Discharge a Committee

Both the House of Representatives and the Senate have procedures by which committees may be relieved, or discharged, of legislation under their jurisdiction. The discharge mechanism was designed as a way to keep committees from blocking action on controversial bills.

The House procedure, first adopted in 1910, works through a rarely used device called the discharge petition. If a bill has been held up by a legislative committee [Page p121]for at least thirty days, or if the Rules Committee refuses to clear it for floor action within seven days, any member may offer a motion to discharge the committee of the bill. (See Rules Committee, House.) The clerk of the House draws up a discharge petition, and if a majority of the House (218 members, if there are no vacancies) signs on, the discharge motion goes on the Discharge Calendar.

The names of House members signing the petition and the order in which they sign are published in the congressional record on a weekly basis and made public by the clerk daily. At one time the identity of members signing a discharge petition was kept secret until the required 218 signatures had been obtained. But, in an attempt to pressure more to sign such petitions, members primarily from the Republican minority pushed through a rules change in 1993 requiring ongoing public disclosure. Ironically, the resolution to open up the process to public view was passed only after it was discharged from the Rules Committee.

Once a motion to discharge has been placed on the calendar, there is a seven-day grace period. After that, if the committee still has not acted on the bill, any member may move to call up the discharge motion on the floor. If that motion is approved, a motion to call up the bill itself follows. Discharge measures may be considered on the second and fourth Mondays of each month, except during the last six days of the session.

Discharge efforts are seldom successful, since members are reluctant to disregard a committee's judgment and the committee review process. Plus, the committee is usually working in concert with or at the direction of the leadership. (If the leadership wanted a vote on a measure, it could simply use the Rules Committee to bring it out to the floor.) Still, the threat of such a move may spur action. That happened in 1983, when the House Ways and Means Committee approved a controversial tax-withholding bill only after 218 members had signed a discharge petition to force the bill to the floor. Gun control legislation was reported from the Judiciary Committee in 1985, after 200 members signed a discharge petition; another eighteen signatures on that petition forced the Rules Committee to send a specific version of the legislation to the floor. An attempt by the Republican leadership in 1998 to block consideration of any major campaign finance legislation, particularly an important bipartisan bill, triggered a discharge effort; when the petition moved above 200 signatures, the leadership capitulated and agreed to allow floor debate on various competing proposals.

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