Petitions, how to be referred to committees. mittee, as a matter of right, can take for examination papers referred to a sub-committee.-Cong. Globe, 1, 39, p. 4019. "A committee cannot receive a petition but through the House."-Manual, p. 66. "Members having petitions 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 Members should which requires that the name of the member and that of the referred by them. committee shall be indorsed upon the paper to be referred. In order to secure its appearance in the daily newspapers, memNewspapers to bers should furnish a memorandum of the contents and refer indorse the papers be furnished with a memorandum. ence of the same to the reporters.] Matters referred, how delivered to the committee. instruct committee itself cannot do. 66 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." Munual, p. 84. [In the House of Representatives the longsettled 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.] Not competent to It is not competent for the House to instruct a committee to to do what House 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 cannot instruct a committee to do what the House itself cannot do.] To commit with instructions not divisible. How amendments are to be 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. "The committee may not erase, interline, or blot the bill itnoted by a com- self, but must, in a paper by itself, set down the amendments, stating the words which are to be inserted or omitted, and mittee. where, by reference to the page, line, and word of the bill." Manual, p. 87. tion of a vote in "When a vote is once passed in a committee it cannot be. No reconsideraaltered but by the House, their votes being binding on them- committee. selves."-Manual, p. 87. Committee cannot reject a paper. "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. 86. "The committee have full power over the bill or other paper, except that they cannot change the title or subject."-Man- subject. ual, p. 85. Committee can. not change title or in what order com port. As soon as the Journal is read, and the unfinished busi When and ness in which the House was engaged at the last preceding mittees are to readjournment 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 District of Columbia. 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 Roads and Canals. sumed where left off. morning hours on Committee on Mines and Mining. Committee on Freedmen's Affairs. Committee on Education and Labor. Committee on Coinage, Weights and Measures. Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds. Committee of Accounts. Committee on Mileage. Committee on Printing. Committee on Enrolled Bills. Committee on the Library of Congress. Committee on Expenditures in the State Department. And when all the standing committees shall have been called on, then it shall be the duty of the Speaker to call for reports from select committees. If the Speaker shall not get Call of, to be re- through the call upon the committees before the House passes to other business, he shall resume the call where he left off, After occupying giving preference to the report last under consideration: Protwo days, not to vided, That whenever any committee 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. report further. Call of committees for reports, how with. [The regular daily call for reports as provided for by this interfered 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 resolutions," which, by Rule 130, is in order every Monday, and "motions to suspend the rules," which, by Rule 145, may be submitted every Monday, at the expiration of one hour after the Journal is read. So, too, by Rule 128, the call of committees is limited on Fridays and Saturdays to "business of a private nature."] 66 It shall be in order for the Committee on Enrolled Bills and What committees report at any the Committee on Printing to report at any time-Rules 100 time. and 101-and also for the Committee on Appropriations to report (for the purpose of reference) the general appropriation bills at any time"-Rule 77—and the Committee of Ways and Means have leave to report, for commitment, at any time.— Rule 151. "A committee having leave to report at all times may report in part at different times."-Journal, 1, 27, p. 104. Right to report carries right to con The right to report at any time carries with it the right to consider the matter when reported.-Journal, 1, 32, p. 195. sider. And where authority is given to a committee to make a report at a particular time, the right follows to consider the report when made.-Journal, 1, 22, p. 1409. "The several standing committees of the House shall have Have leave to leave to report by bill or otherwise."-Rule 71. report by bill or otherwise. Committee can not report on a sub It is not competent for a committee to report a bill where the subject-matter has not been referred to them by the House, ject not referred by by the rules, or otherwise.-Journal, 1, 31, p. 590. the rules or otherwise. may be reported with that it do not pass. A bill may be reported with a recommendation that it do Bill not pass, if based upon a paper regularly referred.-Journal a recommendation 1, 32, p. 785. tee, how dissolved "The report being made, the committee is dissolved, and, Select commitcan act no more without a new power. But it may be revived and revived. by a vote, and the same matter recommitted to them."-Manual, p. 88. [This evidently refers to a select committee, and, under the practice of the House, a motion to recommit decided affirmatively has the effect of reviving the committee. See Journal, 2, 37, p. 874; 3, 37, p. 487 to 489.] If it is disputed that a report has been ordered to be made by a committee, the question of reception must be put to the House. Journal, 2, 27, p. 1410. as to Dispute tee have ordered whether commit report. make a report. A minority of a committee cannot make a report, a minority Minority cannot not being the committee.-Journal, 1, 24, p. 562. [The common practice, however, is to permit the minority to submit their views in writing, which are usually printed and considered. with the majority report.] And when such views are accompanied by a resolution or bill such resolution or bill is not thereby brought before the House for its action, but must be submitted by some member.-Congressional Globe, 1, 31, p. Chairman may read report. Right of member reporting to debate. Proceedings of committee not to be published. 'Reference to proceedings in com The chairman of a committee submitting a report has a right to read it.-Journal, 2, 27, p. 409. "A member reporting the measure under consideration from a committee may open and close the debate.”—Rule 60'; and, under the invariable practice, he is entitled to be recognized, notwithstanding another member may have risen first and addressed the Chair.-Journal, 3, 17, p. 211; and his right to close the debate is never denied him, even after the previous question is ordered, or debate has been closed.-Journal, 1, 31, p. 1056. “The proceedings of a committee are not to be published, as they are of no force till confirmed by the House.”—Manual, p. 66. It is not in order to allude on the floor to anything that has mittee not in order. taken place in committee, unless by a written report sanctioned by a majority of the committee.-Journals, 1, 26, p. 418; 1, 31, p. 393. Recommitment. Effect of recommitment. Repetition of motion to recommit. Select commit. tee, how created and filled. "After commitment and report thereof to the House, or at any time before its passage, a bill may be recommitted; and should such recommitment take place after its engrossment, and an amendment be reported and agreed to by the House, the question shall be again put on the engrossment of the bill." -Rule 124. But recommitment cannot be moved after the previous question is ordered.-Journal, 1, 29, p. 643. "If a report be recommitted before agreed to in the House, what has passed in committee is of no validity; the whole question is again before the committee, and a new resolution must be again moved, as if nothing had passed.”—Manual, p.88. "Two motions to recommit are not in order at the same stage of a bill."-Journal, 1, 20, April 11. [A select committee is created either by resolution, when resolutions are in order, or upon motion to refer, when the subject to be referred is before the House; the number of which it is to consist being designated in the resolution or motion.] Under the parliamentary law-Manual, pp. 83, 84 -"none who speak directly against the body of the bill" are to be of the committee to which it is referred. The spirit of this law has prevailed in the House so far as that, in the formation of a select committee, in the case of the reference of a bill, a majority of the friends of the measure referred, and in the case of an investigation, a majority of those favorable |