I 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 5590 
To require an officer or employee of the Federal Government who is required 
by law to appear on a regular basis to give oral testimony at a hearing 
of a committee of Congress to remain at the hearing until each member 
of the committee has been provided with the opportunity to question 
the officer or employee. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 20, 2023 
Mr. DONALDS (for himself, Mr. NORMAN, Ms. HAGEMAN, Mr. MOYLAN, Ms. 
MACE, Mrs. BOEBERT, and Mr. OGLES) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, 
and in addition to the Committee on Rules, for a period to be subse-
quently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 
provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To require an officer or employee of the Federal Government 
who is required by law to appear on a regular basis 
to give oral testimony at a hearing of a committee of 
Congress to remain at the hearing until each member 
of the committee has been provided with the opportunity 
to question the officer or employee. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘No More Hard Stops 
Act’’. 
SEC. 2. REQUIRING FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS 
TESTIFYING AT HEARINGS OF COMMITTEES 
OF CONGRESS TO REMAIN UNTIL EACH MEM-
BER 
HAS 
BEEN 
PROVIDED 
THE 
OPPOR-
TUNITY TO QUESTION. 
(a) REQUIREMENT.—An officer or employee of the 
Federal Government who is subject to a requirement 
under law to appear on a regular basis to give oral testi-
mony at a hearing of a committee of Congress shall not 
be considered to meet such requirement unless the officer 
or employee remains at the hearing until each member of 
the committee who is present at the hearing has been pro-
vided with the opportunity to question the officer or em-
ployee. 
(b) ENSURING OPPORTUNITY TO QUESTION
FOR 
EACH MEMBER.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—The chair of a committee of 
Congress who presides at a hearing of the committee 
at which an officer or employee of the Federal Gov-
ernment appears pursuant to a requirement de-
scribed in subsection (a) may not provide a member 
of the committee with a second opportunity to ques-
tion the officer or employee at the hearing until each 
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member of the committee who seeks to question the 
officer or employee has been provided with an oppor-
tunity to do so. 
(2) EXERCISE OF RULEMAKING POWER.—This 
subsection is enacted by Congress— 
(A) as an exercise of the rulemaking power 
of the Senate and House of Representatives, re-
spectively, and as such it is deemed a part of 
the rules of each House, respectively, but appli-
cable only with respect to the procedure to be 
followed in that House in the case of a Commis-
sion joint resolution, and it supersedes other 
rules only to the extent that it is inconsistent 
with such rules; and 
(B) with full recognition of the constitu-
tional right of either House to change the rules 
(so far as relating to the procedure of that 
House) at any time, in the same manner, and 
to the same extent as in the case of any other 
rule of that House. 
(c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This Act shall apply with re-
spect to hearings held on or after the date of the enact-
ment of this Act. 
Æ 
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