GERMANENESS AND HOUSE/SENATE RELATIONS

House amendments to Senate amendments:

• A House amendment must be germane to the Senate amendment, not to the House bill.

• However, where a Senate amendment proposes to strike out language in a House bill, the test of the germaneness on a motion to recede and concur with an amendment is the relationship between the language in the motion and the provisions in the House bill proposed to be stricken, as well as those to be inserted by the Senate amendment.

• The test of germaneness of an amendment to a motion to concur in a Senate amendment with an amendment is the relationship between the amendment and the motion. It is not between the amendment and the Senate amendment to which the motion was offered.

Senate amendments and matters in conference reports:

• Clause 7 of Rule XVI permits a point of order against Senate amendments to House bills if the amendment contains language which would not have been germane if offered in the House.

• Clause 10(a)(2) of Rule XXII permits a point of order against language in a conference report which was originally in the Senate bill that would not have been germane if offered to the House-passed version. If the point of order is sustained, a separate motion is permitted to reject that portion of the conference report.

• Clause 10(d) of Rule XXII permits a similar point of order against a motion to concur, or to concur with an amendment, in non-germane Senate amendments, the stage of disagreement having been reached.