Motion to Recommit
A motion to recommit is a House motion, made just before final passage of a bill or joint resolution, to send it back to committee — usually the committee that reported it. House rules guarantee the minority party the opportunity to offer it: priority in recognition goes to an opponent of the measure, and the Rules Committee may not report a special rule that precludes it. With amendatory instructions, the motion could historically propose a last-chance amendment; the House does not often adopt recommittal motions, and a straight motion to recommit usually kills consideration of the measure for the time being.
A motion to recommit is a House motion, made just before final passage of a bill or joint resolution, to send it back to committee — usually the committee that reported it. House rules guarantee the minority party the opportunity to offer it: priority in recognition goes to an opponent of the measure, and the Rules Committee may not report a special rule that precludes it. With amendatory instructions, the motion could historically propose a last-chance amendment; the House does not often adopt recommittal motions, and a straight motion to recommit usually kills consideration of the measure for the time being.
Example: The motion dates to a 1909 rules change (the Fitzgerald amendment, adopted 211-173) whose stated purpose was to give the minority “a vote upon its position upon great public questions”; priority for a minority-party opponent was definitively established by precedent in 1932, per CRS.
Common misconception: A successful motion to recommit is not a vote on the bill’s merits and does not amend the bill; it returns the measure to committee, which may never report it back. And since the 117th Congress, House rules no longer allow a motion to recommit with amendatory instructions.
Sources: The Motion to Recommit in the House | CRS R48566, congress.gov"; Motions to Recommit in the House | CRS 98-383, congress.gov"