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Amount in ap propriation bills to be stated.

Reasons to be reported in writing.

When committees are to be ap pointed by.

eration, which contains appropriations for carrying a treaty into effect and for other objects, they shall propose such amendments as shall prevent appropriations for carrying a treaty into effect being included in the same bill with appropriations for other objects.-Rule 76.

It shall also be the duty of the said committee, within thirty days after their appointment, at every session of Congress commencing on the first Monday of December, to report the general appropriation bills for legislative, executive, and judicial expenses; for sundry civil expenses; for consular and diplomatic expenses; for the Army; for the Navy; for the expenses of the Indian department; for the payment of invalid and other pensions; for the support of the Military Academy; for fortifications; for the service of the Post-Office Department and for mail transportation by ocean steamers; or in failure thereof, the reasons of such failure. And said committee shall have leave to report said bills (for reference only) at any time. In all cases where appropriations cannot be made specific in amount, the maximum to be expended shall be stated, and each appropriation bill, when reported from the committee, shall in the concluding clause state the sum total of all the items contained in said bill.-Rule 77.

In reporting the reasons above referred to, the report must be in writing.-Congressional Globe, 1, 31, pp. 1207, '8.

AYES AND NOES.

(See YEAS AND NAYS.)

BALLOT.

"All committees shall be appointed by the Speaker, unless otherwise specially directed by the House, in which case they shall be appointed by ballot; and if, upon such ballot, the number required shall not be elected by a majority of the votes given, the House shall proceed to a second ballot, in which a plurality 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

BANKING AND CURRENCY, COM. ON-BAR OF HOUSE. ballot or ballots."-Rule 67. "In all other cases of ballot than for committees, a majority of the votes given shall be necessary to an election; and where there shall not be such a majority on the first ballot, the ballots shall be repeated until a majority be obtained; and in all ballotings blanks shall be rejected, and not taken into the count in enumeration of votes, or reported by the tellers."-Rule 12.

19

vote in cases of.

"In all cases of ballot by the House, the Speaker shall Speaker shall vote."-Rule 7.

No person to

visit Clerk's desk

while counting.

Vote of late years not taken

"No member or other person shall visit or remain by the Clerk's table while ballots are counting."-Rule 65. [There has been no instance for many years here a vote by ballot has been taken in the House, the Speaker by. and other officers having been elected by viva voce votes, and the committees appointed by the Speaker.] (See ELECTIONS and COMMITTEES.)

BANKING AND CURRENCY, COMMITTEE ON.

Its number, and when appointed.

This committee, to consist of eleven members, is directed to be appointed at the commencement of each Congress. Rule 74. Its duty shall be to take into con- Its duty. sideration all propositions relative to banking and the currency as shall be presented or shall come in question and be referred to them by the House, and to report thereon by bill or otherwise.

BAR OF THE HOUSE.

"within the bar."

members must be

"No member shall vote in any case where he was not In order to vote, within the bar of the House when the question was put. When the roll-call is completed, the Speaker shall state that any member offering to vote does so upon the assurance that he was within the bar before the last name on the roll was called: Provided, however, That any member who was absent by leave of the House may vote at any time before the result is announced."-Rule 29. Smoking is prohibited within the bar of the House. Smoking proRule 65.

hibited within the bar.

[At the 1st session 35th Congress, (see Journal, p. What is meant 337,) soon after the occupancy of the present hall, it was

by "within."

No vote of a

member without

decided that, in order to be entitled to vote, a member must have been upon the floor of the hall, and not outside of any of the doors leading into it.]

"Upon a division and count of the House on any questhe bar counted. tion, no member without the bar shall be counted."Rule 30.

How bills are introduced.

Revenue bills.

Bills on leave.

BILLS.

(See also PRIVATE BILLS AND PRIVATE BUSINESS.)

Every bill shall be introduced on the report of a committee, or by motion for leave-Rule 115—or upon the report of the Court of Claims.-(Stat. at Large, Vol. X, pp. 613, 614.)

"All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives, but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments, as on other bills."-Const., 1, 7, 10.

"In the case of a bill on leave, at least one day's notice shall be given of the motion in the House, or by filing a memorandum thereof with the Clerk, and having it entered on the Journal; and the motion shall be made and the bill introduced, if leave is given, when resolutions are called for; such motion, or the bill when introIn relation to duced, may be committed. But the Speaker shall not

post routes.

Bills on leave, when and how introduced.

entertain motion for leave to introduce a bill or joint resolution for the establishment or change of post routes, and all propositions relating thereto shall be referred, under the rule, like petitions and other papers, to the appropriate committee."-Rule 115.

"All the States and Territories shall be called for bills on leave and resolutions every Monday during each session of Congress; and, if necessary to secure the object on said days, all resolutions which shall give rise to debate shall lie over for discussion, under the rules of the House already established; and the whole of said days shall be appropriated to bills on leave and resolutions, until all What bills not the States and Territories are called through. And the back by motion Speaker shall first call the States and Territories for bills on leave; and all bills so introduced during the first hour after the Journal is read shall be referred, without debate, to their appropriate committees: Provided, however, That

to be brought

to reconsider.

a bill so introduced and referred, and all bills at any time introduced by unanimous consent and referred, shall not be brought back into the House upon a motion to reconsider."-Rule 130. (See MORNING HOUR ON MONDAYS.)

appear in news

for leave.

to

Objections troducing bills on

the practice of in

The notice above referred to is rarely given in the House, (it being in order to give it there only when resolutions are in order,) but is usually given to the Clerk by sending to him a written memorandum in this form: "Mr. gives notice that to-morrow, or on some sub- Form of notice. sequent day, he will ask leave to introduce a bill (here insert its title.") If the member desires his notice to To have notice appear in the newspaper report of the proceedings of the paper. House, he should furnish the reporter of such paper with a copy of the memorandum furnished the Clerk. Having given his notice, it is then in order, on any subsequent day, when bills on leave and resolutions are being called When to move for, and when his particular State is called, to move for leave to introduce his bill. The practice of introducing bills on leave, it may be remarked, however, does not facilitate business. If, instead of waiting for an opportunity to introduce his bill on leave, the member would file his petition, or whatever other matter he may have in favor of the proposed legislation, and have it referred to the appropriate committee, as he may do on any day, under Rule 131, (see PETITIONS,) he will thus have the subject before them, and will get a bill reported as speedily as if it had been originally referred. Besides, the bill thus reported comes before the House unencumbered with amendments, as is not likely to be the case with a bill previously referred. These suggestions, of course, do not apply to cases where the immediate passage of a bill, without the intervention of a committee, is sought for, or where it is desirable to refer it to a select committee.]

For information in regard to bills reported from a committee, see COMMITTEES.

leave.

Bills reported from committees.

So in regard to bills reported from and to be referred Bills reported to the Court of Claims.-See CLAIMS, COURT OF.

"Every bill shall receive three several readings in the House previous to its passage; and bills shall be dis

from Court of Claims.

Every bill shall have three readings.

Objection after first reading.

patched in order as they were introduced, unless where the House shall direct otherwise; but no bill shall be twice read on the same day without special order of the House."-Rule 116. [The "special order" here referred to is generally assumed to have been given, for unless objection is made, immediately after the bill is read a first time, the Speaker announces "the second reading of the bill," and it thereupon receives its second reading.]

The first reading of a bill shall be for information, and if opposition be made to it, the question shall be: "Shall this bill be rejected ?"-Rule 117. And this question is debatable.-Journal, 2, 32, p. 152. But "if no opposition be made, or if the question to reject be negatived, the Second reading. bill shall go to its second reading without a question."

Usually read by their title.

Rule 117.

[The three readings of a bill are usually by the title, the readings throughout usually taking place in Committee of the Whole; but where there is no commitment, it then takes place whenever it is proposed to put the bill on its passage. It is the undoubted right, however, of Right of amem any member to have a bill read through at every stage of its progress through the House.-See READING OF PAPERS.]

ber to have read through.

After second reading.

&c.

Open to debate,

"Upon the second reading of the bill, the Speaker shall state it as ready for commitment or engrossment; and, if committed, then a question shall be, whether to a select or standing committee, or to a Committee of the Whole House; if no motion be made to commit, the question shall be stated on its engrossment; and if it be not ordered to be engrossed on the day of its being reported, it shall be placed on the general file on the Speaker's table, to be taken up in order. But if the bill be ordered to be engrossed, the House shall appoint the day when it shall be read the third time."-Rule 118.

[The settled practice of the House upon the second reading of a bill, unless it be an APPROPRIATION BILL, (which see,) is to consider it as open to debate, when, Commitment. under the 42d Rule, it is in a condition for a motion to lie on the table, for the previous question, to postpone to a day certain, to commit or amend, to postpone indef

Amendment.

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