[Constitution, Jefferson's Manual, and the Rules of the House of Representatives, 110th Congress] [110th Congress] [House Document 109-157] [Jeffersons Manual of ParliamentaryPractice] [Pages 195-198] [From the U.S. Government Printing Office, www.gpo.gov] sec. xviii--orders of the house
Sec. 380. Keeping of the doors of the House. | Of right, the door of the House ought not to be shut, but to be kept by porters, or Sergeants-at-Arms, assigned for that purpose. Mod ten. Parl., 23. |
Sec. 381. Right of the Member to demand execution of the subsisting order. | The only case where a Member has a right to insist on anything, is where he calls for the execution of a subsisting order of the House. Here there having been already a resolution, any person has a right to insist that the Speaker, or any other whose duty it is, shall carry it into execution; and no debate or delay can be had on it. |
Sec. 383. Parliamentary law as to proceeding with orders of the day. | But where an order is made that any particular matter be taken up on a particular day, there a question is to be put, when it is called for, whether the House will now proceed to that matter? Where orders of the day are on important or interesting matter, they ought not to be proceeded on till an hour at which the House is usually full [which in Senate is at noon]. |
Sec. 384. Orders of the day now obsolete. | Orders of the day may be discharged at any time, and a new one made for a different day, 3 Grey, 48, 313. |
Sec. 385. Business at the end of a session. | When a session is drawing to a close and the important bills are all brought in, the House, in order to prevent interruption by further unimportant bills, some |
Sec. 386. Effect of end of the session on existing orders, especially as to imprisonment. | All orders of the House determine with the session; and one taken under such an order may, after the session is ended, be discharged on a habeas corpus. Raym., 120; Jacob's L. D. by Ruffhead; Parliament, 1 Lev., 165, Pitchara's case. |
Sec. 387. Jefferson's views as to the constitutional power to make rules. | Where the Constitution authorizes each House to determine the rules of its proceedings it must mean in those cases (legislative, executive, or judiciary) submitted to them by the Constitution, or in something relating to these, and necessary toward their execution. But orders and resolutions are sometimes entered in the journals having no relation to these, such as acceptances of invitations to attend orations, to take part in procession, etc. These must be understood to be merely |
Sec. 388. The House's construction of its power to adopt rules. | The House has frequently examined its constitutional power to make rules, and this power also has been discussed by the Supreme Court (V, 6755). It has been settled that Congress may not by law interfere with the constitutional right of a future House to make its own rules (I, 82; V, 6765, 6766), or to determine for itself the order of proceedings in effecting its organization (I, 242-245; V, 6765, 6766). It also has been determined, after long discussion and trial by practice, that one House may not continue its rules in force to and over its successor (I, 187, 210; V, 6002, 6743-6747; Jan. 22, 1971, p. 132). Congress may bind itself in matters of procedure (II, 1341; V, 6767, 6768), but its ability to so bind a succeeding Congress has been called into doubt (V, 6766). In one case the Chair denied the authority of such a law that conflicted with a rule of the House (IV, 3579). The theories involved in this question have been most carefully examined and decisively determined in reference to the law of 1851, which directs the method of procedure for the House in its constitutional function of judging the elections of its Members; and it has been determined that this law is not of absolute binding force on the House, but rather a wholesome rule not to be departed from except for cause (I, 597, 713, 726, 833; II, 1122). In modern practice, existing statutory procedures, including provisions of concurrent resolutions, are readopted as Rules of the House at the beginning of each Congress (see, e.g., H. Res. 6, Jan. 4, 1995, p. 462). This practice was codified in clause 1 of rule XXVIII when the House recodified its rules in the 106th Congress (H. Res. 5, Jan. 6, 1999, p. 75, see Sec. 1105, infra). Where the House amended a standing rule of general applicability during a session and the amended rule did not require prospective application, the rule was interpreted to apply retroactively (Sept. 28, 1993, p. 22719). |