Read the Bill Act
Latest action. Referred to the House Committee on Rules.
Read the Bill Act
This bill prohibits consideration of any bill or resolution in the House of Representatives or the Senate unless its text is published on an official website of the Clerk of the House or the Secretary of the Senate at least the applicable minimum number of hours (excluding those in which the chamber is not in session) before consideration of the bill or resolution, namely:
72 hours, for text of 300 or fewer pages; or
for text of more than 300 pages, the sum of 72 hours plus 24 hours for each additional increment of text of 100 or fewer pages.
Whenever a House or Senate Committee reports a bill or joint resolution proposing to repeal or amend all or part of a statute, it must include in its report or in an accompanying document:
the entire text of each section of the statute proposed to be repealed or amended, and
a comparative print of each amendment to the section of the statute that the bill or joint resolution proposes to make.
Neither chamber, nor Congress jointly, may dispense with or otherwise waive or modify the requirements of this Act.
Any Act of Congress that was considered as a bill or resolution in the House or Senate in violation of this Act shall have no force or effect, and no legal, equitable, regulatory, civil, or criminal action may be brought under it.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in House" stage on January 6, 2016. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on January 6, 2016: Referred to the House Committee on Rules.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the House
- Passage by the Senate
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 114th Congress (2015-16), 329 of the 10,233 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 3.2 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) introduced it on January 6, 2016, and 1 member has since signed on as a cosponsor.
They are 1 Republican.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on January 6, 2016, 3900 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 3900 days ago, on January 6, 2016.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 114th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2017 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseIn committee, no floor vote yet
- SenateAwaits House passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers