[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office]
[H. Res. 63 Introduced in House (IH)]
110th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 63
Amending the Rules of the House of Representatives to ensure that
Members have a reasonable amount of time to read legislation that will
be voted upon.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
January 12, 2007
Mr. Paul (for himself and Mr. Bartlett of Maryland) submitted the
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Rules
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Amending the Rules of the House of Representatives to ensure that
Members have a reasonable amount of time to read legislation that will
be voted upon.
Resolved, That (a) the Rules of the House of Representatives are
amended by adding at the end the following new rule:
``rule xxix
``time to read legislation before voting
``1. Notwithstanding any provision of these rules, no bill, joint
resolution, conference report, or amendment between the Houses shall be
voted on by the House unless the text of that measure has been
available to all Members and their staffs in both printed and
electronic format for at least 10 days and any manager's amendment or
other amendment which makes substantive changes to the legislation has
been made available in both printed and electronic versions for at
least 72 hours before the scheduled vote on such legislation.
``2. Clause 1 shall not apply to--
``(1) the intelligence authorization bill, appropriations,
or other legislation containing classified information, or
conference report thereon, if Members have at least 7 days to
study the contents of such measure; and
``(2) congressional declarations of war or authorization of
military force to respond to attacks on the United States.
``3. (a) Any Member who votes for any measure that has been placed
before the House in violation of this rule shall be deemed to have
violated House ethics rules and be subject to censure.
``(b) Notwithstanding any provision of these rules, any citizen who
is eligible to vote and who is not an employee of the executive or
judicial branch of the Government may petition the Committee on
Standards and Official Conduct to investigate allegations that a Member
voted for any measure that violated this rule.''.
(b) Clause 6(c) of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of
Representatives is amended by striking the period at the end of
subparagraph (2) and inserting ``; or'' and by adding at the end the
following new subparagraph:
``(3) a rule or order that would waive the provisions of
rule XXIX.''.