When the House considers legislation, one of the last steps it takes is to consider a motion to recommit. The motion to recommit represents the last chance of the House to affect a measure. In practice, that means either to offer amendatory language or to send the bill back to committee. In practice, the motion to recommit, as authorized by Rule XIX, is offered after the previous question has been ordered on passage. For these motions, the Speaker affords priority in recognition to those opposed to the measure, giving preference among those opposed to a minority party Member which has resulted in the motion being dubbed, "the minority's motion." Among minority opponents, priority to offer the motion is given first to the Minority Leader or his designee, and then to members from the reporting committee in order of their committee seniority. Only one proper motion to recommit is in order. If a motion to recommit is ruled out of order, a second, proper, motion to recommit may be offered. Although uncommon in practice, a motion to recommit may be amended, but only if the previous question has not yet been ordered on the motion. A motion to recommit offered after the previous question has been ordered on the bill may not be tabled. House rules specifically prohibit the House Committee on Rules from reporting a special rule that would prevent the motion to recommit from being offered on initial passage of a bill or joint resolution. House rules also guarantee that the motion to recommit may include instructions that include an amendment otherwise in order, if offered by the Minority Leader or his designee. This guarantee does not apply to consideration of a Senate bill for which the text of a House-passed measure has been substituted because the motion would have been protected during initial consideration of the House-passed measure. Motions to recommit are characterized as being of two types. The first type, referred to as a "simple" or "straight" motion to recommit, includes no instructions. If adopted by the House, it returns the underlying measure to committee. When a "straight" motion to recommit is offered, the clerk will report it in the following form: Mr. Obey of Wisconsin moves to recommit the bill, H.R. 3010 to the Committee on Appropriations. The other type of motion to recommit includes instructions and must be offered "forthwith," meaning that if the House adopts such a motion, the measure remains on the House floor and the committee chair (or designee) immediately rises and reports the bill back to the House with any amendment(s) contained in the instructions of the recommittal motion. The House votes on agreeing to the amendment(s) before moving to final passage of the bill as it may have been amended. Typically, if the motion to recommit has been agreed to, the amendment in the instructions is agreed to by voice vote. However, amendment(s) in the instructions are subject to division of the question if it consists of two or more separable substantive propositions. When a motion to recommit with instructions is offered, the clerk will report it in the following form: Mr. Hunter moves to recommit the bill, H.R. 3159 , to the Committee on Armed Services with instructions to report the same back to the House forthwith, with the following amendments. In subsections (a)(1) and (b)(1) of section 2, strike "No unit" each place it appears and insert the following: "Subject to section 3, no unit"... Both types of motions to recommit are debatable for 10 minutes. The majority floor manager of a bill or joint resolution may ask that debate time be extended to one hour. In either case, debate time is equally divided between the Member making the motion and a Member opposing it. Instructions in a motion to recommit generally may not propose to do that which may not be done by amendment under the rules of the House. For example, instructions that do any of the following would be out of order: Propose an amendment that is not germane to the measure; Amend or eliminate an amendment already adopted by the House, unless permitted by a special rule; Propose an amendment in violation of Rule XXI clause 2,4, or 5. Propose an amendment in violation of Rule XXI, clause 10, "the PAYGO rule," and Authorize a committee to report at any time or direct a committee to report by a date certain. The motion to recommit has its antecedents in the British Parliament and has existed since the First Congress. Prior to 1909, however, it operated differently than it does today, and priority in recognition for the offering of the motion to recommit was not reserved for a member opposed to the measure. Instead, as former Speaker of the House Joseph G. Cannon remarked: The object of this provision [for a motion to recommit] was, as the Chair has always understood, that the motion should be made by one friendly to the bill ... Often, the majority floor manager of a bill would make a "straight" motion to recommit with the expectation that it would be defeated. Since only one proper motion to recommit is in order, this would preclude anyone else from trying to use the motion in order to defeat or amend the measure. For most of the history of the House, the purpose of the motion to recommit more closely resembled the current usage of the motion to reconsider. Recommittal provided Members with a final opportunity to correct errors within the measure, and in 1891, the Speaker ruled that a bill could be recommitted "forthwith," meaning the committee chair would report the amendments in the motion at once, without the bill having to be sent back to committee formally. The use of the motion to recommit changed substantially in 1909 as a result of changes made in House procedures championed largely by a coalition of Democrats and Progressive Republicans who opposed the autocratic rule of Speaker Cannon. During debate on the adoption of the rules package for the 61 st Congress (1909-1910), the previous question was defeated, allowing Representative John Fitzgerald to propose a set of rules changes, one of which guaranteed priority in recognition to offer the motion to recommit to a Member opposed to the bill. This rules change was offered with the stated purpose of giving "the minority the right ... to have a vote upon its position upon great public questions." Further, the Fitzgerald amendment prohibited the Rules Committee from reporting any special rule that would prevent the offering of a motion to recommit. This amended rules package passed 211 to 173. It was not until 1932, however, that precedent definitively established giving priority in recognition to offer the motion to a minority party Member opposed to the bill. This solidified the motion as a "minority right." At the beginning of the 92 nd Congress, the language now contained in House Rule XIX, clause 2(b), was added to the standing rules, allowing ten minutes of debate on a motion to recommit with instructions, equally divided between a proponent and an opponent. Also in the 92 nd Congress, a new rule made recorded votes in the Committee of the Whole in order for the first time, causing some to question whether the motion to recommit had become redundant or unnecessary. An earlier ruling by the Speaker pro tempore noted that in the Committee of the Whole, " ... there is no roll-call vote, so that the only opportunity that a minority may have to go on record is by means of a motion to recommit in the House." Since the rules now allowed for recorded votes in the Committee of the Whole, some argued that the motion's main purpose could be achieved in other ways, making the motion to recommit "much less necessary." The right of the minority to offer a motion to recommit, however, remained intact, even in light of the expanded rules on voting. Following the successful adoption of a motion to recommit in 1984 that included the Crime Bill as amendatory instructions, the House decided that ten minutes of debate might not always be sufficient since these motions had the potential of adding substantial portions of legislation to an underlying measure. At the start of the 99 th Congress, the current language in clause 2(c) of the rule was added, allowing the majority floor manager to demand that debate time on the motion be extended to one hour, equally divided and controlled by the proponent and an opponent. To date, the one hour extension has been demanded only once. During the 1980s and 1990s the Rules Committee issued what the minority perceived to be an increased number of special rules restricting both the amending process as well as the motion to recommit In 1995, the House added language now in Rule XII, clause 6(c) prohibiting the Rules Committee from reporting a special rule that would prevent the offering of a motion to recommit with instructions, thereby preventing the Rules Committee from restricting the scope or content of the motion to recommit. During the 110 th Congress, there was a significant increase in motions to recommit offered, specifically motions to recommit with instructions that did not include the term forthwith, referred to as motions to recommit with "non-forthwith" instructions. If adopted, a motion to recommit with "non-forthwith" instructions would have returned the bill to the specified committee whose eventual report, if any, would not have been immediately or automatically before the House. Motions to recommit with "non-forthwith" instructions sometimes had the effect of creating a difficult political choice for Members who supported both the underlying measure and the amendment contained in the motion to recommit. Some Members argued that motions to recommit with "non-forthwith" instructions were designed to trap majority party members reluctant to vote against the motion's amendment, forcing them into a "lose-lose" situation.