In 1987, Speaker Jim Wright (D-TX) created a new day in order to rush passage of a bill. Philip Wallach at The American Interest:
Most dramatically, as Wright sought to push through a revenue-positive reconciliation bill following “Black Monday” in October 1987, his favored rule was voted down. Chamber rules prohibited an identical vote on the same day, but Wright was determined—so he ordered the House adjourned and then immediately reconvened, saying that this made a new vote permissible. On the brink of losing that re-vote 207-206, Wright kept the voting open 10 minutes past its 15-minute limit until he could pressure a Democratic hold-out to support him.
The pro-tariff House leadership is now manipulating time in a different way.
Before passing a continuing resolution to keep the government open, the House had to pass a separate resolution setting the rules for the debate over the stopgap spending bill. This is a routine thing. On this occasion, however, Republican leaders slipped a provision into the rules resolution that makes a long-term change to how the House will operate.
“Each day for the remainder of the first session of the 119th Congress shall not constitute a calendar day for purposes of section 202 of the National Emergencies Act with respect to a joint resolution terminating a national emergency declared by the President on February 1, 2025,” is how the relevant portion of the rules package spells things out.
Yes, bizarrely, Congress can declare a day to not be a day because Congress can make whatever rules it wants to govern its own proceedings.
To understand the practical effect of that confusing language, you have to know a little bit about the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which is the law that Trump used to slap those new tariffs on Canada, China, and Mexico in early February. Under the provisions of IEEPA, Congress is allowed to cancel any presidential action—and those efforts are “privileged,” which means they can be brought directly to the floor without first going through the committee process. That’s important because it means Congress can respond quickly if a president is perceived to be overstepping the bounds of his emergency powers (or, as in Trump’s case, deploying them in ways that have nothing to do with any actual emergency).
So, the House’s new rules say that individual lawmakers can’t do that anymore. They cannot bring a privileged resolution under IEEPA to the House floor for the rest of this congressional session.
When this rules package was in front of the House Rules Committee on Monday, Democrats tried to strip out the provision that eliminates the IEEPA shortcut. That attempt was defeated in a party-line vote. On the House floor, all Republicans except Rep. Thomas Massie (R–Ky.) voted in favor of it. (Massie’s office did not return a request to clarify whether he objected to the tariff provision or other aspects of the rules package.)