BILLS--COMMITMENT.
If on motion and question it be decided that the bill shall be
committed, it may then be moved to be referred to Committee of the Whole
House, or to a special committee. If the latter, the Speaker proceeds to
name the committee. Any member also may name a single person, and the
clerk is to write him down as of the committee. But the House have a
controlling power over the names and number, if a question be moved
against anyone; and may in any case put in and put out whom they please.
Those who take exceptions to some particulars in the bill are to be of
the committee, but none who speak directly against the body of the bill;
for he that would totally destroy will not amend it, (_Hakew._, 146;
_Town._, _col._ 208; _D’Ewes_, 634, _col._ 2; _Scob._, 47;) or, as it is
said, (5 _Grey_, 145,) the child is not to be put to a nurse that cares
not for it, (6 _Grey_, 373.) It is therefore a constant rule “that no
man is to be employed in any matter who has declared himself against
it.” And when any member, who is against the bill, hears himself named
to its committee, he ought to ask to be excused. Thus (March 7, 1606)
Mr. Hadley was, on the question being put, excused from being of a
committee, declaring himself to be against the matter itself. _Scob._,
46.
[No bill shall be committed or amended until it shall have been twice
read; after which it may be referred to a committee. _Rule 27._]
[In the appointment of the standing committees, the Senate will proceed,
by ballot, severally to appoint the Chairman of each committee; and
then, by one ballot, the other members necessary to complete the same;
and a majority of the whole number of votes given shall be necessary to
the choice of a chairman of a standing committee. All other committees
shall be appointed by ballot, and a plurality of votes shall make a
choice. When any subject or matter shall have been referred to a
committee, any other subject or matter of a similar nature, may, on
motion, be referred to such committee. _Rule 34._]
The clerk may deliver the bill to any member of the committee, (_Town._,
_col._ 138;) but it is usual to deliver it to him who is first named.
In some cases the House has ordered a committee to withdraw immediately
into the Committee Chamber, and act on and bring back the bill, sitting
in the House. _Scob._, 48. A committee meet when and where they please,
if the House has not ordered time and place for them, (6 _Grey_, 370;)
but they can only act when together, and not by separate consultation
and consent--nothing being the report of the committee but what has been
agreed to in committee actually assembled.
A majority of the committee constitutes a quorum for business.
_Elsynge’s Method of Passing Bills_, 11.
Any member of the House may be present at any select committee, but
cannot vote, and must give place to all of the committee, and sit below
them. _Elsynge_, 12; _Scob._, 49.
The committee have full power over the bill or other paper committed to
them, except that they cannot change the title or subject. 8 _Grey_,
228.
The paper before a committee, whether select or of the whole, may be a
bill, resolutions, draught of an address, etc., and it may either
originate with them or be referred to them. In every case the whole
paper is read first by the clerk, and then by the chairman, by
paragraphs, (_Scob._, 49,) pausing at the end of each paragraph, and
putting questions for amending, if proposed. In the case of resolutions
on distinct subjects, originating with themselves, a question is put on
each separately, as amended or unamended, and no final question on the
whole. (3 _Hats._, 276;) but if they relate to the same subject, a
question is put on the whole. If it be a bill, draught of an address, or
other paper originating with them, they proceed by paragraphs; putting
questions for amending either by insertion or striking out, if proposed;
but no question on agreeing to the paragraphs separately; this is
reserved to the close, when a question is put on the whole for agreeing
to it as amended or unamended. But if it be a paper referred to them,
they proceed to put questions of amendment, if proposed, but no final
question on the whole, because all parts of the paper, having been
adopted by the House, stand, of course, unless altered or struck out by
a vote. Even if they 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.
The natural order in considering and amending any paper is, to begin at
the beginning, and proceed through it by paragraphs, and this order is
so strictly adhered to in Parliament, that when a latter part has been
amended, you cannot recur back and make any alterations in a former
part. 2 _Hats._, 90. In numerous assemblies this restraint is doubtless
important. [But in the Senate of the United States, though in the main
we consider and amend the paragraphs in their natural order, yet
recurrences are indulged; and they seem, on the whole, in that small
body, to produce advantages overweighing their inconveniences.]
To this natural order of beginning at the beginning, there is a single
exception found in parliamentary usage. When a bill is taken up in
committee, or on its second reading, they postpone the preamble till the
other parts of the bill are gone through. The reason is, that on
consideration of the body of the bill, such alterations may therein be
made as may also occasion the alteration of the preamble. _Scob._, 50;
7 _Grey_, 431.
On this head the following case occurred in the Senate, March 6, 1800: A
resolution which had no preamble having been already amended by the
House so that a few words only of the original remained in it, a motion
was made to prefix a preamble, which having an aspect very different
from the resolution, the mover intimated that he should afterwards
propose a corresponding amendment in the body of the resolution. It was
objected that a preamble could not be taken up till the body of the
resolution is done with; but the preamble was received, because we are
in fact through the body of the resolution; we have amended that as far
as amendments have offered, and, indeed, till little of the original is
left. It is the proper time, therefore, to consider a preamble; and
whether the one offered be consistent with the resolution is for the
House to determine. The mover, indeed, has intimated that he shall offer
a subsequent proposition for the body of the resolution; but the House
is not in possession of it; it remains in his breast, and may be
withheld. The rules of the House can only operate on what is before
them. [The practice of the Senate, too, allows recurrences backwards and
forwards, for the purposes of amendment, not permitting amendments in a
subsequent to preclude those in a prior part, or _e converso_.]
When the committee is through the whole, a member moves that the
committee may rise, and the chairman report the paper to the House, with
or without amendments, as the case may be. 2 _Hats._, 289, 292; _Scob._,
53; 2 _Hats._, 290; 8 _Scob._, 50.
When a vote is once passed in a committee, it cannot be altered but by
the House, their votes being binding on themselves. _1607, June 4._
The committee may not erase, interline, or blot the bill itself; but
must, in a paper by itself, set down the amendments, stating the words
which are to be inserted or omitted (_Scob._, 50), and where, by
references to the page, line, and word of the bill. _Scob._, 50.