Hillarysworld

OpenCongress.org

 

As House Democrats struggle to round up the votes to pass the Senate health care bill (H.R.3590), they’re considering more and more obscure parliamentary rules to help them.

Politico reports:

Party leaders have discussed the possibility of using the House Rules Committee to avoid an actual vote on the Senate’s bill, according to leadership aides. They would do this by writing what’s called a “self-executing rule,” meaning the Senate bill would be attached to a package of fixes being negotiated between the two chambers — without an actual vote on the Senate’s legislation.

Under this scenario, the Senate bill would be automatically attached to the reconciliation package, if the House passes reconciliation. In other words, Bill A would just become part of Bill B if the House passes Bill B, and the Senate could then vote on a reconciliation package before sending it to the president. This allows House members to approve the broader measure without actually voting on it. […]

This would allow them to deal with the Senate bill without forcing their members to go on record in support of unpopular items, like the now-infamous Cornhusker Kickback or the so-called Louisiana Purchase, that could be used against them on the campaign trail in the fall.

The article notes that this is far from a done deal. “The same aides who confirmed this process was under discussion quickly noted that party leaders have not yet arrived at a final decision.” But let’s still take a look at what this procedure actually is. Here’s the definition provided by the Congressional Reserach Service (.pdf):

Definition of “Self-Executing” Rule. One of the newer types is called a “self-executing” rule; it embodies a “two-for-one” procedure. This means that when the House adopts a rule it also simultaneously agrees to dispose of a separate matter, which is specified in the rule itself. For instance, self-executing rules may stipulate that a discrete policy proposal is deemed to have passed the House and been incorporated in the bill to be taken up. The effect: neither in the House nor in the Committee of the Whole will lawmakers have an opportunity to amend or to vote separately on the “self-executed” provision. It was automatically agreed to when the House passed the rule. Rules of this sort contain customary, or “boilerplate,” language, such as: “The amendment printed in [section 2 of this resolution or in part 1 of the report of the Committee on Rules accompanying this resolution] shall be considered as adopted in the House and in the Committee of the Whole.”

Unlike the budget reconiliation process, this is getting firmly outside the teritory of standard congressional procedure. The Congressional Reserach Service notes that this procedure has typically been used to “expedite House action in disposing of Senate amendments to House-passed bills.” But it’s contained in the congressional rules, and, as CRS points out, in recent years it has been used more and more often to enact significant (and sometimes contentious) legislation.

[SNIP]  (Examples)

Since the partisanship of the procedure will come up over and over if it does end up getting used for health care reform, I’ll give the historical facts now. Of the 6 contemporary uses of the self-executing rule the CRS gives, only one of them was done by a session of Congress that controlled by the Democrats (101st session). The other five instances were carried out by sessions that were controlled in both chambers by Republicans (104th, 105th and 109th). (Emphasis added)

"

Read the full article @ OpenCongress.org


I recall 2005-Congress adopting the RealID Act using this approach. It was controversial but its legitimacy was not questioned. 

Nothing of the magnitude of HCR has gone thru this process though. Well, there really is nothing else of its magnitude, so we would always say that. They have to look at history to see what process works, I suppose.  But I am really not happy about how this may get sneaked through.  Honestly, I might even prefer reconciliation! Gosh! Never thought I'd say that!!!