[106th Congress House Rules Manual -- House Document No. 106-320]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office Online Database]
[DOCID:hrulest-52]

[Page 293-296]

                           sec. xlviii--assent

  The <> House which has received a bill and passed it may
present it for the King's assent, and ought to do it, though they have
not by message

[[Page 294]]

notified to the other their passage of it. Yet the notifying by message
is a form which ought to be observed between the two Houses from motives
of respect and good understanding. 2 Hats., 242. Were the bill to be
withheld from being presented to the King, it would be an infringement
of the rules of Parliament. Ib.

  In the House it was held that where there had been no unreasonable
delay in transmitting an enrolled bill to the President, a resolution
relating thereto did not present a question of privilege (III, 2601).

  When a <> bill has passed both Houses of Congress, the House last acting
on it notifies its passage to the other, and delivers the bill to the
Joint Committee on Enrollment, who sees that it is truly enrolled in
parchment. When the bill is enrolled it is not to be written in
paragraphs, but solidly, and all of a piece, that the blanks between the
paragraphs may not give room for forgery. 9 Grey, 143. * * *

  Formerly the <> enrollment in the House and the Senate was
in writing (IV, 3436, 3437); but in 1893 the two Houses, by concurrent
resolution, provided that bills should be enrolled on parchment by
printing instead of by writing, and also that the engrossment of bills
prior to sending them to the other House for action should be in
printing (IV, 3433), and in 1895 this concurrent resolution was approved
by statute (IV, 3435; 1 U.S.C. 106). In the last six days of a session
of Congress the two Houses, by concurrent resolution, may permit the
enrolling and engrossing to be done by hand (IV, 3435, 3438; H. Con.
Res. 436, Dec. 20, 1982, p. 32875; H. Con. Res. 375, Oct. 11, 1984, p.
32149), and such a concurrent resolution is privileged for consideration
in the House during the last six days of the session (see 1 U.S.C. 106
for authority to waive ordinary printing requirements at the end of a
session), but prior to the last six days, a joint resolution changing
the law to permit hand enrollments is required and may be considered in
the House by unanimous consent (Dec. 10, 1985, p. 35741) or by special
order of business (H. Res. 580, Oct. 8, 1998, p. ----). The two Houses
have by joint resolution authorized

[[Page 295]]

not only a ``hand enrollment'' of a time-sensitive bill but also a
parchment enrollment of the same measure, to be prepared at a later time
for deposit in the National Archives with the original (P.L. 100-199,
Dec. 21, 1987; P.L. 100-454, Sept. 29, 1988). Where an enrolled bill
enacts another numbered bill by reference, that same law may require the
Archivist to include as an appendix to that law the text of the
referenced bill (see, e.g., 106-554). Only in a very exceptional case
have the two Houses waived the requirement that bills shall be enrolled
(IV, 3442). The enrolling clerk should make no change, however
unimportant, in the text of a bill to which the House has agreed (III,
2598); but the two Houses may by concurrent resolution authorize the
correction of an error when enrollment is made (IV, 3446-3450), and this
seems a better practice than earlier methods by authority of the
Committee on Enrolled Bills (IV, 3444, 3445).

  * * * It is <> then put into the hands of the Clerk of
the House to have it signed by the Speaker. The Clerk then brings it by
way of message to the Senate to be signed by their President. The
Secretary of the Senate returns it to the Committee of Enrollment, who
present it to the President of the United States. * * *

  The practice of the two Houses of Congress for the signing of enrolled
bills was formerly governed by joint rules, and has continued since
those rules were abrogated in 1876 (IV, 3430). The bills are signed
first by the Speaker, then by the President of the Senate (IV, 3429). By
unanimous consent where errors are found in enrolled bills that have
been signed, the two Houses by concurrent action may authorize the
cancellation of the signatures and a reenrollment (IV, 3453-3459), and
in the same way the signatures may be cancelled on a bill prematurely
enrolled (IV, 3454).
  A Speaker pro <> tempore elected by the House (II,
1401), or whose designation has received the approval of the House (II,
1404; VI, 277), signs enrolled bills (see clause 4 of rule I); but a
Member merely called to the chair during the day (II, 1399, 1400; VI,
276), or designated in writing by the Speaker, does not exercise this
function (II, 1401).
  The Senate, by rule, has empowered a presiding officer by written
designation to sign enrolled bills (II, 1403).

[[Page 296]]

  In early <> days a joint committee took enrolled bills to the President
(IV, 3432); but in the later practice the chairman of the committee in
each House that had responsibility for the enrollment of bills also had
the responsibility of presenting the bills from that House, and
submitted from his committee daily a report of the bills presented for
entry in the Journal (IV, 3431). In the 107th Congress the
responsibility in the House for enrolled bills was transferred from the
Committee on House Administration to the Clerk (sec. 2(b), H. Res. 5,
Jan. 3, 2001, p. ----). Enrolled bills pending at the close of a session
have, at the next session of the same Congress, been ordered to be
treated as if no adjournment had taken place (IV, 3487-3488). Enrolled
bills signed by the presiding officers at one session have been sent to
the President and approved at the next session of the same Congress (IV,
3486). At the close of the 97th Congress, some enrollments were
presented to the President, and were signed by him, after the convening
of the 98th Congress.