[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 8 Agreed to Senate (ATS)]







107th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 8

          Relative to Senate procedure in the 107th Congress.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 5, 2001

    Mr. Daschle (for himself and Mr. Lott) submitted the following 
             resolution; which was considered and agreed to

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
          Relative to Senate procedure in the 107th Congress.

    Resolved, That notwithstanding the provisions of rule XXV, or any 
other provision of the Standing Rules or Standing Orders of the Senate, 
the committees of the Senate, including Joint and Special Committees, 
for the 107th Congress shall be composed equally of members of both 
parties, to be appointed at a later time by the two Leaders; that the 
budgets and office space for such committees, and all other subgroups, 
shall likewise be equal, with up to an additional 10 percent to be 
allocated for administrative expenses to be determined by the Rules 
Committee, with the total administrative expenses allocation for all 
committees not to exceed historic levels; and that the Chairman of a 
full committee may discharge a subcommittee of any Legislative or 
Executive Calendar item which has not been reported because of a tie 
vote and place it on the full committee's agenda.
    Sec. 2. Provided, That such committee ratios shall remain in effect 
for the remainder of the 107th Congress, except that if at any time 
during the 107th Congress either party attains a majority of the whole 
number of Senators, then each committee ratio shall be adjusted to 
reflect the ratio of the parties in the Senate, and the provisions of 
this resolution shall have no further effect, except that the members 
appointed by the two Leaders, pursuant to this resolution, shall no 
longer be members of the committees, and the committee chairmanships 
shall be held by the party which has attained a majority of the whole 
number of Senators.
    Sec. 3. Pursuant to the provisions and exceptions listed above, the 
following additional Standing Orders shall be in effect for the 107th 
Congress:
            (1) If a committee has not reported out a legislative item 
        or nomination because of a tie vote, then, after notice of such 
        tie vote has been transmitted to the Senate by that committee 
        and printed in the Record, the Majority Leader or the Minority 
        Leader may, only after consultation with the Chairman and 
        Ranking Member of the committee, make a motion to discharge 
        such legislative item or nomination, and time for debate on 
        such motion shall be limited to 4 hours, to be equally divided 
        between the two Leaders, with no other motions, points of 
        order, or amendments in order: Provided, That following the use 
        or yielding back of time, a vote occur on the motion to 
        discharge, without any intervening action, motion, or debate, 
        and if agreed to it be placed immediately on the Calendar of 
        Business (in the case of legislation) or the Executive Calendar 
        (in the case of a nomination).
            (2) Notwithstanding the provisions of rule XXII, to insure 
        that any cloture motion shall be offered for the purpose of 
        bringing to a close debate, in no case shall it be in order for 
        any cloture motion to be made on an amendable item during its 
        first 12 hours of Senate debate: Provided, That all other 
        provisions of rule XXII remain in status quo.
            (3) Both Leaders shall seek to attain an equal balance of 
        the interests of the two parties when scheduling and debating 
        legislative and executive business generally, and in keeping 
        with the present Senate precedents, a motion to proceed to any 
        Legislative or Executive Calendar item shall continue to be 
        considered the prerogative of the Majority Leader, although the 
        Senate Rules do not prohibit the right of the Democratic 
        Leader, or any other Senator, to move to proceed to any item.
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