Calendars of the House

Calendars of the United States House of Representatives And History of Legislation is published and delivered to every Congressional office on a daily basis when the House is in session. It contains a wealth of information concerning the business of the House and the Senate.

Measures reported from committee are assigned by the Speaker to one of four regularly used calendars, namely the Union Calendar, the House Calendar, the Private Calendar and the Corrections Calendar. These calendars list bills in the chronological order in which they are reported by the various committees.

1. The Union Calendar - Clause (a)(1) of Rule XIII: “A Calendar of the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union, to which shall be referred public bills and public resolutions raising revenue, involving a tax or charge on the people, directly or indirectly making appropriations of money or property or requiring such appropriations to be made, authorizing payments out of appropriations already made, releasing any liability to the United States for money or property, or referring a claim to the Court of Claims. general appropriations bills, and bills of a public character directly or indirectly appropriating money or property.” All legislation dealing with raising, authorizing or spending money is assigned to this calendar.

2. The House Calendar - Clause 1(a)(2) of Rule XIII: “A House calendar, to which shall be referred all public bills and public resolutions not requiring referral to the Calendar of the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union.” Non-money measures and other measures dealing with internal House matters are put on this calendar.

3. The Private Calendar - Clause 1(a)(3) of Rule XIII: “A Private Calendar as provided in clause 5 of rule XV, to which shall be referred all private bills and private resolutions.” Bills dealing with the relief of a private nature, those not of general application and usually dealing with identifiable private persons, are assigned to this calendar. Bills on this calendar are considered on special calendar days.

CALENDARS also includes the Calendar of Motions to Discharge Committees.

Clause 2 of Rule XV: “A Member may present to the Clerk a motion in writing to discharge... a committee from consideration of a public bill or public resolution that has been referred to it thirty legislative days...When a majority of the total membership of the House shall have signed the motion, it shall be entered on the Journal, printed with the signatures thereto in the Record, and referred to the Calendar of Motions to Discharge Committees.” This “Discharge Calendar” lists all motions to discharge committees through special procedures. This calendar is only very infrequently used.

In addition to the above calendars, this publication contains a variety of other information including the following.

• A listing and history of each bill or resolution in order by bill number which has been reported or considered by the House or Senate.
• A listing of all public and private laws enacted during the 109^th Congress and their corresponding number.
• A listing of the bills in conference with the names of its House and Senate conferees.
• A status sheet of all major legislative bills, including appropriations bills.
• The rules for morning hour debate and special order speeches.
• Other orders of the House including unanimous consent agreements, Calendar Wednesday business, and other special legislative orders.
• A list of those members previously signed up for five-minute special orders.

While the CALENDARS is a handy reference source, it should be noted that not every measure listed is called up and considered by the House.