•HRES 1090 IH 
curity, support for gun and school safety legislation, and 
recommendations for a bipartisan infrastructure package; 
Whereas the Problem Solvers Caucus’ progress and bipar-
tisan cooperation as a whole has been hampered because 
of House Rules that enable a few Members to hold most 
of the power; and 
Whereas, to make the House work again for the American 
people, the Problem Solvers Caucus is offering the 
‘‘Break the Gridlock’’ draft proposal: Now, therefore, be 
it 
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep-
resentatives that to encourage and reward consensus driv-
en governing, foster the passage of member initiatives 
solving constituent priorities, increase accountability and 
transparency, and elect a Speaker that is representative 
of the entire body, the House should adopt the following 
proposals: 
(1) To prevent the Speaker from being held 
hostage by a small fraction of his/her party, replace 
the rule allowing a ‘‘Motion to Vacate the Chair’’ 
with a public petition process that must be signed by 
1⁄3 of the House Members to earn privileged consid-
eration on the floor and a majority (218 votes) of 
the whole House to successfully remove the Speaker 
from the position. 
(2) Ensure that the party ratios on all commit-
tees (excluding Ethics which shall remain equally di-
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•HRES 1090 IH 
vided, but including Rules, Intelligence, and all other 
Joint and Select Committees) reflect the party ratio 
of the entire House. 
(3) Require a 
3⁄5
supermajority, of those 
present and voting, for passage and consideration of 
legislation under closed rules. The remaining legisla-
tion should be open or structured. 
(4) Require any structured rule to have at least 
one germane amendment from each party, if offered, 
which means that at least one amendment offered by 
a representative from each party shall not contain in 
advance any waiver of germane points of order 
against its consideration. 
(5) To encourage Committee and floor consider-
ation of member initiatives, establish a fast-track 
procedure to enable bipartisan legislation and 
amendments to receive priority consideration as fol-
lows: 
(A) Any legislative bill (not resolution) 
that gains at least 2⁄3 cosponsors (290 Mem-
bers) or a majority of Members of each party, 
must be marked up by its relevant committees 
and reported to the Rules Committee within 30 
legislative days of receiving its 290th cosponsor. 
The Rules Committee shall report a rule unless 
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•HRES 1090 IH 
the majority +1 of the entire Committee rejects 
the rule. This will ensure that legislation with 
broad support gets appropriate committee and 
floor consideration. 
(B) Any germane amendment offered to a 
bill with a structured rule that has at least 20 
Republican and 20 Democrat cosponsors must 
be allowed floor consideration by the Rules 
Committee. This will ensure that amendments 
with wide bipartisan appeal get due consider-
ation on the floor. 
(C) Ensure Committee-passed bills get to 
the floor by providing for privileged consider-
ation of bills passed out of committee after a 
gestation period. The Rules Committee shall re-
port a rule unless the majority +1 of the entire 
Committee rejects the rule. 
(6) Once per session, all Members of Congress 
shall be granted a markup on at least one piece of 
legislation, as designated by the Member, that has at 
least one cosponsor from the opposite party and is 
referred to a Committee on which they serve. 
(7) Establish a bipartisan annual joint meeting 
at the U.S. Capitol at the beginning of each Con-
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•HRES 1090 IH 
gress to discuss the terms legislative agenda and 
help encourage bipartisan cooperation. 
(8) Require a minimum of a 3-business-day no-
tice of a committee markup, unless the committee 
chairman and ranking minority member agree to a 
different schedule. (This is meant to keep the minor-
ity from being unduly surprised with short notice to 
prepare, and is in reference to House Rule XI, 
Clause 2(g)(4)). 
(9) Require a majority vote on all Committees 
to enable the Chair to waive jurisdiction over legisla-
tion that has been assigned to the committee by the 
Parliamentarian. 
(10) The election of the Speaker of the House 
requires an absolute majority of all Members of the 
House, regardless of whether they are present. 
Æ 
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