Changing Congressional Committee Rules For The 114th Congress (H. Res. 5)
Do you support or oppose this bill?
What is H. Res. 5?
(Updated March 13, 2017)
This bill adopts the House of Representatives rules from the 113th Congress for the 114th Congress, while making modifications and additions. Most of these modifications are updates in the wording of committee responsibilities to keep things as clear as possible in Congress.
The most notable change in this package of rules would be that major legislation must be estimated by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) using dynamic scoring, which the CBO and Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) already do, but don’t include in their official estimates.
Dynamic scoring takes into account how legislation — especially related to taxes — will impact the economy as a whole. The White House and Democrats have been critical of this change, but Republicans feel that it will provide more realistic estimates of how legislation will affect the budget.
Perhaps the funniest change is that lobbyists will now be prevented from using Congressional workout facilities, including those lobbyists who are former members of Congress.
Argument in favor
This is a straightforward process that every new Congress goes through to update committee rules.
Argument opposed
Some of these rules changes are too significant to be implemented without more consideration by Congress as a whole.
Impact
Witnesses offering testimony to Congressional committees, Congressional committees, Congressional lawmakers, staffers, Congress.
Cost of H. Res. 5
A CBO estimate is unavailable.
Additional Info
Of Note:
There will now be mandatory ethics training for new members of Congress, and their employees.
Witnesses offering testimony to House committees are now required to submit a list of all federal grants or contracts they have, and disclose the nature of all funds that they have been given by foreign governments for the preceding two years.
The Committee on Appropriations will now have authority over bills and joint resolutions that provide funding authority, including the limitation of funds, and authority over new loan guarantee commitments.
The rules for the Committee on Ethics will now explicitly prohibit the committee from taking any action that would infringe a person’s rights or protections they’re provided by the Constitution.
Cost estimates for major legislation will now include the budgetary effects of changes in economic output, employment, capital stock, and other macroeconomic variables resulting from such legislation. The Joint Committee on Taxation will provide the Director of the Congressional Budget Office with this summary. The summary will include a qualitative assessment of the legislation over a 20-year fiscal period, and identify the assumptions and data sources the estimate incorporates. This will apply to any legislation for which an estimate is required by law, and any bill that would lead to a budgetary effect of 0.25 percent of that year’s U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Committee chairs can request that the Government Accountability Office perform a duplication analysis of any bill or joint resolution that is referred to the committee. This assesses whether the bill would duplicate or overlap with an existing federal program, and the extent to which any overlap exists. This authority would also cover program re-authorizations.
Media:
Chairman of the House Rules Committee, and U.S. Congressman Pete Sessions (R-TX) Press Release
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