The Senate may, however, use provisions of Senate Rule XIV or unanimous consent to bypass referral of a bill or joint resolution to a committee. The Senate might also hold a measure in abeyance at the desk (of the presiding officer), at least temporarily not referring it to committee or proceeding on it. This report does not examine the use of the amendment process as a way to bypass Senate committees. This report examines alternative procedures and actions that the Senate uses to bypass committee consideration of bills and joint resolutions. It also provides examples of how the Senate uses these alternative procedures and actions to facilitate consideration and passage of some bills and joint resolutions. In the remainder of this report, bill or bills and measure or measures will be used to refer to bills and joint resolutions. Using Rule XIV to Bypass a Senate Committee

Senate Rule XIV, paragraph 4, states: "... every bill and joint resolution introduced on leave, and every bill and joint resolution of the House of Representatives which shall have received a first and second reading without being referred to a committee, shall, if objection be made to further proceeding thereon, be placed on the Calendar ." Therefore, through objection, a bill after two readings is prevented from being referred to committee and is placed directly on the Senate's Calendar of Business. Although placing a bill directly on the calendar does not guarantee that the full Senate will ever consider it, the measure is available for floor consideration and certain procedural steps, like committee reporting or discharging a committee from a bill's consideration, and procedural requirements, like the two-day availability of a committee report, may be obviated. The Senate might choose this option when—
a related Senate measure is already on the calendar; a Senate committee is in the process of completing consideration of Senate companion legislation; an amendment to the House measure is already in discussion among interested Senators and the House-passed measure will be the Senate's legislative vehicle; Senators of the committee of jurisdiction support for the House-passed measure is stronger in the full Senate than in the committee to which it would be referred; the House-passed measure includes tax or appropriations provisions, which must originate in the House, requiring the use of a House-passed legislative vehicle; or for another reason. Measures Placed on the Senate Calendar by Unanimous Consent

By unanimous consent, bills may also be read the first and second times and placed directly on the calendar. Even major legislation might be placed directly on the calendar by unanimous consent. On many pieces of noncontroversial legislation, Senate leaders might use one of two informal processes called clearance and hotlining to determine the feasibility of expeditious or immediate consideration of a measure. If successful in negotiating unanimous consent to proceed to the consideration of a measure, or perhaps to discharge a committee from further proceedings on a measure and then to proceed to its consideration, the majority leader propounds a unanimous consent request on the Senate floor to proceed to the consideration of the specified measure. On September 1, anticipating House action, Senator Thad Cochran, chair of the Appropriations Committee, made this unanimous consent request, which was agreed to:
Mr. President, at this point, I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding the recess or adjournment of the Senate, the Senate may receive from the House an emergency supplemental appropriations bill for relief of the victims of Hurricane Katrina, the text of which is at the desk, and that the measure be considered read three times and passed and a motion to reconsider laid on the table; provided that the text of the House bill is identical to that which is at the desk.
Most bills and joint resolutions introduced in the Senate, and many House-numbered bills and joint resolutions received by the Senate after House passage, are referred to committee. Some bills and joint resolutions, however, are not referred to committee. This report examines the alternative procedures and actions that the Senate uses to bypass committee consideration of bills and joint resolutions. It also provides examples of how the Senate uses these alternative procedures and actions to facilitate consideration and passage of some bills and joint resolutions.
Provisions of Senate Rule XIV and the practice of unanimous consent allow the Senate to bypass a measure's referral to committee, whether that measure might be major or noncontroversial. Rule XIV requires measures to be read twice before referral to committee. By objecting after the second reading of a measure to any further proceeding on it, a Senator, normally the majority leader, acting on his own initiative or at the request of any Senator, prevents a bill or joint resolution's referral to committee. The measure is placed directly on the Senate Calendar of Business. Alternately, unanimous consent is also used to bypass referral and place measures directly on the calendar.
Although placing a measure directly on the calendar may facilitate calling it up later for consideration on the Senate floor, placement on the calendar does not guarantee floor consideration.
A bill or joint resolution, in addition, might be neither referred to committee nor placed on the calendar: a measure might be held at the desk (of the presiding officer)—either simply being at the desk in the absence of any proceeding on it or after being ordered by unanimous consent to be held at the desk. This status has been applied to both major and noncontroversial measures.
Unanimous consent may be used to truncate a committee's consideration of a measure referred to it: a measure might be referred to a committee but then the committee by unanimous consent of the Senate is discharged from further consideration of the measure.
The Senate regularly uses unanimous consent to consider and pass noncontroversial legislation that was placed directly on the calendar, that is at the desk (neither placed on the calendar nor referred to committee), or that has been discharged from committee.
One purpose of using any of the means of bypassing committee referral or truncating committee consideration of a measure is to facilitate a measure's Senate consideration. The Senate leadership might use one of two informal processes, called clearance and hotlining, to determine if any Senator would object to a specific bill or joint resolution being considered and possibly passed by unanimous consent.
This report does not examine procedures applicable to concurrent and simple resolutions, treaties, or nominations. Nor does it examine the use of a germane, relevant, or nongermane amendment instead of a bill or joint resolution. This report will not be updated again in the 115th Congress unless Senate procedures change.