[House Report 113-426] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] 113th Congress Report HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 2d Session 113-426 ====================================================================== PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF THE BILL (H.R. 4486) MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR MILITARY CONSTRUCTION, THE DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS, AND RELATED AGENCIES FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2015, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES; AND PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF THE BILL (H.R. 4487) MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2015, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES _______ April 29, 2014.--Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed _______ Mr. Cole, from the Committee on Rules, submitted the following R E P O R T [To accompany H. Res. 557] The Committee on Rules, having had under consideration House Resolution 557, by a nonrecord vote, report the same to the House with the recommendation that the resolution be adopted. SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS OF THE RESOLUTION The resolution provides for consideration of H.R. 4486, the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015, under an open rule. The resolution provides one hour of general debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Appropriations. The resolution waives all points of order against consideration of the bill. The resolution waives points of order against provisions in the bill for failure to comply with clause 2 of rule XXI. The resolution provides that the bill shall be considered for amendment under the five-minute rule. The resolution authorizes the Chair to accord priority in recognition to Members who have pre-printed their amendments in the Congressional Record. The resolution provides one motion to recommit with or without instructions. The resolution provides for consideration of H.R. 4487, the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2015, under a structured rule. The resolution provides one hour of general debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Appropriations. The resolution waives all points of order against consideration of the bill and provides that the bill shall be considered as read. The resolution waives all points of order against provisions in the bill for failure to comply with clause 2 of rule XXI. The resolution makes in order only those amendments to H.R. 4487 printed in this report. Each such amendment may be offered only in the order printed in this report, may be offered only by a Member designated in this report, shall be considered as read, shall be debatable for the time specified in this report equally divided and controlled by the proponent and an opponent, shall not be subject to amendment, and shall not be subject to a demand for division of the question in the House or in the Committee of the Whole. The resolution waives all points of order against the amendments printed in this report. The resolution provides one motion to recommit with or without instructions. Section 3 of the resolution provides that pending the adoption of a concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2015, the amounts provided for current law mandatory budget authority and outlays contained in the statement of the Chair of the Committee on the Budget of the House of Representatives in the Congressional Record dated April 29, 2014, shall be considered for all purposes in the House to be allocations to the Committee on Appropriations under section 302(a) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974. Section 4 of the resolution provides that during consideration of H.R. 4486 and H.R. 4487 pursuant to this resolution, the suballocations printed in House Report 113-425 shall be considered for all purposes in the House to be suballocations under section 302(b) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974. EXPLANATION OF WAIVERS The waiver of all points of order against consideration of H.R. 4486 includes a waiver of clause 4(c) of rule XIII, which prohibits consideration of a general appropriations bill reported by the Committee on Appropriations from being considered in the House until the third calendar day on which printed hearings of the Committee on Appropriations thereon have been available to Members. The resolution includes a waiver of points of order against provisions in H.R. 4486 for failure to comply with clause 2 of rule XXI, which prohibits unauthorized appropriations or legislative provisions in an appropriations bill. This waiver is necessary because the bill contains unauthorized appropriations and legislative provisions. The waiver of all points of order against consideration of H.R. 4487 includes a waiver of section 3(d)(5) of H. Res. 5 of the 113th Congress, which prohibits the consideration of a general appropriations bill unless it includes a spending reduction account. While the bill includes an account with the appropriate caption, the account fails to comply with the definition of a spending reduction account because the bill and the account specifically exclude Senate items as is customary to preserve comity between the Houses. The resolution includes a waiver of points of order against provisions in H.R. 4487 for failure to comply with clause 2 of rule XXI, which prohibits unauthorized appropriations or legislative provisions in an appropriations bill. This waiver is necessary because the bill contains unauthorized appropriations and legislative provisions. Although the resolution waives all points of order against the amendments to H.R. 4487 printed in this report, the Committee is not aware of any points of order. The waiver is prophylactic in nature. SUMMARY OF THE AMENDMENTS TO H.R. 4487 MADE IN ORDER 1. Nugent (FL): Prohibits CAO of the House of Representatives from making any payments from any Members' representational allowance for the leasing of a vehicle, excluding mobile district offices and short-term vehicle rentals. (10 minutes) 2. Speier (CA): Appropriates $500,000 to provide for sexual harassment training for all House offices which will be carried out by the Congressional Office of Compliance. These funds are offset from the AOC General Administration fund. (10 minutes) 3. Gosar (AZ): Reduces the amount provided for the Botanic Garden to the fiscal year 2014 level and transfers the funds to the spending reduction account. (10 minutes) 4. Broun (GA): Reduces the funding for the Capitol Visitor Center by $243,000, returning it to FY14 levels. (10 minutes) 5. Duffy (WI): Defunds the Open World Leadership Center Trust Fund. (10 minutes) 6. Hall (TX), McCaul (TX): Prohibits funds from being used to deliver a printed copy of the CAO's Statement of Disbursements of the House to any Member of the House of Representatives. (10 minutes) 7. Wenstrup (OH): Prohibits funding for the delivery of printed copies of the Daily Calendar of the United States House of Representatives to member offices, as this document is accessible online. (10 minutes) 8. Holt (NJ): Appropriates $2.5 million to re-institute the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), offset from funds in the House Historic Buildings Revitalization Trust Fund. (10 minutes) TEXT OF AMENDMENTS TO H.R. 4487 MADE IN ORDER 1. An Amendment To Be Offered by Representative Nugent of Florida or His Designee, Debatable for 10 Minutes Page 7, beginning line 23, strike ``in an aggregate amount that exceeds $1,000 for the vehicle in any month'' and insert ``and excluding short-term vehicle rentals in an aggregate amount that does not exceed $1,000 for the vehicle in any month''. ---------- 2. An Amendment To Be Offered by Representative Speier of California or Her Designee, Debatable for 10 Minutes Page 11, line 10, after the dollar amount insert ``(increased by $500,000)''. Page 12, line 16, after the dollar amount insert ``(reduced by $500,000)''. ---------- 3. An Amendment To Be Offered by Representative Gosar of Arizona or His Designee, Debatable for 10 Minutes Page 15, line 2, after the first dollar amount insert ``(reduced by $3,166,946)''. Page 32, line 21, after the dollar amount insert ``(increased by $3,166,946)''. ---------- 4. An Amendment To Be Offered by Representative Broun of Georgia or His Designee, Debatable for 10 Minutes Page 15, line 13, after the dollar amount insert ``(reduced by $243,000)''. Page 32, line 21, after the dollar amount insert ``(increased by $243,000)''. ---------- 5. An Amendment To Be Offered by Representative Duffy of Wisconsin or His Designee, Debatable for 10 Minutes Page 29, line 7, after the dollar amount insert ``(reduced by $3,420,000)''. Page 32, line 21, after the dollar amount insert ``(increased by $3,420,000)''. ---------- 6. An Amendment To Be Offered by Representative Hall of Texas or His Designee, Debatable for 10 Minutes At the end of the bill (before the short title), insert the following: Sec. 211. None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to deliver a printed copy of the report of disbursements for the operations of the House of Representatives under section 106 of the House of Representatives Administrative Reform Technical Corrections Act (2 U.S.C. 5535) to the office of a Member of the House of Representatives (including a Delegate or Resident Commissioner to the Congress). ---------- 7. An Amendment To Be Offered by Representative Wenstrup of Ohio or His Designee, Debatable for 10 Minutes At the end of the bill (before the short title), insert the following: Sec. 211. None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to deliver to the office of a Member of the House of Representatives (including a Delegate or Resident Commissioner to the Congress) a printed copy of the Daily Calendar of the House of Representatives which is prepared by the Clerk of the House of Representatives. ---------- 8. An Amendment To Be Offered by Representative Holt of New Jersey or His Designee, Debatable for 10 Minutes At the end of the bill (before the short title), insert the following: Sec. 211. There is appropriated, for salaries and expenses of the Office of Technology Assessment as authorized by the Technology Assessment Act of 1972 (2 U.S.C. 471 et seq.), hereby derived from the amount provided in this Act for the payment to the House Historic Buildings Revitalization Trust Fund, $2,500,000.