Show looking in on congress from I 1 I 1 the house gallery WHAT THE HOUSE IS LIKE by congressman GUY U HARDY copyright 1923 1922 newspaper union I 1 about the easiest tiling thing in the world for a member of congress to do Is to introduce a bill all one needs to do Is to write the bill out on a piece of paper and put it in thia basket on the clerks desk then it has been introduced many bills are introduced but few are passed in the last congress bills and joint and concurrent resolutions were introduces Introduce a in the house and bills and joint and concurrent resolutions in the senate out of all of these 09 00 public resolutions and bills passed and became laws aws of the land and the record for the greatest number of bills introduced was made in the sixty first congress when bills and resolutions were introduced in the house alone alon out of which became law when the cleric gets hold of the bill he refers it to the appropriate committee and there it may rest in peaceful slumber forever more or it way may be heard from again if enough pressure is exter extorted ted in ina its favor out home a good friend of mine suggested once that he ute like this committee system he thought that each member should give individual consideration to every bill introduced imagine imaging lt it it if you can no man aili can r read e ad fast enough to keep up with all bills introduced most committees get more bills referred to them than can be given intelligent i tell igent consideration so naturally the bills which have the irea greatest test support in the country get first consideration I 1 congress gives first consideration appropriation ind revenue bills these and some othir other bills of t nationwide nation wide trap importance ortance come along automatically hearings on when a committee decides to give P consideration to a bill it if it concerns zi cerns many people or interests hearings are held that iff 19 people interested are a invited to comi come ln in and tell the com cittee why th they ay iy think the bill should or should not become a a law sometimes these hearings are quite quit elaborate Iab brate al affairs fairs some last several beveral weeks and hundreds ot of people come f rout from all alf 0 er th the country to testify for or against the bill thi the tariff bill hearing brought experts and prominent representatives oll every lindof line of industry gryto to washington the appropriations committee ims bs 35 mern members bers the i ways mys and means 25 mem members bersand and other important commits commet tees have 21 members each the members sit around a long table and the witness addresses them the witness must know what he Is talking about if he would make i good impression any member may interrupt him at any time with any question quert lim and before he gets through the committee Is likely to find out all he knows and some he know about his subject the me hearings are open to the public an official reporter takes down everything ery thing that Is said and later the hearings are printed tn in paper bound book form some of these hearings like that on the tariff for or instance run into thousands ot of pages they bring outa out a vast amount of useful information and some of the printed hearings eire are practically textbooks on the subject discussed the printed hearings are given to all members so that they may become posted on any proposed legislation others who ere are interested may at times get coples copies after the hearings are closed the committee holds executive sessions and discusses the bill it may decide 0 not to report it out this practically kills a bill it may decide on some or many amendments to the bill or it may rewrite the hill in another form or it may report it out asit as it was introduced trod when the bill Js ils reported put out I 1 it goes on the calendar there are several kinds of calendars operating for different classes of bills under different rules debating the measure the big bills come up in the dmn of fit the whole house on the state ot of the union debate Is usually two or four faur hours though any amount of time may be agreed upon sometimes 10 12 or 14 hours has been agreed on the time is equally divided between the majority and minority sides the greatest fairness as to division and distribution of time always prevails the time Is parceled out by the chairman ot of the committee in charge on the majority side and the ranking minority members on the other side the bill Is first read then comes the debate sometimes members must musi stick to the subject under discussion and sometimes they are permitted to talk about anything under tinder the sun here Is where campaign speeches sometimes get in after the hours for general debate have been used up the bill Is read again by sections for amendments thiv Is termed rea lins the bill under the five minute rule A as no member may talk more than five ini minutes except by unanimous consent no member can get the floor except to advocate or oppose an amendment members do often make a motion to strike out tho the last word or last two words etc in order to get the floor for five minutes many amendments amendment ue am offered and usually some are adopted on one bill over amendments were offered often amendments are offered in order to weaken therill the bill and help to defeat it amendments not supported by bf them the committee have hard bard sledding and few are passed occasionally amendments are offered by ru members embers merely to enable them to make a speech that may please constituents interested it has been estimated that only about five per cent of the amendments offered on the floor ure lire adopted when the bill Is read through tor for amendments which Is the second reading the committee of the whole votes on ri recommending commending its passage if tills this is favorable the committee then than rises and he speaker bakies the chair and calls the house to order the chairman of the committee ot 0 the whole reports the proceedings to the speaker then the bill comes up tor for third reading it is read by title only and voted on without further remarks or debate fixed up in conference 1 if it Is pissed passed the bill is sent to the senate and has the same rocky road to travel over there probably lt it will have sundry amendments tacked to it in the senate then it cones back to the house tor for another vote if the house declines to accept the amendments put in by the senate the bill Is sent to conference that is a committee made up of a few aen senators acors and representatives the ranking members oil the committees that reported the bill out consider all phases endeavor to compromise differences feren tere aces ces and when they agree their report goes back to both houses and Is usually adopted once in awhile the bill Is sent back to conference several times before one of the houses is satisfied many a proud father of proposed legislation does not recognize ills hl fond offspring when it Is finally passed by both houses bouses and Is reidy ready to be sent aei over for the Tre presidents t s Eign signature attire there are several other ways of getting bills up in the house those pertaining to claims and pensions and of a private nature come up unanimous consent on consent day the father of thi the bill has good reason to be on the anxious seat for a single member may object and prevent the consideration rf 1 the lie bill very seldom does a member object out of spite or on account of personal enmity but there are a halt half dozen who make a specialty of studying these bills lind and stand ready to see bee that they are properly amended or objected to and manyan many an innocent looking little bill is s choked to death on unanimous consent day some bills come up under tinder a special rule the rules committee presents a resolution providing a special rule tor for consideration ofa of a bill the bonus bill for instance came up under a special rule four hours were allowed for debate and then the bill came up for vote without allowing any amendments to be offered you had to take the bill the way K R was er not at all the object of course was to prevent unreasonable and harmful amendments being offered or jid adopted opted men often vote tote for an amendment and then vote against the bill some think that a curb should perhaps be put on the introduction of so eo in many tty bills but that Is hardly possible who would be competent to censor of course the greatest freedom in this respect must prevail let the congress and the country decide which are worthy and needful As a matter of fact when you cone come to think about it the wonder Is that many more bills ire s re not introduced for man and itt at most every woman in the country has in his or her system the idea of some L new ew law or laws that in his or her opinion ought to be enacted many of these ideas of proposed new legislation find their way in the shape of bills to the on the clerks desk in the house of representatives or in the senate many start there but ver very V few wind up at the white house seeking becking the presidents presidents signature |