The Principles of Germaneness
GERMANENESS
An Overview
I. GENERAL PRINCIPLES
A. The principle of germaneness was adopted as a rule of the House in 1789. (Rule XVI, cl.7)
B. The rule is based on the notion that the House should only consider one subject matter at a time. Its purpose is to provide an orderly procedure and to expedite the business of the House.
C. The rule of germaneness applies to an amendment and its relationship to a bill or a pending amendment. It does not apply to the relationship between two provisions of the bill itself.
D. The burden of proof rests on the amendment's proponent.
E. If a portion of an amendment is not germane, the entire amendment will be ruled out of order.
F. An amendment to strike is germane unless it would change the scope of the bill. For example, an amendment striking an exclusion is not germane if it would expand the scope of coverage of the bill to a class not already covered.
G. Germaneness is a technical body of law -- it is not necessarily the same as "relevancy." An amendment may be politically related to a proposition in a bill, but may not be germane. The effect is to preclude many amendments and to give an advantage to the proponents of the bill as drafted.
H. If an amendment is ruled not germane, it is often possible to redraft it to correct the problems. Consult with the Parliamentarian and Legislative Counsel to redraft amendments accordingly.
II. PROPOSITION TO WHICH AN AMENDMENT MUST BE GERMANE
A. An amendment must be germane to the particular paragraph or section to which it is offered.
B. An amendment adding a new section to the bill must be germane to the portion of the bill to which it is offered. Thus, if offered to title II of the bill, it must be germane to title II (and not necessarily germane just to the preceding section).
C. Germaneness is determined based on the portion of the bill that has been read at the time the amendment is offered; an amendment that may be germane at the end of the reading of the bill may not be germane earlier. Thus, if the bill is being read for amendment by title, a new section must be germane to that particular title; but if the bill is considered as read and open to amendment at any point, the amendment need only be germane to the bill as a whole and not to a particular title.
D. In a multi-title bill, an amendment adding a new title must be germane to the bill as a whole.
E. An amendment must be germane to the bill in its current form, i.e., it must be germane to the bill as modified by amendments previously adopted.
F. 1. A second degree amendment must be germane to the first degree amendment. 2. A substitute for a pending amendment must be germane to the amendment, not the underlying text.
G. Instructions in a motion to recommit must be germane to the subject matter of the bill as a whole, even though the instructions do not propose a direct amendment to the bill.
III. TESTS OF GERMANENESS
In determining which of the tests to apply, the Chair first determines the nature and scope of the proposition being amended and then the relationship of the amendment being offered to the text.
An amendment which fails any one of the following tests will be ruled not germane.
A. SUBJECT MATTER
1. An amendment must relate to the subject matter under consideration.
Examples: On a bill to eliminate wage discrimination based on the sex of an employee, an amendment to make the bill applicable to discrimination based on race was ruled out of order as not germane.
On a bill authorizing funds for the federal highway program, an amendment permitting the Governor of a State to divert funds from the highway program to urban mass transportation projects was ruled out of order as not germane.
If a proposal would merely require an investigation of a subject, an amendment to require that a certain action be undertaken regarding that subject is not germane.
B. FUNDAMENTAL PURPOSE
1. The fundamental purpose of the amendment must relate to the fundamental purpose of the bill. The purpose of the bill is judged from its text, not from debate statements.
Example: To a title of a bill designed to enable federal agencies to formulate energy conservation policies, an amendment prohibiting certain uses of fuel (for school busing) by any person was held not germane.
2. An amendment must not only have a related purpose, but must accomplish that purpose by a method that is closely allied to the method used in the bill.
Examples: To a bill conserving energy by imposing civil penalties on manufacturers of autos with low gas mileage, an amendment conserving energy by offering tax rebates to a purchaser of high-mileage autos was held not to be germane.
To an amendment to achieve a national production goal for synthetic fuels for national defense needs by loans and grants and development of demonstration synthetic fuel plants, a substitute to require by regulation that any fuel sold in commerce require a certain percentage of synthetic fuels was held not to be germane.
C. COMMITTEE JURISDICTION
1. An amendment should be within the subject matter of the committee of jurisdiction of a bill. Committee jurisdiction of an amendment is not determinative when the jurisdiction of the bill overlaps several committees.
Example: To a bill requiring drug testing of airline and bus employees in the Committee on Public Works and Transportation, an amendment adding rail employees (within the jurisdiction of the Commerce Committee) was held not to be germane.
D. INDIVIDUAL PROPOSITION
1. One individual proposition may not be amended by another individual proposition, even though the two belong to the same class.
Example: To a bill providing for the disposal of tin from the national stockpile, an amendment for the disposal of silver from the national stockpile was held not to be germane.
2. To a bill relating to one class of individuals or things, an amendment relating to another class is not germane.
Example: To a bill authorizing categorical grants to certain private entities furnishing health care to medically under-served populations, an amendment authorizing direct grants to states for control of a certain public health hazard was held not to be germane as relating to different categories of recipients.
E. GENERAL PROVISION TO A SPECIFIC SUBJECT
1. A specific proposition may not be amended by a proposition more general in scope.
Examples: To a bill relating to aircraft altitude over national parks, an amendment relating to aircraft collision avoidance generally is not germane.
To a bill proscribing certain picketing in the District of Columbia, an amendment making the provisions thereof applicable throughout the United States is not germane.
F. SPECIFIC SUBJECTS TO GENERAL PROPOSITIONS
1. A general subject may be amended by a specific proposition (or subset) of the same class.
2. One key test of whether a subject is general is whether it covers two or more categories within a class.
Examples: If a bill requires drug testing of airline employees, an amendment to extend the requirement to bus employees was not germane (an individual proposition cannot be amended by another individual proposition). However, if the bill covers airline and bus employees, an amendment to add barge employees would be germane.
To an omnibus agricultural bill containing farm programs affecting dairy products, wool, feed, grains, cotton, and wheat, an amendment to add a new title to the bill relating to poultry and eggs was held to be germane.
To a bill affecting price supports for dairy products generally, an amendment relating to milk marketing order is germane.
3. The more broad the subject matter of the bill, the more that can be added as a germane amendment.
Example: A section of a bill designed to strengthen the United States and NATO relationships with Turkey and Greece in diverse ways (by promoting a peaceful solution to the Cypress dispute, by easing the embargo on arms shipments to Turkey, by requesting negotiations with Greece to determine its economic and military needs, and by providing refugee assistance to Cypress) was held sufficiently broad in scope to permit as germane an amendment requesting negotiations with Turkey to prevent diversion of opium poppy into illicit channels.
G. PERMANENT AMENDMENT TO TEMPORARY PROVISION
1. To a bill proposing a temporary change in law, an amendment making permanent changes in that law is not germane.
Example: An amendment making permanent changes in the law relating to the organization of an agency is not germane to a title of a bill only authorizing appropriations for such agency for one fiscal year.
IV. RESTRICTIONS, CONDITIONS, QUALIFICATIONS, LIMITATIONS, CONTINGENCIES
A. Restrictions, conditions, qualifications, limitations, and contingencies to a proposition which are sought by amendment are germane if they are related to the general purpose of the proposition.
1. In general, these may include: an exception to or an exemption from a proposition; a limitation on a delegation of authority; restriction on the use of funds authorized or appropriated by a bill; making a provision contingent upon a related event; or a restriction on the classes covered by the bill.
Examples: To a bill prohibiting the issuance of injunctions by the courts in labor disputes, an amendment to except all labor disputes affecting public utilities is germane.
To a bill authorizing federal assistance on the city, state, and national levels for projects to prevent juvenile delinquency, an amendment to limit the federal assistance to projects within the District of Columbia was held to be germane.
An amendment conditioning availability of a bill's funds upon implementation by the recipients of another program related to that general purpose is germane.
But an amendment conditioning the availability of funds to certain recipients based upon their compliance with Federal law not otherwise applicable to them (and within the jurisdiction of other House committees) is not germane.
To a bill amending a statute, an amendment prohibiting assistance under that act or under any other act for a particular purpose was held to be too general in scope, affecting laws not being amended by the bill and was ruled out or order as not germane.
An amendment delaying the operation of proposed legislation pending an unrelated contingency is not germane. Thus to a bill authorizing Federal financial contributions to international lending institutions, an amendment making those contributions contingent upon enactment of a change in federal monetary policy having domestic implications and involving agencies beyond the scope of the bill is not germane.
V. RELATION OF AMENDMENT/BILL TO EXISTING LAW
A. In general, an amendment must be germane to the pending bill, not to the underlying law to be changed. The determination of whether a bill which amends existing law opens the entire law to amendment follows the principles that a general proposition an be amended by specific propositions (or subsets) of the same class.
1. Where a bill amends existing law in one narrow particular, an amendment proposing to modify the existing law in other particulars will be ruled out of order as not germane.
2. To a bill amending existing law in several particulars, but relating to a single subject, an amendment proposing to modify the law but not related to the same single subject is not germane.
3. But a bill amending several sections of an existing law may be sufficiently broad to permit amendments which are germane to other sections of that law not included in the bill.
4. A bill may so extensively amend an existing law as to open the entire law to amendment, even to repeal the existing law. The bill amending the law must so vitally affect the whole law as to bring the entire act under consideration.
Examples: To an amendment in the nature of a substitute comprehensively amending several sections of the Clean Air Act with respect to the impact of the shortage of energy resources upon standards imposed under that Act, an amendment to another section of that Act suspending for a temporary period the authority of the Administrator of the EPA to control automobile emissions was held to be germane.
To a bill amending several sections of the National Foundation for the Arts and Humanities Act to extend the authorization for appropriations and redefine certain powers of the foundation, an amendment proposing to further amend the Act to establish an office of Poet Laureate of the United States was ruled out of order as not germane.
Where a bill repeals a provision of law, an amendment modifying (but not repealing) that provision may be germane; but the modification must relate to the provision of law being repealed.
VI. HOUSE/SENATE RELATIONS
A. House amendments to Senate amendments
1. A House amendment must be germane to the Senate amendment, not to the House bill.
2. But where a Senate amendment proposes to strike out language in a House bill, the test of the germaneness on a motion to recede and concur with an amendment is the relationship between the language in the motion and the provisions in the House bill proposed to be stricken, as well as those to be inserted by the Senate amendment.
3. The test of germaneness of an amendment to a motion to concur in a Senate amendment with an amendment is the relationship between the amendment and the motion. It is not between the amendment and the Senate amendment to which the motion was offered.
B. Senate amendments - matters in conference reports
1. Clause 4 of rule XXVIII permits a point of order against language in a conference report which was originally in the Senate bill that would not have been germane if offered to the House-passed version. If the point of order is sustained, a separate motion is permitted to reject that portion of the conference report.
2. Clause 5 of rule XXVIII permits a similar point of order against a motion to concur, or to concur with an amendment, in non-germane Senate amendments, the stage of disagreement having been reached.
3. Clause 7 of rule XVI permits a point of order against Senate amendments to House bills if the amendment contains language which would not have been germane if offered in the House.