*EPF204 10/08/2002
House Rules Committee Sets Up 17-Hour House Debate on Iraq Resolution
(Allows two amendments to be offered on H. J. Res. 114) (640)

By Stephen LaRocque
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The House Rules Committee established the terms for the House debate on House Joint Resolution 114 (H. J. Res. 114) October 7, allowing for 17 hours of debate on the resolution in the full House, and permitting only two amendments to be offered regarding the resolution that would authorize U.S. military force to be used against Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

The Rules Committee set the procedures for the debate through House Resolution 574 (H. Res. 574), which once approved by the House, becomes the process to be followed.

Representative David Dreier (Republican of California), the chairman of the House Rules Committee, submitted H. Res. 574 on October 7, which provides for consideration of H.J. Res. 114, while panel member Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart (Republican of Florida) submitted the report on the resolution to the House.

According to H. Res. 574, the House could consider H. J. Res. 114 as early as October 8.

With a 223-208 advantage in the House of Representatives, with one Independent and three vacancies, Republicans expect to approve H. Res. 574 and to see H. J. Res. 114 pass by a large majority, thus fulfilling the White House goal of showing a wide range of support for the President's policy on Iraq.

While the Senate provides a more open-ended format for debate, the House, with its greater number of legislators, 435 to the Senate's 100, often has to create a procedure that allows for debate, but which doesn't let a lawmaker hold up the legislative process.

While an individual Senator can filibuster against a piece of legislation, unless blocked by a cloture motion, a member of the House must try using either a point of order or an amendment to delay a bill.

Under the proposed rules for debate on H. J. Res. 114, all points of order against consideration of the joint resolution would be waived, and all points of order against any amendments would be waived.

The Rules Committee, where Republicans hold a 9-4 majority, received 19 proposed amendments to H. J. Res. 114 from various House members, but decided that only two would be considered when the House debates H. J. Res. 114.

The two amendments include one from Representative Barbara Lee (Democrat of California). Lee's offering, an Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute, would urge the United States "to re-engage the diplomatic process and stresses the U.S. government's commitment to the U.N. inspections process," according to the Rules Committee report.

Congresswoman Lee was the sole lawmaker to vote against using force in response to the September 11 terror attacks on the United States. Lee, a member of the House International Relations Committee, had submitted her own resolution on Iraq that stressed using peaceful means to settle the crisis with Iraq.

A second proposed amendment, also in the Nature of a Substitute, would authorize the use of U.S. armed forces to "support any new U.N. Security Council resolution that mandates the elimination, by force if necessary, of all Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, long-range ballistic missiles, and the means of producing such weapons and missiles."

The second proposed amendment, submitted by a group of nine Democratic lawmakers, including Representative James Moran of Virginia, would also request that the President "seek authorization from Congress to use the armed forces of the U.S. in the absence of a U.N. Security Council resolution sufficient to eliminate by force if necessary, all Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, long-range ballistic missiles, and the means of producing such weapons and missiles."

The Rules Committee said there would be one hour of debate on each amendment.

The panel provided for a possible extension of the debate if the House Majority Leader Representative Richard Armey (Republican of Texas), after consultation with the House Minority Leader Representative Richard Gephardt (Democrat of Missouri), makes a motion to extend debate on the resolution.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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