Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1886-05-01
WHAT A BILL GOES THROUGH.
The Thousands Of Measures That are
Never Passed.

THE ROUTINE THROUGH WHICH EVERY Bill
| PAssEs-PRINTED AND REPRINTED HALF 4
DOZEN TIMEs-oLD BILLS THAT HAVE
SERVED IN MANY coNGRRssEs-THE DocU
MENT ROOM, ETC.
Already this session there have been ovel
eight thousand bills introduced in the House
and printed-a number exceeding by severa
hundred the whole number introduced during
both terms OF the last Congress. The expert
ence Of q bill in the House is varied. Some o.
them have come to be old veterans, and are
hardened to service by long experience. They
have served through many Congresses, and had
varied experiences. Some of them have been
there so long that they have become sallowed
and shriveled with age. A bill that has never
been in Congress before, and Is fresh and new
has has generally come In the pocket of a mem
or has been written by some mild, in.
sinuating person outside, and introduced by
r reass tbonI The average member Of Con.
many bills as possible, does not like to write
them. He will frequently take a bill that has
chop and slash and interline it, and patch it to
gether as new bill. Many of the private bills
have done service through many Congresses
ana fOr many persons, merely the name In ii
being changed every time it was introduced. II
has been suggested as means OF preventing
that eyesy bill wsa SO SO IN many any oils
writing Of the man who offers 1t.
THE CAREER OF BILL.
After bill is introduced 1t is read by title at
the clerks desk. It then has numerous hero
glyphics put in blue pencil upon its back to
numbered and registered in a book and printed.
The most active part of its existence is being
printed. II 1t has full run it Is printed six
times. It is printed when first Introduced,
when it is reported from the COMMITTEES it ID
printed, when 1t Is passed by the House-if II
ever is-it Is again printed. Then the Senate
40 10 NJ 49,
committee it is again printed. and again when
1t becomes a law. After that it has to be
printed in the statute books. Meanwhile it has
Deen slowed away in the document room and
on the calendar of the committee, has been dis
cussed, and probably abused and cut to pieces;
has been objected to and threatened in the
House, and solemly sat upon in the Senate.
This Is the experience Of the simplest ana most
unimportant bill. The appropriation bills suf
They are first printed as estimates, then as un-
official forms OF the bill, then the bill adopted
by the committee is printed. When it passes
the House it is printed, and again when it
reaches the Senate. 1t is next printed as 1t
passes the Senate. When it comes out of con-
ference-ifi it goes to conference-it is printed as
an act and alter that is printed in the statute
books.
WHERE THE BILLS ARE STORED.
A large number of each bill is printed, and
the document room becomes packed with them,
mostly private bills of no importance The
room where they are stored is just in the rear
of the statuary hall and was the cloak room on
the ''east side" when that old hall was the hall
vi Representatives. Some OF the bills are al
most old enough to remember that time. Thou
sands upon thousands OF them are piled upon
the shelves that reach clear to the ceilings, and
sometimes the floors are piled with them Fol-
low them back into the deeper recesses and
they almost choke up the arched passage way.
They are constantly being disposed OF or de-
strOyed, and new ones are constantly coming
in. Fully ninety per cent OF them never pass
through Congress, and when they have tailed
there they serve as butter wrappers in the city
more TO print the private bills than is involved
in all those that pass.