Executive Summary: Change the Rules to Give Substantial Bipartisan Majorities Greater Access to the Floor.
- Improve the discharge petition, giving petition filers the option to collect signatures privately and setting the threshold to a majority of sitting members.
- Improve the consensus calendar, closing loopholes in the rule and thus ensuring that bills that reach 290 cosponsors receive floor votes.
- Create a new procedure, Guaranteed Regular Order, empowering committees to advance important bipartisan legislation—particularly on reauthorizations – to the floor if they conduct a thorough deliberative process including hearings and markups.
- Require consideration of bipartisan amendments with 10 cosponsors from each party.