Introduction

The House of Representatives has well-established standing rules that govern how bills and resolutions are to be taken up and considered on the floor. However, to expedite legislation receiving floor action, the House may temporarily set aside these rules for measures that are not otherwise privileged for consideration.¹ This can be done by agreeing to a special order of business resolution (special rule) or by adopting a motion to suspend the rules and pass the underlying measure.² In general, special rules enable the consideration of complex or contentious legislation, such as major appropriations or reauthorizations, while the suspension of the rules procedure is usually applied to measures that are perceived to have broad bipartisan support and can be approved without floor amendments or extensive debate in the chamber.³

Most bills and resolutions that receive floor action in the House are called up and considered under suspension of the rules.⁴ The suspension procedure allows non-privileged measures to be raised without a special rule, waives points of order, limits debate, and prohibits floor amendments. Motions to suspend the rules and pass the measure require a two-thirds vote, so the procedure is typically reserved for bills and resolutions that can meet a supermajority threshold.⁵

Decisions to schedule bills for consideration under suspension are generally based on how widely supported the measures are, how long Members wish to debate them, and whether they want to propose floor amendments. These decisions are not necessarily related to the subject matter of the measure. Accordingly, measures brought up under suspension cover a wide range of policy areas but most often address government operations, such as the designation of federal facilities.

This report describes the suspension procedure, which is defined in clause 1 of House Rule XV, and provides an analysis of measures considered under suspension during the 116^th Congress (2019-2020). Figures 1-8 display statistical data, including the prevalence and form of suspension measures, sponsors of measures, committee consideration, length of floor debate, voting, and resolution of differences between the chambers.⁶ Table 1 summarizes the final legislative status of measures initially considered in the House under the suspension of the rules. Finally, the Appendix depicts the use of the suspension procedure from the 110^th through the 116^th Congresses (2007-2020).

House Rule XV (Clause 1)

The suspension of the rules procedure is established by clause 1 of House Rule XV. Bills, resolutions, House amendments to Senate bills, amendments to the Constitution, conference reports, and other types of business may be considered under suspension, even those "that would otherwise be subject to a point of order … [or have] not been reported or referred to any calendar or previously introduced."⁷

In the 116^th Congress, suspension motions were in order on designated days. Rule XV stated, "The Speaker may not entertain a motion that the House suspend the rules except on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays and during the last six days of a session of Congress."⁸ Suspension measures, however, could be considered on other days by unanimous consent or under the terms of a special order of business (special rule) reported by the Committee on Rules and agreed to by the House.⁹

A motion to suspend the rules is a compound motion to suspend the House rules and pass a bill or agree to a resolution. When considering such a motion, the House is voting on the two questions simultaneously. Once recognized, the Member making the motion will say, "Mr. [or Madam] Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass___."¹⁰ The House rules that are suspended under this procedure include those that "would impede an immediate vote on passage of a measure … such as ordering the previous question, third reading, recommittal, or division of the question."¹¹

A measure considered under the suspension procedure is not subject to floor amendment. The motion to suspend and pass the measure, though, may provide for passage of the measure in an amended form. That is, the text to be approved may be presented in a form altered by committee amendments or by informal negotiations. Suspension measures that are passed with changes incorporated into the text are passed "as amended." There are no separate votes on the floor approving such amendments.¹²

Suspension motions are "debatable for 40 minutes, one-half in favor of the motion and one-half in opposition thereto." However, in most instances, a true opponent never claims half the time, and most speakers come to the floor to express support for the measure. Debate time is controlled by two floor managers, one from each party, who sit on a committee of jurisdiction. The managers make opening statements and may yield increments of the 20 minutes they control to other Members to debate the measure. Although rare, the time for debate on a motion to suspend the rules may be extended by unanimous consent or by resolution.

Once debate has concluded, a single vote is held on the motion to suspend the rules and pass the measure. The motion requires approval by "two-thirds of the Members voting, a quorum being present."¹³ Should the vote fall short of the two-thirds required for passage (290, if all Members vote), the measure is not permanently rejected. Before the end of the Congress, the House may consider the measure again under suspension, or the Committee on Rules may report a special rule that provides for floor consideration of the measure.¹⁴

Prevalence and Form of Suspension Measures, 116^th Congress

As illustrated in Figure 1, the majority of measures considered on the House floor during the 116^th Congress were initially called up under the suspension of the rules procedure. Sixty-six percent of all measures that received floor action were initially considered under suspension (792 out of the 1,195), compared to those under the terms of a special rule (10%), unanimous consent (12%), or privileged business (12%).

Figure 2 displays the form of suspension measures. Most of the measures considered under suspension during the 116^th Congress (92%) were bills. House bills made up 81% of the suspension total, Senate bills 11%. The remaining measures were House resolutions, House concurrent resolutions, and House joint resolutions. There were no Senate concurrent or joint resolutions considered under suspension of the rules in the 116^th Congress.

Figure 1. Suspension Measures Compared to Total Number of Measures Considered on House Floor 116th Congress (2019-2020)

Source: CRS analysis of data from Congress.gov. Note: Chart reflects initial consideration of House and Senate bills and resolutions.

Figure 2. Forms of Measures Considered Under Suspension Procedure 116th Congress (2019-2020)

Source: CRS analysis of data from Congress.gov. Note: Chart reflects initial consideration of House and Senate bills and resolutions.

Sponsors of Suspension Measures

As represented in Figure 3, most suspension measures were sponsored by Members of the majority party during the 116^th Congress. House or Senate majority-party Members sponsored 71% of all bills and resolutions initially considered in the House under suspension, while House majority-party Members sponsored 515 (73%) of the 708 House-originated measures (designated with an H.R., H.Res., H.Con.Res. or H.J.Res. prefix).

However, by a wide margin, suspension is the most common procedure used to consider minority-sponsored legislation in the House. In the 116^th Congress, 78% of the minority-sponsored measures that were considered on the House floor were raised under the suspension procedure. Members of the House or Senate minority parties sponsored 29% of all suspension measures originating in either chamber, and minority-party House Members sponsored 193 (27%) of the 708 House measures considered under suspension.¹⁵ In contrast, minority-party Members sponsored 16% of legislation originating in either chamber that was subject to different procedures, including privileged business (19 measures) and unanimous consent (32 measures), and 7 measures (1 House bill and 6 Senate joint resolutions) that were considered under the terms of special rules.

Figure 3. Suspension Measures by Party of Sponsor 116th Congress (2019-2020)

Source: CRS analysis of data from Congress.gov. Note: Chart reflects initial consideration of House and Senate bills and resolutions.

Committee Consideration

Committee Referral

Most suspension measures are referred to at least one House committee before their consideration on the chamber floor. In the 116^th Congress, 746 out of the 792 suspension measures considered (94%) were previously referred to House committees. The 46 measures that were not referred were Senate bills that were "held at the desk" prior to consideration.¹⁶

Measures may be referred to multiple House committees before receiving floor action. When a bill or resolution is referred to more than one House committee, the Speaker will designate one committee as primary, meaning it is the committee exercising jurisdiction over the largest part of the measure. Generally, the chair of the committee of primary jurisdiction works with majority party leadership to determine if and when a measure should be considered under suspension.

The House Committee on Foreign Affairs was the committee of primary jurisdiction for the plurality of measures considered under suspension in the 116^th Congress: 111, or 14%, of the total number of suspension measures considered. Figure 4 shows the number and percentage of measures brought up under suspension from each House committee of primary jurisdiction.

Figure 4. Suspension Measures by Committee of Primary Jurisdiction 116th Congress (2019-2020)

Source: CRS analysis of data from Congress.gov. Note: Chart reflects initial consideration of House and Senate bills and resolutions.

For most House committees, the majority of their referred measures that reached the floor were raised under the suspension procedure. In the 116^th Congress, the exceptions included the Committee on House Administration, which had most of its measures considered by unanimous consent, and the Committees on Budget and Appropriations, which had all or most of their measures considered pursuant to special rules, respectively. The Select Intelligence Committee had two bills considered pursuant to special rules and two considered via the suspension procedure. Armed Services was the primary committee for six bills considered by the House; three were considered by unanimous consent and three were considered under the terms of special rules. For the other committees, suspension measures ranged from 56% to 100% of the total number of the committee's measures receiving House floor action (Figure 5).

As suspension motions require a two-thirds majority for passage, House committees that handle less contentious subjects tend to have more of their measures considered under the suspension procedure in comparison to other committees. In the 116^th Congress, high-suspension committees included Small Business (100% of measures receiving floor action); Science, Space, and Technology (96.2%); Foreign Affairs (94%); and Homeland Security (93%).

Figure 5. Total Number of Measures Considered on House Floor, Grouped by Committee of Primary Jurisdiction 116th Congress (2019-2020)

Source: CRS analysis of data from Congress.gov. Note: Chart displays House and Senate bills and resolutions that were initially considered on the House floor under the suspension procedure as sorted by the committee of primary jurisdiction.

Committee Markup and Reporting

While suspension measures are not subject to floor amendments, committees may recommend amendments to legislative texts during markup meetings or through informal negotiations. The motion to suspend the rules can include these proposed changes when a Member moves to suspend the rules and pass the measure "as amended." In the 116^th Congress, 468 suspension measures (59% of the total) were considered "as amended," meaning that the text considered pursuant to the suspension motion differed from the measure's introduced text.

Clause 2 of House Rule XIII requires that a measure reported by a House committee must be accompanied by a written report. Otherwise, it is not placed on a calendar of measures eligible for floor consideration.¹⁷ However, the written report requirement is among those rules suspended under the suspension procedure. Thus, a measure may be called up on the floor under suspension of the rules even if a committee never ordered it to be reported or wrote an accompanying committee report.¹⁸ Instead, the motion to suspend the rules discharges the committee and brings the legislation directly to the House floor.

In the 116^th Congress, 509 (64%) suspension measures were ordered to be reported by House committees. Of this number, 302 were reported with accompanying House committee reports. Eighty-seven measures that did not have House reports did have Senate reports (of these, 22 were Senate bills that did not receive House committee referral), and 403 measures had no written reports from either chamber (51% of the total number of suspension measures).

Floor Consideration

Raising Measures (Day of Week)

In the 116^th Congress, motions to suspend the rules were regularly in order on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays or on the last six days of a session of Congress pursuant to Rule XV. However, suspension motions could be considered on other days by unanimous consent or under the terms of a special rule reported by the Committee on Rules and agreed to by the House.¹⁹ Such special rules included a provision stating, "It shall be in order at any time on the legislative day of ___ for the Speaker to entertain motions that the House suspend the rules as though under clause 1 of rule XV."

As displayed in Figure 6, in the 116^th Congress, most suspension measures were considered on Mondays (254 measures) or Tuesdays (255 measures), followed by Wednesdays (184) and Thursdays (90). In addition, seven suspension measures were considered on Fridays, while a Saturday and a Sunday each featured one suspension measure. The two weekend measures responded to arguably time-sensitive issues: emergency coronavirus supplemental funding (H.R. 6201) and a potential lapse in government funding (H.J.Res. 110).

Figure 6. Days of the Week Suspension Measures Were Considered 116th Congress (2019-2020)

Source: CRS analysis of data from Congress.gov. Note: Chart reflects initial consideration of House and Senate bills and resolutions.

Majority and Minority Floor Managers

Pursuant to Rule XV, suspension measures are "debatable for 40 minutes, one-half in favor of the motion and one-half in opposition thereto."²⁰ In practice, there is rarely a true opponent to a motion to suspend the rules, and the time is divided between two floor managers, usually one from each party, who both favor the motion.²¹ The floor managers each control 20 minutes of debate. The managers may be their parties' sole representatives for or against the motion, or they may yield increments of the 20-minute allotment to other Members.

Typically, the relevant committee chairs and ranking members select the majority and minority floor managers for particular bills and resolutions. These managers may be the measure's sponsor, the chair or ranking member of the measure's committee of primary jurisdiction, or another committee member.

In the 116^th Congress, the measure's sponsor served as the majority manager on 135 (17%) of the suspension measures receiving floor action. The committee chairs managed 308 (39%) of the measures.

The majority floor manager makes the motion to suspend the rules by stating, "Mr. [or Madam] Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill [or resolution] ____." The Speaker (or Speaker pro tempore) responds, "Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman [woman] from [state] and the gentleman [woman] from [state] each will control twenty minutes." The majority and minority managers then, in turn, make opening statements regarding the measure using the 20 minutes each controls.

If the majority and minority managers have secured additional speakers, the speakers generally alternate between the parties within the 40-minute limit. Occasionally, floor managers controlling time on a motion to suspend the rules cede their control to other Members during debate. By unanimous request, the other Member then controls the remaining amount of time allotted.

At the start of the debate period, the majority manager may request "unanimous consent that all Members may have five legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and add extraneous materials on this bill [resolution]." This request enables "general leave" statements to be inserted into the Congressional Record.

Debate and Length of Consideration

Suspension measures are limited to 40 minutes of debate under Rule XV. However, if there are time gaps between speakers or procedural interruptions, such as a vote on a motion to adjourn, the period between the start of the first speaker's remarks and the conclusion of debate may exceed 40 minutes.²² The statistics displayed in Figure 7 show the length of consideration of suspension measures as documented in Congress.gov, not the accumulated length of statements, as kept by official timekeepers in the chamber.²³

In the 116^th Congress, the average length of consideration on a motion to suspend the rules was 13½ minutes, and more than half of the measures considered had debate periods of 10 minutes or less. Thus, while overall debate is limited to 40 minutes under the rule, on most suspension measures, a fraction of that time was actually expended during consideration. Twenty-four measures, however, had consideration periods that exceeded 40 minutes as a result of unanimous consent requests for additional time to debate or due to unspecified procedural delays.

Figure 7. Length of Debate Periods for Suspension Measures 116th Congress (2019-2020)

Source: CRS analysis of data from Congress.gov. Note: Chart reflects initial consideration of House and Senate bills and resolutions.

Voting and Passage in the House

House leaders generally choose measures for suspension that are likely to achieve the two-thirds majority threshold for passage. Thus, almost all suspension measures were passed or adopted by the House in the 116^th Congress.

The House passed, via motions to suspend the rules, 643 of the 645 House bills that were initially considered under suspension. Two House bills did not receive the requisite supermajority. One bill was later considered and approved under the terms of a special rule. The other bill did not return to the floor and therefore did not pass the House.²⁴

The House agreed to all but one of the House resolutions (54) and concurrent resolutions (3) that were considered under suspension.²⁵ The House approved five out of the six House joint resolutions. The House joint resolution that did not receive the requisite supermajority was H.J.Res. 27, the Further Additional Continuing Appropriations Act, 2019. The House approved each of the 84 Senate bills initially considered under the suspension procedure.

Voice Votes

Most suspension motions are agreed to in the House by voice vote, which is the chamber's default method of voting on most questions. In 2019 and 2020, this method of voting led to the final approval of 77% (608) of the motions to suspend the rules and pass the measures (see Figure 8).

Record Votes

After the initial voice vote, Members triggered an eventual record vote (often called a roll call vote) on 184 (23%) of the suspension measures considered in the 116^th Congress. This was done by demanding the "yeas and nays," objecting to the vote "on the grounds that a quorum is not present," or, in two cases, demanding a recorded vote.²⁶ In all but four instances, the chair elected to postpone the vote to a later period within two additional legislative days pursuant to clause 8 of House Rule XX.²⁷

In the 116^th Congress, 180 suspension motions were adopted by record vote, and four motions to suspend the rules were defeated by record votes. The defeat of a motion to suspend the rules, however, does not necessarily kill the legislation. The Speaker may choose to recognize a Member at a later time to make another motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, or the House may consider the measure pursuant to a special rule reported by the Committee on Rules. Accordingly, one of the initially unsuccessful measures was later called up and passed under the terms of a special rule. The other three measures did not receive further House consideration after their initial rejection under the suspension of the rules procedure.

Figure 8. Adoption of Suspension Motions in the House 116th Congress, 2019-2020

Source: CRS analysis of data from Congress.gov. Note: Chart reflects initial consideration of House and Senate bills and resolutions.

Final Disposition of Measures Considered Under Suspension of the Rules

Passed by the Senate

Although suspension measures generally receive broad support, measures that receive the requisite two-thirds majority in the House are not guaranteed passage in the Senate. As noted in Table 1, in the 116^th Congress, the Senate agreed to three of the six House joint resolutions and two of the three House concurrent resolutions considered under suspension of the rules. The Senate passed 178 of the 645 House bills initially considered under suspension (28%).

Of the 267 suspension measures that passed the House and Senate, 43 entered a "resolution of differences" stage between the chambers. Twenty-seven House bills and 16 Senate bills were subject to an amendment exchange process. (No measure initially considered under suspension of the rules had bicameral differences resolved in a conference committee.) Three of these measures—H.R. 925, H.R. 550, and H.R. 2486—did not have their differences resolved because the House and Senate did not agree on the final text as amended by both chambers. Five bills, initially passed in the House under suspension, did not enter the "resolving differences" stage, and were not enacted into law, because either the House or the Senate did not take up the opposite chamber's amendments.²⁸

Presidential Action

Of the measures initially considered under suspension during the 116^th Congress, 172 House bills, 82 Senate bills, and 3 House joint resolutions were presented to President Trump for signature or veto. The President signed 256 of these measures, vetoing one Senate bill, so a total of 253 bills and 3 joint resolutions were enacted into law (see Table 1).²⁹

Appendix. Use of Suspension Motions, 110^th-116^th Congresses

Figure A-1. Measures Considered Under Suspension Compared to Measures Considered Under Other Procedures on the House Floor 110th-116th Congresses, 2007-2020

Sources: Congress.gov and the following reports by Christopher M. Davis: CRS Report R40829, How Legislation Is Brought to the House Floor: A Snapshot of Recent Parliamentary Practice in the 111th Congress (2009-2010); CRS Report R43039, How Legislation Is Brought to the House Floor: A Snapshot of Parliamentary Practice in the 112th Congress (2011-2012); CRS Report R43912, How Legislation Is Brought to the House Floor: A Snapshot of Parliamentary Practice in the 113th Congress (2013-2014); and CRS Report R44734, How Legislation Is Brought to the House Floor: A Snapshot of Parliamentary Practice in the 114th Congress (2015-2016). Notes: Chart reflects initial consideration of House and Senate bills and resolutions. At the start of the 112th Congress (2011-2012), the House Republican Conference amended its conference rules to generally prohibit the Republican leader from scheduling for consideration under suspension of the rules any bills or resolutions that recognize individuals, groups, institutions, anniversaries of events, or periods of time. This action likely reduced the number of measures considered under the suspension procedure as well as the total number of measures considered on the House floor during this and subsequent Congresses. See CRS Report R43539, Commemorations in Congress: Options for Honoring Individuals, Groups, and Events, coordinated by Jacob R. Straus.