A resolution relative to Senate procedure in the 117th Congress.

III 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. RES. 27 Relative to Senate procedure in the 117th Congress. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES FEBRUARY 3, 2021 Mr. SCHUMER submitted the following resolution; which was considered and agreed to RESOLUTION Relative to Senate procedure in the 117th Congress. Resolved, 1 SECTION 1. Notwithstanding the provisions of rule 2 XXV of the Standing Rules of the Senate, or any other 3 provision of the Standing Rules or Standing Orders of the 4 Senate— 5 (1) the committees of the Senate, including 6 joint committees and special committees, for the 7 117th Congress shall be composed equally of mem- 8 bers of both parties, to be appointed at a later time 9 by the two Leaders; 10 (2) the budgets and office space for such com- 11 mittees, and all other subgroups, shall likewise be 12 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:39 Feb 03, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR27.ATS SR27 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •SRES 27 ATS equal, with up to an additional 10 percent to be allo- 1 cated for administrative expenses to be determined 2 by the Committee on Rules and Administration, with 3 the total administrative expenses allocation for all 4 committees not to exceed historic levels; and 5 (3) the Chairman of a full committee may dis- 6 charge a subcommittee of any Legislative or Execu- 7 tive Calendar item which has not been reported be- 8 cause of a tie vote and place it on the full commit- 9 tee’s agenda. 10 SEC. 2. The committee ratios under section 1 shall 11 remain in effect for the remainder of the 117th Congress, 12 except that if at any time during the 117th Congress ei- 13 ther party attains a majority of the whole number of Sen- 14 ators, then each committee ratio shall be adjusted to re- 15 flect the ratio of the parties in the Senate, and the provi- 16 sions of this resolution shall have no further effect, except 17 that the members who were first appointed by the two 18 Leaders to such committees in the 117th Congress, pursu- 19 ant to the authority in this resolution, shall no longer be 20 members of the committees, and the committee chairman- 21 ships shall be held by the party which has attained a ma- 22 jority of the whole number of Senators. 23 SEC. 3. Pursuant to the provisions and exceptions de- 24 scribed in sections 1 and 2, the following additional Stand- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:39 Feb 03, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR27.ATS SR27 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •SRES 27 ATS ing Orders of the Senate shall be in effect for the 117th 1 Congress: 2 (1) If a committee has not reported out a meas- 3 ure or matter because of a tie vote, then— 4 (A) the Chairman of the committee shall 5 transmit a notice of a tie vote to the Secretary 6 of the Senate and such notice shall be printed 7 in the Record; and 8 (B) after such notice of a tie vote has been 9 transmitted, the Majority Leader or the Minor- 10 ity Leader may, only after consultation with the 11 Chairman and Ranking Member of the com- 12 mittee, make a motion to discharge such meas- 13 ure or matter, and time for debate on such mo- 14 tion shall be limited to 4 hours, to be equally 15 divided between the two Leaders or their des- 16 ignees, with no other motions, points of order, 17 or amendments in order: Provided, That fol- 18 lowing the use or yielding back of time, the 19 Senate vote on the motion to discharge, without 20 any intervening action, motion, or debate, and 21 if agreed to, the measure or matter be placed 22 immediately on the appropriate Calendar. 23 (2) Notwithstanding the provisions of rule XXII 24 of the Standing Rules of the Senate, to ensure that 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:39 Feb 03, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR27.ATS SR27 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •SRES 27 ATS any cloture motion shall be offered for the purpose 1 of bringing to a close debate, in no case shall it be 2 in order for any cloture motion to be presented on 3 an amendable item during its first 12 hours of Sen- 4 ate debate: Provided, That all other provisions of 5 rule XXII remain in status quo. 6 SEC. 4. It is the sense of the Senate that both Lead- 7 ers shall seek to attain an equal balance of the interests 8 of the two parties when scheduling and debating legislative 9 and executive business generally, and in keeping with the 10 present Senate precedents, a motion to proceed to any 11 Legislative or Executive Calendar item shall continue to 12 be considered the prerogative of the Majority Leader, al- 13 though the Standing Rules of the Senate do not prohibit 14 the right of the Republican Leader, or any other Senator, 15 to move to proceed to any item. 16 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:39 Feb 03, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\SR27.ATS SR27 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS