IV 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 278 

Amending the Rules of the House of Representatives to permit absent Members to participate in committee hearings using video conferencing and 

related technologies and to establish a remote voting system under which 

absent Members may cast votes in the House on motions to suspend 

the rules. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 25, 2017 

Mr. SWALWELL of California (for himself, Mr. PEARCE, and Mr. CRAWFORD) 

submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 

on Rules 

RESOLUTION 

Amending the Rules of the House of Representatives to 

permit absent Members to participate in committee hearings using video conferencing and related technologies 

and to establish a remote voting system under which 

absent Members may cast votes in the House on motions 

to suspend the rules. 

1 Resolved, 

2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

3 This resolution may be cited as the ‘‘Members Oper4 ating to Be Innovative and Link Everyone Resolution’’ or 

5 the ‘‘MOBILE Resolution’’. 


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•HRES 278 IH 

1 SEC. 2. PARTICIPATION OF ABSENT MEMBERS IN COM2 MITTEE HEARINGS THROUGH VIDEO CON3 FERENCING AND RELATED TECHNOLOGIES. 

4 (a) ENABLING PARTICIPATION OF ABSENT MEM5 BERS.—Rule XI of the Rules of the House of Representa6 tives is amended by adding at the end the following new 

7 clause: 

8 ‘‘Participation of absent members 

9 ‘‘7. Each committee shall permit any member of the 

10 committee who is absent from the site of a hearing con11 vened by the committee, as well as any other individual 

12 who is invited to participate in the hearing and who is 

13 absent from the site of the hearing, to use video confer14 encing and related technologies in order to participate in 

15 the hearing to the same extent as members of the com16 mittee and other individuals (as the case may be) who are 

17 present at the site of the meeting.’’. 

18 (b) INCLUSION OF MEMBERS PARTICIPATING RE19 MOTELY IN DETERMINATION OF QUORUM.—Subpara20 graph (2) of clause 2(h) of rule XI of the Rules of the 

21 House of Representatives is amended by adding at the end 

22 the following sentence: ‘‘A committee shall adopt a rule 

23 under which a member who participates in a hearing re24 motely pursuant to clause 7 shall be included in deter25 mining the number of members constituting a quorum at 

26 the hearing for purposes of this subparagraph.’’. 


SSpencer on DSK4SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
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•HRES 278 IH 

1 SEC. 3. PERMITTING ABSENT MEMBERS TO VOTE RE2 MOTELY ON SUSPENSION MOTIONS. 

3 Clause 1 of rule XV of the Rules of the House of 

4 Representatives is amended by adding at the end the fol5 lowing new paragraph: 

6 ‘‘(d) The Clerk, Chief Administrative Officer, and 

7 Sergeant at Arms shall work together to develop and im8 plement a secure remote voting system under which any 

9 member who is absent from the floor shall be permitted 

10 to cast a vote remotely on a motion to suspend the rules 

11 under this clause if the vote is taken by electronic device. 

12 A member who casts such a vote using the remote voting 

13 system under this subparagraph shall be treated as 

14 present for purposes of determining the existence of a 

15 quorum for considering the motion.’’. 

Æ 


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