Debt Limit Legislation: The House “Gephardt Rule”
Released: 2019-02-13T00:00:00

Introduction

Essentially all of the outstanding debt of the federal government is subject to a statutory limit, which is set forth as a dollar limitation in 31 U.S.C. 3101(b). From time to time, Congress considers and passes legislation to adjust or suspend this limit. Legislation adjusting the debt limit takes the form of an amendment to 31 U.S.C. 3101(b), usually striking the current dollar limitation and inserting a new one. In recent years, such legislation has taken the form of suspending the debt limit through a date certain with an increase to the dollar limit made administratively at the end of the suspension period.

At the beginning of the 116 th Congress, the House adopted a standing rule that would provide for legislation suspending the statutory debt limit to be considered as passed by the House, without a separate vote, when the House adopts the budget resolution for a fiscal year. This House rule is similar to a previous one related to the debt limit (commonly referred to as the "Gephardt rule," named after its original sponsor, former Representative Richard Gephardt), which was first adopted in 1979 but was repealed at the beginning of the 112 th Congress in 2011.

The House may also consider debt limit legislation without resorting to the new debt limit rule (and also did so under the former Gephardt rule) either as freestanding legislation, as part of another measure, or as part of a budget reconciliation bill. The Senate does not have (and has never had) a comparable procedure. If it chooses under the new rule to consider such debt limit legislation, it would do so under its regular legislative process.

This report first explains the current House debt limit rule, particularly in relation to the former Gephardt rule. Then, it describes the legislative history of the former rule and reviews how the former rule operated before it was repealed at the beginning of the 112 th Congress.

Features of the House Debt Limit Rule

House Rule XXVIII requires that the House clerk, when the House adopts the budget resolution for a fiscal year, automatically engross and transmit to the Senate a joint resolution suspending the public debt limit through the end of that year. In other words, such legislation suspending the debt limit would be passed by the House without a separate vote on the debt limit legislation. Instead of a separate vote, the rule stipulates that the vote on the budget resolution is to be considered as the vote on the debt legislation.

The new House debt limit rule differs from the former rule in two respects. First, under the new rule, the debt limit legislation is passed and sent to the Senate when the House adopts the budget resolution, not when the House and Senate agree to the budget resolution. Second, the debt legislation would suspend the debt limit, not explicitly set a new debt limit. Under the former rule, the debt limit legislation would provide for a specific new debt limit, indicating the amount by which the debt limit would be increased. In contrast, as a suspension of the debt limit, the new rule would provide for legislation that accommodates the variability of federal collections and past obligations but retain the ability of Congress to revisit the effects of such revenues and existing obligations.

The current rule, as well as the former rule, does not affect the House Ways and Means Committee's exclusive jurisdiction over debt limit legislation.

The full text of the current debt limit rule is provided in the Appendix .

Legislative History of the Gephardt Rule

The Gephardt rule, initially codified as Rule XLIX of the Standing Rules of the House of Representatives, was established by P.L. 96-78 (93 Stat. 589-591), an act to provide for a temporary increase in the public debt limit. The House adopted the legislation ( H.R. 5369 ) by a vote of 219-198 on September 26, 1979.

During consideration of the measure, Representative Gephardt explained that the purpose of the new House rule was to place the consideration of the public debt limit within the context of the overall budget policies contained in the annual budget resolution. In addition, it was intended to reduce the amount of time spent and the number of votes in the House and in committees on the issue of raising the public debt limit.

One of the aggregate amounts required to be included in the annual budget resolution is the appropriate level of the public debt. The budget resolution, however, does not become law. Therefore, the enactment of subsequent legislation is necessary in order to change the statutory limit on the public debt. The Gephardt rule enables the House to combine the finalization of the budget resolution and the origination of debt limit legislation into a single step.

Representative Gephardt stated that the new automatic engrossment process

puts the consideration of the appropriate level for the debt ceiling where it legitimately and logically belongs. That is in the context of when we vote for the spending that creates the need to change the debt ceiling.

In its original form, the rule required the engrossment of a joint resolution changing the temporary public debt limit. In 1983, the separate temporary and permanent statutory limits on the public debt were combined into one permanent statutory limit ( P.L. 98-34 ). Subsequently, the House amended the Gephardt rule to reflect this change by agreeing to H.Res. 241 (98 th Congress) by voice vote on June 23, 1983. Under the modified rule, the automatically engrossed joint resolution would contain a change to the permanent statutory limit. In addition to this modification, the rules change

also provided that where a budget resolution contains more than one public debt limit figure (for the current and the next fiscal year), only one joint resolution be engrossed, containing the debt limit figure for the current fiscal year with a time limitation, and the debt limit figure for the following fiscal year as the permanent limit.

During consideration of H.Res. 241 , Representative Butler C. Derrick explained the limitation of a single joint resolution by stating the following:

The Committee on Rules ... believes that it is unnecessary and confusing to have ... a single concurrent resolution on the budget trigger the engrossment and passage of two separate joint resolutions to increase or decrease the public debt [limit].

At the beginning of the 106 th Congress (1999-2000), the House recodified the rule as House Rule XXIII. Certain language was deleted and modified from the existing rule, but the revisions were intended to continue the automatic engrossment process "without substantive change."

The House repealed the rule at the beginning of the 107 th Congress (2001-2002). On the opening day of the 108 th Congress (2003-2004), however, the House reinstated this automatic engrossing process as a new rule, Rule XXVII. The reinstated rule contained the same language as Rule XXIII of the 106 th Congress.

The rule was redesignated (without change) as Rule XXVIII during the 110 th Congress upon the enactment of the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 ( S. 1 , P.L. 110-81 , September 14, 2007, see Section 301(a)).

Finally, as noted above, the House repealed the previous rule at the beginning of the 112 th Congress (2011-2012). More recently, the House restored and revised the rule at the beginning of the 116 th Congress.

Operation of the Gephardt Rule

Table 1 provides information on the joint resolutions changing the public debt limit that were engrossed and deemed passed by the House pursuant to the Gephardt rule during calendar years 1980-2010.

The rule, however, did not operate in all of these years. In 11 of the 31 years between 1980 and 2010, the rule was either suspended (1988, 1990-1991, 1994-1997, and 1999-2000) or repealed (2001-2002) by the House. In most cases, the House suspended the rule because legislation changing the statutory limit was not necessary. At the time, the existing public debt limit was expected to be sufficient. In three cases, the House passed or was expected to pass separate legislation to increase the statutory limit. As noted above, the rule was repealed at the beginning of the 107 th Congress and therefore did not apply in 2001 and 2002.

During the remaining 20 years, when the rule was in effect, the House originated 20 joint resolutions under this procedure. The first seven of these 20 joint resolutions were generated under the Gephardt rule in its original form. As mentioned above, the rule was modified in 1983. It generally remained in this form through 2010. The subsequent 13 joint resolutions were generated under this modified language. In four years (calendar years 1998, 2004, 2006, and 2010), while the rule was in effect, the House and Senate did not agree to a conference report on the budget resolution, and therefore the automatic engrossment process under the Gephardt rule was not used.

As Table 1 shows, although budget resolutions adopted during this period contained debt limit amounts for between three and 11 different fiscal years—as the time frame of each budget resolution dictated—the joint resolutions automatically engrossed under the Gephardt rule contained debt limit amounts for only one or two fiscal years, depending on the requirements of the rule at the time. The 1983 modification, as noted above, provided that the automatically engrossed joint resolution could include multiple debt limit increases—one temporary and another permanent. The first three of the 11 joint resolutions automatically engrossed pursuant to this modified version of the rule contained two different public debt limits, and the other eight contained a single public debt limit.

The Senate passed 16 of the 20 joint resolutions automatically engrossed pursuant to the Gephardt rule, passing 10 without amendment and six with amendments. The 10 joint resolutions passed without amendment were sent to the President and signed into law. The six joint resolutions amended by the Senate required a vote of the House before being sent to the President. Five of these ultimately became law. Of the remaining four joint resolutions, the Senate began consideration on one but came to no resolution on it, and it took no action on three.

Between 1980 and 2010, a total of 47 public debt limit changes were signed into law as independent measures or as part of other legislation. The Gephardt rule originated less than a third of these changes. That is, over two-thirds of the 47 public debt limit changes enacted into law during this period originated by procedures other than the House rule, each requiring the House to vote on such legislation. However, the rule effectively allowed the House to avoid a separate, direct vote on 10 (or 21%) of the 47 measures changing the debt limit that were ultimately enacted into law.

Appendix. Text of Current House Debt Limit Rule

RULE XXVIII

STATUTORY LIMIT ON THE PUBLIC DEBT

1. Upon adoption by the House of a concurrent resolution on the budget under section 301 or 304 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, the Clerk shall prepare an engrossment of a joint resolution suspending the statutory limit on the public debt in the form prescribed in clause 2. Upon engrossment of the joint resolution, the vote by which the concurrent resolution on the budget was adopted by the House shall also be considered as a vote on passage of the joint resolution in the House, and the joint resolution shall be considered as passed by the House and duly certified and examined. The engrossed copy shall be signed by the Clerk and transmitted to the Senate for further legislative action.

2. The matter after the resolving clause in a joint resolution described in clause 1 shall be as follows: 'Section 3101(b) of title 31, United States Code, shall not apply for the period beginning on the date of enactment and ending on September 30, .' with the blank being filled with the budget year for the concurrent resolution.

3. Nothing in this rule shall be construed as limiting or otherwise affecting—

(a) the power of the House or the Senate to consider and pass bills or joint resolutions, without regard to the procedures under clause 1, that would change the statutory limit on the public debt; or

(b) the rights of Members, Delegates, the Resident Commissioner, or committees with respect to the introduction, consideration, and reporting of such bills or joint resolutions.

4. In this rule the term 'statutory limit on the public debt' means the maximum face amount of obligations issued under authority of chapter 31 of title 31, United States Code, and obligations guaranteed as to principal and interest by the United States (except such guaranteed obligations as may be held by the Secretary of the Treasury), as determined under section 3101(b) of such title after the application of section 3101(a) of such title, that may be outstanding at any one time.