Ramseyer Rule Law and Legal Definition
Clause 3 of Rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives that requires bills to show exactly how a bill would change existing law is known as the Ramseyer Rule. Rule XIII, cl. 3 read as follows:
Whenever a committee reports a bill or a joint resolution repairing or amending any statute or part thereof it shall include in its report or in an accompanying document --
1) The text of the statute or part thereof which is proposed to be repealed; and
(2) A comparative print of that part of the bill or joint resolution making the amendment and of the statute or part thereof proposed to be amended, showing by stricken-through type and italics, parallel columns, or other appropriate typographical devices the omissions and insertions proposed to be made: Provided, however, That if a committee reports such a bill or joint resolution with amendments or an amendment in the nature of a substitute for the entire bill, such report shall include a comparative print showing any changes in existing law proposed by the amendments or substitute instead of as in the bill as introduced. [United States v. Casson, 434 F.2d 415 (D.C. Cir. 1970)]
The rule is named after Christian William Ramseyer who proposed it. Ramseyer was a nine-term Republican U.S. Representative from Iowa's 6th congressional district. The analogous rule in the U.S. Senate is the Cordon rule.
