Discharge Procedure in the House

The House discharge rule (Rule XV, clause 2) provides a means for Members to bring to the floor for consideration a public bill or resolution that has been referred to committee but not reported. Discharge is generally the only procedure by which Members can secure consideration of a measure without cooperation from the committee(s) of referral, the majority-party leadership, or the Committee on Rules. For this reason, discharge is designed to be time-consuming to execute and difficult to accomplish. Any Member can initiate a discharge process by filing a discharge motion (also called a discharge petition) with the Clerk of the House on or in connection with a measure that has remained in committee for at least 30 legislative days. Discharge petitions are maintained by the Clerk’s office and made available at the rostrum for Members to sign when the House is in session. Members may add or remove their names until a petition has obtained 218 signatures. If this threshold is met, the discharge motion is placed on a “Calendar of Motions to Discharge Committees” and would become eligible to be called up after seven legislative days. If this point is reached, any Member who signed the petition may give notice to the House of an intention to offer the discharge motion. Following notification, the Speaker would be directed to schedule a time within two legislative days for the House to consider the motion. A motion to discharge is debatable for 20 minutes, equally divided between proponents and opponents. If the motion is adopted in relation to a measure, the committee in possession of the measure is discharged from its consideration, and any Member who signed the petition may immediately move to proceed to consider it. The measure is then considered in its introduced form under the standing rules of the House. If a discharge motion is adopted in connection with a special rule, the rule would come directly to the floor for immediate consideration. No motion to proceed is required in this case. Historically, the discharge process was most often deployed toward a particular legislative measure. In recent Congresses, it has become more common for Members to initiate a discharge process on a special rule (H.Res.) for a measure, instead of on the measure itself. There may be procedural advantages to the latter approach. For instance, in the language of a special rule, discharge proponents may establish the procedural terms they find most appropriate for considering the underlying measure (i.e., length of debate and control of time, consideration of amendments [if any], or waivers of points of order against the bill). This approach requires supporters to draft and introduce their own special rule, which must have been in Rules Committee possession at least 7 legislative days before it would be eligible for a discharge process (provided the underlying measure has exceeded 30 legislative days in committee).