At The Hill, Don Wolfensberger explains the procedural trick by which House Republicans barred resolutions of inquiry:

Last week a special rule was scheduled to consider just five matters, all resolutions to disapprove regulations promulgated during the Biden administration. All were expected to be considered with one hour of floor debate each and no amendments. The actual text of the rule passed out to members just before the vote to report it contained this additional language, “Each day during the period from April 29, 2025 through September 30, 2025, shall not constitute a legislative day for purposes of clause 7 of Rule XIII.”

 

Unless you have memorized all House rules by Roman numerals and clause numbers, you would have no idea that clause 7 of rule 13 covers “resolutions of inquiry” which request the president or an executive department head only for factual information, not opinions or investigations. If the committee to which the resolution is referred has not reported it back to the House within 14 legislative days, either favorably or unfavorably, it is in order on the floor to move to discharge the committee from consideration and bring the request directly to the floor.

 

The procedural gimmick to upend this process included in last week’s rule is considered to be automatically adopted upon passage of the rule (a self-executing rule), meaning it is not separately debated or voted by the House as are the other matters made in order for floor consideration.

 

According to the footnotes to the rule, the House has exercised this right of inquiry “from its earliest days,” dating back to 1796. The first written resolution of inquiry rule was adopted in 1820.

 

Although the current freeze applies to any and all resolutions of inquiry for the rest of this fiscal year, the majority leadership was especially concerned about two ripening resolutions of inquiry introduced by Reps. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) and Steven Lynch (D-Mass.), respectively. These requested information from the executive on the controversy surrounding the inadvertent leak in advance of scheduled U.S. airstrikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen — the so-called Signalgate scandal.