Suspension of the rules in the United States Congress is the specific set of procedures within theUnited States Congress that allows for the generalparliamentary procedure of how and when tosuspend the rules.
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In theUnited States House of Representatives, suspension of the rules is a procedure generally used to quickly pass bills which enjoy broad, bipartisan support.
A member can make a motion to suspend the rules only if theSpeaker of the House allows them to. Once a member moves to "suspend the rules" and take some action, debate is limited to 40 minutes, no amendments can be offered to the motion or the underlying matter, and a 2/3 majority of Members present and voting is required to agree to the motion.
Under the rules of the119th Congress, motions for suspension of the rules are allowed only on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, as they were prior to the116th Congress. During the117th and118th Congress, a motion to suspend the rules could be made on any day.
A suspension motion sets aside all procedural and other rules that otherwise prohibit the House from considering the measure—but the motion never mentions the specific rules that are suspended. Typically, a suspension motion is phrased as a motion to "...suspend the rules and pass the bill" and, if the motion is agreed to, the bill is considered passed by the House. This means that, most of the time, a suspension motion is effectively a motion to pass a bill immediately notwithstanding any rule preventing such immediate passage. A member can also move to suspend the rules and take another action, such as to "suspend the rules and consider the bill," and the House shall take the proposed action if two-thirds of those voting are in favor of the motion.
Most often, bills "on suspension" are non-controversial legislation—such as naming Post Offices of theUnited States Postal Service or federal buildings. However, in the118th Congress, suspension of the rules was often used in order to passspending bills andcontinuing resolutions. Since those bills were negotiated between the Republican-controlled House and the Democratic-controlled Senate, they were generally supported by many members from both parties (allowing them to clear the two-thirds threshold required for suspension of the rules), although they were repeatedly opposed by dozens offiscally conservative Republicans.[1]
These votes, under the rules, may only take place on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. Under special circumstances, suspension votes may take place on Thursdays or Fridays, or other days, but that happens rarely and requires a separate vote of the House as to whether that should occur.
The2007 U.S. Farm Bill was considered using such a procedure. Due to a procedural glitch, the bill was improperly sent to the President and in an unusual attempt to solve the problem, the House passed it again asH.R. 6124. Hence the House Leadership used the suspension calendar to do so.
Other examples of suspension bills in the110th United States Congress:
In theUnited States Senate,Rule XVI prohibits amendments that propose general legislation to appropriations legislations. To prevent apoint of order from killing the amendment, a Senator may offer a motion to suspend rule XVI, paragraph 4, essentially making the order germane. This motion requires a 2/3 majority to approve, meaning that it rarely passes. It should not be confused with a motion to waive theBudget Act, which requires a 3/5 vote to pass and applies to amendments that spend in amounts that exceed the levels set out in the annual budget resolution, as well as many other financial issues.