When the committee is discharged its chairman returns to the secretary all papers that have been entrusted to him. 12 Note 22. In Congress a motion cannot be postponed to the next session, but it is customary in ordinary societies. Congress has changed its rule in regard to the motion to commit, so that now it is undebatable, instead of being debatable and opening to debate the merits of the main question. In a body like Congress, where nearly all the business must be attended to in committees, debate on referring a proposition to a committee should not be allowed.
Members can appear before the committee and present their views.
But in an ordinary deliberative assembly it is better to observe the general principles governing the debatability of motion as laid down on page 184, and allow of debate as to the propriety of referring the question to a committee.