The Wolf Point herald., 1923-02-08
HOW LEGISLATURE
WORKS EXPLAINED

cedure of legislative bodies it ap
,, pears to take great deal of tim
.. for the law makers actually to ge
,, down to business, and this is true
! but there is a reason.
Possibly some persons think whel
they read in the pauers that during
the first two weeks the daily sessions
only consumed an hour or two tina
the members are loafing on the joE
and killing valuable time at the ex
pense of the taxpayers.
This is not the case AYERS the Butte
Miner, which goes into detail con
cerning the process of law making
When the sessions are called to order
the almost invariable custom is for q
committee on committees to be named
in the senate and in the house a
speaker is selected.
1t is no easy task for this senate
committee to make up committees
of that body so it is necessary not
only to select the most available men
but also to take into consideration
the requests of senators, most of
whom have preferences relative to
the committees they wish to serve
upon.
The speakers task is still more
difficult, for he has nearly tw:ce as
many members to place and after Sc
lecting the chairman for each com
mittee it is the unwriten law that
every member must be given a place
upon at least one committee and US
ually upon four or five.
Thus, making up these committees
requires a great deal of study and
care, for according to the manner in
which they are made up much of the
success of the legislature depends.
The intention of the preliminary
system is that legislation shall be
given very careful attention, and not
enacted without due consideration
and deliberation.
Hence, when bill is introduced
into either body it is referred to an
appropriate committee, which exam
ines it carefully and then reports
back to the whole house recommen-
dation that it be passed or amended
or indefinitely postponed.
If the measure is recommended for
passage, it then goes to the printing
committee, which sees that the bill is
properly printed, which frequently
takes some days, after which a print
ed copy Of the bill is placed on the
desk of each member in order that
he may -fami1iarize himself with the
provisions of the bill
After this day comes when the
bill is considered section by section
in committee of the whole house. At
this time members offer any amend
ments to it they may see fit, and these
are either adopted or
rejected by majority vote of the
chamber.
If the measure is approved by the
committee of the whole, it is later
placed on final passage in the house,
and the vote of each member upon it
July recorded.
Having passed one chamber, the
I'll is sent to the other house, where
t goes through exactly the same pro-
.edure, except that it does not have
o be reprinted.
So it will be seen that until the
committees are appointed it is useless
o introduce bills, because there are {
10 committees to refer them to.
After the committees are appoint
d the principal work of the members !,
f the legislature is serving upon
hese bodies considering the bills re-
cred to them.
Thus, during this period the daily I
essions of the two houses are short,
yhile the hours put in by members
n committees are long and often s
edious. q
It is this committee stage that the
legislature reached last week. Actu I
lly the present session is making
ood progress, although the casual Z
eader of newspaper reports might !
mink the lawmakers were not doing
cry much, simply because the mem !
ers have not stayed very long in I
ession each day
r