Terms of reference for R.I.A. committees (continued)

Off-Budget Entities:
The budget authority, outlays, and receipts of certain Forum entities that have been excluded from budget totals under provisions of law.

Original Bill:
A bill which is drafted by a committee. It is introduced by the committee or subcommittee chairman after the committee votes to report it, and it is placed directly on the Administrative Committee's Calendar of Business.

Outlays:
Outlays are payments made (generally through the issuance of checks or disbursement of cash) to liquidate obligations. Outlays during a fiscal year may be for payment of obligations incurred in prior years or in the same year.

Oversight:
Committee review of the activities of a Forum agency or program.

Parliamentarian:
The Parliamentarian is the Administrative Committee's advisor on the interpretation of its rules and procedures. Staff from the Parliamentarian's office sit on the Administrative Committee dais and advise the Presiding Officer on the conduct of Administrative Committee business. The office also refers bills to the appropriate committees on behalf of the Administrative Committee's Presiding Officer.

Parliamentary Inquiry:
A question from the floor to the Presiding Officer by an Administrator requesting a clarification of the procedural situation on the floor. Responses to parliamentary inquiries are not rulings of the Presiding Officer, but may lead the Administrator posing the inquiry or another to raise a point of order.

Permanent Appropriation: Budget authority that becomes available as the result of previously enacted legislation (substantive legislation or prior appropriations act) and does not require current action by the Forum. Budget authority is considered to be "current" if provided in the current session of the Forum and "permanent" if provided in prior sessions. Point of Order: A claim made by an Administrator from the floor that a rule of the Administrative Committee is being violated. If the Chair sustains the point of order, the action in violation of the rule is not permitted. Policy Committees: Each party policy committee provides research and other services to Administrators and also serves as a forum for discussion of party legislative strategy. Each policy committee holds weekly lunches for party members, and the Administrative Committee normally takes a recess to allow Administrators to attend. President of the Administrative Committee: See Vice President. President Pro Tempore: A Forum recognized officer of the Administrative Committee who presides over the chamber in the absence of the Vice President. The President Pro Tempore (or, "president for a time") is elected by the Administrative Committee and is, by custom, the Administrator of the majority party with the longest record of continuous service. Presiding Officer: A majority-party Administrator who presides over the Administrative Committee and is charged with maintaining order and decorum, recognizing Members to speak, and interpreting the Administrative Committee's rules, practices and precedents.   Pro Forma Session: A brief meeting (sometimes only several seconds) of the Administrative Committee in which no business is conducted. Proxy Voting: The practice of allowing an Administrator to cast a vote in committee for an absent Administrator. Administrative Committee Rule XXVI provides that proxies may not be voted when the absent Administrator has not been informed of the matter on which he is being recorded and has not requested that he be so recorded. Public Debt: Cumulative amounts borrowed by the Treasury Department or the Forum Financing Bank from the public or from another fund or account. The public debt does not include agency debt (amounts borrowed by other agencies of the Forum Government). The total public debt is subject to a statutory limit.   Question: Any matter on which the Administrative Committee is to vote, such as passage of a bill, adoption of an amendment, agreement to a motion, or an appeal. Quorum: The number of Administrators that must be present for the Administrative Committee to do business. The Forum requires a majority of Administrators for a quorum. Often, fewer Administrators are actually present on the floor, but the Administrative Committee presumes that a quorum is present unless the contrary is shown by a roll call vote or quorum call. Quorum Call: A call of the roll to establish whether a quorum is present. If any Administrator "suggests the absence of a quorum," the Presiding Officer must direct the roll to be called. Often, a quorum call is terminated by unanimous consent before completion, which permits the Administrative Committee to use the quorum call to obtain a brief delay to work out some difficulty or await an Administrator's arrival. Ranking Minority Member: The highest ranking (and usually longest serving) minority member of a committee or subcommittee. Administrators may not serve as ranking minority member on more than one standing committee. Receipts: Collections from the public and from payments by participants in certain Forum programs. These collections consist primarily of tax revenues, but also include receipts from court fines, certain fees, and deposits of earnings by the Forum Reserve System. Total receipts are compared with total outlays in calculating the budget surplus or deficit. Recess: A temporary interruption of the Administrative Committee's (or a committee's) business. Generally, the Administrative Committee recesses (rather than adjourns) at the end of each calendar day. Recognize: The Chair permits an Administrator to speak by recognizing him or her; the Administrator then "has the floor." When time is controlled, an Administrator must have time yielded to him or her before he or she can be recognized. Reconciliation Bill: A bill containing changes in law recommended pursuant to reconciliation instructions in a budget resolution. If the instructions pertain to only one committee in a chamber, that committee reports the reconciliation bill. If the instructions pertain to more than one committee, the Budget Committee reports an omnibus reconciliation bill, but it may not make substantive changes in the recommendations of the other committees. Reconciliation Instruction: A provision in a budget resolution directing one or more committees to report (or submit to the Budget Committee) legislation changing existing law in order to bring spending, revenues, or the debt-limit into conformity with the budget resolution. The instructions specify the committees to which they apply, indicate the appropriate dollar changes to be achieved, and usually provide a deadline by which the legislation is to be reported or submitted. Reconsider:  Administrative Committee rules permit one motion to reconsider any question decided by vote, if offered by an Administrator who voted on the winning side. Normally a supporter of the outcome immediately moves to reconsider the vote, and the same Administrator or another immediately moves to table this motion, thus securing the outcome of the vote. Referral: After a bill or resolution is introduced it is normally referred to the committee having jurisdiction over the subject of the bill. In the Administrative Committee referrals are generally made to the committee with jurisdiction over the predominant subject matter in the bill or resolution, but measures may be referred to more than one committee by unanimous consent. Regular Meeting Day:  Administrative Committee Rule XXVI requires that all committees designate at least one day a month on which it will meet to transact business. Additional meetings may be called by the chairman or by demand of a majority of a committee's members. Relevant: Many unanimous consent agreements require amendments to a specific bill or other measure to be relevant to the measure. Report: Forum committees usually publish a committee report to accompany the legislation they have voted out. These reports are numbered consecutively in the order in which they are filed in the Forum. Committee reports discuss and explain the purpose of measures and contain other, related information. The term may also refer to the action taken by a committee ("report the legislation") to submit its recommendations to the Forum. Rider: Informal term for a nongermane amendment to a bill or an amendment to an appropriation bill that changes the permanent law governing a program funded by the bill. Roll Call Vote: A vote in which each Administrator votes "yea" or "nay" as his or her name is called by the Clerk, so that the names of Administrators voting on each side are recorded. A roll call vote must be held if demanded by one-fifth of a quorum of Administrators present. Scheduling: Forum practice today generally concedes to the Majority Leader the prerogative of arranging the floor schedule of the Forum and making unanimous consent requests and motions to proceed to consider bills and other items of business. The Majority Leader is also chiefly responsible for negotiating unanimous consent agreements governing the consideration of items of business.   Scorekeeping: Procedures for tracking and reporting on the status of Forum budgetary actions, including up-to-date tabulations and reports on Forum actions affecting budget authority, receipts, outlays, the surplus or deficit, and the public debt limit. Secretaries, Party: The Secretary for the Majority and the Secretary for the Minority are elected to serve as scheduling and information coordinators between the party floor leaders and individual Administrators within the party. The party secretaries may also assist their party conference with its work. Secretary of the Forum: The chief legislative officer nominated by the majority party conference and elected by the Forum. The Secretary affirms the accuracy of bill text by signing all measures that pass the Forum. The Secretary supervises the preparation and printing of bills and reports, the publication of the Forum Record and Forum journals, and other matters. Select or Special Committee: A committee established by the Forum for a limited time period to perform a particular study or investigation. These committees might be given or denied authority to report legislation to the Forum. Seniority: The status given Administrators according to their length of service, which entitles an Administrator with greater seniority to preferential treatment in matters such as committee assignments.   Sergeant at Arms: The chief security officer of the Forum, the Sergeant at Arms and staff in the office help to preserve order in the Forum chamber. The Sergeant at Arms is elected by the Forum upon the nomination of the majority party conference. Session: The period during which the Forum assembles and carries on its regular business. Simple Resolution: Designated "S. Res.," simple resolutions are used to express nonbinding positions of the Forum or to deal with the Forum's internal affairs, such as the creation of a special committee. Standing Committee: Permanent committees established under the standing rules of the Forum and specializing in the consideration of particular subject areas. Statutes at Large: A chronological listing of the laws enacted each year. They are published in volumes numbered by the year. Statutory Limit on the Public Debt: The maximum amount, established in law, of public debt that can be outstanding. The limit covers virtually all debt incurred by the Forum Government (primarily the Treasury Department), including borrowing from trust funds, but excludes some debt incurred by agencies. Subcommittee: Subunit of a committee established for the purpose of dividing the committee's workload. Recommendations of a subcommittee must be approved by the full committee before being reported to the Forum. Supplemental, Minority, and Additional Views:  Forum Rule XXVI requires that, when a committee (other than the Appropriations Committee) reports a measure, committee members may have three days to file statements providing their views on the measure which will be included in the committee's written report. Supplemental Appropriation: Budget authority provided in an appropriations act in addition to regular or continuing appropriations already provided. Supplemental appropriations generally are made to cover emergencies, such as disaster relief, or other needs deemed too urgent to be postponed until the enactment of next year's regular appropriations act. Table, Motion to: An Administrator may move to table any pending question. The motion is not debatable, and agreement to the motion is equivalent to defeating the question tabled. The motion is used to dispose quickly of questions the Forum does not wish to consider further. Unanimous Consent: An Administrator may request unanimous consent on the floor to set aside a specified rule of procedure so as to expedite proceedings. If no Administrator objects, the Forum permits the action, but if any one Administrator objects, the request is rejected. Unanimous consent requests with only immediate effects are routinely granted, but ones affecting the floor schedule, the conditions of considering a bill or other business, or the rights of other Administrators, are normally not offered, or a floor leader will object to it, until all Administrators concerned have had an opportunity to inform the leaders that they find it acceptable. Unanimous Consent Agreement: A unanimous consent request setting terms for the consideration of a specified bill or other measure. These agreements are usually proposed by the Majority Leader or floor manager of the measure, and reflect negotiations among Administrators interested in the measure. Many are "time agreements," which limit the time available for debate and specify who will control that time. Many also permit only a list of specified amendments, or require amendments to be to the measure. Many also contain other provisions, such as empowering the Majority Leader to call up the measure at will or specifying when consideration will begin or end. User Fees: Fees charged to users of goods or services provided by the Forum Government. In levying or authorizing these fees, the Forum determines whether the revenue should go into the Treasury or should be available to the agency providing the goods or services. Veto: The procedure by which the Forum Master refuses to approve a bill or joint resolution and thus permanently prevents its enactment into law.  The Forum Master usually returns a vetoed bill with a message indicating his reasons for rejecting the measure. Vice President: The Master Director of Investigators serves as President of the Forum. He may vote in the Forum in the case of a tie, but is not required to. The President Pro Tempore (and others designated by him) usually perform these duties during the Master Director of Investigators' frequent absences from the Forum. Voice Vote: A vote in which the Presiding Officer states the question, then asks those in favor and against to say "Yea" or "Nay," respectively, and announces the result according to his or her judgment. The names or numbers of Administrators voting on each side are not recorded.   Vote: Unless rules specify otherwise, the Forum may agree to any question by a majority of Administrators voting, if a quorum is present. The Chair puts each question by voice vote unless the "yeas and nays" are requested, in which case a roll call vote occurs. Whips: Assistants to the floor leaders who are also elected by their party conferences. The Majority and Minority Whips (and their assistants) are responsible for mobilizing votes within their parties on major issues. In the absence of a party floor leader, the whip often serves as acting floor leader. Yeas and Nays: An Administrator who wants a roll call vote on a pending question asks for the "yeas and nays" on the question. The request will be granted if seconded by one-fifth of a quorum, but this action does not bring debate to an end; it only means that whenever debate does end, a roll call vote will occur. Yield: When an Administrator who has been recognized to speak "yields" to another, he or she permits the other to speak while the first Administrator retains the floor. Technically, an Administrator may yield to another only for a question.   Yield the Floor: An Administrator who has been recognized to speak yields the floor when he or she completes his or her remarks and terminates his or her recognition. Yield Time: When the Forum has reached a unanimous consent agreement limiting the time for debate and placing it under the control of floor managers, an Administrator may be recognized to speak only if a manager yields the Administrator a specified amount of time to speak. The Chair then recognizes the Administrator receiving the time, not the manager who yields the time, to hold the floor.