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1 1 (July 21, 2022)

handle is hein.crs/govehzf0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional AResearch Service Resolutions of Inquiry in the House Updated July 21, 2022 On July 19, 2022, the House agreed to H.Res. 1232, a special rule reported by the House Committee on Rules. The adoption of the resolution means that temporary procedures previously in place during the 117th Congress (2021-2022) that paused certain deadlines for committee action on resolutions of inquiry are no longer in force. Any resolution of inquiry submitted after the adoption of H.Res. 1232 are to be governed by the standing rules of the House, a development that could result in more such resolutions being introduced and referred to committee for consideration. A resolution of inquiry is a simple House resolution (H.Res.) making a direct request or demand of the President or the head of an executive department to provide specific factual information in the Administration's possession. Under clause 7 of House Rule XIII, such resolutions, if properly drafted, are given a special parliamentary status. If the committee to which such a resolution is referred has not reported the measure back to the House within 14 legislative days after its introduction, a privileged and non-debatable motion to discharge the committee of further consideration of the resolution becomes available on the chamber floor. If the House agrees to such a privileged motion to discharge, the resolution of inquiry would be taken out of committee and become available for consideration on the House floor. If the committee of referral reports a resolution of inquiry within the 14-day time frame, however- regardless of whether the report is favorable, adverse, or made without recommendation-the privileged resolution can be called up on the floor only by a Member who has been authorized by the reporting committee to do so. In other words, by reporting a resolution of inquiry, a committee can preclude the privileged motion to discharge and preserve to itself the decision of whether to call up the measure on the floor. As such, in recent practice, a House committee will virtually always mark up and report a resolution of inquiry that has been referred to it-even one it opposes-in order to retain control of the measure and prevent supporters from triggering floor votes on questions related to considering it. While resolutions of inquiry have been used since the earliest Congresses to seek information from the executive branch, the basic form of the present House rule was adopted in 1879. The rule was last amended in 1983 to lengthen the time period for a committee to report from one week to 14 legislative days. On occasion, when the House has expected to hold pro forma sessions for extended periods of time (for example, during the traditional August or December recess), it has adopted an order dictating that those pro forma days do not count against the 14-day period the committee has to report a resolution of inquiry. As noted above, until July 19, 2022, the 117th Congress operated under similar temporary procedures (pursuant to several special rules reported by the Rules Committee and adopted by the House) that effectively turned off' the 14-day deadline. In order to be privileged, a House resolution of inquiry: h50U w~ w ~q(~v

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