Government and Administration of the United States

by Westel Woodbury Willoughby; William F. Willoughby

The House of Representatives is at present composed of 332 members and four delegates from the Territories. These delegates, however, have no vote, though they may speak. The House is presided over by a speaker, elected at the beginning of each session. A quorum for business is, in either House, a majority.

Congress meets every year in the beginning of December. Each Congress lasts two years and holds two sessions—a long and a short session. The long session lasts from December to midsummer. The short session lasts from December, when Congress meets again, until the 4th of March. The term of office then expires for all the members of the House, and for one-third of the Senators. The long session ends in even years (1880 and 1882, etc.), and the short session in odd years (1881 and 1883). Extra sessions may be called by the President for urgent business.

In the early part of the November preceding the end of the short session of Congress, occurs the election of Representatives. Congressmen then elected do not take their seats until thirteen months later, that is, at the reassembling of Congress in December of the year following, unless an extra session is called. The Senate frequently holds secret, or, as they are called, executive sessions, for the consideration of treaties and nominations of the President, in which the House of Representatives has no voice. It is then said to sit with closed doors.

An immense amount of business must necessarily be transacted by a Congress that legislates for nearly sixty-three millions of people, inhabiting a territory of over three and a half millions of square miles.

Lack of time, of course, prevents a consideration of each bill separately by the whole legislature. To provide a means by which each subject may receive investigation and consideration, a plan is used by which the members of both branches of Congress are divided into committees. Each committee busies itself with a certain class of business, and bills when introduced are referred to this or that committee for consideration, according to the subjects to which the bills relate. Thus, for example, affairs relating to Washington are handed over to what is known as the District Committee, a regular appropriation bill to the Committee on Appropriations, etc. These committees consider these bills carefully, frequently taking the testimony of outside persons to discover the advisability of each bill. The regular course through which a bill has to go before becoming an act—i.e., to pass both houses and receive the signature of the President—is as follows: On Mondays there is a roll-call of the States, and members may then introduce in the House or Senate any bill they may desire. These bills are then referred by the presiding officer to appropriate committees. These committees, meeting in their own separate rooms, debate, investigate, and, if necessary, as has been said, ask the opinion of outside persons. After such consideration bills are reported back to the House or Senate. But very few bills reach this stage, for the committee does not get time to report any save the more important ones, and thus the majority of them disappear, or, as the saying is, "are killed in committee." If a bill receives the approval of the committee it is favorably reported to the Senate or House, as the case may be—i.e., the bill is returned, accompanied by a report advising the passage of the accompanying bill. If the bill is not approved by the committee, an unfavorable report is made; bills are seldom passed after such an adverse report. These reports which accompany the bills, are printed, often at great length, giving reasons for the proposed action in regard to the bills. When reported by the committee back to the house in which it was introduced, a bill is voted upon, and, if passed, is sent to the other branch. If passed there, it is ready for the President's signature; if vetoed, the bill is lost, unless passed over the veto by a two-thirds vote of both houses. But frequently one house, while not wishing to defeat a measure sent to it from the other house, may desire to change it by some amendment. If this is done, the bill, as amended, is sent back to the house from which it came, and if then agreed to as amended by it, it is sent to the President for his approval. Thus by repeated amendments it may pass to and fro between the House and Senate several, times. In the House of Representatives, many bills are passed through all their various stages by a single vote, by what is known as a "suspension of the rules," which may be ordered by a two-thirds vote.

The Senate is now divided into between fifty and sixty committees, but the number varies from session to session. The principal committees are those on (1) Foreign Relations, (2) Privileges and Elections, (3) Judiciary, (4) Commerce, (5) Finance, and (6) Appropriations. The Senate selects the members for the different committees by ballot, though it is pretty well determined beforehand how each committee shall be constituted by means of party caucuses (informal meetings of members of the same party to determine upon lines of action that will be supported by all). A committee is always composed of an odd number of members, and both political parties are always represented on every committee, though the majority is, in almost all cases, from that party which has the majority of the members of the Senate.

The House of Representatives is organized into sixty committees, ranging, in their number of members, from thirteen down. As regards party representation, their constitution is similar to that of the Senate Committees. The Committee of "Ways and Means," which regulates customs duties and excise taxes, is by far the most important.

Other important committees are those on (1) Elections, (2) Appropriations, (3) Judiciary, (4) Foreign Affairs, (5) Manufactures, (6) Commerce, (7) Labor. Every Representative is on one committee, and most of them on several. Unlike the custom in the Senate, in the House the presiding officer has the sole power of appointment, which makes him, next to the President, the most important and powerful government official. The chairman of each committee has, of course, a large power over affairs with which his committee is concerned, and for this reason it is often said that it is the chairmen of these committees who rule the land.

The precise amount of effective work done by Congress during the two sessions of the Fiftieth Congress was as follows: There were 4,000 bills introduced in the Senate and 145 Senate joint resolutions: of this number 1,127 bills and joint resolutions passed the Senate, and 554 were either postponed indefinitely or referred to the Court of Claims, so that the total number on which final action was taken by the Senate was 1,681. The committee on enrolled bills examined 667 Senate bills and joint resolutions and sent them to the President and 591 became laws, the number of vetoes, including "pocket vetoes," being 76.

The House of Representatives passed 1,561 House bills and sent them to the Senate, and the Senate passed 1,347 of them, leaving 214 to perish. The House passed 56 House joint resolutions and the Senate passed all of them but eight. The House passed, therefore, 2,284 House and Senate bills, and the Senate passed 2,522.