Rules of the Joint Select Committee on Budget and Appropriations Process Reform

Rule I—In General

1. The provisions of subtitle B of title IV, division C of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (P.L. 

115-123) governing the proceedings of the Joint Select Committee on Budget and 

Appropriations Process Reform (hereinafter “Joint Committee”) are hereby incorporated by 

reference and nothing herein shall be construed as superseding any provision of that Act.

2. The rules of the House of Representatives – to the extent that they are applicable to committees 

and do not conflict with the rules of the Joint Committee or subtitle B of title IV, division C of 

the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 – shall govern the proceedings of the Joint Committee

3. If a measure or matter is publicly available in electronic form, it shall be considered to have 

been available to members of the Joint Committee for purposes of these rules.

4. In each case where authority is granted to the Co-Chairs of the Joint Committee, such authority 

may only be exercised jointly by the Co-Chairs.

RULE II—Meetings and Hearings

Meetings

1. (a) The Co-Chairs shall provide an agenda to the Joint Committee members not less than 48 

hours in advance of any meeting.

(b) The text of any report and proposed legislative language shall be publicly available in 

electronic form at least 24 hours prior to its consideration.

Hearings 

3. The Co-Chairs shall make a public announcement of the date, place, time, and subject matter of 

any hearing to be conducted not less than seven days in advance of such hearing, unless the CoChairs determine that there is good cause to begin such hearing at an earlier date. 

Witnesses’ Statements

4. (a) A witness appearing before the Joint Committee shall file a written statement of proposed 

testimony at least two calendar days before the appearance of the witness, unless this 

requirement is waived by the Co-Chairs, following their determination that there is good cause 

for failure to comply with such requirement.

 (b) Any witness appearing in a nongovernmental capacity shall include with their written 

statement of testimony a curriculum vitae and a disclosure of any Federal grants or contracts, or 

contracts or payments originating with a foreign government, received during the current 

calendar year or either of the two previous calendar years by the witness or an entity represented 

by the witness and related to the subject matter of the hearing. These statements, with 

appropriate redactions to protect the privacy or security of a witness, shall be made publicly 

available in electronic form not later than one day after the witness appears. Such disclosure 

shall include:

(i) the amount and source of each Federal grant (or subgrant thereof) or contract (or 

subcontract thereof) related to the subject matter of the hearing; and 
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(ii) the amount and country of origin for any payment or contract related to the subject 

matter of the hearing originating with a foreign government.

Voting and Quorums

5. (a) Nine members of the Joint Committee shall constitute a quorum for purposes of voting and 

meeting. 

(b) Five members of the Joint Committee shall constitute a quorum for holding hearings.

6. A record vote on any motion, amendment, measure, or matter may be ordered upon the request 

of any member of the Joint Committee.

7. The Co-Chairs may jointly agree to set a series of votes on any amendment or agreeing to a 

measure or matter, or postpone a requested record vote on such amendment, measure or matter, 

to occur at a time certain. Reasonable notice shall be given to members prior to resuming 

proceedings on any postponed question.

8. No proxy voting shall be allowed on behalf of the members of the Joint Committee.

Rule III—Questioning Witnesses

1. Questioning of witnesses will be conducted under the five-minute rule. Each member of the 

Joint Committee shall be allocated five minutes to question witnesses during the initial round 

and any subsequent round of questioning. 

Rule IV—Staffing and Records

Staff

1. The staff of the Joint Committee shall be appointed as provided in sections 30442(b)(4)(I)(i) 

and 30442(b)(4)(I)(ii) of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018. 

Records

2. The Joint Committee shall maintain a complete record of all committee action, including—

 (a) in the case of a hearing or meeting transcript, a substantially verbatim account of remarks 

actually made during the proceedings, subject only to technical, grammatical, and typographical 

corrections authorized by the person making the remarks involved; and

 (b) the result of each record vote taken by the Joint Committee, including a description of the 

amendment, motion, order, or other proposition, the name of each member voting for and voting 

against such amendment, motion, order, or other proposition, and the names of the members of 

the Joint Committee present but not voting. 

Rule V—Content of Report

1. In the report required under section 30442(b)(2)(B)(i)(I) of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, 

the Joint Committee shall include—
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 (a) with respect to each record vote on a motion to report the Joint Committee’s recommendations 

or accompanying legislative language, and on any amendment offered to the recommendations 

or language, the total number of votes cast for and against, and the names of members voting 

for and against; and 

 (b) a document, showing by appropriate typographical devices the omissions and insertions 

proposed, the entire text of each section of a statute that is proposed to be repealed; and a 

comparative print of each amendment to the entire text of a section of a statute that the bill or 

joint resolution proposes to make. If the Joint Committee reports a bill or joint resolution 

proposing to repeal or amend a statute or part thereof with a recommendation that the bill or 

joint resolution be amended, such comparative print shall also reflect the changes in existing 

law proposed to be made by the bill or joint resolution as proposed to be amended. 

Rule VI—Public Access and Transparency

1. (a) Any report or legislative language approved by the Joint Committee, the result of each record

vote taken by the Joint Committee, and any Committee Print published by the Joint Committee 

shall be made available to the public in electronic form. 

(b) Not later than 24 hours after the adoption of any amendment to the report or legislative 

language, the Co-Chairs shall make the text of each such amendment publicly available in 

electronic form.

(c) Not later than 48 hours after a record vote is completed, the information described in clause 

2(b) of rule IV shall be made publicly available in electronic form.

2. To the maximum extent practicable, the Joint Committee shall—

(a) provide audio and video coverage of each hearing or meeting for the transaction of business 

in a manner that allows the public to easily listen to and view the proceedings; and

(b) maintain the recordings of such coverage in a manner that is easily accessible to the public.