A discharge petition is a mechanism under House Rule XV that allows members of the House of Representatives to bring a bill directly to the floor for a vote, bypassing committee consideration and the Speaker's scheduling authority. To succeed, 218 members — an absolute majority of the 435-member House — must sign the petition. Signatures are collected over a minimum of seven legislative days after a bill has been sitting in committee for at least 30 days. In practice, discharge petitions rarely succeed: members of the majority party are reluctant to sign because it defies their own leadership, and signatures are public. Successful discharge petitions are extremely rare — only about two dozen have succeeded in the modern era. When a petition reaches 218 signatures, the bill is automatically placed on the discharge calendar and can be called up for a floor vote.