Each year, Congress considers appropriations measures that provide funding for various federal government activities. Such measures are commonly referred to as "regular" appropriations bills. Because of the importance of these measures, the standing rules of the House establish special terms for their consideration, including making them privileged for consideration and providing restrictions on the amendment process to which they are subject. In practice, however, the extent to which these procedures are applicable to a specific regular appropriations bill is often dependent on whether the House chooses to consider it under these standing rules or to adopt alternate procedures for the individual case. In recent years, the House has typically considered a regular appropriations bill only after first reaching agreement on the procedural terms of its consideration. Since at least the mid-1990s, the House has provided for consideration of nearly all regular appropriations bills under special rule s , which are simple resolutions reported by House Rules Committee that set the terms for considering a measure. During this period, the House has also occasionally initiated consideration under the terms of unanimous consent agreement s (UCAs), which have typically resembled special rules in form and effect. Rarely have regular appropriations bills been considered under their status as privileged business. House Rule XIII allows a motion to be made to provide for consideration of a general appropriations bill. When regular appropriations bills are brought to the floor as privileged business by this method, there are no restrictions on the amendments that may be offered beyond what is provided in the standing rules of the House. Such rules affect both the content and timing of amendments but do not provide significant restrictions on debate or the number of amendments that may be offered. Consequently, the consideration of a regular appropriations bill under its privileged status may be time consuming. Since about the 80 th Congress (1947-1948), special rules that govern proceedings on regular appropriations bills have generally also allowed any amendments to be offered that would otherwise be in order under House rules. During the period covered by this report, particularly during the 111 th Congress (2009-2010), regular appropriations bills have occasionally been considered under special rules that also placed further restrictions on the amending process. Special rules and UCAs have also been used frequently to waive House rules that could prevent or delay the consideration of regular appropriations bills as reported by the committee. These standing rules have included both those that would prevent consideration of the measure itself and those barring certain kinds of provisions it might contain, but the coverage of such waivers has changed over the period studied. In earlier years, waivers of rules precluding consideration tended to specify those rules waived, but more recent special rules have often contained a blanket waiver. One of the most frequently waived standing rules barring specific kinds of provisions has been of House Rule XXI, clause 2, which prohibits appropriations not authorized by law and the inclusion of "legislative" provisions. Such waivers may include exceptions for certain portions of the bill, leaving those portions vulnerable to a point of order. Since the 110 th Congress (2007-2008), however, the special rules or UCAs initiating consideration have provided a blanket waiver of Rule XXI, clause 2, in almost all instances. This report examines the terms under which the regular appropriations bills are typically brought up and initially considered on the House floor, as well as the practices of the House with regard to amendment opportunities and waivers, for FY1996 to FY2015 (104 th -114 th Congresses). It focuses exclusively on initial consideration of regular appropriations bills and does not address the consideration of conference reports or amendments between the houses. It also does not address the few instances where an appropriations bill was first considered on the House floor combined with one or more other appropriations bills (so-called omnibus or minibus bills). Similarly, this report does not cover the initial consideration of supplemental appropriations bills or continuing appropriations measures, as such measures tend to be considered under different terms than is typical of regular appropriations bills. It also does not discuss special rules prior to the 104 th Congress (1995-1996), as the structure of those rules and the floor consideration of regular appropriations bills differed significantly from current practice. For example, regular appropriations bills were often brought up using their privileged status in combination with a special rule that waived points of order. Examination of the practices of the House for considering regular appropriations bills shows that consideration was sometimes further structured once it had been initiated through an additional special rule or unanimous consent agreement. For the purposes of consistency, the data presented in this report for each bill include only the terms under which consideration was initiated. The practice of further structuring those terms after consideration has begun is discussed below in the report section " Limiting Debate and Amendments ." This report proceeds in three sections. The first section provides a general overview of how the consideration of regular appropriations bills has been initiated between FY1996 and FY2015. The second section discusses the floor consideration of amendments to regular appropriations bills and the types of amending processes that have been established at the beginning of consideration. The third section discusses waivers of points of order both against consideration and of Rule XXI, clause 2, and how the form of those waivers has evolved during this period. For the FY1996 to FY2015 regular appropriations bills, the frequency of each method through which floor consideration was initiated is illustrated in Table 1 . During the earlier part of this period, all of the regular appropriations bills received individual floor consideration in all but one fiscal year. Since the FY2003 appropriations cycle, however, all regular appropriations bills received floor consideration in only four fiscal years, most recently for FY2010. Over the entire period, special rules were used to initiate consideration of regular appropriations bills in almost all instances. Unanimous consent agreements and consideration as privileged measures were also used on some occasions, in 5 of the 20 fiscal years during this period. House Rule XIII, clause 5, allows a regular appropriations bill to be brought to the floor for consideration by a privileged motion to proceed to its consideration after it has been reported by the Appropriations Committee and certain other reporting and layover conditions have been satisfied. Such a motion may not be debated, so that initiating consideration in this matter requires only as much floor time as is necessary to agree to the motion. Consideration of a regular appropriations bill under its privileged status does not, however, provide a mechanism for House rules to be waived or altered to structure the debate and amending process. Thus, the legislative process in the standing rules of the House governs, unless superseded by unanimous consent or the adoption of a special rule, either prior to or after consideration has begun. Only three regular appropriations bills were brought to the floor during this period under their status as privileged business, two for FY1998 and one for FY2004 (see Table 1 ). In all other instances, the House first agreed to the terms of consideration and then brought the bill to the floor. Special rules can be used to regulate the consideration of regular appropriations bills in several important respects. First, special rules can provide waivers for any parts of the measure that might otherwise violate House rules and prevent the measure's consideration. In addition, special rules may structure the terms of consideration by specifying the length of time the measure will be considered, the amount and type of debate that will be allowed, and any amendments that might be eligible for consideration. The amendment process may be further affected by a special rule that grants waivers to permit amendments to be considered that would otherwise not be in order under House rules. In current practice, the process of considering a regular appropriations bill on the House floor typically begins with the consideration of a special rule reported by the Committee on Rules. Once the committee reports the rule in the form of a simple resolution, it is considered on the House floor under the "hour rule," pursuant to which one hour of debate is managed by the majority party Member of the Rules Committee who called up the rule. Customarily, the majority floor manager yields one-half of this time to a minority Member of the Rules Committee for the purposes of debate only. During this hour of debate, the rule may be amended only by (or with the consent of) the majority floor manager, and typically no amendments are offered. At the end of the hour of debate, the floor manager moves the previous question to prevent further debate and any amendments from being offered. If the previous question is ordered by an affirmative vote of a simple majority, the House proceeds to a final vote on the special rule. Special rules are almost always approved by the House. For FY1996 to FY2015, special rules were used to initiate consideration of 178 out of 194 regular appropriations bills (see Table 1 ). Special rules were the only method by which consideration was initiated for 15 of 20 fiscal years, including the seven most recent fiscal years (FY2009-FY2015). Although alternative methods have been used periodically, special rules have been used over half the time for each fiscal year during this period. Like special rules, UCAs may be used to bring up a measure, waive any points of order against it, and structure the terms of its consideration. Unlike special rules, however, such agreements are orally propounded on the floor by a Member and entered into if no Member objects on the floor at that time. Consequently, initiating consideration through a UCA may be advantageous because it requires little floor time when compared to a special rule. The ability of a single Member to prevent such agreement by objecting, however, may preclude the use of a UCA in some circumstances. UCAs were used to initiate consideration of regular appropriations bills for FY1996 to FY2015 in 10 instances during five fiscal years (see Table 1 ). The frequency with which UCAs were used ranged from once for FY1997 to three times for FY2004. Most recently, UCAs were used to initiate consideration twice for FY2008.