Political Action Committee / PAC / Leadership PAC

Political Action Committee (PAC): A private group organized to elect or defeat government officials or to promote or defeat legislation. PACs are defined and regulated by state and federal law.

A leadership PAC is a political action committee established by a congressional member to support other candidates. A political committee that is directly or indirectly established, financed, maintained or controlled by a candidate for Federal office or an individual holding federal office but which is not an authorized committee of the candidate or individual and which is not affiliated with an authorized committee of the candidate or individual, except that leadership PAC does not include a political committee of a political party.

A candidate for a House or Senate seat may also establish her own PAC, popularly called a leadership PAC, which is a political committee directly or indirectly established and controlled by the candidate. Strictly, it is a nonconnected PAC, that is, not a PAC affiliated with a corporation, labor union, or membership organization such as a trade association or professional society. It is not the principal campaign committee or an affiliated committee of the candidate and does not influence an election on the candidate’s behalf.

A leadership PAC is subject to the same receipt limit of $5,000 applicable to other PACs. It may receive contributions from individuals, party committees, other PACs, other political committees, and from candidate campaign committees. It may donate as a PAC, which limits contributions to $5,000 for each candidate for each election. A candidate’s leadership PAC may donate up to $5,000 for each election to the candidate’s own campaign committee.

Candidates’ campaign committees and leadership PACs may only receive hard money as contributions, that is, money that is fully covered by federal laws and regulations. The kinds of contributions just described are hard money. Campaign funding that is legal but only partially or immaterially regulated is called soft money. Candidate campaign committees and leadership PACs may not receive soft money contributions. Candidates for Congress are also limited in their participation in events for raising permitted soft-money contributions, such as for state or local parties. Leadership PACs must also report contributions, including contributions bundled by lobbyists, and their spending.

Congressional leaders, aspiring leaders, and many individual members also maintain political action committees (PACs), so-called leadership PACs, which they use to support their party’s candidates for Congress. This support can even extend to advertising not specifically related to a campaign, such as a testimonial for a member on a vote he has cast. Party leaders, such as each chamber’s majority and minority leaders and the House Speaker, may have political responsibilities broader even than their leadership PAC, including not only fund-raising for their party and its members but also messaging and communications, political operations, coordination with the incumbent president (or the presidential candidate) of their party, and coordination of their PACS and campaign organization.

Also see § 2.10 Campaigns and Elections, § 2.70 Federal Campaign Finance Laws, in Congressional Deskbook; § 2.26 The Campaign Compliance Imperative, in Lobbying and Advocacy.

More

• List of Leadership PACs and Sponsors – FEC
• Metadata Description of Leadership PAC List – FEC
• What is a PAC? – opensecrets
• List of Leadership PACs – opensecrets
• “Campaign Financing,” CRS Report IB87020
• “Lobbying and Related Reform Proposals,” CRS Report RL33293
• “Lobbying Regulations on Non-Profit Organizations,” CRS Report 96-809
• “Political Action Committees: Their Evolution, Growth and Implications for the Political System,” CRS Report 84-78
• “The Constitutionality of Campaign Finance Regulation: Buckley v. Valeo and Its Supreme Court Progeny,” CRS Report RL30669
• “Political Spending by Organized Labor: Background and Current Issues,” CRS Report 96-484

Capitol Learning Audio Course ^TM

• PAC Management: Advanced PAC Strategy

Courses

• Congressional Dynamics and the Legislative Process
• Congressional Briefing Conference – Capitol Hill Workshop
• Drafting Federal Legislation and Amendments
• Understanding Congressional Budgeting and Appropriations
• Advanced Legislative Strategies
• Research Workshops

Publications

CongressionalGlossary.com, from TheCapitol.Net

For over 30 years, TheCapitol.Net and its predecessor, Congressional Quarterly Executive Conferences, have been training professionals from government, military, business, and NGOs on the dynamics and operations of the legislative and executive branches and how to work with them.

Our training courses, publications, and audio courses include congressional operations, legislative and budget process, communication and advocacy, media and public relations, testifying before Congress, research skills, legislative drafting, critical thinking and writing, and more.

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Conferees / Managers / Instruct Conferees

Conferees: The representatives and senators from each chamber who serve on a conference committee; also referred to as managers.

Instruct Conferees: Formal action by one chamber urging its conferees to uphold a particular position in conference.

Managers: Representatives and senators serving on a conference committee; also called conferees.

Selection of Conferees: Although House rules grant the Speaker the right to appoint conferees, the Speaker usually does so after consultation with the chair(s) of the committee(s) of jurisdiction. The Senate presiding officer appoints Senate conferees, although the presiding officer, too, draws selections from recommendations of the chair of the committee of jurisdiction and party leaders. Conferees are also referred to as managers.

Although seniority on a committee of jurisdiction plays a role in selecting conferees, junior committee members are also appointed to conference committees. A member not on the committee of jurisdiction may be appointed if he had an important amendment included in the chamber’s version of the measure or in the other chamber’s version. In some instances, especially when a measure was considered by multiple committees, representatives or senators can be appointed as limited-purpose conferees. Precedents in both chambers indicate that conferees are supposed to support their chamber’s legislation in conference.

The number of conferees can range from three to every member of a chamber. Generally, the size of a chamber delegation reflects the complexity of a measure. Moreover, the size of one chamber’s delegation does not necessarily affect the size of the other chamber’s delegation. Decisions are made by majority vote of each delegation, never by a majority vote of all the conferees. Each chamber appoints a majority of conferees to its delegation from the majority party.

Instructing Conferees: Because a conference committee is a negotiating forum, there are few rules imposed on conferees. However, there are two circumstances under which House conferees may be given direction: first, before conferees are named, and second, when conferees have been appointed for twenty calendar days and ten legislative days and have not yet filed a report.

By custom, recognition to offer a motion to instruct conferees–a motion before the conferees are named–is a prerogative of the minority party. The motion is debatable for one hour. Only one motion to instruct conferees before their being named is in order.

For a motion to instruct conferees who have been appointed but have not yet reported, any member, regardless of party, can be recognized to make a motion to instruct, and numerous motions to instruct can be offered.

Motions to instruct House conferees are not binding but express the sentiment of the House on a particular issue in either the House or Senate version of a measure sent to conference.

Motions to instruct in the Senate are rarely made. If made, a motion to instruct is both debatable and amendable, and, as in the House,must be offered before conferees are named. Unlike the House, however, a motion to instruct is not available after conferees have been appointed but the conference committee has not yet reported.

Also see Conference Committee; Conference Report; Joint Explanatory Statement of Managers; § 6.280 Conference Committees, § 6.282 Authority of Conferees, in Congressional Deskbook.

More

• House Rule XXII – House And Senate Relations
• Senate Rule XXVIII – Conference Committees, Reports, Open Meetings
• “Congressional Budget Resolutions: Motions to Instruct Conferees,” CRS Report RS20480
• “House Conferees: Selection,” CRS Report RS20227
• “Instructing House Conferees,” CRS Report 98-381
• “Going to Conference in the Senate,” CRS Report RS20454
• “Senate Conferees: Their Selection and Authority,” CRS Report 98-380
• “Conference Reports and Joint Explanatory Statements,” CRS Report 98-382

Courses

• Congressional Dynamics and the Legislative Process
• Congressional Briefing Conference – Capitol Hill Workshop
• Drafting Federal Legislation and Amendments
• Understanding Congressional Budgeting and Appropriations
• Advanced Legislative Strategies
• Research Workshops

Publications

CongressionalGlossary.com, from TheCapitol.Net

For over 30 years, TheCapitol.Net and its predecessor, Congressional Quarterly Executive Conferences, have been training professionals from government, military, business, and NGOs on the dynamics and operations of the legislative and executive branches and how to work with them.

Our training courses, publications, and audio courses include congressional operations, legislative and budget process, communication and advocacy, media and public relations, testifying before Congress, research skills, legislative drafting, critical thinking and writing, and more.

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Speaker’s Lobby

In the House chamber, the door to the Speaker’s left and another to the Speaker’s right provide access to the Speaker’s Lobby.

After the House moved to the new south wing of the Capitol in 1857, the Speaker’s Office occupied space behind the chamber, in the center section of what is now the Member’s Retiring Room.

Montgomery C. Meigs, supervising engineer of the Capitol extension, noted that these rooms would be “very convenient and very beautiful…and on each side a retiring room; thus affording to each of the great parties…a room for consultation.” Original features that remain today include bronze cherub-shaped sconces, Tennessee marble fireplace mantels designed by Architect of the Capitol Thomas U. Walter, and the colorful Minton floor tiles.

In 1879, the House attempted to remedy longstanding ventilation problems by opening the entire area behind the chamber, including the Office of the Speaker, who moved to another room near the chamber. Virtually all the walls in the rooms behind the chamber were removed. This new airy space became the lounge known as the Member’s Retiring Room adjacent to the Speaker’s Lobby.

Portraits of former Speakers, known as the Speaker Portrait Collection and a vital visual record of House history, hang in the Speaker’s Lobby. The collection was conceived as a “tribute to their worth to the nation.” It began informally with artist Giuseppe Fagnani’s 1852 donation of his portrait of Speaker Henry Clay. This initial gift was followed by more donations. In 1910, the House mandated that it must acquire an oil portrait of every Speaker “of whom no acceptable portrait was in possession of the House.” Posthumous portraits were commissioned to commemorate the missing Speakers, and every Speaker since 1910 has had a portrait made. The entire collection now hangs in the Speaker’s Lobby and adjoining stairwells.

Also see Capitol; Chamber; Speaker; Visiting Washington, DC; “What’s the deal with …“; What Your Member of Congress Can Do for You; § 11.13 View of the Speaker’s Dais, Floor of the House, and Galleries, in Congressional Deskbook.

More

• Speaker Portrait Collection – House
• “The Last Gasp of a Smoke-Filled Room?” by Lyndsey Layton, The Washington Post, December 8, 2006

Courses

• Congressional Dynamics and the Legislative Process
• Congressional Briefing Conference – Capitol Hill Workshop
• Drafting Federal Legislation and Amendments
• Understanding Congressional Budgeting and Appropriations
• Advanced Legislative Strategies
• Research Workshops

Publications

CongressionalGlossary.com, from TheCapitol.Net

For over 30 years, TheCapitol.Net and its predecessor, Congressional Quarterly Executive Conferences, have been training professionals from government, military, business, and NGOs on the dynamics and operations of the legislative and executive branches and how to work with them.

Our training courses, publications, and audio courses include congressional operations, legislative and budget process, communication and advocacy, media and public relations, testifying before Congress, research skills, legislative drafting, critical thinking and writing, and more.

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Mace

The mace is the symbol of authority of the House of Representatives. The mace is 46 inches high and consists of 13 thin ebony rods representing the original 13 states of the union. The rods are bound together by four crossing ribbons of silver, pinned together and held at the bottom and at the top by silver bands. The bands are decorated with floral borders and a repoussé design. The name “Wm. Adams/Manufacturer/New York/1841.” is engraved in the cartouche, located in the front center of the bottom band. This shaft is topped by a silver globe 4-1/2 inches in diameter and engraved with the seven continents, the names of the oceans, lines of longitude, and the major lines of latitude. The Western Hemisphere faces the front. The globe is encircled with a silver rim marked with the degrees of latitude, on which is perched an engraved solid silver eagle with a wingspan of 15 inches. The total weight of the mace is 10 pounds.

The Mace, Image courtesy of the Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives

The mace, the symbol of the authority of the House and of the office of the sergeant at arms, is in the custody of the sergeant at arms. At the opening of a session of the House, a staffer in white gloves places the mace on a pedestal to the Speaker’s right. The mace is removed from its pedestal when the Committee of the Whole is meeting and moved to a lower, less visible position near the Speaker’s dais. After consideration of amendments in the Committee of the Whole, the committee rises and reports the measure back to the House. The mace is replaced on its pedestal, and the Speaker or Speaker pro tempore assumes the chair.

Also see Chamber; Sergeant at Arms; Committee of the Whole; Speaker; Well; § 6.111 The Mace, § 11.12 View of the Speaker’s Dais and Well of the House, in Congressional Deskbook.

More

• “Guide to Individuals Seated on the House Dais,” CRS Report 98-396
• “House Sergeant at Arms: Fact Sheet on Legislative and Administrative Duties,” CRS Report 98-835

Courses

• Congressional Dynamics and the Legislative Process
• Congressional Briefing Conference – Capitol Hill Workshop
• Drafting Federal Legislation and Amendments
• Understanding Congressional Budgeting and Appropriations
• Advanced Legislative Strategies
• Research Workshops

Publications

CongressionalGlossary.com, from TheCapitol.Net

For over 30 years, TheCapitol.Net and its predecessor, Congressional Quarterly Executive Conferences, have been training professionals from government, military, business, and NGOs on the dynamics and operations of the legislative and executive branches and how to work with them.

Our training courses, publications, and audio courses include congressional operations, legislative and budget process, communication and advocacy, media and public relations, testifying before Congress, research skills, legislative drafting, critical thinking and writing, and more.

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Congressional Gold Medal

Senators and Representatives are frequently asked to support or sponsor proposals recognizing historic events and outstanding achievements by individuals or institutions. Among the various forms of recognition that Congress bestows, the Congressional Gold Medal is often considered the most distinguished. Through this venerable tradition, the occasional commissioning of individually struck gold medals in its name, for more than two centuries Congress has expressed public gratitude for distinguished contributions, dramatized the virtues of patriotism, and perpetuated the remembrance of great events. This tradition, of authorizing individually struck gold medals bearing the portraits of those so honored or images of events in which they participated, is rich with history.

Although Congress has approved legislation stipulating specific requirements for numerous other awards and decorations, there are no permanent statutory provisions specifically relating to the creation of Congressional Gold Medals. When such an award has been deemed appropriate, Congress has, by special action, provided for the creation of a personalized medal to be given in its name, which would in each instance truly record the approbation of a grateful country.

The Continental Congress had not yet proclaimed its independence from Great Britain when, on March 25, 1776, George Washington, commander of the Continental Army, was tendered the first Congressional Gold Medal for his “wise and spirited conduct” in bringing about British evacuation of Boston. During the next 12 years, the Continental Congress authorized an additional six gold medals for Revolutionary military and naval leaders.

Since 1776, this award, which initially was bestowed on military leaders, has also been given to such diverse individuals as Sir Winston Churchill, Bob Hope, Robert Frost, Joe Louis, and Mother Teresa of Calcutta. More recently, Congressional Gold Medals were given to Neil A. Armstrong, the first human to walk on the Moon; Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr., the pilot of the lunar module and second person to walk on the Moon; Michael Collins, the pilot of their Apollo 11 mission’s command module; and John Herschel Glenn, Jr., who, in 1962, became the first American to orbit the Earth; Arnold Palmer; and the 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team, and the Military Intelligence Service, United States Army.

See also Visiting Washington, DC; “What’s the deal with …“; What Your Member of Congress Can Do for You.

More

• Congressional Gold Medal Recipients, 1776 to Present – House
• Congressional Gold Medal – Wikipedia
• The United States Mint Coins and Medals Program – U.S. Mint
• “Congressional Gold Medals, 1776-2010,” CRS Report RL30076
• “A Guide to Major Congressional and Presidential Awards,” CRS Report RS20884

Courses

• Congressional Dynamics and the Legislative Process
• Congressional Briefing Conference – Capitol Hill Workshop
• Drafting Federal Legislation and Amendments
• Understanding Congressional Budgeting and Appropriations
• Advanced Legislative Strategies
• Research Workshops

Publications

CongressionalGlossary.com, from TheCapitol.Net

For over 30 years, TheCapitol.Net and its predecessor, Congressional Quarterly Executive Conferences, have been training professionals from government, military, business, and NGOs on the dynamics and operations of the legislative and executive branches and how to work with them.

Our training courses, publications, and audio courses include congressional operations, legislative and budget process, communication and advocacy, media and public relations, testifying before Congress, research skills, legislative drafting, critical thinking and writing, and more.

TheCapitol.Net is on the GSA Schedule, 874-4, for custom on-site training. GSA Contract GS02F0192X

TheCapitol.Net is a non-partisan firm.

Motion to Recommit / Recommit to Committee / Table / Lay on the Table

Recommit: To send a measure back to the committee that reported it. A motion to recommit without instructions kills a measure; a motion to recommit with instructions proposes to amend a measure. In the House, the motion may be offered just before vote on final passage. In the Senate, the motion may be offered at any time before a measure’s passage.

In the House, a motion to recommit a measure can instruct a committee to report the measure back to the House with a specific amendment. The right to offer a motion to recommit is the prerogative of the minority party. A motion to recommit is not in order when the House is sitting as the Committee of the Whole.

After the third reading of a bill, but before the vote on final passage, a motion to recommit is in order. (The third reading is the required reading to a chamber of a measure by title only before the vote on passage.) The motion is traditionally the prerogative of a minority member to offer, providing the minority with one last opportunity to kill or amend a measure.

A member stands and says, “Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.” The Speaker then asks if the member is opposed to the measure. That member signifies that he is opposed to the measure “in its current form.” There are two types of motions to recommit. Adoption of a motion to recommit without instructions kills a measure. If such a motion is offered, it is not debatable.

A motion to recommit with instructions attempts to amend a measure. The motion normally instructs that the measure be referred to the reporting committee and that the committee “report the bill back to the House forthwith with the following amendment….” A motion to recommit with instructions is debatable for ten minutes, equally divided between the proponent and an opponent. The time is not controlled, meaning members may not yield or reserve time. At the request of the majority floor manager, the ten minutes can be extended to one hour, equally divided and controlled.

If a motion to recommit with instructions is agreed to, the measure is immediately reported back to the House with the amendment, the amendment is voted on, and the House then votes on final passage of the bill. The vote on final passage is then taken. When the results of the vote on final passage are announced, a pro forma motion to reconsider is made and laid on the table, i.e., postponed indefinitely. There is rarely a vote on these motions. To table the motion to reconsider prevents a measure from being reconsidered at a later date.

Table / Lay on the Table: Prevents further consideration of a measure, amendment, or motion, thus killing it.

Also see Amendment; Motion to Table; § 6.140 House Floor: Motion to Recommit and Final Passage, in Congressional Deskbook.

More

• “Commonly Used Motions and Requests in the House of Representatives,” CRS Report
• “Floor Consideration of Conference Reports in the House,” CRS Report 98-736
• “Special Rules and Options for Regulating the Amending Process,” CRS Report 98-612
• “Procedural Distinctions Between the House and the Committee of the Whole,” CRS Report 98-143
• “Special Rules and Waivers of House Rules,” CRS Report 98-433
• “The Legislative Process on the Senate Floor: An Introduction,” CRS Report 96-548
• “The Amending Process in the Senate,” CRS Report 98-853
• “The Legislative Process on the House Floor: An Introduction,” CRS Report 95-563

Courses

• Congressional Dynamics and the Legislative Process
• Congressional Briefing Conference – Capitol Hill Workshop
• Drafting Federal Legislation and Amendments
• Understanding Congressional Budgeting and Appropriations
• Advanced Legislative Strategies
• Research Workshops

Publications

CongressionalGlossary.com, from TheCapitol.Net

For over 30 years, TheCapitol.Net and its predecessor, Congressional Quarterly Executive Conferences, have been training professionals from government, military, business, and NGOs on the dynamics and operations of the legislative and executive branches and how to work with them.

Our training courses, publications, and audio courses include congressional operations, legislative and budget process, communication and advocacy, media and public relations, testifying before Congress, research skills, legislative drafting, critical thinking and writing, and more.

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Statuary Hall

Statuary Hall, aka National Statuary Hall, is located outside the House chamber, just south of the Rotunda. The chambers of the House and Senate, National Statuary Hall, and the Rotunda are located on the second (“principal”) floor of the Capitol. The semicircular chamber south of the Rotunda served as the Hall of the House until 1857, and is now designated National Statuary Hall.

Visitors can listen to whispers at the location of John Quincy Adams’ desk in the Old House Chamber, now National Statuary Hall.

Immediately following a State of the Union address, members of Congress meet the press in National Statuary Hall to put their “spin” on it.

The National Statuary Hall Collection in the United States Capitol is comprised of statues donated by individual states to honor persons notable in their history. The entire collection now consists of 100 statues contributed by 50 states. All 50 states have contributed two statues each. Under authority of House Concurrent Resolution No. 47 passed in 1933, to provide for the relocation of statues and to govern the reception and placement of future additions, it was decided that only one statue from each state should be placed in Statuary Hall. The others would be given prominent locations in designated areas and corridors of the Capitol. A second rearrangement of the statues was made in 1976 by authorization of the Joint Committee on the Library. To improve the crowded appearance of the collection, 38 statues were rearranged in Statuary Hall according to height and material. Statues representing 10 of the 13 original colonies were moved to the Central Hall of the East Front Extension on the first floor of the Capitol. The remainder of the statues were distributed throughout the Capitol, mainly in the Hall of Columns and the connecting corridors of the House and Senate wings. In 2008, the Joint Committee on the Library approved another relocation of statues to improve their display in numerous areas of the Capitol, including the Capitol Visitor Center.

Hall of Columns in the House wing of the Capitol, from the Architect of the Capitol

The Hall of Columns is a dramatic, high-ceilinged corridor over 100 feet long. It runs along the North–South axis of the first floor of the House wing in the U.S. Capitol, directly beneath the chamber of the House of Representatives. The Hall of Columns takes its name from the 28 fluted, white marble columns that line the corridor. The capitals are a variation on the Corinthian order, incorporating not only classical acanthus leaves but also thistles and native American tobacco plants. Earlier uses of American vegetation in the building’s capitals include Benjamin Henry Latrobe’s corncob capitals in a first-floor vestibule and his tobacco-leaf capitals in the small Senate rotunda.

The Hall of Columns was constructed in the mid-19th century as part of architect Thomas U. Walter’s extension of the Capitol, which added the present House and Senate wings and the dome. The marble for the columns was quarried at Lee, Massachusetts. Walter’s annual report indicates that by October 1855 approximately half of the columns and pilasters had been set in place and the carving of the capitals was under way. By November 1856 all of the columns were in place, and the entablature and cast-iron ceiling were also complete. The ceiling was cast in Baltimore at the foundry of Hayward, Bartlett, and Co. The walls between the pilasters are finished in scagliola, an imitation marble made of finely ground gypsum and glue. Originally, the floor was laid with Minton encaustic tiles from England. These eventually became too badly worn for further use, and they were replaced in 1920–1924. The present floor is composed of square tiles of white marble from Alabama and black marble from New York.

Since 1976, the Hall of Columns has housed part of the National Statuary Hall Collection.

Also see Architect of the Capitol (AOC); Capitol; State of the Union; Visiting Washington, DC; “What’s the deal with …“; What Your Member of Congress Can Do for You; § 11.30 Guide to Public Buildings on Capitol Hill, § 11.33 The Capitol’s Second (Principal) Floor, in Congressional Deskbook.

More

• Statuary Hall – Architect of the Capitol
• Statuary Hall Collection (list) – Architect of the Capitol
• “The Capitol Visitor Center: An Overview,” CRS Report RL31121

Courses

• Congressional Dynamics and the Legislative Process
• Congressional Briefing Conference – Capitol Hill Workshop
• Drafting Federal Legislation and Amendments
• Understanding Congressional Budgeting and Appropriations
• Advanced Legislative Strategies
• Research Workshops

Publications

CongressionalGlossary.com, from TheCapitol.Net

For over 30 years, TheCapitol.Net and its predecessor, Congressional Quarterly Executive Conferences, have been training professionals from government, military, business, and NGOs on the dynamics and operations of the legislative and executive branches and how to work with them.

Our training courses, publications, and audio courses include congressional operations, legislative and budget process, communication and advocacy, media and public relations, testifying before Congress, research skills, legislative drafting, critical thinking and writing, and more.

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Budget and Accounting Act of 1921

The Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 (Pub.L. 67-13, 42 Stat. 20–27) required for the first time that the president submit to Congress each year a budget for the entire federal government. Before enactment of this law in 1921, there was no annual centralized budgeting in the executive branch. Federal government agencies usually sent budget requests independently to congressional committees with no coordination of the various requests in formulating the Federal Government’s budget.

The president is free to submit the budget in the form and detail he deems appropriate, but certain information is required. In addition, the estimates of the legislative and judicial branches must be incorporated in his budget, as submitted by those branches, without change. Congress has amended the requirements many times and has codified them as Chapter 11, Title 31, U.S. Code.

The 1921 Budget and Accounting Act also established the Bureau of the Budget. General Charles G. Dawes, vice president during President Calvin Coolidge’s second term, was the first director of the Bureau of the Budget, under President Harding. Brigadier General Herbert M. Lord was the Bureau of the Budget’s second director, and the single person with whom President Coolidge met most often and for the longest blocks of time during his time in office. Coming to the presidency, as he did, after the initial settling into place of the budget control system during Harding’s administration, Coolidge was really the first chief executive who had the power to shape the finances of federal agencies and departments. With the Bureau of the Budget operating efficiently, he had both complete information on the fiscal condition of the executive agencies and the power to approve or deny their appropriation requests and expenditures.

The Bureau of the Budget is now called the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and headed by a director subject to Senate confirmation, to assist the president in formulating the budget, in presenting it to Congress, and in monitoring the execution of the enacted budget by agencies. In addition, the 1921 act established the General Accounting Office, later renamed the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a congressional agency, headed by the comptroller general, to audit and evaluate federal programs and perform other budgetary duties.

Also see Confirmation; Executive Branch; Government Accountability Office (GAO); Office of Management and Budget (OMB); President’s Budget; § 7.10 Key Budget Process Laws, § 7.40, Presidential Budget Process, in Congressional Deskbook; The Federal Budget Process.

More

• Federal Budget Links and Research Tools – TheCapitol.Net
• Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 – Wikipedia
• “The Congressional Budget Process: A Brief Overview,” CRS Report RS20095
• “Overview of the Executive Budget Process,” CRS Report RS20175
• “Federal Budget Process Reform: Analysis of Five Reform Issues,” CRS Report RL31478
• “The Role of the Office of Management and Budget in Budget Development,” CRS Report RS20167
• “The Role of the President in Budget Development,” CRS Report RS20179
• “The Role of Departments and Agencies in Budget Development,” CRS Report RS20198
• “The Mid-Session Review of the President’s Budget: Timing Issues,” CRS Report RL32509
• “The Debt Limit: History and Recent Increases,” CRS Report RL31967

Courses

• Congressional Dynamics and the Legislative Process
• Congressional Briefing Conference – Capitol Hill Workshop
• Drafting Federal Legislation and Amendments
• Understanding Congressional Budgeting and Appropriations
• Advanced Legislative Strategies
• Research Workshops

Publications

CongressionalGlossary.com, from TheCapitol.Net

For over 30 years, TheCapitol.Net and its predecessor, Congressional Quarterly Executive Conferences, have been training professionals from government, military, business, and NGOs on the dynamics and operations of the legislative and executive branches and how to work with them.

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Hour Rule / One Hour Rule

One-Hour Rule: Rules are considered in the House under the one-hour rule, with time controlled by a majority floor manager. The majority floor manager customarily yields thirty minutes to the minority floor manager “for purposes of debate only.” Accordingly, special rules can be amended only if the majority floor manager offers an amendment to the rule or yields time to another member to offer an amendment, or if the previous question on the rule is defeated. (The previous question is in the form of a motion (“I move the previous question”), which, if agreed to, cuts off further debate and the possibility of amendment.)

When debating a special rule, one hour of debate is provided, again equally divided between the parties. Proceedings in the House sitting as the House are often referred to as proceedings under the one-hour rule. A special rule itself is considered in the House under the one-hour rule.

Conference reports are privileged and can be brought up when available. They are considered under the one-hour rule. The House considers impeachment resolutions under the one-hour rule or pursuant to a special rule reported from the Rules Committee and agreed to by the House. Measures in the Committee of the Whole are not considered under a one-hour rule but under what is called the five-minute rule, allowing a proponent, an opponent, and other members on each side five minutes each to speak on an amendment.

Hour Rule: When the House for parliamentary purposes is sitting as the House and has not resolved into the Committee of the Whole, House rules permit members, when recognized, to hold the floor for no more than one hour each. A special rule from the Rules Committee is privileged and is considered under this hour rule. The majority floor manager for the Rules Committee, who calls up the simple resolution containing the special rule, customarily yields one half of this one hour to the control of a minority member of the committee, the minority floor manager, “for purposes of debate only.”

Also see Committee of the Whole; Five-Minute Rule; Floor Manager; Impeachment; Previous Question; Special Rule; § 6.80 House Floor: Methods of Consideration, § 6.100 Consideration of a Special Rule on the House Floor, § 6.280 Conference Committees, § 11.10 How to Follow Floor Proceedings in the House, in Congressional Deskbook.

More

• House Rule XIV – Order and Priority of Business
• House Rule XVII – Decorum and Debate
• House Rule XIX – Motions Following The Amendment Stage
• House Rule XXII – House And Senate Relations
• House Committee on Rules
• “The Discharge Rule in the House: Principal Features and Uses,” CRS Report 97-552
• “The Discharge Rule in the House: Recent Use in Historical Context,” CRS Report 97-856
• “Procedural Distinctions Between the House and the Committee of the Whole,” CRS Report 98-143
• “The Legislative Process on the House Floor: An Introduction,” CRS Report 95-563
• “Floor Consideration of Conference Reports in the House,” CRS Report 98-736

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