USA > Wisconsin > The Wisconsin blue book 1889 > Part 12
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While the House is telling, no member may speak or move out of his place, for if any mistake be suspected it must be told again. Mem. in Hakew., 26; 2 Hats., 143.
If any difficulty arises in point of order during the division, the Speaker is to decide per- emptorily, subject to the future censure of the House, if irregular. He sometimes permits old experienced members to assist him with their advice, which they do sitting in their seats, covered to avoid the appearance of debate; but this can only be with the Speaker's leave, else the division might last several hours. 2 Hats., 143.
The voice of the majority decides; for the lex majoris partis is the law of all councils, elections, etc., where not otherwise expressly provided. Hakew., 93. But if the House be equally divided, " semper presumatur pro negante;" that is, the former law is not to be changed but by a majority. Towns., col. 134.
[But in the Senate of the United States, the Vice President decides when the House is divided. Const. U. S., I, 3.]
When, from counting the House on a division, it appears that there is not a quorum, the matter continues exactly in the state in which it was before the division, and must be re- sumed at that point on any future day. 2 Hats., 126.
1606, May 1, on a question whether a member having said yea may afterwards sit and change his opinion, a precedent was remembered by the Speaker, of Mr. Morris, attorney of the wards, in 39 Eliz., who in like case changed his opinion. Mem. Hukew., 27.
SECTION XLIL.
TITLES
After the bill has passed, and not before, the title may be amended, and is to be fixed by a question; and the bill is then sent to the other House.
SECTION XLIII.
RECONSIDERATION.
[When a question has been once made and carried in the affirmative or negative, it shall be in order for any member of the majority to move for the reconsideration thereof; but no motion for the reconsideration of any vote shall be in order after a bill. resolution, mes- sage, report, amendment, or motion upon which the vote was taken shall Have gone out of the possession of the Senate announcing their decision; nor shall any motion for recousid- eration be in order unless made on the same day on which the vote was taken, or within the two next days of the actual session of the Senate thereafter." Rule 20.]
[1798, Jan. A bill on its second reading being amended and on the question whether it shall be read a third time negatived, was restored by a decision to reconsider that question. Here the votes of negative and reconsideration, like positive and negative quantities in an equation, destroy one another, and are as if they were expunged from the journal. Conse- quently the bill is open for amendment, just so far as it was the moment preceding the question for the third reading; that is to say, all parts of the bill are open for amendment except those on which votes have been already taken in its present stage. So, also, it may be recommitted.]
. This part of the rule has been added since the Mannal was compiled.
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[* The rule permitting a reconsideration of a question affixing to it no limitation of time or circumstance, it may be asked whether there is no limitation? If, after the vote, the paper on which it is passed has been parted with, there can be no reconsideration: as if a vote has been for the passage of a bill, and the bill has been sent to the other house. But where the paper remains, as on a bill rejected, when, or under what circumstances, does it cease to be susceptible of reconsideration? This remains to be settled; unless, a sense that the right of reconsideration is a right to waste the time of the House in repeated agita- tions of the same question, so that it shall never know when a question is done with. should induce them to reform this anomalous proceeding.]
In Parliament. a question once carried cannot be questioned again at the same session, but must stand as the judginent of the House. Towns., col. 67; Mem. in Hakewr .. 33. And a bill once rejected, another of the same substance cannot be brought in again the same session. Hakew., 158; 6 Grey, 302. But this does not extend to prevent putting the same question in different stages of a bill; because every stage of a bill submits the whole and every part of it to the opinion of the House, as open for amendment, either by insertion or omission though the same amendment has been accepted or rejected in a former stage. So in reports of committees, e. g., report of an address, the same question is before the House and open for free discussion. Towns., col. 26; 2 Hats., 98, 100, 101. So orders of the House, or instructions to committee, may be discharged. So a bill. begun in one house, and sent to the other, and there rejected, may be renewed again in that other, passed and sent back. Ib., 92; 3 Hats., 161. Or if, instead of being rejected, they read it once and lay it aside, or amend it, and put it off a month, they may order in another to the same effect. with the same or different title. Hakew., 97, 98.
Divers expedients are used to correct the effects of this rule: as by passing an explana- tory act, if anything has been omitted or ill expressed (3 Hats., 278), or an act to enforce, and make more effectual an act, etc., or to rectify mistakes in act, etc., or a committee on one bill may be instructed to receive a clause to rectify the mistakes of another. Thus. June 24, 1685, a clause was inserted in a bill, for rectifying a mistake committed by a clerk .in engrossing a bill of supply. 2 Hats., 104, 6. Or the session may be closed for one, two, three, or more days, and a new one commenced. But then all matters depending must be finished, or they fall, and are to begin de novo. 3 Hats., 94, 98. Or a part of the subject may be taken up by another bill, or taken up in a different way. 6 Grey, 304, 315.
And in cases of the last magnitude, this rule has not been so strictly and verbally ob- served as to stop indispensable proceedings altogether. 2 Hats .. 92, 98. Thus when the ad- dress on the preliminaries of peace in 1782 had been lost by a majority of one. on account of the importance of the question, and smallness of the majority, the same question in sub- stance, though with some words not in the first, and which might change the opinion of some members, was brought on again and carried. as the motives for it were thought to outweigh the objection of form. 2 Hats., 99, 100.
A second bill may be passed to continue an act of the same session, or to enlarge the time limited for its execution. 2 Hats., 95, 98. This is not in contradiction to the first act.
SECTION XLIV.
BILLS SENT TO THE OTHER HOUSE.
[All bills passed in the Senate, shall, before they are sent to the House of Representa- tives, be examined by a committee, consisting of three members, whose duty shall be to examine all bills, amendments, resolutions or motions, before they go out of the possession of the Senate and to make report that they are correctly engrossed, which report shall be entered on the journal. Rule 33.]
A bill from the other House is sometimes ordered to lie on the table. 2 Hats .. 97.
When bills passed in one house and sent to the other, are grounded on special facts re- quiring proof, it is usual, either by message or at a conference, to ask the grounds and evi- dence; and this evidence, whether arising out of papers, or from the examination of witnesses, is immediately communicated. 3 Hats., 4S.
SECTION XLV.
AMENDMENTS BETWEEN THE HOUSES.
When either house, e. g., the House of Commons, sends a bill to the other, the other may pass it with amendments. The regular progression in this case is, that the commons disagree to the amendment; the lords insist on it; the commons insist on their disagree
. This rule now fies the limitation.
5
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ment; the lords adhere to their amendment; the commons adhere to their disagreement. The term of insisting may be repeated as often as they choose to keep the question open. But the first adherence by either renders it necessary for the other to recede or adhere also; when the matter is usually suffered to fall. 10 Grey, 14S. Latterly, however, there are in- stances of their having gone to a second adherence. There must be an absolute conclusion of the subject somewhere, or otherwise transactions between the houses would become endless. 3 Hats., 268, 270. The term of insisting, we are told by Sir John Trevor, was then (1679) newly introduced into parliamentary usage by the lords. 7 Grey, 04. It was certainly a happy innovation, as it multiplies the opportunities of trying modifications which may bring the houses to concurrence. Either house, however, is free to pass over the term of insisting, and to adhere in the first instance; 10 Grey, 146; but it is not respectful to the other. In the ordinary parliamentary course, there are two free conferences, at least. be- fore an adherence. 10 Grey, 147.
Either house may recede from its amendment and agree to the bill; or recede from their disagreement to the amendment, and agree to the same absolutely, or with an amend- ment; for here the disagreement aud receding destroy one another, and the subject stands as before the disagreement. Elsymye, 23, 27; 9 Grey, 4.0.
But the House cannot recede from, or insist on its own amendment, with an amendment; for the same reason that it cannot send to the other house an amendment to its own act after it has passed the act. They may modify an amendment from the other house by ingrafting an amendment on it, because they have never assented to i :: but they cannot amend their own amendment, because they have on the question, passed it in that form. 9 Grey, 363; 10 Grey, 240. In the Senate, March 29, 1798. Nor where one house has adhered to their amendment, and the other agrees with an amendment, can the first house depart from the form which they have fixed by an adherence.
In the case of a money bill, the lords' proposed amendments become, by delay, confess- edly necessary. The commons. however, refused them, as infringing on their privileges as to money bills; but they offered themselves to add to the bill a proviso to the same effect. which had no coherence with the lords' amendments; and urged that it was an expedient . warranted by precedent, and not unparliamentary in a case become impracticable. and irremediable in any other way. 3 Hats., 256, 266, 270, 271. But the lords refused, and the bill was lost. 1 Chand., 258. A like case, 1 Chand., 311. So the commons resolved that it was unparliamentary to strike out, at a conference, anything in a bill which had been agreed and passed by both Houses. 6 Grey, 274: 1 Chand., 312.
A motion to amend an amendment from the other House takes precedence of a motion .
to agree or disagree.
A bill originating in one House is passed by the other with an amendment.
The originating House agrees to their amendment with an amendment. The other may agree to their amendment with an amendment, that being only in the ad and not the 3d degree; for, as to the amending House, the first amendment with which they passed the bill is a part of its text; it is the only text they have agreed to. The amendment to that text by the originating House, therefore, is only in the first degree, and the amendment to that again by the amending House is only in the 2d, to wit: an aniendnient to an amend ment, and so admissible, Just so, when, on a bill from the originating House, the other, at its second reading makes an amendment; on the third reading this amendment is become the text of the bill, and if an amendment to it be moved, an amendment to that amend- ment may also be moved, as being only in the 2d degree.
SECTION XLVI. CONFERENCES.
It is on the question of amendments between the Houses that conferences are usually asked; but they may be asked in all cases of difference of opinion between the two Houses on matters depending between them. The request of a conference, however, must always be with the House which is possessed of the papers. 3 Hats .. 31; 1 Grey, 25.
Conferences may be either simple or free. At a conference simply, written reasons are prepared by the House asking it, and they are read and delivered, without debate, to the managers of the other House at the conference; but are not then to be answered; 4 Grey. 144. The other House, then, if satisfied, vote the reason satisfactory, or say nothing; if not satisfied, they resolve them not satisfactory, and ask a conference on the subject of the last conference, where they read and deliver, in like manner, written answers to those reasons. 3 Grey, 183. They are meant chiefly to record the jurislietiou of each House to the nation at large, and to posterity, and in proof that the miscarriage of a necessary measure is not
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Imputable to them. 3 Grey, 255. At free conferences the managers discuss, viva voce and freely, and interchange propositions for such modifications as may be made in a parliament- ary way, and may bring the sense of the two Houses together. And each party reports in writing to their respective Houses the substance of what is said on both sides, and it is en- tered in their journals. 9 Grey, 230; 3 Hats., 280. This report can not be amended or altered, as that of a committee may be. Journal of Senate. May 24, 1706.
A conference may be asked, before the House asking it has come to a resolution of disa- greement, insisting or adhering. 3 Hats., 200, 341. In which case the papers are not left with the other conferees, but are brought back to be the foundation of the vote to be given. And this is the most reasonable and respectful proceeding; for, as was urged by the lords on a particular occasion, "it is held vain, and below the wisdom of Parliament, to reason or argue against fixed resolutions, and upon terms of impossibility to persuade." 3 Hats., 225. So the commons say, "an adherence is never delivered at a free conference, which implies debate." 10 Grey, 137. And on another occasion the lords made it an objection that the commons had asked a free conference after they had made resolutions of adhering. It was then affirmed, however, on the part of the commons, that nothing was more parliamentary than to proceed with free conferences after adhering (3 Hats., 269), and we do in fact see inferences of conferences, or of free conference, asked after the resolution of disagreeing, (3 Hats., 251, 253, 200, 286, 201, 316, 340); of insisting (Ib .. 280, 206, 233, 313, 322, 355): of adher- ing (269, 270, 233, 300); and even of a second or final adherence. 3 Hats., 270. And in all cases of conference asked after a vote of disagreement, etc., the conferees of the House asking it are to leave the papers with the conferees of the other: and in one case where they refused to receive them, they were left on the table in the conference chamber. 1b., 317, 323, 354; 10 Grey, 146.
After a free conference, the usage is to proceed with free conferences, and not return again to a conference. 3 Hats., 270: 9 Grey, 229.
After a conference denied, a free conference may be asked. 1 Grey, 45.
When a conference is asked, the subject of it must be expressed, or the conference not agreed to. Ord. H. Com., 83; 1 Grey, 425: & Grey, 31. They are sometimes asked to inquire concerning an offense or default of a member of the other House. 6 Grey. 181; 1 Chand .. 301. Or the failure of the other House to present to the King a bill passed by both Houses. 8 Grey, 302. Or on information received, and relating to the safety of the nation. 10 Grey. 171. Or when the methods of Parliment are thought by the one House to have been de- parted from by the other, a conference is asked to come to a right understanding thereon. 10 Grey, 148. So when an unparliamentary message has been sent, instead of answering it. they ask a conference. 3 Grey, 155. Formerly an address or article of impeachment. or a bill with amendments, or a vote of the House, or concurrence in a vote, or a message from the King, were sometimes communicated by way of conference. 6 Grey, 129, 300, 387: 7 Grey, 80; 8 Grey, 210, 255; 1 Torbuck's Deb., 2.3; 10 Grey, 203; 1 Chandler, 49, 287. But this is not the modern practice. 8 Grey, 255.
A conference has been asked after the first reading of the bill, 1 Grey, 194. This is a singular instance.
SECTION ILVIL
MESSAGES.
Messages between the Houses are to be sent only while both Houses are sitting. 2 Hats., 15. They are received during debate without adjourning the debate. 3 Hats., 2.
[In Senate the messengers are introduced in any state of business. except: 1. While a question is putting. 2. While the yeas and nays are calling. 3. While the ballots are counting. Rule 47. The first case is short: the second and third are cases where any interruption might occasion errors difficult to be corrected. So arranged June 15, 1788.]
In the House of Representatives, as in Parliament, if the House be in committee when s messenger attends, the Speaker takes the chair to receive the message, and then quits it to return into cominittee, without any question or interruption. 4 Grey, 226.
Messengers are not saluted by the members, but by the Speaker of the House. 2 Grey. 253, 274.
If messengers commit an error in delivering their message, they may be admitted ter called in to correct their message. 4 Grey, 41. Accordingly, March 13, 1800, the Senate having made two amendments to a bill from the House of Representatives, their Secretary, by mistake, delivered one only, which being inadmissible by itself, that House disagreed, and notifled the Senate of their disagreement. This produced a discovery of the mistake. The Secretary was sent to the other House to correct his mistake, the correction was received, and the two amendments acted on de novo.
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As soon as the messenger, who has brought the bills from the other House, has retired, the Speaker holds the bills in his hand, and acquaints the House " that the other House have by their messenger sent certain bills," and then reads their titles, and delivers them to the Clerk, to be safely kept till they shall be called for to be read. Hakew., 178.
It is not the usage for one House to inforin the other by what numbers a bill has passed. 10 Grey, 150. Yet they have sometimes recommended a bill as of great importance. to the consideration of the House to which it is sent. 3 Hats., 25. Nor when they have rejected a bill from the other House, do they give notice of it; but it passes sub silento, to prevent unbecoming altercations. Blackst., 183.
[But in Congress the rejection is notified by message to the House in which the bill originated.]
A question is never asked by the one House of the other by way of message, but only at a conference; for this is an interrogatory, not a message. 3 Grey, 151, 181.
When a bill is sent by one House to the other, and is neglected, they may send a message to remind them of it. 3 Hats., 25; 5 Grey, 154. But if it be mere inattention, it is better to have it done informally, by communication between the Speakers or members of the two Houses.
Where the subject of a message is of a nature that can properly be communicated to both houses of Parliament, it is expected that this communication should be made to hoth on the same day. But where a message was accompanied with an original declaration, signed by the party to which the message referred, its being sent to one house was not noticed by the other, because the declaration, being original, could not possibly be sent to both houses at the same time. 2 Hats., 260, 261, 262.
The King having sent . original letters to the commons, afterwards desires they may be returned, that he may communicate them to the lords. 1 Chandler, 303.
SECTION 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 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., 142. Were the bill to be withheld from being presented to the King, it would be an infringement of the rules of Par- liament. Ib.
[When a bill has passed both houses of Congress, the house last acting on it notifies its pass- age to the other, and delivers the bill to the Joint Committee of Enrollment, who see that it is truly enrolled in parchment.] When the bill is enrolled, it is not to be written in para- graphs. but solidly, and all of a piece, that the blanks between the paragraphs may not give room for forgery. 9 Grey, 143. [It is then put in the hands of the Clerk of the House of Representatives 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. If he approve, he signs, and deposits it among the rolls in the office of the Secretary of State. and notifies by message the house in which it originated that he has approved and signed it; of which that house informs the other by message. If the President disapproves, he is to return it with his objections to that house in which it shall have originated, who are to enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If, after such reconsideration, two-thirds of that house shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent to- gether with the President's objections to the other house, by which it shall likewise be re- considered; and if approved by two-thirds of that house, it shall become a law. If any bill shall not be returned by the President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had sizned it, unless the Congress by its adjournment prevent its return; in which case it shall not be a law. Const. U. S., I. 7.]
[Every order, resolution or vote, to which the concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of adjournment), shall be pre- sented to the President of the United States, and before the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him; or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two-thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the rules and limitations prescribed In the case of a bill. Const. U. S., I, 7.]
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SECTION XLIX.
JOURNALS.
[Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may, in their judgment, require secrecy. Const., I, 5.]
[The proceedings of the Senate, when not acting as in a Committee of the Whole, shall be entered on the journals as concisely as possible. care being taken to detail a true account of the proceedings. Every vote of the Senate shall be entered on the journals, and a brief statement of the contents of each petition, memorial, or paper presented to the Senate, be also inserted on the journal. Rule 33.]
[The titles of bills, and such parts thereof only, as shall be affected by proposed amend- ments, shall be inserted on the journals. Rule 32.1
If a question is interrupted by a vote to adjourn, or to proceed to the orders of the day. the original question is never printed in the journal, it never having been a vote, nor intro- ductory to any vote; but when suppressed by the previous question, the first question must be stated, in order to introduce and make intelligible the second. 2 Hats., 83.
So also when a question is postponed, adjourned, or laid on the table, the original ques- tion, though not yet a vote, must be expressed in the journals; because it makes part of the vote of postponement, adjourning, or laying it on the table.
Where amendments are made to a question, those amendments are not printed in the journals. separated from the question; but only the question as finally agreed to by the House. The rule of entering in the journals only what the House has agreed to, is founded in great prudence and good sense; as there may be many questions proposed, which it may be improper to publish to the world in the form in which they are made. 2 Hats., 85.
[In both houses of Congress, all questions whereon the yeas and nays are desired by one- fifth of the members present, whether decided affirmatively or negatively, must be entered on the journals. Const., I, 5.]
The first order for printing the votes of the House of Commons was October 30, 1685. 1 Chandler, 387.
Some judges have been of opinion that the journals of the House of Commons are no rec- ords, but only remembrances. But this is not law. Hob., 110, 111: Lex. Parl., 114, 115; Jour. H. C., Mar. 17, 1592; Hale, Parl., 105. For the lords in their house have power of judicature. the commons in their house have power of judicature; and both houses together have power of judicature; and the Book of the Clerk of the House of Commons is a record, as is affirmned by act of Parl., 6 H. 8 c. 16; 4 Inst., 23, 24; and every member of the House of Commons hath a judicial place. 4 Inst., 15. As records they are open to every person, and a printed vote of either house is sufficient ground for the other to notice it. Either may appoint s committee to inspect the journals of the other, and report what has been done by the other in any particular case. 2 Hats., 361; 3 Hats., 27-30. Every member has a right to see the journals, and take and publish votes from them. Being a record, every one may see and publish them. 6 Grey, 118, 119.
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