Essentially all of the outstanding debt of the federal government is subject to a statutory limit, which is set forth as a dollar limitation in Title 31, Section 3101(b), of the U.S. Code. From time to time, Congress considers and passes legislation to adjust or suspend this limit.¹ Legislation adjusting the debt limit takes the form of an amendment to Section 3101(b), usually striking the current dollar limitation and inserting a new one.² In recent years, such legislation has also taken the form of suspending the debt limit through a date certain with an increase to the dollar limit made administratively at the end of the suspension period.³

Former House Rule XXVIII (commonly referred to as the "Gephardt rule," named after its original author, former Representative Richard Gephardt) allowed the House to pass debt limit legislation without requiring a separate vote on the initial consideration of such legislation. The rule, as it was first applied in calendar year 1980, provided for the automatic engrossment of a House joint resolution changing the statutory limit on the public debt when the House and Senate adopted the budget resolution.⁴ At the beginning of the 116^th Congress (2019-2020), the rule was modified to provide for the automatic engrossment of legislation suspending the debt limit when just the House adopted the budget resolution. Most recently, however, at the beginning of the 118^th Congress (2023-2024), the House repealed Rule XXVIII.

Currently, the House may consider debt limit legislation either as freestanding legislation, as part of another measure, or as part of a budget reconciliation bill.⁵ Notably, even when the Gephardt rule was part of the House rules, the House often initiated or considered debt limit legislation under other legislative procedures.

The Senate has never had a procedure comparable to the Gephardt rule. If the Senate chose to consider a Gephardt-rule-originated House joint resolution, it did so under its regular legislative process.

This report first explains the former House debt limit rule—its more recent modified form (during the 116^th and 117^th Congresses) and its original form (prior to the 112^th Congress). Then, it describes the legislative history of the former rule. The report concludes with a review of how the Gephardt rule operated from its first year (1980) until its repeal at the beginning of the 118^th Congress.

This report updates the previous one (dated February 13, 2019) with information on its application during the previous two Congresses (116^th and 117^th), its repeal at the beginning of the 118^th Congress, and certain revisions for clarity.

Features of the Former House Debt Limit Rule

Former House Rule XXVIII, in its more recent form (i.e., as modified at the beginning of the 116^th Congress), required that, when the House adopted the budget resolution for a fiscal year, the House clerk automatically engross and transmit to the Senate a joint resolution suspending the public debt limit through the end of that year.⁶ In other words, the House would pass such legislation suspending the debt limit without a separate vote on the debt limit legislation. Instead of a separate vote, the rule stipulated that the vote on the budget resolution was to be considered as the vote on the debt limit legislation.⁷

This most recent form of the House debt limit rule differed from the previous form (i.e., prior to the 112^th Congress) in two respects (see Table 1). First, the previous form of the rule triggered the automatically engrossed legislation when both the House and the Senate agreed to the budget resolution rather than just the House. Second, under the previous form, the debt limit legislation would provide for a specific new debt limit amount instead of suspending the debt limit. The specific new debt limit amount would be equal to the estimated additional borrowing during the fiscal year necessary to accommodate the policies assumed in the budget resolution (i.e., those maintaining existing law and any new policies).

The Gephardt rule (in either form) did not affect the House Ways and Means Committee's exclusive jurisdiction over debt limit legislation.⁸

The full text of both forms of the Gephardt rule is provided in the Appendix.

Legislative History of the Gephardt Rule

The Gephardt rule, initially codified as Rule XLIX of the standing rules of the House, was established by Title II of P.L. 96-78, an act to provide for a temporary increase in the public debt limit.⁹ The House adopted the legislation (H.R. 5369) by a vote of 219-198 on September 26, 1979.¹⁰

During consideration of the measure, Representative Gephardt explained that the purpose of the new House rule was to place the consideration of the public debt limit within the context of the overall budget policies contained in the budget resolution for each fiscal year. He stated that the new automatic engrossment process

puts the consideration of the appropriate level for the debt ceiling where it legitimately and logically belongs. That is in the context of when we vote for the spending that creates the need to change the debt ceiling.¹¹

One of the aggregate amounts required to be included in the budget resolution is the appropriate level of the public debt.¹² The budget resolution, however, does not become law. Therefore, if the specified level exceeded the existing public debt limit, the enactment of subsequent legislation would be necessary to implement the respective budget policies of the budget resolution. The Gephardt rule enabled the House to combine, into a single step, completing action on the budget resolution and passing debt limit legislation. In addition, it was intended to reduce the amount of time spent and the number of votes in the House and in committees on raising the public debt limit. As further stated by Gephardt, the new process

will free up time in the House and in our committees to more appropriately deal with the very important matters that indeed determine how much money we spend and how high we have to raise the public debt ceiling.¹³

In its original form, the rule required the engrossment of a joint resolution changing the temporary public debt limit.¹⁴ In addition, in practice, the original rule triggered a separate joint resolution for each debt limit amount included in the budget resolution—leading to two joint resolutions automatically engrossed (and sent to the Senate) for each of the FY1981, FY1982, and FY1983 budget resolutions (see Table 2).

In 1983, the separate temporary and permanent statutory limits on the public debt were combined into one permanent statutory limit (P.L. 98-34).¹⁵ Subsequently, the House amended the Gephardt rule to reflect this change (H.Res. 241)—that is, the automatically engrossed joint resolution would contain a change to the permanent statutory limit.¹⁶ In addition, the rule was amended to automatically engross a single joint resolution changing the debt limit when the House and Senate adopted the budget resolution.¹⁷ In explaining the rules change, Representative Butler C. Derrick stated the following:

The Committee on Rules … believes that it is unnecessary and confusing to have … a single concurrent resolution on the budget trigger the engrossment and passage of two separate joint resolutions to increase or decrease the public debt [limit].¹⁸

At the beginning of the 106^th Congress (1999-2000), the House recodified the rule as House Rule XXIII. Certain language was deleted and modified from the existing rule, but the revisions were intended to continue the automatic engrossment process "without substantive change."¹⁹

The House repealed the rule at the beginning of the 107^th Congress (2001-2002).²⁰ However, on the opening day of the 108^th Congress (2003-2004), the House reinstated this automatic debt limit legislation engrossment process as a new rule, Rule XXVII.²¹ The reinstated rule contained the same language as Rule XXIII of the 106^th Congress.

The rule was redesignated (without change) as Rule XXVIII during the 110^th Congress by the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007.²²

Then, at the beginning of the 112^th Congress (2011-2012), the House repealed the rule.²³ It was not included in the House standing rules through the 115^th Congress (2017-2018).

At the beginning of the 116^th Congress (2019-2020), the debt limit rule was reinstated, in a modified form, in the standing rules, once again as Rule XXVIII.²⁴ The modified form, as previously discussed, provided for the automatic engrossment of a joint resolution suspending the debt limit when the House adopted the budget resolution for a fiscal year.²⁵

Finally, at the beginning of the 118^th Congress (2023-2024), the House repealed the debt limit rule.²⁶

Operation of the Gephardt Rule

The Gephardt rule has been included in the House standing rules for 33 of the 43 years since 1980, when the rule first applied, and through 2022, before it was repealed at the beginning of the 118^th Congress.²⁷ In 16 of the 33 years, however, either the rule was suspended or the respective budget resolution was not adopted. Therefore, in those 16 years, the Gephardt rule did not trigger automatically engrossed debt limit legislation. In other words, in just over half of the years in which the Gephardt rule existed (17 of the 33 years), debt limit legislation was automatically engrossed and sent to the Senate, without a separate vote, when the budget resolution was adopted.

For those 17 years, Table 2 provides information on the debt limit legislation originated by the Gephardt rule. Pursuant to the rule, these joint resolutions (changing the public debt limit) were deemed passed by the House, engrossed, and sent to the Senate.

In all, the House originated 20 joint resolutions under the Gephardt rule. The first seven of these 20 joint resolutions originated under the rule in its initial form, resulting in multiple measures for each of the first three fiscal years covered. The subsequent 13 joint resolutions originated under the 1983 modification of the rule, which provided for a single joint resolution for each budget resolution adopted by Congress. No joint resolutions originated under the more recent 2019 version of the rule, which provided for the automatic engrossment of legislation suspending the debt limit when the House adopted a budget resolution.

The Senate passed 16 of the 20 joint resolutions that were automatically engrossed pursuant to the Gephardt rule, passing 10 without amendment and six with amendments.²⁸ The 10 joint resolutions passed without amendment were sent to the President and signed into law. The six joint resolutions amended by the Senate, however, required further House action in order to be sent to the President. Of these six joint resolutions, the House took affirmative action on five of them, leading to those five being sent to the President and signed into law.²⁹ In sum, 15 of the 20 Gephardt-rule-originated joint resolutions became law—with the House never directly voting on the passage of 10 of these, pursuant to the Gephardt rule.

Overall, since 1980, the Gephardt rule has arguably had a limited role in the enactment of debt limit legislation. Most of the laws that included a change to, or suspension of, the debt limit did not originate pursuant to the Gephardt rule. Between 1980 and 2022, a total of 57 measures were enacted that included changes to, or suspension of, the public debt limit, either by itself or combined with other policy changes.³⁰ While the Gephardt rule originated about a quarter (26.3%) of these measures, less than a fifth (17.5%) of the 57 measures were enacted without a separate vote by the House. In other words, over four-fifths (82.5%) of the 57 measures required the House to vote on such legislation.

Appendix. Additional Information on the Gephardt Rule

Text of Former House Debt Limit Rules

Modified Version in 116^th and 117^th Congresses

RULE XXVIII

STATUTORY LIMIT ON THE PUBLIC DEBT

1. Upon adoption by the House of a concurrent resolution on the budget under section 301 or 304 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, the Clerk shall prepare an engrossment of a joint resolution suspending the statutory limit on the public debt in the form prescribed in clause 2. Upon engrossment of the joint resolution, the vote by which the concurrent resolution on the budget was adopted by the House shall also be considered as a vote on passage of the joint resolution in the House, and the joint resolution shall be considered as passed by the House and duly certified and examined. The engrossed copy shall be signed by the Clerk and transmitted to the Senate for further legislative action.

2. The matter after the resolving clause in a joint resolution described in clause 1 shall be as follows: 'Section 3101(b) of title 31, United States Code, shall not apply for the period beginning on the date of enactment and ending on September 30,.' with the blank being filled with the budget year for the concurrent resolution.

3. Nothing in this rule shall be construed as limiting or otherwise affecting—

(a) the power of the House or the Senate to consider and pass bills or joint resolutions, without regard to the procedures under clause 1, that would change the statutory limit on the public debt; or

(b) the rights of Members, Delegates, the Resident Commissioner, or committees with respect to the introduction, consideration, and reporting of such bills or joint resolutions.

4. In this rule the term 'statutory limit on the public debt' means the maximum face amount of obligations issued under authority of chapter 31 of title 31, United States Code, and obligations guaranteed as to principal and interest by the United States (except such guaranteed obligations as may be held by the Secretary of the Treasury), as determined under section 3101(b) of such title after the application of section 3101(a) of such title, that may be outstanding at any one time.

Version Prior to 112^th Congress

RULE XXVIII

STATUTORY LIMIT ON PUBLIC DEBT

1. Upon adoption by Congress of a concurrent resolution on the budget under section 301 or 304 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 that sets forth, as the appropriate level of the public debt for the period to which the concurrent resolution relates, an amount that is different from the amount of the statutory limit on the public debt that otherwise would be in effect for that period, the Clerk shall prepare an engrossment of a joint resolution increasing or decreasing, as the case may be, the statutory limit on the public debt in the form prescribed in clause 2. Upon engrossment of the joint resolution, the vote by which the concurrent resolution on the budget was finally agreed to in the House shall also be considered as a vote on passage of the joint resolution in the House, and the joint resolution shall be considered as passed by the House and duly certified and examined. The engrossed copy shall be signed by the Clerk and transmitted to the Senate for further legislative action.

2. The matter after the resolving clause in a joint resolution described in clause 1 shall be as follows: "That subsection (b) of section 3101 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by striking out the dollar limitation contained in such subsection and inserting in lieu thereof '$______'.", with the blank being filled with a dollar limitation equal to the appropriate level of the public debt set forth pursuant to section 301(a)(5) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 in the relevant concurrent resolution described in clause 1. If an adopted concurrent resolution under clause 1 sets forth different appropriate levels of the public debt for separate periods, only one engrossed joint resolution shall be prepared under clause 1; and the blank referred to in the preceding sentence shall be filled with the limitation that is to apply for each period.

3. (a) The report of the Committee on the Budget on a concurrent resolution described in clause 1 and the joint explanatory statement of the managers on a conference report to accompany such a concurrent resolution each shall contain a clear statement of the effect the eventual enactment of a joint resolution engrossed under this rule would have on the statutory limit on the public debt.

(b) It shall not be in order for the House to consider a concurrent resolution described in clause 1, or a conference report thereon, unless the report of the Committee on the Budget or the joint explanatory statement of the managers complies with paragraph (a).

4. Nothing in this rule shall be construed as limiting or otherwise affecting—

(a) the power of the House or the Senate to consider and pass bills or joint resolutions, without regard to the procedures under clause 1, that would change the statutory limit on the public debt; or

(b) the rights of Members, Delegates, the Resident Commissioner, or committees with respect to the introduction, consideration, and reporting of such bills or joint resolutions.

5. In this rule the term "statutory limit on the public debt" means the maximum face amount of obligations issued under authority of chapter 31 of title 31, United States Code, and obligations guaranteed as to principal and interest by the United States (except such guaranteed obligations as may be held by the Secretary of the Treasury), as determined under section 3101(b) of such title after the application of section 3101(a) of such title, that may be outstanding at any one time.