Not true.
Some of us are old enough to remember Special Orders, man they were fun. We remember when Tip O'nell in a rage one night went to the House and ordered the C-Span cameras be turned toward the gallery to show no one was in the House.
B1 Bomber Bob Dornan was one of my favorite rabble rousers. He pointed out one night, how Congress not only had the power to pass laws that were not subject to Supreme Court Judicial Review, but they had done so some 130 times.
I bought a 10 foot dish nearly 40 years ago just to watch C-SPAN, Well I watched a few movie channels too before they encrypted everything, including C-SPAN.
I heard Rush after I posted this and he said that the rules said at the end of the legislation day if members remained on the floor the cameras would stay on and Gingrich figured how to use that and called it Special Orders.
I didn't know the how but I sure remember the what.
The members would speak as if they were talking to a full House and once Tip caught on that a lot of people were watching these scam debates he went to the House and made C-SPAN show the empty House
The way it worked was the leaders of each party submitted special orders requests at the beginning of the day. When the legislative process was done for the day, the special orders ( if any ) were started. Even though the legislative session had adjourned, the House was still in session ( still had a Speaker presiding ), therefore the cameras were on. Thus when Tip ordered the cameras turned toward the gallery , the House was still in session. When the special orders are done, the House adjourns for the day.
I used to watch Dornan every night ( he usually came on around 7 ).He used to rip into Clinton every night. I wish B1 Bob were in the House now.