Government in the United States, National, State and Local

by James Wilford Garner

Filibustering.—This requirement serves a useful purpose, but it is sometimes taken advantage of by the minority in "filibustering," that is, in obstructing and delaying legislative proceedings. Thus a member may move to adjourn or to take a recess and ask that the roll be called and the yeas and nays on the question be entered upon the journal. If one fifth of the members join in the demand, the roll must be called and the process may be repeated indefinitely. On one occasion in the fiftieth Congress the house remained in session eight days and nights, during which time there were over one hundred roll calls on motions of this kind.

The Rules of the House of Representatives have evolved gradually out of the experience of the house during its long existence, and have come to be so complex and elaborate that they are really understood by only a few of the members, principally those who have had long experience in administering them. They have been revised from time to time, but except in a few particulars they are essentially what they were in 1880. They prescribe a certain order of business for each day's work, which, however, may be departed from by unanimous consent of all the members or by the adoption of a "special order" reported by the committee on rules.

Committee of the Whole.—Revenue and appropriation bills are considered by the house of representatives in committee of the whole. When the house goes into committee of the whole, the speaker leaves the chair and calls some one else to preside in his place, and the presence of 100 members constitutes a quorum. Debate in committee of the whole is conducted rather informally, and greater freedom of discussion is allowed. It is when in committee of the whole that many of the lengthy speeches printed in the Congressional Record are supposed to be delivered. In reality, however, only a small portion of these speeches are actually delivered, for members after addressing the house a few minutes often secure leave to print the remainder of their remarks. Under this leave, members frequently print long speeches which have little or no relation to the subject under consideration but are intended for campaign purposes or for effect upon their constituents. They are then franked through the mails to the voters throughout the district which the member represents.

If the bill is a private bill, it is called up for consideration on Friday, which is private bill day. Most of the private bills are reported from the committees on claims and on pensions. Six or seven thousand such bills are passed by each Congress, and they constitute about nine tenths of the entire number enacted.

Suspension of the Rules.—The regular order of business may be departed from at any time on the demand of privileged committees like those on ways and means, appropriations, elections, rules, and a few others which have a sort of right of way in the house, because of the urgent character of the matters with which they deal. Furthermore, by unanimous consent, often granted, a particular member is allowed to bring up a bill for consideration outside the regular order. Finally, on two Mondays in every month and during the last six days of the session, the rules may be suspended by a two-thirds vote and measures to which there is little objection may be quickly passed and thus the business of the house expedited.

The Speaker and the Committee on Rules.—No discussion of the procedure of the house of representatives would be adequate without a consideration of the part played by the speaker and the committee on rules in determining the course and character of legislation.

The English Speaker.—The speakership is an ancient office inherited from England, where it originated in the fourteenth century, and is an outgrowth of the practical necessities of legislative procedure. The American speakership, however, differs widely from its English prototype. The speaker of the House of Commons has no such power in shaping legislation and controlling debate as does the American speaker. He is in fact little more than a moderator with power to put motions, state questions, and preserve order and decorum in debate. He is entirely impartial, with no party prejudices.

Powers of the American Speaker.—The American speaker, on the contrary, is not merely the presiding officer of the house, but he is an active party leader who seldom hesitates to give members of his own party every possible advantage in the course of debate. His right to appoint the committees of the house until 1911 gave him increased power over the shaping of legislation, because of the fact that the legislation of the house has come to be legislation largely by its committees. As has already been said, he gave the members of his own party all the chairmanships of committees, as well as a majority of the places on every committee, so that they easily controlled the work of the committees and hence of the house itself.

Recognition.—Moreover, his power of recognition, especially before 1910, that is, the power to grant or withhold the right of discussion, enabled him to a large degree to prevent consideration of measures to which he was opposed and to cut off debate by members of the minority party, joined with the Democrats and brought about several amendments to the rules, one of which is designed to do away with the chief source of complaint in regard to the power of recognition.

Committee on Rules.—Still another source of the speaker's power until 1910 was his control of the committee on rules. The committee consisted of five members, two from the majority, two from the minority, and the speaker, who was the fifth member. The speaker appointed his four associates on the committee and thereby controlled its decisions. If he wished at any time to have the house take up a bill at the bottom of the calendar instead of one at the top, or in any other respect depart from the established order of procedure, he could call the committee together (it was the one committee that had the right to meet when the house was in session) and have it report what was called a "special order," to that effect—an order which the house usually adopted. The opposition to the power of this committee and more especially to its domination by the speaker led in 1910 to the adoption of a rule depriving the speaker of membership on the committee, increasing its size from five to eleven, and taking the appointment of the committee out of his hands. Since then it has been elected by the house, and is, it is asserted, a more representative committee.