House Rules Committee

The Committee on Rules, or more commonly, the Rules Committee, is a committee of the United States House of Representatives. It is responsible for the rules under which bills will be presented to the House of Representatives, unlike other committees, which often deal with a specific area of policy 

The Committee on Rules is amongst the oldest standing committees in the House, having been first formally constituted on April 2, 1789. The Committee is commonly known as “The Speaker’s Committee” because it is the mechanism that the Speaker uses to maintain control of the House Floor, and was chaired by the Speaker until 1910. Because of the vast power wielded by the Rules Committee, its ratio has traditionally been weighted in favor of the majority party and has been in its “2 to 1” (9 majority and 4 minority members) configuration since the late 1970s. 

The Rules Committee is arguably one of the most powerful in the House. It controls any legislation reported out by another committee, determining such things as the debate time (if any), the number and types of amendments allowed (if any) on the House floor, etc. A highly partisan committee that works closely with the Speaker, it generally fashions its “rules” intending to help or obstruct a bill. As the committee boasts on its website, it “has the authority to do virtually anything during the course of consideration of a measure, including deeming it passed. The Committee can also…rewrite just parts of a bill or the entire measure. In essence, so long as a majority of the House is willing to vote for a special rule, there is little that the Rules Committee cannot do.” There is no counterpart in the Senate. The committee has only 13 members, always skewed heavily toward the majority regardless of the makeup of the House (in recent Congresses, nine majority, four minority). It has three subcommittees: expedited procedures; legislative and budget process; and rules and organization of the House.

The committee’s hearings consist primarily of testimony arguing for and against major bills that have been approved by some other House committee, including the annual appropriations bills. The witnesses are typically the chair and ranking member of the reporting committee. It conducts no investigative oversight. From time to time it holds hearings on constitutional issues regarding relations between Congress and the executive branch, which may feature testimony from outside experts, and occasionally holds a hearing about proposed changes in the House rules, where members often testify. From the 112th to the 115th Congress (2011-2018), the committee had a fairly steady hearing schedule, with between 107 and 119 hearings each Congress. In the pandemic-shortened 116th Congress (2019-20), it held only 78. Given this lack of executive branch or private sector oversight, we do not give the committee a grade.