Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Floor Discussion

Floor Debate Over Rules
Floor consideration of a bill begins with debate on the rue by the Rules Committee. One hour is allotted, half controlled by the majority member of the Rules and half by a minority member. The majority member explains and justifies the rule, the minority member gives his of her party’s position, and then both yield time to those who wish to speak (Oleszek). The House must approve the rule before consideration of the legislation can begin . “The Rules Committee member managing the debate on the Rule for the majority party will move to the next question. If successful, the motion cuts off debate and the House then proceeds to vote on the rule itself” (Sinclair). If opponents defeat the previous motion, they see control over the floor and may propose the special rule they would like to see.
When a rule is not controversial, the vote may be voice but on the controversial issue it will be done by recording. If the House approves the rule, it usually then resolves itself into the Committee of the Whole, where legislation is debated and amended. The Committee of the Whole is similar to the whole House but only has 100 chairmen compared to the amount needed to pass a rule which is 218 in the regular House. After general debate time has expired what happens next is generally up to the rule. Legislation that that gets passed through the Committee of a whole without a motion to recommit, a second-degree amendment, and after the Committee of the Whole has their amendments approved by the House, legislation at this point generally becomes tough not to pass.

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