General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: This is a constitutional crisis. [View all]onenote
(46,009 posts)The machinations of the House and Senate can be hard to follow. The opportunities for gridlock are legion. In this instance, the House and Senate reached what is formally considered a "stage of disagreement" when the Senate tabled the last version of the CR and asked for a conference. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?r113:4:./temp/~r113U67dE4::
Normally, when a stage of disagreement is reached, a member of the House can make a privileged (non amendable) motion to take up the Senate version of the bill. But in this instance, the House had voted that the rule allowing this would be suspended for purposes of H. Joint Res. 59, and onlyl the Majority Leader or his designee could make such a motion. While its not unheard of for the House to vote to suspend one or more of its rules as part of the "rule" governing the consideration of a particular bill, I'm unaware of this particular rule having been suspended in the past. Doesn't mean it hasn't been done, just that I can't recall it. It would only become controversial if the legislative fight reached a stage of disagreement, which itself is unusual (i.e., typically, where one house requests a conference, the other agrees to that request).