We’ve gotten some questions about how H.R. 6079, the Repeal of Obamacare Act functions with respect to the Independent Payments Advisory Board (IPAB), and thought it would be helpful to explain how the bill works.

When the Senate refuses to act, the House must take steps to ensure that it can responsibly proceed with the appropriations and budget process. This is accomplished through the use of budget enforcement language in a rule, commonly called a "deemer" because it "deems" the House budget levels in place until there's a joint agreement between the House and Senate.
 

The Budget Control Act of 2011 represents a chance to change the direction of the spending debate in Washington. This legislation flips the traditional debt increase dynamic on its head — instead of raising the debt limit first and looking for spending cuts later, this legislation requires that the cuts come first and the debt limit increase follows.

A committee’s Survey contains vital information regarding the work of each committee and how it is conducting its business. The more frequent reports will give everyone the opportunity to review each committee’s progress.

In addition to the open amendment process for consideration of the fiscal year 2012 homeland appropriations bill, the rule also contains language to put temporary budget enforcement mechanisms in place. This will allow the House to continue to consider the FY2012 appropriations bills, even though the Senate has failed to act on a budget of its own.

 Interesting statistics related to the first open rule of the 112th Congress.

During the negotiations to resolve the unfinished work to fund the government for the remainder of the fiscal year, there were a number of important issues that the parties couldn't agree on, including government funding for the implementation of health care legislation and funding for Planned Parenthood. Speaker Boehner successfully negotiated an agreement with Senate Majority Leader Reid to ensure that these two proposals received an up or down vote in both the House and Senate. Here's how

Welcome to the blog of the Committee on Rules. We will use this this area of our website to provide some background and explanation about the Committee, the Floor, and rules for floor consideration.