Legal Definitions - Cordon rule

The Cordon rule is a procedural requirement in the U.S. Senate designed to ensure transparency when committees propose changes to existing laws.

When a Senate committee prepares a bill that would amend or alter current federal statutes, this rule mandates that the committee's official report accompanying the bill must clearly illustrate the exact modifications. Specifically, the report must show:

• Which specific words, phrases, or sections of the existing law would be removed (stricken out).
• Which new words, phrases, or sections would be inserted into the existing law.

This requirement allows all senators to easily understand the precise impact of the proposed legislation by comparing the current legal text with the changes being suggested, without having to cross-reference multiple documents.

Examples of the Cordon Rule in Action:

• Amending an Environmental Protection Act:

  Imagine the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is drafting a bill to update the Clean Water Act. This bill proposes to strengthen regulations on industrial wastewater discharge. Under the Cordon rule, the committee's report accompanying this bill would need to explicitly show the original text from the Clean Water Act that specifies current discharge limits. It would then clearly display the new, stricter language that the bill proposes to insert, highlighting what is being deleted and what is being added. This allows senators to immediately grasp the legal changes to environmental protection standards.

• Modifying a Federal Tax Code:

  Suppose the Senate Finance Committee is working on a bill to adjust certain deductions within the federal income tax code. For instance, they might propose to eliminate a specific tax credit for certain types of investments and introduce a new one. The Cordon rule would require the committee's report to clearly present the exact wording of the existing tax code section that grants the old credit, showing it as "stricken." Immediately following, it would display the new language for the proposed tax credit, marked as "inserted." This makes it straightforward for senators to see how the bill directly alters the tax obligations for citizens and businesses.

• Updating a Healthcare Regulation:

  Consider a scenario where the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee is developing a bill to modify a section of the Affordable Care Act related to insurance market regulations. If the bill aims to change the criteria for state waivers from federal insurance requirements, the committee's report would, by the Cordon rule, have to show the precise text of the current waiver criteria in the ACA that would be removed. It would then present the new, revised language for the waiver criteria that the bill intends to insert, ensuring senators can clearly see the proposed legal shift in healthcare policy.