Committee of the Whole (United States House of Representatives)

Conventionally, the speaker appoints a member of the majority party who does not hold the chair of a standing committee.

In 1993, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), along with the Resident Commissioner from Puerto Rico and the delegates from Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa, received a limited vote in the Committee of the Whole, based on their right to vote in legislative committees.

The right of delegates to vote in Committee of the Whole was removed by the Republican majority in 1995 after that party gained control of Congress in the 1994 congressional elections.

Norton proposed tabling the motion pending further study of the non-voting delegate issue, but was defeated in a 225–188 party-line vote.

[7] The delegates from the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, along with the Resident Commissioner from Puerto Rico, have proposed several bipartisan rule changes for the 116th Congress, including restoring their vote in the Committee of the Whole.

[8] When Democrats regained control in the 116th United States Congress, they again reinstated the right of delegates to vote in the committee of the whole.

[9] Until 1930, the United States Senate considered all bills in the committee of the whole, or "quasi-committee," before a final debate.