	The Discharge Rule and Agenda Setting in the House

The "discharge rule" of the House of Representatives (Rule XV, clause 2) provides a means for the House to bring to the floor for consideration a measure (a bill or resolution) that has not been reported from committee. A discharge motion may be offered on the floor only if a majority of the entire membership of the House, 218 Members, first signs a petition in support of the action. The motion to discharge may then be offered on the floor, but 
only at the beginning of a day's session that falls at least seven legislative days after the motion is entered; only on a "discharge day" (the second or fourth Monday of each month); and not during the last six days of a session of Congress. If a measure reaching the floor by discharge is a "money bill" (including an authorization, appropriation, or revenue bill) House Rules mandate that it initially be considered in the Committee of the Whole; the proper motion is therefore that the House resolve into the Committee of the Whole for its consideration. On agreement to this motion, the House considers the measure under the "one-hour rule," which permits the Member calling up the measure to move the previous question after one hour of debate. At that point, the measure the special rule makes in order either must have remained in committee for at least 30 legislative days or must have been reported. Recovery of Agenda Control Through the Rules Committee

Although the Rules Committee cannot nullify a discharge attempt directed against a special rule by reporting the special rule, in recent years it has often taken another course of action by which it may recover control of the floor agenda. Often after a discharge petition has obtained the required 218 signatures, and sometimes when such a result has seemed imminent, the committee has reported not the special rule on which discharge was being sought but its own special rule for considering the same measure (or, sometimes, for considering an alternative measure on the same subject). House Committee on Rules.
The "discharge rule" of the House of Representatives allows a measure to come to the floor for consideration even if the committee of referral does not report it and the leadership does not schedule it. To initiate this action, a majority of House Members must first sign a petition for that purpose. After a petition has garnered 218 signatures, a motion to discharge may then be offered on the floor—but only after at least seven legislative days and only on a second or fourth Monday of a month.
The rule allows for two main methods of action: (1) The committee of referral may be discharged from a measure that has been before it for 30 legislative days or more; or (2) the Committee on Rules may be discharged from a special rule for considering such a measure if the rule has been before the committee for at least seven legislative days.
If a measure dealing with raising or spending money reaches the floor through the first method of action, it is considered in the Committee of the Whole, as if under an open rule. Other measures reaching the floor through this method of action are considered in the House under the one-hour rule, with the previous question in order. Under the second method of action, if the House takes up a measure under a special rule from which the Committee on Rules has been discharged, it is considered under the terms provided by the special rule.
Under either method of action, the layover periods required by the discharge rule permit the Committee on Rules to preempt the discharge attempt, and recover control of the floor agenda, by securing House adoption of an alternative special rule for considering the measure.