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[Journal of the House of Representatives, 1995]
[Wednesday, September 20, 1995 (118), Para 118.8 Point of Order]
[Page 1407]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

para.118.8  point of order

  Mr. QUILLEN made a point of order during the remarks of the gentlemen 
from Texas [Mr. Doggett], and said:

  ``Mr. Speaker, I make a point of order that the gentleman from Texas 
[Mr. Doggett] is in violation of House rule XIV that requires Members to 
confine themselves to the question under consideration.
  ``Mr. Speaker, the question under consideration is House Resolution 
224, the rule for the highway bill, and has nothing to do with 
Medicare.''.

  Mr. FROST was recognized to speak to the point of order and said:

  ``Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. Quillen] objects to 
the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Doggett] speaking about the resolution of 
the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Dingell], when the matter before the 
House is the rule on H.R. 2274.
  ``The Speaker has ruled on this issue several times in recent years. 
Probably the clearest guidelines about relevant speech during 
consideration of a rule come from the Speaker's ruling of September 27, 
1990, and I quote:

     In the Chair's opinion discussing the priority of business is 
     within the confines of the resolution . . . the Chair has 
     ruled that it is certainly within the debate rules of this 
     House to debate whether or not this rule ought to be adopted 
     or another procedure ought to be adopted by the House . . . 
     but when debate ranges into the merits of the relative bills 
     not yet before the House, the Chair would admonish the 
     Members that that goes beyond the resolution . . .

  ``Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Doggett] has not 
discussed the merits of Medicare legislation. He has not discussed the 
details of it or engaged in anything like a debate on that important 
measure. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Texas has confined himself to 
the priority of business argument, that the House ought to be debating 
the resolution of the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Dingell] providing 
for hearings, providing for additional hearings, on Medicare before it 
gets to this important matter dealing with transportation. The 
gentleman from Texas has confined himself to the question of whether to 
adopt the rule before us or a different rule making in order the 
gentleman from Michigan's resolution that provides for hearings on 
Medicare.
  ``Mr. Speaker, I believe the speech of the gentleman from Texas [Mr. 
Doggett] is relevant.''.

  Mr. DOGGETT was recognized to speak to the point of order and said:

  ``Mr. Speaker, as my colleague from Texas has just pointed out, the 
focus of my remarks from the outset is the priority of legislative 
business. If a rule is not an appropriate time to discuss the priority 
of legislative business, I know not when one could discuss the 
priority, and of course my reason for raising this issue of priority is 
that I made a parliamentary inquiry only about an hour ago to the 
Speaker to find out how is it possible to get before the House a 
resolution signed by 201 Members of this House asking for more complete 
and fair hearings on Medicare, and I was told there was no way to do 
that without the approval of Speaker Gingrich. So it seemed to me this 
was an appropriate way to discuss priorities because I would be denied, 
as has every other Member of this House, any other way of getting the 
issue before the House.
  ``So, Mr. Speaker, this is a discussion of priorities which I plan, 
in the brief minute I have remaining, to intermingle with the highway 
bill under consideration because the two are very related.''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore, Mr. DICKEY, sustained the point of order, 
and said:

  ``Debate on a special order providing for the consideration of a bill 
may range to the merits of the bill to be made in order since the 
question of consideration of the bill is involved, but should not range 
to the merits of a measure not to be considered under that special 
order.
  ``The gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. Quillen] has made the point of 
order that the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Doggett] is engaging in 
irrelevant debate. Because the gentleman's remarks have in some 
respects extended to the merits of other measures, the Chair finds that 
the point of order is well taken.''.

  After further debate,
  Mr. QUILLEN moved the previous question on the resolution to its 
adoption or rejection.
  The question being put, viva voce,
  Will the House now order the previous question?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore, Mr. DICKEY, announced that the yeas had it.
  Mr. FROST objected to the vote on the ground that a quorum was not 
present and not voting.
  A quorum not being present,
  The roll was called under clause 4, rule XV, and the call was taken 
by electronic device.

Yeas

241

When there appeared

Nays

173
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