III 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. RES. 27 

Relative to Senate procedure in the 117th Congress. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

FEBRUARY 3, 2021 

Mr. SCHUMER submitted the following resolution; which was considered and 

agreed to 

RESOLUTION 

Relative to Senate procedure in the 117th Congress. 

1 Resolved, 

2 SECTION 1. Notwithstanding the provisions of rule 

3 XXV of the Standing Rules of the Senate, or any other 

4 provision of the Standing Rules or Standing Orders of the 

5 Senate— 

6 (1) the committees of the Senate, including 

7 joint committees and special committees, for the 

8 117th Congress shall be composed equally of mem9 bers of both parties, to be appointed at a later time 

10 by the two Leaders; 

11 (2) the budgets and office space for such com12 mittees, and all other subgroups, shall likewise be 


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1 equal, with up to an additional 10 percent to be allo2 cated for administrative expenses to be determined 

3 by the Committee on Rules and Administration, with 

4 the total administrative expenses allocation for all 

5 committees not to exceed historic levels; and 

6 (3) the Chairman of a full committee may dis7 charge a subcommittee of any Legislative or Execu8 tive Calendar item which has not been reported be9 cause of a tie vote and place it on the full commit10 tee’s agenda. 

11 SEC. 2. The committee ratios under section 1 shall 

12 remain in effect for the remainder of the 117th Congress, 

13 except that if at any time during the 117th Congress ei14 ther party attains a majority of the whole number of Sen15 ators, then each committee ratio shall be adjusted to re16 flect the ratio of the parties in the Senate, and the provi17 sions of this resolution shall have no further effect, except 

18 that the members who were first appointed by the two 

19 Leaders to such committees in the 117th Congress, pursu20 ant to the authority in this resolution, shall no longer be 

21 members of the committees, and the committee chairman22 ships shall be held by the party which has attained a ma23 jority of the whole number of Senators. 

24 SEC. 3. Pursuant to the provisions and exceptions de25 scribed in sections 1 and 2, the following additional StandVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:39 Feb 03, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR27.ATS SR27

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1 ing Orders of the Senate shall be in effect for the 117th 

2 Congress: 

3 (1) If a committee has not reported out a meas4 ure or matter because of a tie vote, then— 

5 (A) the Chairman of the committee shall 

6 transmit a notice of a tie vote to the Secretary 

7 of the Senate and such notice shall be printed 

8 in the Record; and 

9 (B) after such notice of a tie vote has been 

10 transmitted, the Majority Leader or the Minor11 ity Leader may, only after consultation with the 

12 Chairman and Ranking Member of the com13 mittee, make a motion to discharge such meas14 ure or matter, and time for debate on such mo15 tion shall be limited to 4 hours, to be equally 

16 divided between the two Leaders or their des17 ignees, with no other motions, points of order, 

18 or amendments in order: Provided, That fol19 lowing the use or yielding back of time, the 

20 Senate vote on the motion to discharge, without 

21 any intervening action, motion, or debate, and 

22 if agreed to, the measure or matter be placed 

23 immediately on the appropriate Calendar. 

24 (2) Notwithstanding the provisions of rule XXII 

25 of the Standing Rules of the Senate, to ensure that 


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1 any cloture motion shall be offered for the purpose 

2 of bringing to a close debate, in no case shall it be 

3 in order for any cloture motion to be presented on 

4 an amendable item during its first 12 hours of Sen5 ate debate: Provided, That all other provisions of 

6 rule XXII remain in status quo. 

7 SEC. 4. It is the sense of the Senate that both Lead8 ers shall seek to attain an equal balance of the interests 

9 of the two parties when scheduling and debating legislative 

10 and executive business generally, and in keeping with the 

11 present Senate precedents, a motion to proceed to any 

12 Legislative or Executive Calendar item shall continue to 

13 be considered the prerogative of the Majority Leader, al14 though the Standing Rules of the Senate do not prohibit 

15 the right of the Republican Leader, or any other Senator, 

16 to move to proceed to any item. 

Æ 


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