by a majority of the votes given, the House shall proceed to a second ballot, in which a plurality of votes shall prevail; and in case a greater number than is required to compose or complete a committee shall have an equal number of votes, the House shall proceed to a further ballot or ballots."-Rule 67. [The latter mode of appointing committees is, of late years, never resorted to; but the practice has been for the House to adopt an order "that the Speaker be authorized to appoint the regular standing committees." And after adopting such order, it is usual for the House to adjourn over for two or three days to enable him to make the appointments.] sworn. is Before a return be made a member elected may be Member may be appointed on, named of a committee, and is to every extent a member, before" he except that he cannot vote until he is sworn.-Manual, p. 61. [While this is the law, it has not been a common practice in the House to appoint a member on a committee until he has been sworn.] chairman of a "The first-named member of any committee shall be Who shall be the chairman; and in his absence, or being excused by the committee. House, the next named member, and so on, as often as the case shall happen, unless the committee, by a majority of their number, elect a chairman."-Rule 68. "Any member may excuse himself from serving on Who may be any committee at the time of his appointment, if he is serving on a com excused from mittee. then a member of two other committees."-Rule 69. [And under the practice, it is sufficient for him to offer such an excuse at any subsequent period of the session.] "It shall be the duty of a committee to meet on the Who shall call call of any two of its members, if the chairman be ab-committee. sent, or decline to appoint such meeting."-Rule 70. a meeting of a not sit while without leave. "No committee shall sit during the sitting of the Committees shall House without special leave."-Rule 72. And "so soon House is sitting as the House sits, and a committee is notified of it, the chairman is in duty bound to rise instantly, and the members to attend the service of the House."-Manual, p. 70. [But upon the suggestion to the House by a member of a committee that it is important to the dispatch of public business that they should have such leave, Committees sit ting during re oess. Clerks of committees. Precedence of different motions to refer. Precedence of motion to commit tions, and of others over it. it is usually granted, especially near the close of the session.] "Committees may be appointed to sit during the recess by adjournment, but not by prorogation. Neither house can continue any portion of itself in any parlia mentary function beyond the end of the session without the consent of the other two branches. When done, it is by a bill constituting them commissioners for the particular purpose."-Manual, p. 136. [This has been construed (and, in view of the distinction which exists between a "session" of Parliament and of Congress, very properly so) not to restrain a committee of the House, with the leave of the House, from sitting during the recess between a first and second session of Congress.]— (See Journal, 1, 32, p. 1119.) "No committee shall be permitted to employ a clerk at the public expense without first obtaining leave of the House for that purpose."-Rule 73. [Such leave is usually granted to a portion of the committees for a part or the whole of the session, as they may deem the ser vice necessary; and three of the committees have permadent clerks, viz: of Claims, by resolution of February 18, 1843; of Ways and Means, by resolution of February 18. 1856; and on Public Lands, by resolution of May 27, 1862.] "When a resolution shall be offered or a motion made to refer any subject, and different committees shall be proposed, the question shall be taken in the following order: the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union; the Committee of the Whole House; a standing committee; a select committee.”—Rule 43. [But where more than one standing committee is proposed, the last one proposed is first voted upon, as an amendment to strike out and insert.] "When a question is under debate, no motion shall over other mo- be received but to adjourn, to lie on the table, for the previous question, to postpone to a day certain, to commit or amend, to postpone indefinitely; which several motions shall have precedence in the order in which they are arranged; and no motion to postpone to a day cer mit not to be re tain, to commit, or to postpone indefinitely, being decided, Motion to comshall be again allowed on the same day, and at the same peated at same stage of the bill or proposition."-Rule 42. stage on same day. "Upon the second reading of a bill, the Speaker shall A bill, when ready for comstate it as ready for commitment."-Rule 118. mitment. tion brings the to vote first on motion to "After the previous question is ordered, if no motion. Previous questo postpone is pending, the House is first brought to a House direct vote on the motion to commit, if such motion shall commit. have been made."-Rule 132. "A committee meet when and where they please, if Committee can the House has not ordered time and place for them; but met together. they can only act when together, and not by separate consultation and consent, nothing being the report of a committee but what has been agreed to in committee actually assembled."-Manual, p. 89. only act when A quorum of a committee. Not necessary that committee be full. Nor that every member was no "A majority of the committee constitutes a quorum for business."-Manual, p. 89. But it is not necessary that the committee shall be full when a paper is acted upon.-Journal, 1, 34, p. 1143. Nor is it even necessary that every member shall have been notified of an ad- tified of an adjourned meeting. journed meeting, if it shall appear that at such meeting" a quorum was present, and that a majority of such quorum authorized a report to be made.—Same Journal, pp. 1433, 1434. [Committees very frequently appoint sub-committees Sub-committees. to make investigations,] and in such case no member of the committee, as a matter of right, can take for examipation papers referred to a sub-committee.-Cong. Globe, I, 39, p. 4019. to be referred to "A committee cannot receive a petition but through Petitions, how the House."-Manual, p. 70. "Members having petitions committees. and memorials to present may hand them to the Clerk, indorsing the same with their names, and the reference or disposition to be made thereof; and such petitions and memorials shall be entered on the Journal, subject to the control and direction of the Speaker.”—Rule 131. [This is the only mode of presenting a petition for reference now recognized by the rules. The rule, however, is construed to authorize the withdrawal of old papers from the files, for the purpose of reference to the appropriate indorse the pa committee. And, in this connection, it may not be im proper to call attention to that portion of this rule which Members should requires that the name of the member and that of the compers referred by mittee shall be indorsed upon the paper to be referred. Newspapers to In order to secure its appearance in the daily newspapers, be furnished with members should furnish a memorandum of the contents and reference of the same to the reporters.] them. a memorandum. Matters referred, how deliv ered to the committee. Not competent to instruct com House itself cannot do. "The Clerk may deliver the bill to any member of the committee, but it is usual to deliver it to him who is first named."-Manual, p. 89. [In the House of Representatives the long-settled practice has been, where the committee have a regular place of meeting, as is the case with all the standing committees, for the Clerk to take down to the committee-room and deposit there all matters referred to said committee, and make an entry of the same in the docket of the committee; and when they have no committee-room, as is the case with some of the select committees, to deliver the matter referred to the chairman.] It is not competent for the House to instruct a committee to do what mittee to amend a bill in a manner that the House itself cannot amend it.-Journal, 2, 35, p. 389. [Indeed, it is the well-settled practice that the House canuot instruct a committee to do what the House itself cannot do.] A division of the question is not in order on a motion to commit or recommit with instructions, or on the different branches of instructions.-Journals, 1, 17, p. 507; 1, 31, pp. 1395, 1397; and, 1, 32, p. 611. To commit with instructions not divisible. How amend ments are to be mittee. "The committee may not erase, interline, or blot the noted by a com- bill itself, but must, in a paper by itself, set down the amendments, stating the words which are to be inserted or omitted, and where, by reference to the page, line, and word of the bill."-Manual, p. 91. No reconsideration of a vote in committee. Committee can not reject a paper. "When a vote is once passed in a committee it cannot be altered but by the House, their votes being binding on themselves.”—Manual, p. 91. "If the committee are opposed to the whole paper, and think it cannot be made good by amendments, they cannot reject it, but must report it back to the House without amendments, and there make their opposition."Manual, p. 99. The committee have full power over the bill or other Committee cannot change title or paper, except that they cannot change the title or sub- subject. ject."-Manual, p. 89. what order com port. As soon as the Journal is read, and the unfinished When and in business in which the House was engaged at the last mittees are to repreceding adjournment has been disposed of, reports from committees shall be called for and disposed of; in doing which the Speaker shall call upon each standing committee in the following order, viz: Committee of Elections. Committee of Ways and Means. Committee on Appropriations. Committee on Banking and Currency. Committee on the Pacific Railroad. Committee of Claims. Committee on Commerce. Committee on the Public Lands. Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads. Committee on the Judiciary. Committee on Revolutionary Claims. Committee on Public Expenditures. Committee on Private Land Claims. Committee on Manufactures. Committee on Agriculture. Committee on Indian Affairs. Committee on Military Affairs. Committee on the Militia. Committee on Naval Affairs. Committee on Foreign Affairs. Committee on the Territories. Committee on Revolutionary Pensions. Committee on Invalid Pensions. Committee on Railways and Canals. Committee on Mines and Mining. Committee on Freedmen's Affairs. Committee on Education and Labor. Committee on the Revision of the Laws. Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures. |