Discharge Petitions Could Get Used a Lot in the 118th Congress

Gridlock Could Make This Motions to Discharge a Popular Tool

There has been some discussion about discharge petitions in the media and the role this tool could play in the House during the 118th Congress. Discharge petitions are a useful tool, but they’re typically used for political messaging. In a House with thin margins and an unpredictable majority, discharge petitions could be utilized to pass major bills like appropriations and the debt limit.

You may be wondering what a discharge petition is. The easiest way to explain it is that it’s a petition that’s signed by a majority of the House, currently 218 members, that allows a piece of legislation to bypass committee and go directly to the House floor for consideration. Still, this explanation doesn’t fully capture everything that’s involved with a discharge petition.

The process has been around for a while. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) explains, “A precursor to the present discharge rule was adopted in the months following the 1910 House revolt against Speaker Joseph Cannon and was intended to provide a check on the scheduling power of the Speaker and the Committee on Rules. The essential form of the present discharge rule was adopted in 1931, and the number of Members necessary to sign the petition was increased to a majority of the whole House (218) in 1935.”

The House rule related to the Motion to Discharge can be found in Rule XV, clause 2. (I should note that the House will soon adopt new rules, and since there’s currently chaos over the rules, I’m not sure if this process will substantially change from its current form or revert back to some previous form. The proposed amendments to the Rules don’t show any changes to the discharge process, though.) The bill or resolution related to the discharge petition must have been referred to a committee for at least 30 legislative days before the Motion to Discharge is filed. A special rule, such as one governing consideration of a bill, may be discharged from the Rules Committee through a Motion to Discharge after seven legislative days. The process applies to only one bill, so a member can’t do one motion for multiple bills.

The discharge petition is filed with the Clerk of the House and is available for members—excluding the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico and delegates—to sign any day the House is in session. The petition, including signatures of members who’ve signed, is made available online for the public to see. Once the magic number (a majority of the House) is reached, the petition is placed on the Calendar of Motions to Discharge. The motion can’t be considered in the last six days of a session.

As CRS notes, “When the motion to discharge has been on the Calendar for at least seven legislative days, it becomes eligible for consideration on a "Discharge Day," which, under the rule, is the second or fourth Monday of each month. (The House could provide by unanimous consent or special rule that a motion to discharge be in order on a different day.) If the House is not in session on a Discharge Day, the motion to discharge could not be made until the next Discharge Day on which the House meets. In the event the House leadership tried to adjourn over until Tuesday in order to avoid session on an upcoming Discharge Day, supporters of the discharge petition could defeat the motion and move instead to adjourn to the Monday in question.”

The actual motion can be made by any member who signed the petition. The motion is debatable and considered by the whole House. If the motion is agreed upon by a simple majority vote, the legislation for which the discharge applies would come to the floor for debate and consideration. Appropriations legislation, though, would be subject to an open rule. This means that it’s subject to amendments.

That’s the gist. I know I didn’t cover every detail. Still, it’s important to remember discharge petitions in the legislative process because they could get a lot of use when it comes to stalemates on appropriations and the debt limit or other measures that have wide bipartisan support.