Our Government: Local, State, and National: Idaho Edition

by James Alton James; Albert Hart Sanford

In the long session of the 61st Congress more than 33,000 bills were introduced into the House. The number of committees in the House was 61, the membership varying from 5 to 19. The most important House committees are those on Ways and Means (which has charge of all bills for raising revenue), Appropriations, Banking and Currency, Foreign Affairs, and Military Affairs. In the Senate of the 61st Congress there were 72 standing committees. The number of members on a committee was in most cases 9 or 11. A few of the Senate committees are those on Finance (corresponding to the Committee on Ways and Means in the House), Agriculture, Commerce, and Foreign Relations.

Both in the House and in the Senate every member is on some committee, and some members have places on several committees. In both houses the committees are elected. The chairman and a majority of the members of each committee are from the members of the party that has a majority in the house.

Steps in the Progress of a Bill.—(1) The first step in the progress of a bill is its introduction. This is done in the House by merely placing the bill in a basket on the clerk's desk. In the Senate the member introducing a bill rises and asks leave to introduce it.

(2) The bill is next referred to a committee.

(3) If the committee decides that the bill should go further they report it back to the house.

The house will in a great majority of cases pass or reject it according to the committee's recommendation. Few bills are debated in either house, and in the most of these cases the discussion has no influence upon the fate of the bill—it is meant merely to be heard or to be printed. Hence, it is in that intermediate stage between the reference of the bill to a committee and the report on it that the real work of legislation is accomplished.

The Power of Committees over Bills.—A committee may exercise the utmost freedom with respect to the bills referred to it. The greater number of bills receive no consideration whatever from the committees; these may never be reported if the committees see fit to ignore them. Other bills are amended by the committees, or new bills are substituted for them. Such is the power intrusted to Congressional committees. However, if a majority of the house wishes, it may take up for discussion a bill which one of its committees has decided not to report back.

Many of the important committees have separate rooms where their meetings are held. Here the members may confer in secret, or they may hold public hearings; i.e., persons are invited to give testimony or to make arguments. Frequently the majority members of a committee hold separate meetings, determine their policy, and then adhere to it regardless of the wishes of the minority members. The latter may present a separate report called the minority report of the committee.

Consideration of Bills.—(4) In the next step, the bill is brought before the house for consideration. How is it determined which bills shall be thus favored? In some measure this depends upon the importance and the merits of the bill; but it depends more upon the skill and influence of the member (generally the chairman of the committee reporting the bill) who is particularly interested in seeing it enacted into law. In the House of Representatives this important matter is most often decided by the Committee on Rules, which is composed of ten members, six being of the party that has a majority in the House. In most cases this committee decides which bills shall be considered, and how much time shall be given to the discussion of each one. So it is necessary for the chairman of a committee to make a previous arrangement with the speaker to be recognized before he can bring up his bill. But on Wednesday of each week the chairmen of committees may call up their bills in the order in which they secure recognition. And the Committee on Rules does not control the bills which the House takes out of the hands of committees.

II. The Power of the Speaker.—The speaker is the executive officer who sees that the decisions of the Committee on Rules are carried out. In most important matters it is necessary for a member to make an arrangement with the speaker in order to secure recognition when he wishes to address the House.