	Introduction

By long tradition, most regular appropriations bills are considered by the House of Representatives under the terms of an open rule reported by the House Committee on Rules and adopted by the House (or under terms similar to an open rule). To provide scheduling predictability and to facilitate progress in a busy chamber, it has become common for the House, following a period of initial consideration of a regular appropriations bill under an open rule, to adopt a UC agreement negotiated by the Appropriations Committee, party leaders, and interested Members that comprehensively regulates further debate and amendment of the legislation. Structuring the UC agreement in this way puts control of debate time almost exclusively in the hands of committee leaders instead of rank-and-file Members.
Regular appropriations bills have traditionally been considered in the House of Representatives under the terms of open rules, which provide substantial freedom of debate and amendment. It has become common, however, for the House to begin considering a spending bill under such an open rule, then quickly negotiate a comprehensive unanimous consent (UC) agreement establishing more structured terms for debating and amending the measure. Such UC agreements seek to strike a balance between the needs of party and committee leaders for efficiency and scheduling predictability, and the desires of rank-and-file Members to debate and freely amend legislation funding the operations of the federal government.