Government in the United States, National, State and Local

by James Wilford Garner

State Capitol, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

State Capitol, Salem, Oregon

Sergeant-at-arms.—To execute the orders of the house in preserving good order and enforcing the rules, there is an officer called a sergeant-at-arms. He usually has custody of the hall in which the meetings are held, makes arrests when the house orders an outsider to be taken into custody for contempt, compels absent members to attend when ordered by the house to do so, and sometimes keeps the accounts of the pay and mileage of members.

Other Officers and Employees.—Usually, also, there is a chaplain who opens the session with prayer, though he is not always a paid employee; a postmaster; and a number of miscellaneous employees such as doorkeepers, janitors, copying clerks, stenographers, pages, etc.[11]

Committees.—For convenience in legislation the members of each house are grouped into committees, the more important of which are those on agriculture, corporations, finance or appropriations, ways and means, judiciary, railroads, labor, education, manufactures, engrossment and enrollment, and insurance. In the Western states there are usually committees on immigration, mining, dairies, forestry, fish and game, drainage, swamp lands, irrigation, levees and river improvements, etc. The number and size of the committees vary in different states. In some of the states there are as many as fifty or sixty committees, and occasionally as many as forty members are placed on a single committee. In addition to the standing committees of each house there are frequently select committees appointed for special purposes, and there are usually a number of joint committees made up of members of both houses. In the New England states most of the committee work is done by joint committees, there being usually only four or five standing committees in each house.

How Bills are Passed.—Each house is empowered to frame its own rules of procedure, but in order to insure publicity and careful consideration of bills the state constitutions have placed restrictions upon the legislature in the consideration and passage of bills. Thus in all the states each house is required to keep a journal of its daily proceedings; in most states it is provided that no law shall be passed except by bill, that no bill shall embrace more than one subject, which shall be clearly expressed in the title of the bill, that no money shall be appropriated except by law, that every bill shall be read at least three times before being passed, that no existing law shall be amended by mere reference to its title but the amended portion must be set out in full, and that the yeas and nays shall be recorded upon demand of a certain number of members. Some states require that every bill shall be referred to a committee, that every bill shall be printed and placed on the desk of each member, that no bill shall be introduced after the legislature has been in session a certain number of days, and that bills of a local or private character shall be introduced only after public notice has been given in the locality affected and to be valid must be passed by a two-thirds majority of each house; and so on.

In general these constitutional restrictions represent an attempt to eliminate the evils of undue haste, lack of consideration, extravagance, and objectionable local and private bills, and to compel the legislature to do its work openly, carefully, and in the interest of the public good.

Order of Procedure.—A common order of the procedure in passing bills is the following: 1. Introduction and first reading. 2. Reference to a committee. 3. Report of the committee. 4. Second reading. 5. Third reading. 6. Vote on passage. 7. Enrollment. 8. Approval by the Governor. This order of procedure, however, is often departed from under a suspension of the rules or by unanimous consent.

Usually any member can introduce a bill on any subject and at any time[12] except where the constitution forbids the introduction of bills after a certain date, and some legislatures have even found a means of evading this restriction. In most states a bill can be introduced by filing it with the clerk. It is then usually read the first time, though only by title, and referred to the appropriate committee for consideration and report. The committee may "pigeonhole" it and never report, or it may make a report so late in the session that consideration of the bill is impossible. If the bill seems worthy of being reported, the committee reports it to the house with a recommendation that it be passed either with or without amendments, or that it be rejected. If reported favorably it is placed on the calendar for consideration in its turn. At this stage it is open for general discussion and for amendment by the house. If the bill meets the approval of the house, it is finally ordered to be engrossed and read a third time. It is then put in shape by the committee on engrossment, after which it is read a third time and finally passed. It then goes to the other house, where the procedure is substantially the same. If passed by the second house, it is ready for the signature of the governor. If amended by the second house, it comes back to the first house for concurrence in the amendments. If the first house refuses its concurrence, a conference committee is usually appointed by the two houses to consider and recommend a compromise. The bill is not ready to send to the governor until it has been passed by both houses in exactly the same form.