We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2012
In Congresses of the late twentieth century, the Rules Committee consisted of thirteen members, nine from the majority party, four from the minority party. This heavy majority party ratio of 2 to 1 plus 1 reflected the committee's status since the mid 1970s as an “arm of the leadership” and “legislative gatekeeper.” The committee of the 1990s served principally to assist the majority leadership in scheduling bills for floor action. Bills were scheduled by means of special rules that gave them priority status for consideration in the House and established procedures for their debate and amendment.
– U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Rules, 2004INTRODUCTION
In the 106th Congress, the Republican majority sought to pass legislation that would ensure increased accountability for juvenile offenders. After reneging on its promise to consider the bill under regular order, the majority party succeeded in having the matter referred to the Rules Committee. In the Democrats' view of events, Rules began by giving conflicting instructions to the minority party about how amendments should be drafted. In response to such instructions, Representative John Conyers (D-MI) exclaimed:
We ought to be honest about what really appears to be happening – a rule is being structured, in my judgment, so that the Republican leadership can isolate and kill the Senate passed gun violence amendments while still being able to point to what will be largely meaningless juvenile justice provisions.
(Letter to Henry Hyde 1999)To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
