The Committee
Ranking Member Tom Cole
Tom Cole (R-OK) has served in the House of Representatives since 2002 and served on the House Rules Committee since 2013.
Elected to Congress in 2002, Tom Cole is currently serving in his tenth term representing the Fourth District of Oklahoma. Identified by Time Magazine as "one of the sharpest minds in the House," Cole is an advocate for a strong national defense, a tireless advocate for taxpayers and small businesses, and a leader on issues dealing with Native Americans and tribal governments. Since 2013, he has served on the House Rules Committee; in 2019, he was appointed Ranking Member of the panel. He is a fifth generation Oklahoman and an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation.
Cole is widely regarded as one of the GOP's top political strategists. He served as Executive Director of the National Republican Congressional Committee in the 1992 cycle. He also served as the Chief of Staff of the Republican National Committee during the historic 2000 cycle in which Republicans won the presidency, the Senate and the House for the first time in 48 years. In the 2008 cycle, Cole served as Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. Before Congress, he served Oklahoma as a State Senator and Secretary of State.
Special Rule Process
The process for reporting a special rule is a mixture of House rules, committee rules, and long-established practice.
- The committee of jurisdiction sends a letter requesting a hearing by the Rules Committee. The letter usually includes a request that a hearing be scheduled, a stipulation of the type of special rule desired, the amount of debate time needed, and any waivers of House rules necessary for consideration of the bill.
- The Rules Committee holds a hearing where the witnesses are the Members of the House who sit on the committee of jurisdiction or want to offer amendments.
- The Rules Committee marks up a special rule, and in consultation with the majority leadership and the relevant committee chairs, determines the type of rule to be granted, including the amount of general debate, the amendment process, and waivers to be granted, if any.
- The special rule is reported and filed. Special rules must be filed from the floor while the House is in session.
- The special rule is considered and debated in the House. After a one-day layover, special rules may be considered on the House floor at any time. A two-thirds vote is necessary to consider a special rule on the same day that it is reported. The rule is debated under the hour rule. The hour is managed by the majority party member of the Rules Committee calling up the rule, not the committee that reported the underlying bill. Out of custom, one-half the time is yielded to a minority member of the Rules Committee. At the end of debate, the previous question is put to a vote in order to cut off further debate, prevent the offering of additional amendments to the rule, and bring the special rule to an immediate vote.
Special Rule Types
Rules are traditionally referred to along a spectrum, where on one end they are open and the other they are closed. While there is wide variation in the middle, there are certain standard kinds of rules.
Open Rules—permit the offering of any amendment that otherwise complies with House rules, and allows debate under the 5-minute rule.
Modified-Open Rules—operate much like an open rule, but have some restriction on the “universe” of amendments, either through a pre-printing requirement or an overall time limit on consideration of amendments.
Structured Rules—specify that only certain amendments may be considered and specify the time for debate on the amendments.
Closed Rules—effectively eliminate the opportunity to consider amendments, on the floor.
Chairman of the Standing House Committee on Rules
(1849-1850; 1880 to present)
The House established a standing Committee on Rules by resolution on December 27, 1849, at the opening of the 31st Congress (1849-1851). It was terminated as a standing committee in the second session of that Congress, when the House reverted to its longtime practice of appointing a temporary select committee on rules at the opening of each Congress. On March 2, 1880, during the 46th Congress, the Committee on Rules was again re-established as a standing committee, and that status was continued under the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946.
- Twenty-seven individuals have chaired the standing Committee on Rules; the very first chairman was David Kaufman of Texas.
- The longest-serving chairman was Howard Smith of Virginia who chaired the committee from 1955 to 1967.
- More Members from New York (5) have chaired the committee than any other state: Bertrand Snell, John O’Conner, James Delaney, Gerald Solomon, and Louise Slaughter. Slaughter is the only woman to have chaired the committee.
- Seven Speakers of the House chaired the committee from 1880 until 1910 when House Rules were modified after the Cannon Revolt to remove the Speaker from the chairmanship: Samuel Randall of Pennsylvania, J. Warren Keifer of Ohio, John Carlisle of Kentucky, Thomas Brackett Reed of Maine, Charles Crisp of Georgia, David Henderson of Iowa, and Joseph Cannon of Illinois.
CONGRESS (YEARS) | NAME | PARTY | STATE |
---|---|---|---|
31st (1849–50) | David Kaufman | DEM | TX |
46th (1880–81) | Samuel Randall | DEM | PA |
47th (1881–83) | J. Warren Keifer | REP | OH |
48th–50th (1883–89) | John Carlisle | DEM | KY |
51st (1889–91) | Thomas Brackett Reed | REP | ME |
52nd–53rd (1891–95) | Charles Crisp | DEM | GA |
54th–55th (1895–99) | Thomas Brackett Reed | REP | ME |
56th–57th (1899–1903) | David Henderson | REP | IA |
58th–61st (1903–10) | Joseph Cannon | REP | IL |
61st (1910–11) | John Dalzell | REP | PA |
62nd–64th (1911–17) | Robert Henry | DEM | TX |
65th (1917–19) | Edward Pou | DEM | NC |
66th–67th (1919–23) | Philip Campbell | REP | KS |
68th–71st (1923–31) | Bertrand Snell | REP | NY |
72nd–73rd (1931–35) | Edward Pou | DEM | NC |
74th–75th (1935–39) | John O'Conner | DEM | NY |
76th–79th (1939–47) | Adolph Sabath | DEM | IL |
80th (1947–49) | Leo Allen | REP | IL |
81st–82nd (1949–51) | Adolph Sabath | DEM | IL |
83rd (1953–55) | Leo Allen | REP | IL |
84th–89th (1955–67) | Howard Smith | DEM | VA |
90th–92nd (1967–73) | William Colmer | DEM | MS |
93rd–94th (1973–77) | Ray Madden | DEM | IN |
95th (1977–79) | James Delaney | DEM | NY |
96th–97th (1979–83) | Richard Bolling | DEM | MO |
98th–101st (1983–89) | Claude Pepper | DEM | FL |
101st–103rd (1989–95) | J. Joseph Moakley | DEM | MA |
104th–105th (1995–99) | Gerald Solomon | REP | NY |
106th–109th (1999–2007) | David Dreier | REP | CA |
110th–111th (2007–09) | Louise Slaughter | DEM | NY |
112th (2011–13) | David Dreier | REP | CA |
113th–115th (2013–18) | Pete Sessions | REP | TX |
116th-117th (2019-Present) | James P. McGovern | DEM | MA |