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the same, but that is merely a preliminary examination and approval. The question as to whether or not the proceedings of the House are correctly or incorrectly recorded is always under the control of the House itself.-Journal, 1, 50, p. 2945. When the question on approval of the Journal has been omitted or postponed on several successive days, the question on approving each of them respectively is taken in the chronological order of the Journals.-Journal, 2, 53, pp. 337, 338.

Since the rule authorizing the presentation of petitions by delivery to the Clerk for reference under Rule XXII, clause 1, that portion of the Journal which contains the record of petitions handed to the Clerk is not usually read.

The list of bills introduced and referred by delivery to the Clerk or Speaker and reports on private bills are not, according to the practice, read in the House. But it would seem to

be the right of any Member to demand the reading of the entire Journal, including such lists.

The names of Members voting and of those failing to answer on a roll call are not read unless the reading is specially demanded.

Every motion made to the House and entertained by the Speaker shall be reduced to writing on the demand of any Member, and shall be entered upon the Journal with the name of the Member making it, unless it is withdrawn the same day. Rule XVI, clause 1.

And such motions are often inserted even where subsequently withdrawn, especially where a vote is taken intermediately between its being submitted and withdrawn. All motions, however, to be entered on the Journal must be first entertained and submitted by the Speaker, or if in writing must be read by the Clerk by direction of the Speaker.

Members having petitions or memorials or bills of a private nature to present may deliver them to the Clerk, indorsing their names and the reference or disposition to be made thereof; and said petitions and memorials and bills of a private nature, except such as, in the judgment of the Speaker, are of an obscene or insulting character, shall be entered on the Journal with the names of the Members presenting them.-Rule XXII, clause 1.

All other bills, memorials, and resolutions, may in like manner be delivered, indorsed with the names of Members introducing them, to the Speaker, to be by him referred, and the titles and references thereof shall be entered on the Journal.Rule XXII, clause 3.

The hour at which the House adjourns shall be entered on the Journal.-Rule XVI, clause 5.

The entry of petitions and memorials, as stated in Rule XXII, clause 1, is construed to require simply the entry of a brief statement of their contents, their reference, etc.

The names of the absentees reported upon a roll call in Committee of the Whole "shall be entered on the Journal."-Rule XXIII, clause 2.

All questions of order shall be noted by the Clerk, with the decisions, and put together at the end of the Journal of every session.-Rule III, clause 3.

The Clerk shall, as soon after the close of each session as possible, complete the printing, and distribution to Members and Delegates, of the Journal of the House, together with an accurate and complete index to the same.-Rule III, clause 3.

It shall be the duty of the Clerk of the House, at the end of each session, to send a printed copy of the Journal thereof to the executive and to each branch of the legislature of every State.-Rule III, clause 3.

Extracts from the Journal, duly certified by the Clerk, shall be admitted as evidence in the several courts of the United States, and shall have the same force and effect as the original thereof would have if produced in court and proved.-R. S., sec. 895.

JUDICIARY, COMMITTEE ON THE.

(See. Committees.)

JURISDICTION OF COMMITTEES.

It is not essential in all cases that a bill should be introduced and referred to a committee to give such committee the right to report on the subject; it is sufficient if the subject be referred to it either in the form of a petition or an executive or other communication or generally by the rules of the House.

In this manner the Committee on Appropriations and other committees, whose duty it is to report general appropriation bills, acquire jurisdiction to prepare and report the general appropriation bills, these bills originating in the committee and being also based on estimates previously referred to it.

It is not competent for a committee to report a bill when the subject-matter has not been referred to it by the House, by the rules or otherwise.-Journals, 1, 31, p. 590; 1, 45, p. 159.

A committee has no right to submit any report to the House unless it relates to a subject over which it has jurisdiction by the Rules of the House, or by a reference of the subject to it by order of the House.-Journal, 1, 48, p. 1108. It was held in the Fifty-third Congress that the Committee on Rules were authorized to report on the rules or order of business, notwithstanding the proposed rule or order had not been specially referred to that committee.—Journal, 1, 53, p. 96.

Reference of a proposition to a committee by the House confers jurisdiction upon it.-Journal, 1, 41, p. 87.

It is competent for the House to refer a bill to any committee regardless of the ordinary jurisdiction of such committee.Journal, 1, 18, p. 703.

It is not in order for a committee to propose to pass under suspension of the rules a bill or resolution which has not been referred to it, or which it has not authority to report.-Journal, 1, 48, p. 1108; Congressional Record, 1, 51, p. 8773.

It is within the power of the House to authorize a committee to consider in the course of an investigation testimony taken before a committee of a previous Congress.-Journal 1, 46, pp. 442, 443.

Bills, executive communications, etc., frequently embrace a subject or subjects within the proper jurisdiction of different committees. In such cases the principal object of the proposition controls its reference; or if the objects are of nearly equal importance, it is referred to the committee which has already, by a previous reference of similar measures, acquired jurisdiction of the general subject. (See Record, 1, 51, pp. 2046, 2047.)

A resolution of inquiry asking information relative to the construction of public works built for the improvement of

navigation may properly be referred to either the Committee on Rivers and Harbors or the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce.-Journal, 1, 52, p. 107.

A provision in the sundry civil appropriation bill, making appropriation for the improvement of rivers and harbors pursuant to contracts authorized by a river and harbor appropriation act, was held to be in order as within the jurisdiction of the Committee on Appropriations.-Congressional Record, 2, 52, p. 1065.

Where the House has by resolution instructed the Committee on Appropriations to report a certain provision in an appropriation bill, which, without such instructions, would be out of order, such provision when reported is not subject to a point of order that it changes existing law, or is otherwise in conflict with the rules of the House.-Congressional Record, 2, 52, p. 1306.

The jurisdiction of a committee of conference is confined to matters in dispute between the two Houses, and such committee has no authority to report, as an amendment, a provision which is neither germane to the text of the bill nor to the amendment which is the subject of disagreement.-Journal, 2, 52, pp. 137-139.

(See Committees.)

LABOR, COMMITTEE ON.

(See Committees.)

LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES.

The Secretary of State shall furnish the Congressional Printer with a correct copy of every act and joint resolution as soon as possible after its approval by the President of the United States, or after it shall have become a law in accordance with the Constitution without such approval; and also of every treaty between the United States and any foreign government after it shall have been duly ratified and proclaimed by the President, and of every postal convention made between the PostmasterGeneral, by and with the advice and consent of the President, on the part of the United States, and equivalent officers of foreign governments on the part of their respective countries.R. S., secs. 210 and 3803.

The Congressional Printer, on receiving from the Secretary of State a copy of any act or joint resolution, or treaty, shall immediately cause an accurate printed copy thereof to be executed and sent in duplicate to the Secretary of State, for revision. On the return of one of the revised duplicates, he shall at once have the marked corrections made, and cause to be printed, and sent to the Secretary of State, any number of copies which he may order, not exceeding five hundred, and to be printed separately, and sent to the two Houses of Congress, the usual number.-R. S., sec. 3805.

At the close of each session of Congress there shall be printed and bound for the use of the Senate three thousand, and for the use of the House of Representatives ten thousand copies of all acts and resolutions so furnished, with a complete alphabetical index, prepared under the direction of the joint Committee on Public Printing.-R. S., sec. 3807.

By the act of March 3, 1875 (Laws, 2, 43, p. 401), this index is to be prepared under the direction of the Department of State. The Secretary of the Interior shall cause to be published, at the close of every session of Congress, and as soon as practicable, eleven thousand copies of the acts and resolutions passed by Congress, the amendments to the Constitution adopted, and all public treaties and postal conventions made and ratified since the then last publication of the laws.-R. S., sec. 3808.

REVISION of.

The Revised Statutes (first edition) as orginally adopted at the first session of the Forty-third Congress embrace statutes of a general and permanent nature in force December 1, 1873.

By the act of March 2, 1877, a new edition of the Revised Statutes was authorized, in which should be incorporated all amendments made to the original text subsequent to December 1, 1873, and up to the close of the Forty-fourth Congress, the same to be prepared by the 1st day of January, 1878. This volume is known as the second edition, or the edition of 1878.

By joint resolution of June 7, 1880 (21 Stat. L., p. 308), the publication of a supplement to the Revised Statutes was authorized, which should embrace statutes, general and permanent in their nature, passed subsequent to the adoption of the Revised

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