Expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that the House should revise its procedures for consideration of legislation and amendments by adopting proposals to:
[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1090 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
115th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. RES. 1090
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives to encourage
consensus and increase accountability and transparency, and for other
purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
September 27, 2018
Mr. Reed (for himself, Mr. Gottheimer, Mr. Bera, Mr. Coffman, Mr.
Curbelo of Florida, Ms. Esty of Connecticut, Mr. Faso, Mr. Fitzpatrick,
Mr. Gallagher, Mr. Gonzalez of Texas, Mr. Kilmer, Mr. Lance, Mr.
Lipinski, Mrs. Murphy of Florida, Mr. Peters, Ms. Rosen, Mr. Schrader,
Ms. Sinema, Mr. Trott, Mr. Upton, Mr. Bishop of Michigan, Mr. Suozzi,
Mr. Welch, Mr. Nolan, Mr. Smucker, Mr. Carbajal, Mr. Cooper, Mr.
O'Halleran, Mr. Himes, and Mr. Soto) submitted the following
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Rules
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives to encourage
consensus and increase accountability and transparency, and for other
purposes.
Whereas, for nearly two years, the Members of the Problem Solvers Caucus have
worked together finding bipartisan agreement on the toughest issues
facing Congress;
Whereas the Problems Solvers Caucus proposed a health care compromise to
stabilize the individual marketplace, an agreement on our Nation's
DREAMERs and border security, support for gun and school safety
legislation, and recommendations for a bipartisan infrastructure
package;
Whereas the Problem Solvers Caucus' progress and bipartisan cooperation as a
whole has been hampered because of House Rules that enable a few Members
to hold most of the power; and
Whereas, to make the House work again for the American people, the Problem
Solvers Caucus is offering the ``Break the Gridlock'' draft proposal:
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that
to encourage and reward consensus driven governing, foster the passage
of member initiatives solving constituent priorities, increase
accountability and transparency, and elect a Speaker that is
representative of the entire body, the House should adopt the following
proposals:
(1) To prevent the Speaker from being held hostage by a
small fraction of his/her party, replace the rule allowing a
``Motion to Vacate the Chair'' with a public petition process
that must be signed by \1/3\ of the House Members to earn
privileged consideration on the floor and a majority (218
votes) of the whole House to successfully remove the Speaker
from the position.
(2) Ensure that the party ratios on all committees
(excluding Ethics which shall remain equally divided, but
including Rules, Intelligence, and all other Joint and Select
Committees) reflect the party ratio of the entire House.
(3) Require a \3/5\ supermajority, of those present and
voting, for passage and consideration of legislation under
closed rules. The remaining legislation should be open or
structured.
(4) Require any structured rule to have at least one
germane amendment from each party, if offered, which means that
at least one amendment offered by a representative from each
party shall not contain in advance any waiver of germane points
of order against its consideration.
(5) To encourage Committee and floor consideration of
member initiatives, establish a fast-track procedure to enable
bipartisan legislation and amendments to receive priority
consideration as follows:
(A) Any legislative bill (not resolution) that
gains at least \2/3\ cosponsors (290 Members) or a
majority of Members of each party, must be marked up by
its relevant committees and reported to the Rules
Committee within 30 legislative days of receiving its
290th cosponsor. The Rules Committee shall report a
rule unless the majority +1 of the entire Committee
rejects the rule. This will ensure that legislation
with broad support gets appropriate committee and floor
consideration.
(B) Any germane amendment offered to a bill with a
structured rule that has at least 20 Republican and 20
Democrat cosponsors must be allowed floor consideration
by the Rules Committee. This will ensure that
amendments with wide bipartisan appeal get due
consideration on the floor.
(C) Ensure Committee-passed bills get to the floor
by providing for privileged consideration of bills
passed out of committee after a gestation period. The
Rules Committee shall report a rule unless the majority
+1 of the entire Committee rejects the rule.
(6) Once per session, all Members of Congress shall be
granted a markup on at least one piece of legislation, as
designated by the Member, that has at least one cosponsor from
the opposite party and is referred to a Committee on which they
serve.
(7) Establish a bipartisan annual joint meeting at the U.S.
Capitol at the beginning of each Congress to discuss the terms
legislative agenda and help encourage bipartisan cooperation.
(8) Require a minimum of a 3-business-day notice of a
committee markup, unless the committee chairman and ranking
minority member agree to a different schedule. (This is meant
to keep the minority from being unduly surprised with short
notice to prepare, and is in reference to House Rule XI, Clause
2(g)(4)).
(9) Require a majority vote on all Committees to enable the
Chair to waive jurisdiction over legislation that has been
assigned to the committee by the Parliamentarian.
(10) The election of the Speaker of the House requires an
absolute majority of all Members of the House, regardless of
whether they are present.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on Rules.
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