item of improvement or appropriation contained in said bill, or upon such items separately, and others collectively, as the member making the call may specity; and if one-fifth of the members present second said call, it shall be the duty of the Speaker to make such divisions of the question, and put them to vote accordingly.-(February 26, 1846 ) 152. The following resolution was passed by the House of Representatives, January 30, 1846.—(Journal House of Representatives, 1st session 29th Congress, pave 323.) "Whereas the Clerk of this House is by law made the responsible officer for the proper disbursement of the contingent fund, and is required to give bond for the faithful di-bursement thereof; therefore, "Resolved, That, from and after the passage of this resolution. all contracts, bargains, or agreements, relative to the furnishing any matter or thing, or for the performance of any labor for the House of Representatives, be made with the Clerk, or approved by him, before any allowance shall be made therefor by the Committee of Accounts." JOINT RULES AND ORDERS OF THE TWO HOUSES. 1. In every case of an amen Iment of a bill agreed to in one house, and dissented to in the other, if either house shall request a conference, and appoint a committee for that purpose, and the other house shall also appoint a committee to confer, such committees shall, at a convenient hour, to be agreed on by their charmen, meet in the conference chamber, and state to each other, verbally or in writing, as either shall choose, the reasons of their respective houses for and against the amendment, and confer freely thereon.-(November 13, 1794) 2. When a message shall be sent from the Senate to the House of Representatives, it shall be announced at the door of the House by the doorkeeper, and shall be respectfully communicated to the Chair by the person by whom it may be sent -(November 13, 1794) 3. The same ceremony shall be observed when a message shall be sent from the House of Representatives to the Senate.-(November 13, 1794 ) 4. Messages shall be sent by such persons as a sense of propriety in each house may determine to be proper.-(November 13, 1794 ) 5. While bills are on their passage between the two houses, they shall be on paper, and under the signature of the Secretary or Cleik of each house, respectively.-(November 13, 1794.) 6. After a bill shall have passed both houses, it shall be duly enrolled on parchment by the Clerk of the House of Representatives, or the Secretary of the Senate, as the bill may have originated in the one or the other house, before it shall be presented to the President of the United States -(November 13, 1794.) 7. When bills are enrolled, they shall be examined by a joint committee of two from the Senate and two from the House of Representatatives, appointed as a standing committee for that purpose, who shall carefully compare the enrollment with the engrossed bills, as passed in the two houses, and, correcting any errors that may be discovered in the enrolled bills, make their report forthwith to their respective houses.-(November 13, 1794, and February 1, 1827) S. After examination and report, each bill shall be signed in the respective houses, first by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, then by the President of the Senate.-(November 13, 1794.) 9. After a bill shall have been thus signed in each house, it shall be presented, by the said committee, to the President of the United States, for his approbation, (it being first endorsed on the back of the roll, certifying in which house the same originated; which endorsement shall be signed by the Secretary or Clerk, as the case may be, of the house in which the same did originate,) and shall be entered on the journal of each house. The said committee shall report the day of presentation to the President; which time shall also be carefully entered on the journal of each house.-(November 13, 1794 ) 10. All orders, resolutions, and votes, which are to be presented to the President of the United States, for his approbation, shall also, in the same manner, be previously enrolled, examined, and signed; and shall be presented in the same manner, and by the same committee, as provide in the cases of bills (November 13, 1794) 11. When the Senate and House of Representatives shall judge it proper to make a joint address to the President, it shall be presented to him in his audience chamber by the President of the Senate, in the presence of the Speaker and both houses.-(November 13, 1794.) 12. When a bill or resolution which shall have passed in one house is rejected in the other, notice thereof shall be given to the house in which the same shall have passed. 13. When a bill or resolution which shall have passed in one house shall be rejected in the other, it shall not be brought in during the same session, without a notice of ten days, and leave of two-thirds of that house in which it shall be renewed. 14 Each house shall transmit to the other all papers on which any bill or resolution shall be founded. 15 After each house shall have adhered to their disagreement, a bill or resolution shall be lost. 16. No bill that shall have passed one house shall be sent for concurrence to the other on either of the three last days of the session.-(January 30, 1822.) 17. No bill or resolution that shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate shall be presented to the President of the United States, for his approbation, on the last day of the session.-(January 30, 1822.). Is. When bilis which have passed one house are ordered to be printed in the other, a greater number of copies shall not be printed than may be necessary for the use of the house making the order. (February 9, 1829.) 19. No spirituous liquors shall be offered for sale, or exhibited, within the Capitol, or on the public grounds adjacent thereto -(September 18, 1837) 20. A committee, consisting of three members of the Senate and three members of the House of Representatives, shall be chosen by their respective houses, which shall consti tute a Committee on Printing, which shall have power to adopt such measures as may be deemed necessary to remedy any neglect or delay on the part of the contractor to execute the work ordered by Congress, and to make a pro rata reduction in the compensation allowed, or to refuse the work altogether, should it be inferior to the standard; and in all cases, the contractor and his securities shall be responsible for any increased expenditure consequent upon the non-performance of the contract. The committee shall audit and pass upon all accounts for printing; but no bill shall be acted upon for work that is not actually executed and delivered, and which they may require to be properly authenticated.-(Joint resolution, section second, of the 1st session 29th Congress.) 21. It shall be in order for the Committee on Printing to report at any time.—(1st session, 30th Congress.) 22. After six days from the commencement of a second or subsequent session of Congress, all bills, resolutions, or reports, which originated in either house, and remained at the close of the next preceding session undetermined in either house, shall be resumed and acted on in the same manner as if an adjournment had not taken place.-(August 14, 1545.) QUESTIONS OF ORDER DECIDED AT THE SECOND SESSION OF THE THIRTY-FIRST CONGRESS. HOWELL COBB, or GEORGIA, Speaker. TUESDAY, JANUARY 7, 1851--PAGE 119. Mr. Potter moved that the House resolve itself into the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union for the consideration of the special order. Pending which, Mr. Strong called up the resolution reported from the Committee of Elections, to whom was referred the memorial of Jared Perkins; which resolution was read, and is as follows, viz: Resolved, That George W. Morrison is entitled to the seat which he now holds as a representative from the third congressional district of New Hampshire. Mr. Jones made the point of order that it was not competent for any one member to call up this question for the consideration of the House, but that it must be brought up on a motion made for that purpose. The Speaker stated that, whenever a question of privilege is called for, it must be taken up by the House, although it may be postponed by a vote of the House. Such had been the practice of the House. He therefore overruled the point of order. From this decision of the Chair Mr. Jones appealed. And the question being put, Shall the decision of the Chair stand as the judgment of the House? It was decided in the affirmative. So the decision of the Chair was sustained. MONDAY, JANUARY 13, 1851-Page 134. Mr. Williamson R. W. Cobb having called up the motion submitted by him on Tuesday last, viz: to reconsider the vote by which the House, on the previous day, had refused to suspend the rules, so as to enable the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Julian) to present the memorial of the meeting of Anti-slavery Friends, held at Newport, Indiana, on the subject of slavery and the repeal of the "fugitive-slave law," The Speaker stated that, when he permitted this motion to be entered upon the journal, he expressed doubts as to the propriety of entertaining it. Subsequent examination of the subject had confirmed him in the opinion that a motion to reconsider a vote upon a motion to suspend the rules was not in order. He therefore ruled the said motion out of order. In this decision of the Chair the House acquiesced. TUESDAY, JANUARY 21, 1851-page 171. The bill of the Senate (No. 12) entitled "An act allowing exchange of and granting additional school lands in the several States which contain public lands, and for other purposes," being under consideration, Mr. Vinton moved that the said bill be referred to the Committee on Public Lands. After debate, Mr. Meade moved to amend the said motion by adding thereto the fol lowing, viz: "With instructions to amend the bill so as give an equal share of the public lands to all the schools in the United States." Mr. Meade also moved that the said bill be printed. Mr. Meade proceeded to debate; and pending his remarks, Mr. Streng submitted, as a point of order, that it was not in order for the gentleman from Virginia, (Mr. Meade,) upon the pending motion, to discuss the general policy of the government in reference to the disposi tion of the public lands. The Speaker decided that it was not competent for the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Meade) to take so wide a range, and that in doing so he was clearly out of order. He must confine his remarks to the question of the disposition of the public lands in reference to public schools. From this decision of the Chair Mr. Meade appealed. And the question being put, Shall the decision of the Chair stand as the judgment of the House? It was decided in the affirmative. So the decision of the Chair was sustained. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1851-PAGE 267. Mr. McWillie, from the Committee on Printing, to whom was referred the memorial of Thomas Ritchie, a party to the contract of William M. Belt to execute certain classes of the printing of Congress, asking that some arrangement may be made by which he may be suitably compensated, reported a joint resolution (No. 36) "for the relief of Thomas Ritchie on the subject of the public printing. Mr. Burt made the point of order that it was not competent for the Committee on Printing at this time, except by unanimous consent, to make a report based upon a private memorial-the rule of the House which authorizes the Committee on Printing to report at any time only contemplating such cases as are designed to expedite the public printing. The Speaker stated that the 21st joint rule explicitly provides that "it shall be in order for the Committee on Printing to report at any time;" it places no restrictions as to the subject-matter of such report, only limiting the committee to such matters as are legitimately before them. For this reason, and in conformity with a decision of the House in the 30th Congress, he decided that it was in order for the Committee on Printing to report the said joint resolution at this time. From this decision of the Chair Mr. Burt appealed. Mr. Robert M. McLane moved that the appeal be laid on the table. And the question being put on the latter motion, It was decided in the affirmative. So the decision of the Chair was sustained. |