Why is 2 U.S. Code § 30b in the statutes at all?

Question

2 U.S. Code § 30b specifies certain Senate procedures involving Senators objecting to proceedings. (It appears that the intent was to make it clear which Senator was doing the objecting.)

There is a note on this statute which says:

Pub. L. 110–81, title V, § 555, Sept. 14, 2007, 121 Stat. 774, provided that: “The Senate adopts the provisions of this title [see Effective Date note above]—
“(1) as an exercise of the rulemaking power of the Senate; and
“(2) with full recognition of the constitutional right of the Senate to change those rules at any time, in the same manner, and to the same extent as in the case of any other rule of the Senate.”

So, given that this is not (and cannot be, constitutionally) binding on the Senate the instant they don't want it to be, why was this made a statute as opposed to a normal Senate rule?

At first I thought it was because it was part of the larger law mentioned by the note. However, that law actually directly modified or added several other House and Senate rules not in the statutes. So that alone doesn't really explain why this particular provision was given different treatment.

Answer 1

Why is 2 U.S. Code § 30b in the statutes at all?
[W]hy was this made a statute as opposed to a normal Senate rule?

The provision was never intended to be incorporated as a standing rule of the Senate, nor a modification thereof. It happens that some responsibilities of some officers and employees are placed in statutes rather than rules. In this case, 2 U.S. Code § 30b assigns responsibility to the Secretary of the Senate for establishing new sections in the calendars. Another section of the same law, never incorporated as a rule, is 2 U.S. Code § 4728, also a responsibility of the Secretary.

In the 112th Congress (the law was 110th Congress), S.Res.28 - A resolution to establish as a standing order of the Senate that a Senator publicly disclose a notice of intent to objecting to any measure or matter, incorporated the provisions of 2 U.S. Code § 30b, in modified form, something permitted under the Constitution (Article I, Section 5, Clause 2). This standing order references Pub. L. 110-81, placing responsibility for adding items to the calendar, established by the Secretary, to the Legislative Clerk.

In the Senate Manual (PDF 787 pages), that particular provision is in the part titled: Nonstatutory Standing Orders Not Embraced In The Rules, And Resolutions Affecting The Business Of The Senate, in manual section 72 (page 107), Public Disclosure Of Notice Of Intent To Object To A Measure Or Matter.

If the provisions could have been implemented as Rules changes or Standing Orders, one may ask why the changes were put into law in the first place.

Placing rules changes into law allows for more consistency in checking with the stated goals of the law. Or, perhaps it's because laws are covered by media more broadly than internal matters. These laws addressed important concerns for their times and both either changed or affected House and Senate rules and created new responsibilities for some.

• Pub. L. 110-81 originated as S.1 - Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007

• Pub. L. 104-4 originated as S.1 - Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995