Special Rules

Special Rules
Most major legislation is brought to the House floor by a special rule that allows the measure to be taken up out of order. The Rules Committee reports such riles, which take the form of House resolutions. A majority of the House must approve each one. The rule sets the terms for a measure’s floor consideration. A rule always specifies how much time is to be allowed for general debate and who is in control of the time (Sinclair). One to two hours of debate is customary y and the time is always split equally between the chair and the ranking minority member of the committee that reported the legislation. The Rules Committee has an important decision to make when it comes to special rules and that is how and which rules will be allowed. The extent to which a rule restricts amendments and the manner in which it restricts vary.
An open rule allows all germane amendments, whereas a close rules prohibits all amendments other then those offered by the reporting committee. Between the two, the Rules Committee allows open, structured, or modified closed. The Rules Committee defines modified open as, “allows any member to offer a germane amendment under five minute rule subject only to an overall time limit on the amendment process.” Now a modified closed structure is defined by the Committee as, “only those amendments designed by the Rules Committee. When major decision is ready for floor discussion it is up to the Rules Committee to decide how the legislation will be handled. The Rules Committee is officially charged with making the decision, and the leaders of the reporting committee make their preferences known. Because there are so many options on the design of a rule, special rules can increasingly be tailored to the problem at hand. In addition to deciding the amount of floor time to wach side a decision must also be made by the Rules Committee as to which committee’s version will go into the bill.