Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1908-05-27

have a report printed telling why
they think the bill should not become
law
Having received majority of the
votes in the committee the bill is |
placed by name and number upon the
calendar or record book of the House. |
The bill is now ready to be consid- |
cred by the House, but oftentimes it
is difficult to bring this about. AL
most every representative has at least
one bin and many of them scores of
bills.
He is anxious to have them made into
law, and then, the Speaker must be
thought OF.
No doubt newspaper readers have
often read in the newspapers about
the Speaker being Gear" and an
spoken of in this way is that nothing
can be done in the House, not bill
considered or speech made until he
has given his consent. Before bill
that has been favorably reported by a
committee can be taken up and dis
cussed in the House, the Speaker must
have agreed beforehand to "recog-
nize" the representative who will
"call up" the bill that is get the bill
before the House. The reason for this
is that according to the rules in Con-
gress no member can speak until the
Speaker has said: "The chair (the
Speaker refers to himself as the chair
recognizes the gentleman from New
York" or whatever state the represen.
tative may be from. Usually it Is the
chairman of the committee who calls
up the bill. He stands up by his desk
and cries: "Mr. Speaker. Mr..
Speaker" Perhaps there are q dozen
men saying the same words at the
: same time. The speaker decides
quickly in his mind which represen-
, tative may speak or shave the floor. +"
! and it is called; and says: "The
, gentleman from New York." or other
state.
) Then the representative says: "Mr.
} Speaker. I move that the House re.
, olive itself into:the Committee of the
Whole House on the state OF the
Union for the consideration of House
} bill number so-and.so."
1.-THE Committee Of the whole" as
> 1t is usually called, is simply the en-
tire membership of the House acting
: as q committee instead of as the House
, of Representatives. The same men are
, present, in the same chamber, but the
i Speaker leaves his desk and calls
, some representative to take his place.
, The latter is known as the chsirman
of the Committee of the Whole. The
only difference between the Commit
tee of the Whole and the House of Re-
, representatives. is in the rules that are
, used. In the Committee of the Whole
| the bill is discussed and may be
} amended and changed just as it was
changed in the small committee that
, first considered it. In the House OF
Representatives the bill must be voted
upon, yes or no and cannot be chang
ed there.
i Every bill, before it can be passed,
must.be read in the House three times.
Some of the great appropriation bills
are very long containing as much
reading as would be in $50 pages in q
book. and to save time the chairman
says: II ask unanimous consent that
the first reading of the bill be dis
pensed with" If no member objects
to this request the Speaker tells the
reading clerk that the first reading
will be omitted, but if a single repre-
sentative says: II object" the
bill must be read in full. This objec-
tion is very rarely made; never. in
fact, unless some member is angry or
the minority" wants to delay
things.
In the House the committee ON
"rules, composed of the Speaker and
four leading representatives. always
dc cides how long each bill shall be
debated III it is very important it
may be decided to discuss the bill four
days, or sometimes even longer, and .
certain hour on certain day is named
when the bill shall be voted upon.
Then, usually theI'' time" is divided
equally, those in favor OF the bill
talking half of the time and those OPP
, posed talking the-othershalf. Each
side has representative who has
charge of the time and who decides
, how long each representative shall
, speak.
The House convenes at noon each
day and adjourns. usually. about five
!, O'Clock, so there are five hours for
: debateIeaehlday and each side has two
and one half hours. The representa-
! tives who have charge of the time
! 90 to the men..who want to speak fol-
or against the bill and tell them how
manv hOurs Or minutes each NAV