Floor Schedule and Procedure

• Honest Leadership, Open Government, Civility, and Fiscal Responsibility House Rules Package for the 110th Congress (H. Res. 6): Today, the House is scheduled to complete consideration of the Rules package.  Yesterday, the House adopted the existing rules from the 109th Congress (Title I) and the ethics reform changes (Title II).  Debate time will be managed by Rules Committee Chair Louise Slaughter or her designee and the package will be completed in the following order today:

• 1 hour of debate on the civility reforms (Title III).
• 1 hour of debate on the fiscal responsibility reforms (Title IV).
• 10 minutes of debate on the rules providing for consideration of the following 100 hours legislation: Implementing 9/11 Commission's Recommendations (H.R. 1), Raising the Minimum Wage (H.R. 2), Stem Cell Research Bill (H.R. 3), and Prescription Drug Negotiating Authority (H.R. 4).  In addition, this section includes other technical and miscellaneous changes to House rules (Title V).
• Vote on adopting Title III (15 minutes).  Democrats are urged to vote YES.
• Vote on adopting Title IV (5 minutes).  Democrats are urged to vote YES.
• Vote on Republican motion to commit (5 minutes).  Democrats are urged to vote NO.
• Vote on adopting Title V (5 minutes).  Democrats are urged to vote YES.
• Please note there is no “final passage” of the House Rules package as a whole.

Bill Summary and Key Issues

Honest Leadership, Open Government, Civility, and Fiscal Responsibility House Rules Package for the 110th Congress (H. Res. 6):  To ensure this Congress upholds the highest ethical standards, the ethics reform package will clean up Washington and sever unethical ties between lawmakers and lobbyists. Yesterday, we passed reforms to ban gifts and travel from lobbyists, and ending the abuses connected to privately-funded congressional travel (including corporate jets).

Today, the new majority is committed to restoring democracy in the House – by simply following the existing rules of the House.  The civility reforms will address the most egregious abuses in the House – curbing abuses on voting and opening up Conference Committees so that the minority is able to participate.  The House will take one vote on the following civility reforms contained in Title III of the rules package:

• Curbs Abuses of Voting Time: Provides that votes will not be held open for the sole purpose of affecting the outcome.

• Reforms Conference Committees: Reforms conference committee process by requiring adequate notice of meetings to ensure Member attendance, ensuring information is available to all conferees, and ensuring that the text of conference reports cannot be changed after signatures.

The Rules package will require pay-as-you-go budget discipline with no new deficit spending as the first step to reversing record budget deficits that are passing trillions in debt on to our children and grandchildren.  The reforms will also amend House rules to require full transparency in order to end the abuse of special interest earmarks.  The House will take one vote on the following fiscal responsibility reforms contained in Title IV of the rules package:

• Restores Pay-As-You-Go Budgeting:  This amendment to the House rules package will not allow consideration of any bill, amendment or conference report where the combined effect of provisions affecting mandatory spending (such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and the farm bill) and revenue would increase the deficit over the five-year and ten-year windows, relative to the Congressional Budget Office baseline.  Democrats also plan to pursue pay-as-you-go legislation in order to protect our grandchildren from mountains of debt and spur economic growth.

• Earmark Reform:  Require committees to disclose the sponsors of any earmarks included in appropriations, authorizing measures such as the highway bill, and tax or trade legislation that aids 10 or fewer beneficiaries.  These new rules would also prohibit trading earmarks for votes and require Members to disclose their earmark requests and certify that they (and their spouses) have no personal financial interest in the request.

• These provisions comprehensively require committees of jurisdiction and conference committees to publish lists of the earmarks, limited tax benefits, and limited tariff benefits, along with their sponsors, contained in the reported bills, unreported bills, manager’s amendments, and conference reports brought to the House floor for consideration.  A Member may make a point of order against the consideration of any rule that waives this requirement.  The rule defines an earmark as any Member-requested project that is targeted to a specific place and falls outside a formula-driven or competitive award process. 

• Budget Reconciliation:  Finally, this amendment to the rules package prohibits the House from considering budget resolutions or amendments thereon or conference reports on budget resolutions that contain reconciliation directives for any reconciliation bill that would increase the deficit.