Evening star., 1936-11-08
HOUSE EXPECTED
TO FORM EASILY
Election of Speaker and
Clerk All Needed to
Count Vote.
RY WILL p. KENNEDY.

Despite fears to the contrary, with
IN all-time record majority, the House
In the Seventy-f1fth Congress. which
meets January 5, will have ample time
to organize before the electoral vote Is
counted January 6, as required by
statute.
Before the election, when it was
claimed that the Republicans would
win back many House seats, and with
the third party threat, leaders were
concerned whether a combination OF
Republicans and third party might
not be able to hold up House organiza-
tion and thus prevent prompt count
Ing Of the electoral vote.
BY the twentieth constitutional
amendment, which eliminated the
lame duck" session, the date Of the
opening Of the new Congress is set for
January instead Of March 4. As
next January 3 happens to fall on
Sunday, Congress passed special law
postponing the opening day-for the
year 1887 only-until January S.
Bankhead Appears Certain.
With no contest in sight for the
speakership or clerk of the House, it
seems likely that Representative Will
liam B. Bankhead. the present
Speaker, will be promptly reelected
and that South Trimble Of Kentucky,
who has served IA years as clerk, will
also be retained in Office. The elec-
tion of House leader, which promised
a fight, need not be decided until after
the electoral vote has been counted,
nor need the roster of committee as
signments be compiled and approved.
AL that must be done is to provide the
House with q Speaker and clerk, be-
fore it meets in joint session to count
the presidential vote and promulgate
the official announcement.
The procedure, on which the House
parliamentarian, Lewis Deschler, Is
now at work, is as follows:
The clerk calls the House to order
and the chaplain offers prayer. The
clerk then calls the roll of members
by States for the purpose Of finding a
quorum present. Nominations for the
office of Speaker are then called for.
If there is more than one candidate
the clerk appoints tellers, and the roll
Is called for election of the Speaker.
The clerk next announces the elec-
ton of Speaker and then appoints a
committee to conduct the Speaker to
''the chair" The clerk then designates
o member to administer the oath OF
ofice to the Speaker. The Speaker
addresses the House and then the
oath is administered to the Speaker.
The Speaker, in turn, administers
the oath to the members.
Election Of Officers.
A resolution is next offered calling
for the election of officers of the
House-the clerk, sergeant at arms,
door-keeper, postmaster and chap
lain-all elective offices. The parlia-
mentarian is appointed by the
Speaker.
Then q resolution Is offered to no
tify the Senate that the House Is
organized with the Speaker and clerk
elected. Another resolution Is Of
fered instructing the clerk to notify
the President that the Speaker is
elected for the Seventy-fifth Con-
gress. The Speaker next appoints q
delegation from the House to Join
with . similar delegation from the
Senate as q joint committee, to no
tify the President that both houses
Of Congress are ready to receive any
communications he may see At to
make.
A resolution is offered to adopt the
rules which the House makes to gov
ern its proceedings and another res
olution fixing the hour for daily
meetings.
May Offer Resolution.
A resolution may be offered to elect
the membership of committees, but
this will probably go over until later
date. 1t is expected that caucus of
House Democrats will be called by
Representative Edward T. Taylor of
Colorado, chairman Of the caucus
with a service record Of % years-for
either Saturday, January 2, or Mon
day, January 4. At that caucus can
didates for party leader will be dis
cussed, together with the slate Of
committee appointments. An agree
ment may be reached or these phases
OF organization may be laid over for
q subsequent session Of the caucus.
II they are still held in the party
caucus, they will not be brought up
in the House.
The next step in the House Is to
provide for the counting of the elec-
toral vote by a resolution calling for a
joint session Of House and Senate
members in the House chamber at
l pm. January 6, as provided by
statute, pursuant to the Constitution.
This provides that the President pro
tempore Of the Senate shall preside,
that two tellers shall represent the
House and two shall represent the
Senate, that the clerk of the House
shall open the sealed envelopes from
the several States and hand them to
the President of the Senate, who an
nounces them.
After the formal reception, record
ing and announcement of the electoral
vote, there will be q resolution Of
fered for deceased members and the
session adjourns.