Evening star., 1924-01-02
CHANGES In HOUSE RULES
s. SUBMITTED TO COMMITTEE
Representative Luce of Massachusetts Makes Fro
pOsaI of II Amendments Primarily Designed
h to Expedite Business.

| Mr.. Luce would replace the present
! provision.
| Cites Objectionable CUSTOM.
The trouble is that the man who
gets the right to an hour doles most
of it out to others. Few members in
control of time can resist the pres
sure of requests for those doles, with
the result that many measures are
not disposed of within two or three
hours when they could, in fact, be
easily handled in an hour or SO, ana
the further result that many minor
I, bills relating to the processes Of the
administrative departments or other
| matters really not controyerted never
| get a chance to pass the House at
/ all, or IL they do. reach the Senate
| too late for action. As the House
n pever refuses to extend member S
| time by unanimous permission when
] extension is really worth while, 1t is
hard to see where any harm could
| come from changing the rule and
| easy to see where it could markedly
shorten sessions or let more work De
carried to a finish.
| These minor measures now have to
take their chance on what is known
as calendar Wednesday,, the one day
| in the week when the committees
| take their turn regardless of the
views of the committee on rules. 1t
! was one of the achievements of the
| insurgents of a dozen years ago and
has proved a real gain, but not in
! be secured, Mr.. Luce thinks, all be-
cause the work does not go along as
! fast as it could without harm to the
! interests of anybody.
| Buttressed by the rule as 1t now
stands, the House proceeds without
| any regard to the sense of proper
| tion and deyotes about the same time
to every measure, whether it's inn
| portance be small 'or great, and it's
provisions seriously contested or not
| of general debate are available. To
permit quicker action on the little
| bills, Mr.. Luce also suggests that
! after one speech for and one against
| the bill the House may, if it pleases,
forthwith vote to proceed to the
! reading the bill for amendment.
Restriction of Debate.
Looking in the same direction is
the next change, which would confine
all debate while a bill is being read
Cor amendment to the subject of the
bill, forbidding the chairman of a
1 of the work of the House is dene)
| even to entertain a request for
unanimous consent to go outside that
| subject. Chairman Madden of the
| appropriations committee has called
! attention to the steady increase in
| the time spent on appropriation bills,
! largely due, he thinks, to abuse in
| his particular.
| OF the same class is a new pro-
vision that speeches on appeals from
| the chair on points of order shall
| be confined to ten minutes each, to
| take care of loophole for waste
of time that nowadays, is rarely used.
| but which Mr.. Luce thinks might
we'll be plugged up.
| The House adheres to the ancient
practice of paying respect to the
original form of every bill it re-
,eive. This requires that when a
committee changes bill, 1t must re-
port the changes as amendments, a
process that takes needless time, and
does mischief by inviting debate on
inconsequential details. Mr.. Luce
urges that authority to report in a
lnew draft be formulated. To be sure,
the end can be accomplished now by