Congressional Documents: Discharge

About discharge petitions (a.k.a. discharge motions)

"The House discharge rule (Rule XV, clause 2) provides a means for Members to bring to the floor for consideration a public bill or resolution that has been referred to committee but not reported. Discharge is generally the only procedure by which Members can secure consideration of a measure without cooperation from the committee of referral, or the majority party leadership and the Committee on Rules. For this reason, discharge is designed to be difficult to accomplish and has rarely been used successfully." Discharge Procedure in the House, CRS Report.

Finding them

• List of filings and signatories: Discharge Petitions, 1997-present, 105-118th congresses. Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives.
  Example.
• Signatories over the preceding week published in the last issue of the Congressional Record (Daily ed.) for the week at the end of the House section under the heading: "Discharge Petitions-Additions and Withdrawals".
• Frozen list of 218 signatories published in the Congressional Record.
  Example: Motion to discharge a committee, Oct 9, 2015, H6972-H6973.
• Discharge petition announced in:
  • House Journal.
    Example: House Journal, 2015, pt. 2, October 9, 2015, pp. 2134-2135, §126.19, "Motion to discharge committee".
  • "Calendar of Motions to Discharge Committees" section of the House Calendar.
    Example: House Calendars, Daily - Calendar of Motions to Discharge Committees, 114th congress, October 27, 2015, p. 4-1.

Example of a petition that reached the 218 signatory threshold: 114th congress, Discharge Petition No. 2. Referral date: September 30, 2015, Petition date: October 9, 2015. H.Res. 450, Providing for the consideration of the bill (H.R. 597) to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank of the United States, and for other purposes.

Most of the information above comes from Discharge Procedure in the House, CRS Report.