Calendar

A list of business available for floor action. Both the House and Senate have their own calendars. The House has five calendars:

• Union
• House
• Private
• Corrections (which replaced the former Consent Calendar in the 104th Congress)
• Motions to Discharge Committees

Appropriations, authorizations, and revenue (tax or tariff) bills go on the Union Calendar, while other important legislation, usually that dealing with administrative or procedural matters, goes on the House Calendar. The Private Calendar is for private bills and usually is called up only on the first Tuesday of the month. The Corrections Calendar is for measures correcting government programs and is called up at the Speaker's discretion on the second and fourth Tuesday of the month. The Discharge Calendar is used for discharge petitions. Measures are not taken from a calendar in any particular order.

The Senate has only two calendars: the Calendar of Business (commonly referred to as the Legislative calendar) for all legislation and the Executive Calendar for treaties and nominations that require the Senate's advice and consent.

Congressional committees sometimes produce their own calendars but, unlike calendars in the full Chambers, these generally are lists of bills referred to the committee, with their disposition. The final calendar of a committee, in particular, is a useful tool for legislative history research.