When a bill has passed both Houses of Congress, the House last acting on it notifies its passage to the other, and delivers the bill to the joint committee of enrolment, who see that it is truly enrolled in parchment. When the bill is enrolled, it is not to be written in paragraphs, but solidly and all of a piece, that the blanks within the paragraphs may not give room for forgery.—9 Grey, 143. It is then put in the hands of the clerk of the House of Representatives, to have it signed by the Speaker. The clerk then brings it by way of message to the Senate, to be signed by their President. The secretary of the Senate returns it to the committee of enrolment, who present it to the President of the United States. If he approves, he signs and deposits it among the rolls in the office of the Secretary of State, and notifies by message the House in which it originated, that he has approved and signed it; of which that House informs the other by message. If the President disapproves, he is to return it, with his objections, to the House in which it shall have originated; who are to enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If, after such reconsideration, two-thirds of the House shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the President's objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two-thirds of that House, it shall become a law. If any bill shall not be returned by the President within ten days (Sunday's excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress, by their adjournment, prevent its return; in which case it shall not be a law.—Const. U. S., Art. I. Sec. 7.
Every order, resolution, or vote, to which the concurrence of the Senate and the House of Representatives may be necessary, (except on a question of adjournment,) shall be presented to the President of the United States, and before the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him, or, being disapproved by him, shall be re-passed by two-thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill.—Const. U. S., Art. I. Sec. 7.
SECTION XLIX.
JOURNALS.
Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may, in their judgment, require secrecy.—Const., I. 5, 3.
Every vote of Senate shall be entered on the journal, and a brief statement of the contents of each petition, memorial, or paper, presented to the Senate, be also inserted on the journal.—Rule 24.
The proceedings of the Senate, when not acting as in a committee of the House, shall be entered on the journals, as concisely as possible, care being taken to detail a true account of the proceedings.—Rule 26.
The titles of bills, and such part thereof only as shall be affected by proposed amendments, shall be inserted on the journals.—Rule 27.
If a question is interrupted by a vote to adjourn, or to proceed to the orders of the day, the original question is never printed in the journal, it never having been a vote, nor introductory to any vote; but when suppressed by the previous question, the first question must be stated, in order to introduce, and make intelligible, the second.—2 Hats. 83.
So also, when a question is postponed, adjourned, or laid on the table, the original question, though not yet a vote, must be expressed in the journals; because it makes part of the vote of postponement, adjourning, or laying on the table.
Where amendments are made to a question, those amendments are not printed in the journals, separated from the question; but only the question as finally agreed to by the House. The rule of entering in the journals only what the House has agreed to, is founded in great prudence and good sense; as there may be many questions proposed which it may be improper to publish to the world, in the form in which they are made.—2 Hats. 85.