Title: Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives to encourage consensus and increase accountability and transparency, and for other purposes.
Policy area: Congress

Summary:
Expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that the House should revise its procedures for consideration of legislation and amendments by adopting proposals to:

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1090 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 1090

   Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives to encourage 
 consensus and increase accountability and transparency, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 27, 2018

   Mr. Reed (for himself, Mr. Gottheimer, Mr. Bera, Mr. Coffman, Mr. 
Curbelo of Florida, Ms. Esty of Connecticut, Mr. Faso, Mr. Fitzpatrick, 
   Mr. Gallagher, Mr. Gonzalez of Texas, Mr. Kilmer, Mr. Lance, Mr. 
Lipinski, Mrs. Murphy of Florida, Mr. Peters, Ms. Rosen, Mr. Schrader, 
 Ms. Sinema, Mr. Trott, Mr. Upton, Mr. Bishop of Michigan, Mr. Suozzi, 
   Mr. Welch, Mr. Nolan, Mr. Smucker, Mr. Carbajal, Mr. Cooper, Mr. 
     O'Halleran, Mr. Himes, and Mr. Soto) submitted the following 
        resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Rules

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
   Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives to encourage 
 consensus and increase accountability and transparency, and for other 
                               purposes.

Whereas, for nearly two years, the Members of the Problem Solvers Caucus have 
        worked together finding bipartisan agreement on the toughest issues 
        facing Congress;
Whereas the Problems Solvers Caucus proposed a health care compromise to 
        stabilize the individual marketplace, an agreement on our Nation's 
        DREAMERs and border security, support for gun and school safety 
        legislation, and recommendations for a bipartisan infrastructure 
        package;
Whereas the Problem Solvers Caucus' progress and bipartisan 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 Representatives that 
to encourage and reward consensus driven 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 consideration 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 committees 
        (excluding Ethics which shall remain equally divided, 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 legislation 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 consideration of 
        member initiatives, establish a fast-track procedure to enable 
        bipartisan legislation and amendments to receive priority 
        consideration as follows:
                    (A) Any legislative bill (not resolution) that 
                gains at least \2/3\ cosponsors (290 Members) 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 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 
                consideration on the floor.
                    (C) Ensure Committee-passed bills get to the floor 
                by providing for privileged consideration of bills 
                passed out of committee after a gestation period. The 
                Rules Committee shall report 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 Congress to discuss the terms 
        legislative agenda and help encourage bipartisan cooperation.
            (8) Require a minimum of a 3-business-day notice of a 
        committee markup, unless the committee chairman and ranking 
        minority member agree to a different schedule. (This is meant 
        to keep the minority 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 legislation 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.
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