Legislative committee

“ The procedure followed in referring bills to committees and in considering them when they are reported back is determined by a complexity of rules that are confusing to the outsider and that cannot be explained in detail here. But their declared purpose is to save time and to enable the legislative business to move smoothly. The small committees can work to better advantage than the large body of men in either chamber. The work is divided up so that the few members of each committee can concentrate their attention upon a few subjects and gain experience in handling special kinds of problems. ”

“ Indeed, the membership of our legislatures has become so large, and the amount of legislative business has increased so rapidly, that it is difficult to see how the committee system could be dispensed with. ”

“ Any bill rejected by one of the three legislative powers cannot again be introduced during the same session. Article 57. Every person who shall have attained his majority has the right to send petitions to the Chambers, which in turn must order them to be examined by a committee; on report of the committee each House shall decide whether they are to be taken into consideration, and if voted in the affirmative, they shall be referred to the competent Minister or shall be deposited with a Government Department for proper action. ”

“ It may also be anticipated that the system that relegates the details of legislative measures to the consideration of Grand Committees may be gradually extended as time goes on, and that thus the committee work of the House of Commons itself may grow less and less by degrees. ”

“ If concurred in, the bill is returned to the Senate, with the message informing it of that fact.
COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE.
The Committee of the Whole is an expedient to simplify the business of legislative bodies. No record is made of its proceedings, and it has no officers except of its own creation, for temporary purposes. It is liable to instant dissolution in case of disorder, when the Speaker takes the chair for a Call of the House, or an adjournment, and in case of a message from the Senate or Governor, when the Speaker takes the chair to receive it. ”

“ The Legislative Council will have a substantial elected majority, elected on a broad franchise with Governor as President. (A Commission is appointed to inquire into the question of franchise and the composition of the Council, but the report is not yet out.) [Pg 230]
The Grand Committee will comprise only from 40 to 50 per cent of Legislative Council, and its members will be partly elected by a ballot and partly appointed by nomination.
All Legislation and the Budget for transferred subjects only must be passed in the Legislative Councils. ”

“ The rules of the House can only operate on what is before them. [The practice of the Senate, too, allows recurrences backwards and forwards, for the purposes of amendment, not permitting amendments in a subsequent to preclude those in a prior part, or e converso.]
When the committee is through the whole, a member moves that the committee may rise, and the chairman report the paper to the House, with or without amendments, as the case may be. ”

“ The committee of 1838 was justified in thinking and in stating that their report "presented a combination of facts that cannot fail to arrest the attention of the American people, and to establish the necessity of immediate legislative action." "Legislative action "was taken repeatedly, then and at subsequent times. But so partial and temporary has been the relief afforded, that the committee of 1889 found the condition of affairs to be about the worst in our history. ”

“ A Cabinet is a combining committee—a hyphen which joins, a buckle which fastens, the legislative part of the State to the executive part of the State. In its origin it belongs to the one, in its functions it belongs to the other. ”

“ In the appointment of the standing committees, the Senate will proceed, by ballot, severally to appoint the Chairman of each committee; and then, by one ballot, the other members necessary to complete the same; and a majority of the whole number of votes given shall be necessary to the choice of a chairman of a standing committee. All other committees shall be appointed by ballot, and a plurality of votes shall make a choice. When any subject or matter shall have been referred to a committee, any other subject or matter of a similar nature, may, on motion, be referred to such committee. ”

“ When a member desires to bring in a bill on any subject, he states to the House in general terms the causes for doing it, and concludes by moving for leave to bring in a bill entitled, etc. Leave being given on the question, a committee is appointed to prepare and bring in the bill. The mover and seconder are always appointed of this committee, and one or more in addition. ”

“ Standing committees, as of privileges and elections, etc., are usually appointed at the first meeting, to continue through the session. The person first named is generally permitted to act as chairman. But this is a matter of courtesy; every committee having a right to elect their own chairman, who presides over them, puts questions, and reports their proceedings to the House. ”

“ No member may be present when a bill or any business concerning himself is debating; nor is any member to speak to the merits of it till he withdraws. 2 Hats., 219. The rule is, that if a charge against a member arise out of a report of a committee, or examination of witnesses in the House, as the member knows from that to what points he is to direct his exculpation, he may be heard to those points before any question is moved or stated against him. ”

“ Congress does not deal so directly with our executive as do the French and English parliaments with theirs, and cannot, therefore, control it quite so effectually; there is a great deal of friction amongst the many wheels of committee government; but, in the long run, Congress is quite as omnipotent as either the Chamber of Deputies or the House of Commons; and, whether there be two score committees with functions mainly legislative, or only one with functions half legislative, half executive, we have one form or another of something like Mr. ”

“ It has been impossible to carry out the programme of the Constitution; and, without careful reform, the national legislature will even more dangerously approach the perilous model of a mass meeting. There are several ways in which Congress can be so integrated as to impart to its proceedings system and party responsibility. That may be done by entrusting the preparation and initiation of legislation to a single committee in each house, composed of the leading men of the majority in that house. ”

“ The perfection of legislation on particular subjects depends not more on the wisdom of the entire body of legislators than on the good sense of the committees that deliberate upon them. Much of the efficiency and success of the legislative acts of Congress will depend upon the structure of the committees that do the laborious work of preparing business for the body. ”

“ In such cases the committees enjoy, if not the exclusive privilege of proposing questions to the legislature, at least the primary right of framing the questions that are to be submitted, and this gives them a momentous power. An organisation by committees is the most natural evolution of a legislative body, if there is nothing to obstruct it. Now in Parliament there has been something to obstruct it, and that is the system of a responsible ministry. ”

“ All agencies of state government, as defined in ORS 174.111, are directed to assist the committee, the subcommittees and the Oregon Health Fund Board in the performance of their duties and, to the extent permitted by laws relating to confidentiality, to furnish such information and advice as the members of the committees, the subcommittees and the Oregon Health Fund Board consider necessary to perform their duties. The Oregon Health Fund Board shall report to the Legislative Assembly not later than February 29, 2008. ”

“ Whenever an improper motion is made, instead of simply ruling it out of order, it is well for the chairman to suggest how the desired object can be accomplished. [See "Hints to Inexperienced Chairman" below.]
The by-laws sometimes state that the president shall appoint all committees. In such case the assembly may authorize committees, but cannot appoint or nominate them. The president, however, cannot appoint any committees except those authorized by the by-laws or by a vote of the assembly. Sometimes the by-laws make the president ex-officio a member of every committee. ”

“ They were previously appointed by the district, and congress has only devolved the duty on them. To say therefore that this act is a statute of the United States, is more than saying that the aforementioned act of the committee or its chairman would be so. That committee holds its authority more directly from Congress and from the people than the corporation does, and is a part at least of those to whom the authority in question has been delegated. ”

“ A quorum, that is the number that must be present in order to transact business, is a majority of the committee. A committee has no right to discipline any of its members: if any member obstructs business, its only recourse is to report the facts to the assembly for its action. If a committee finds that its investigations will involve expense that has not been authorized, it must obtain from the assembly such authority before incurring the expense. ”

“ The work is parceled out, most of it to the forty-seven Standing Committees which constitute the regular organization of the House, some of it to select committees appointed for special and temporary purposes. Each of the almost numberless bills that come pouring in on Mondays is “read a first and second time,”—simply perfunctorily read, that is, by its title, by the clerk, and passed by silent assent through its first formal courses, for the purpose of bringing it to the proper stage for commitment,—and referred without debate to the appropriate Standing Committee. ”

“ In this way very much of the work of the legislature is done by branches of each House, and by selected men whose time and intellects are devoted to special subjects. It is easy to see that much time and useless debate may be thus saved, and I am disposed to believe that this system of committees has worked efficiently and beneficially. The mode of selection of the members has been so contrived as to give to each political party that amount of preponderance in each committee which such party holds in the House. ”

“ The members of our Senate have never ventured to oppose any measure of the House of Delegates; and if they had, their chance of being reëlected, when opposed by the delegates of the different counties, would be small. But what demonstrates that there is sufficient responsibility in the representatives to the people, and what must satisfy the committee, is this—that it will be their own interest to attend to that of the people at large. They can pass no law but what will equally affect their own persons, their families, and property. ”

“ The members are paid $3 a day during the session and their traveling expenses. The presiding officer is chosen every four weeks, and can not succeed himself without an interval. The committees are appointed by a "selection committee" elected by ballot, and each committee chooses his own chairman. There is a rather novel rule requiring bills referred to committees to be assigned for consideration to the several members in rotation. Any member may introduce a bill modifying the constitution, but all other classes or measures must proceed from the government and the members of the lower house. ”

“ No one questions that the competency of a Committee of either House of Congress depends upon the action of the House in constituting the Committee, and in determining the rules governing its procedure. ”

“ Popular committees are considered here, as with us, in the light of substitutes to constitutional government, and as being only necessary in the interval between the removal of the former and the establishment of the present. ”

“ Should any one object, a formal motion becomes necessary. When the time arrives for the assembly to receive the report, the chairman of the committee reads it in his place and then delivers it to the clerk, when it lies on the table till the assembly sees fit to consider it. If the report consists of a paper with amendments, the chairman of the committee reads the amendments with the coherence in the paper, explaining the alterations and the reasons of the committee for the amendments, till he has gone through the whole. ”

“ Only the Committees are enlightened. There is a conclusive objection to the publication of the proceedings of the Committees, which is recognized as of course by all parliamentary lawyers, namely, that those proceedings are of no force till confirmed by the House. A Committee is commissioned, not to instruct the public, but to instruct and guide the House. ”

“ Congress, even those in subordinate stations, as is the practice of every day, and as is indispensable to the prosecution of public business, they might, at less expense of dignity, pursue the same mode with a part of that body itself.
The distinction taken by the Council, in their message to the Assembly, respecting the responsibility of such executive officers, as not applicable to a committee, if it amounts to any thing, proves only this: That such officers ought, in prudence, to take greater precautions for their own justification than a committee of Congress need to do. ”