Whether the expenditures of the respective departments are justified by law;
Whether the claims from time to time satisfied and discharged by the respective departments are supported by sufficient vouchers, establishing their justness both as to their character and amount.
Whether such claims have been discharged out of funds appropriated therefor, and whether all moneys have been disbursed in conformity with appropriation laws; and
Whether any, and what, provisions are necessary to be adopted, to provide more perfectly for the proper application of the public moneys, and to secure the government from demands unjust in their character or extravagant in their amount.
And it shall be, moreover, the duty of the said committees to report, from time to time, whether any, and what, retrenchment can be made in the expenditures of the several departments, without detriment to the public service; whether any, and what, abuses at any time exist in the failure to enforce the payment of moneys which may be due to the United States from public defaulters or others; and to report, from time to time, such provisions and arrangements as may be necessary to add to the economy of the several departments and the accountability of their officers.
It shall be the duty of the several committees on public expenditures to inquire whether any officers belonging to the branches or departments, respectively, concerning whose expenditures it is their duty to inquire, have become useless or unnecessary; and to report from time to time, on the expediency of modifying or abolishing the same; also to examine into the pay and emoluments of all officers under the laws of the United States; and to report from time to time such a reduction or increase thereof as a just economy and the public service may require.
OF COMMITTEES OF THE WHOLE.
104. The House may at any time, by a vote of a majority of the members present, suspend the rules and orders for the purpose of going into the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union; and also for providing for the discharge of the Committee of the Whole House, and the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, from the further consideration of any bill referred to it, after acting without debate on all amendments pending and that may be offered.
105. In forming a Committee of the Whole House, the Speaker shall leave his chair, and a chairman to preside in committee shall be appointed by the Speaker.
106. Whenever the Committee of the Whole on the State of the Union, or the Committee of the Whole House, finds itself without a quorum, the chairman shall cause the roll of the House to be called, and thereupon the committee shall rise, and the chairman shall report the names of the absentees to the House, which shall be entered on the journal.