Sacramento daily record-union., 1890-03-15
CONGRESSIONAL BILLS.
THE COURSE THEY TAKE DURING CON
SHERATON AND PASSAGE.
Enormous Number of Bills Introduced
Wear and Tear ON Copying Clerks
Longest and Shortest.
From the New York s.ar.l


House Of Representatives nearly 1000
bills, and in the Senate of the United
States more than 600. They ran all the
way from the private relief Or pension bill
of forty or fifty words to the bills for the
revision Of the tariff or for the admission
of new States, containing thousands OF
words each. These bills as they we're in
troduced we're sent TO the Government
Printing Office to be printed for reference
and for the use Of members. However IN
important a measure, it is always sent to
the printer, unless the Senator or member
who introduces it asks that it lie on the
table without being printed, and this does
not happen in more than a score of cases
during an entire Congress. So small a
proportion of the bills introduced PASS
either House of Congress that it seems al
most a waste Of public money to print the
( thousands and tens of thousands of copies
hat are eventually to be thrown into the
scrap-heap. But no rule could be estab-
Hshed which would discriminate justly be-
tween the measures of little Importance
and those of general interest, and no one
can tell in advance what bills will pass
and what measures will never reach a seri-
Gus consideration. There is one set of
clerks in the House and Senate that would
be willing TO pay a good round sum for in
formation at the beginning of the ses-
sion of Congress as to the bills that will
pass and those which will be neglected
These are the clerks who copy the bills
that pass either House, and afterward copy
the completed bills that have passed both
Houses of Congress The man who re-
ceives at the hands Of his Congressman a
printed copy of the bill in which he is in
terested, and which has been introduced
at his request, feels as he looks at it that
the measure is almost law. If he knew
he history of bill in Congress he would
lose much of his enthusiasm.
The reason the copying clerks would
welcome with Joy an assurance of the bills
that are to pass and those that are to fail
Is that with this information they would
be able to dist ribute their labor so equally
over the days Congress is in session that
their lives would be continuous round of
pleasure, instead Of being, during greater
portion OF the year, what Mr.. Mantalini
would have described as a "demnition
grind Congress works in spasms. The
Senate will take two weeks to debate bill
which the copying clerks could finish copy
ing in a half hour, and then viii pass in
two hours enough measures to keep them
busy with their pens for three or four days.
The engrossing of these bills, too, is of
the most delicate duties with which any
employe of either House Is tasked. A
single mistake made in copying bill may
lead to almost endless complications
The first copies Of bills are made on heavy
white paper. This is after they have passed
one House Suppose a bill has passed the
Senate. Some amendments have been made,
and is not at all like the original text
The clerks take the copy as it is handed to
them, and carefully transcribe it, inserting
each punctuation mark at its appropriate
place, and being extremely careful in the
distribution of capitals. The bill in manu-
script is taken TO the President Of the SEN
ate and then TO the Secretary, and these
officials affix their signatures on the as
surance of some member of the Committee
on Eugrossed Bills that he has compared
1t with the original and that the transcript
ton is aawless The bill thus signed and
attested is taken to the House by Secretary
McCook and delivered into the custody of
that body If it is afterwards passed by
the House without amendment, that fact
is recorded on it and it is carried back to
the Senate with the signatures of the
Speaker and the Clerk of the House
Then it is enrolled on parchment-Eng-
lish acknowledgements with the origi-
nal by member of the Committee on En-
ro ed Bills, again signed and sent to the
President
The number of bills introduced in the
Seiate in the last Congress was 1000, the
nuulber of Joint resolutions 145. The num-
Der Of these bills and joint resolutions
passed by the Senate was 1927, and the
number indefinitely postponed or referred
60 the Court of Claims, 554 The re-
mainder were entirely without censidera-
fion. Each of these ! .l27 bills and Joint
resolutions, as soon as it was agreed to,
was sent to the engrossing clerks, who
copied it carefully. One man could very
easily have done all Of this copying if he
had been allowed to begin on it with the
beginning Of the session. and complete it
any time before the adjournment, but un-
fortunately the Senate insists upon passing |
bills when the fancy. seizes it, and the re-
II
without work for a long period, and then |
flooded with more than they can attend to, |
April 2l, 1886 the Senate passed 3S4 bills |
-l36 Senate bills and 24S House bills !
They were all copied and carried over to |
the House the next day, together with the |
work Of the 22d, making total of nearly |
400 bills copied within two days. In the |
last Congress the Senate passed-Eebruary |
16, 1SSS-l00 Senate and eight House |
bills; but the record of April y, 1856, re-
mains untouched, and probably will so |
remain for many years. The amount of |
manual labor involved in the copying of |
such great number Of bills IS hard to re-
alize, and the strain which the copying |
clerk undergoes in keeping accurately and |
minutely to the text IS enormous.
Some amusing and some dangerous er- ;
rors have crept into measures which have
passed the two Houses Of Congress, through |
the unequal pressure Of work in the last |
days of the session. Some of the most I'M |
portant appropriation bills are passed in
the last moments of an expiring Congress,
and they must be carefully copied and |
compared before they are signed, and this
work must be done in time to get them to
the President for his consideration. In
the Forty-elghth Congress the deficiency
appropriation bill failed because its pas
sage was so long DELAYED that there was
not time to copy it before the final adj
iournment Of the two Houses. Usually
the clerks ue able to anticipate at least
part Of the bin under consideration, and
sometimes, when there is little doubt Of a
bills passage, they. can anticipate it all
saw in the Clerks desk few days ago the
copies in manuscript Of number of bills
that have never been called up for consid-
Grafton fby some mischance they are
not passed, the manuscript win be thrown
away if they are passed, it VIII he
whipped out Of the drawer. and five min
utes after the bill has received the final
vote il viii be ready for SIGNATURE.