The End of the Open Appropriations Process in the House

On July 8, 2009, the House approved its latest restrictive rule for the appropriations process, bringing the FY2010 Agriculture Appropriations bill to the floor under a rule which allows the Democratic Leadership and the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee to cherry-pick the amendments, and disallow any amendment that might ultimately result in a reduction in spending.

This is a notable milestone in that it marks the first time that 5 of the regular appropriations bills have come to the floor under restrictive rules in a single appropriations season, besting all previous records.

Rules Committee Ranking Member David Dreier noted that the adoption of this rule marks the end of the open amendment process for appropriations bills. Speaking on the House Floor today, Mr. Dreier pointed out that open rules will be little more than a footnote in the history of this institution. This is the video of his remarks on the House Floor.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• U.S.
• House
• of
• Representatives
• Congressman
• David
• Dreier
• Rules
• Committee
• Appropriations
• Spending
• Agriculture
• FDA
• food
• drug
• safety
• Democratic
• leadership
• closed
• rule
• structured
• deny
• amendment
• damage
• institution