# Plain Language Summary: House Rules for the 119th Congress

This bill is essentially the House of Representatives adopting its official rulebook for the 2025-2026 congressional session. Every two years when a new Congress begins, the House votes to establish the procedural rules that will govern how it operates—think of it like a sports league adopting the rules for the upcoming season. These rules determine how bills get introduced, debated, voted on, and passed through the chamber.

The specific changes or updates in these rules aren't detailed in the information provided, but generally, House rules cover important procedural matters like how much time members get to debate bills, what amendments can be offered, how committees operate, and what voting procedures will be used. Sometimes these rules reflect shifts in power or priorities—for example, the majority party might change rules to make it easier to pass their legislation or harder for the minority party to delay votes. Other times, rules are updated to address problems from the previous Congress or to modernize outdated procedures.

For everyday Americans, House rules might seem like inside-the-beltway stuff, but they actually matter. The rules determine how efficiently Congress can function and whether minority voices get heard on important issues. If rules make it harder to debate bills, fewer people might understand what's in legislation before it passes. If rules change how committees work, it could affect which bills even get a chance to be voted on. Essentially, these procedural rules are the framework that determines whether Congress operates smoothly or gets bogged down in procedural disputes.

Adopting the Rules of the House of Representatives for the One Hundred Nineteenth Congress, and for other purposes.

Fischbach, Michelle

This resolution establishes rules for the House of Representatives for the 119th Congress.The resolution adopts the rules from the 118th Congress with specified changes, including<ul><li>providing that a resolution vacating the Office of Speaker is only privileged (takes precedence over all matters other than motions to adjourn) if it is offered by a sponsor of the majority party joined by eight cosponsors from the majority party;&nbsp;</li><li>providing that the Speaker may only entertain a motion to suspend the rules on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays; </li><li>prohibiting&nbsp;waiver (by rule or by order) of the germaneness rule (which requires amendments to be of the same subject matter as the measure under consideration); and </li><li>prohibiting consideration of measures that exceed a specified long-term budget impact according to the Congressional Budget Office.</li></ul>Additional changes include<ul><li>authorizing the use of electronic voting within a committee;</li><li>authorizing remote appearances by&nbsp;non-executive branch witnesses and their counsel in committee proceedings;&nbsp;</li><li>eliminating the House Office of Diversity and Inclusion;&nbsp;</li><li>eliminating&nbsp;certain collective bargaining rights for employees of the House of Representatives; </li><li>reauthorizing the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party;&nbsp;</li><li>reauthorizing the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission; and&nbsp;</li><li>reauthorizing the House Democracy Assistance Commission&nbsp;(an entity that advises democratic parliaments in other countries)&nbsp;and renaming it the House Democracy Partnership. </li></ul>The resolution provides for the consideration of H.R. 21, H.R. 22, H.R. 23, H.R. 26, H.R. 27, H.R. 28, H.R. 29, H.R. 30, H.R. 31, H.R. 32, H.R. 33, and H.R. 35.