Committees sitting during cess. re Clerks of committees. Precedence different to refer. 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, 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 parliamentary 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 service necessary; and six of the committees have permanent clerks, viz: of Claims, by resolution of February 18, 1843; of Ways and Means, by resolution of February 18, 1856; on Public Lands, by resolution of May 27, 1862; on Appropriations, by resolution of December 12, 1865; on War-Claims, by resolution of January 19, 1874; and on Invalid Pensions, by resolution of June 18, 1874.] of "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.] motions motion to commit mo tions, and of oth "When a question is under debate, no motion shall Precedence of be received but to adjourn, to lie on the table, for the over other previous question, to postpone to a day certain, to com- ers over it. mit 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 certain, to commit, or to postpone indefinitely, being decided, peated at same shall be again allowed on the same day, and at the same day. stage of the bill or proposition."-Rule 42. 66 Upon the second reading of a bill, the Speaker shall state it as ready for commitment."-Rule 118. Motion to commit not to be re stage on same A bill when ready for commitment. Previous question brings the "After the previous question is ordered, if no motion to postpone is pending, the House is first brought to a House to vote first direct vote on the motion to commit, if such motion shall have been made."-Rule 132. on motion to commit. can only act when met "A committee meet when and where they please, if Committee the House has not ordered time and place for them; but 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. A quorum of a committee. 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 Not necessary that the committee shall be full when a paper is acted that committee be 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, 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. journed meeting. [Committees very frequently appoint subcommittees Subcommittees. to make investigations,] and in such case no member of the committee, as a matter of right, can take for examination papers referred to a subcommittee.-Cong. Globe, 1, 39, p. 4019. Petitions, how to be referred to "A committee cannot receive a petition but through 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 committee. And, in this connection, it may not be improper to call attention to that portion of this rule which Members should requires that the name of the member and that of the comreferred by them. mittee shall be indorsed upon the paper to be referred. Matters refer- “The Clerk may deliver the bill to any member of the to the committee. committee, but it is usual to deliver it to him who is first indorse the papers red, how delivered Not competent to instruct com 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 House itself cannot do. cannot amend it.-Journal, 2, 35, p. 389. [Indeed, it is the well-settled practice that the House cannot 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. "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. not reject a paper. "If the committee are opposed to the whole paper, and Committee canthink 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."Mannal, p. 99. not change title or "The committee have full power over the bill or other Committee can. paper, except that they cannot change the title or sub-subject. ject."-Manual, p. 89. in what order com port. As soon as the Journal is read, and the unfinished When and 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 for the District of Columbia. (Omitted in call. See Rule 82.) Committee on the Judiciary. Committee on War-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 Education and Labor. Committee on the Revision of the Laws. Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures. Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds. Committee of Accounts. Committee on Mileage. sumed where left off. Committee on Printing. Committee on Enrolled Bills. Committee on the Library of Congress. Committee on Expenditures in the State Department. ment. Committee on Expenditures in the War Department. ment. Committee on Expenditures in the Interior Depart ment. Committee on Expenditures on the Public Buildings. Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Justice. And when all the standing committees shall have been called, then it shall be the duty of the Speaker to call for reports from select committees. If the Speaker shall not get through the call upon the committees before the Call of, to be re- House passes to other business, he shall resume the call where he left off, giving preference to the report last After occupying under consideration: Provided, That whenever any comtwo days, not to mittee shall have occupied the morning hour on two days, it shall not be in order for such committee to report further until the other committees shall have been called in their turn. [But this proviso does not restrain the House from occupying the morning hour on more than two days in the consideration of a report.] Rule 51. morning hour on report further. tee Call of commitfor reports, how with. [The regular daily call for reports, as provided for by interfered this rule, is liable to be interfered with by "special orders," "questions of privilege," and "privileged questions," also by the "call of States for bills on leave and |