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R48650 — Suspension of the Rules: House Practice in the 118th Congress (2023-2024)

Reports · published 2025-08-27 · v1 · Active · crsreports.congress.gov ↗

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Authors
Jane A. Hudiburg
Report id
R48650
Summary

Suspension of the rules is the most commonly used procedure to call up measures on the floor of the House of Representatives. As the name suggests, the procedure allows the House to suspend its standing and statutory rules in order to consider broadly supported legislation in an expedited manner. More specifically, the House temporarily sets aside its rules that govern the raising and consideration of measures and assumes a new set of constraints particular to the suspension procedure. The suspension of the rules procedure has several parliamentary advantages: (1) it allows non-privileged measures to be raised on the House floor without the need for a special rule, (2) it enables the consideration of a measure that would otherwise be subject to a point of order, and (3) it streamlines floor action by limiting debate and prohibiting floor amendments. Given these features, as well as the required two-thirds supermajority vote for passage, suspension motions are generally used to process less controversial legislation. In the 118th Congress (2023-2024), measures considered under suspension made up 66% of the bills and resolutions that received floor action in the House (681 out of 1,032 measures). The majority of suspension measures were House bills (80%), followed by Senate bills (14%), House resolutions (5%), and House concurrent resolutions (1%). The measures covered a variety of policy areas but most often addressed government operations, such as the designation of federal facilities or amending administrative policies. However, suspension procedure also governed the consideration of some major appropriations bills, which are commonly considered pursuant to a special rule. Most suspension measures are referred to at least one House committee before their consideration on the floor. The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability served as the committee of primary jurisdiction for the most suspension measures in the 118th Congress. Additional committees—such as Foreign Affairs, Energy and Commerce, Natural Resources, and Financial Services—were also referred a large number of measures later considered under suspension. Suspension motions are debatable for up to 40 minutes. In most cases, a fraction of that debate time is actually used. In the 118th Congress, the average amount of time spent considering a motion to suspend the rules was about 12 minutes. The House adopted nearly every suspension motion considered in 2023 and 2024. Approval by the House, however, did not guarantee final approval in the 118th Congress. The Senate agreed to five of the House concurrent resolutions considered under suspension of the rules and passed 172 of the 545 House bills initially considered under suspension (32%). The President signed 261 suspension measures into law, including 89 Senate bills that were presented to the President after passage in the House.

Bills cited (31)

Curated by CRS — every bill listed in this report's relatedMaterials. Edge type cited_in_report, gold confidence.

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