issue of the Congressional Record. It is then sent to the Government Printing Office where it is printed in its introduced form, and printed copies are available shortly thereafter in the document rooms of both Houses and the electronic versions are made available to the public.

One copy is sent to the office of the Chairman of the committee to which it has been referred, for action by that committee. The clerk of the committee enters it on the committee's Legislative Calendar.

Perhaps the most important phase of the Congressional process is the action by committees. That is where the most intensive consideration is given to the proposed measures and where the people are given their opportunity to be heard. This phase, where such a tremendous volume of hard work is done by the Members, is sometimes overlooked by the public, particularly when complaining about delays in enacting laws. There are, at present, 19 standing committees in the House and 16 in the Senate, as well as several select committees. In addition, there are several standing joint committees of the two Houses, which have oversight but no legislative jurisdiction. The House may also create select committees or task forces to study specific issues and report on them to the House. A task force may be established formally through a resolution passed by the House or informally through organization of interested Members and committees by House leadership.

Each committee has jurisdiction over certain subject matters of legislation and all measures affecting a particular area of the law are referred to that committee that has jurisdiction over it. For example, the Committee on the Judiciary has jurisdiction over measures relating to judicial proceedings (civil and criminal) generally, and 17 other categories, of which Constitutional amendments, immigration and naturalization, bankruptcy, revision and codification of statutes, civil liberties, antitrust, patents, copyrights and trademarks, are but a few. In all, the rules of the House and of the Senate each provide for approximately 200 different classifications of measures that are to be referred to committees.

Until 1975, the Speaker of the House could refer a bill to only one committee. In modern practice, the Speaker may refer an introduced bill to multiple committees for consideration of those provisions of the bill in the jurisdiction of each committee concerned. The Speaker must designate a primary committee of jurisdiction on bills referred to multiple committees. The Speaker may place time limits on the consideration of bills by all committees, but usually time limits are placed only on additional committees. Additional committees are committees other than the primary committee to which a bill has been referred, either initially on introduction or sequentially following the report of the primary committee. The time limit would be placed on the additional committee only when the primary committee has reported its version to the House.

Membership on the various committees is divided between the two major political parties. The proportion of the Members of the minority party to the Members of the majority party is determined by the majority party, except that one-half of the Members on the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct are from the majority party and one-half from the minority party. The respective party caucuses nominate Members of the caucus to be elected to each standing committee at the beginning of each Congress. Membership on a standing committee during the course of a Congress is contingent on continuing membership in the caucus that nominated the Member for election to the committee. If the Member ceases to be a Member of the caucus, the Member automatically ceases to be a Member of the standing committee.

Members of the House may serve only on two committees and four subcommittees with certain exceptions. However, the rules of the caucus of the majority party in the House provide that a Member may be Chairman of only one subcommittee of a committee or select committee with legislative jurisdiction, excepting certain committees performing housekeeping functions and joint committees.

A Member usually seeks election to the committee that has jurisdiction over a field in which the Member is most qualified and interested. For example, the Committee on the Judiciary traditionally is composed almost entirely of lawyers. Many Members are nationally recognized experts in the specialty of their particular committee or subcommittee.

Members rank in seniority in accordance with the order of their appointment to the committee, and usually the ranking majority Member is elected Chairman. The rules of the House require that committee Chairmen be elected from nominations submitted by the majority party caucus at the commencement of each Congress. No Member of the House may serve as chairman of the same standing committee or of the same subcommittee thereof for more than three consecutive Congresses.

The rules of the House prohibit committees from having more than four subcommittees with the exception of the Committee on Appropriations, the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

Each committee is provided with a professional staff to assist it in the innumerable administrative details and other problems involved in the consideration of bills and conduct of oversight. For the standing committees, the professional staff is limited to thirty persons appointed by the vote of the committee. One-third of the committee staff are selected by a majority vote of minority committee members to serve the minority membrs while the majority members select two-thirds of the committee staff to serve them. All staff appointments are made without regard to race, creed, sex, or age. The minority staff provisions do not apply to the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct because of its bipartisan nature. The Committee on Appropriations has special authority under the rules of the House for appointment of staff for the minority.

Under certain conditions, a standing committee may appoint consultants on a temporary or intermittent basis and also may provide financial assistance to members of its professional staff for the purpose of acquiring specialized training, whenever the committee determines that such training will aid the committee in the discharge of its responsibilities.