lishment or change of post-routes shall be delivered to the Clerk, as in the case of petitions and memorials, for reference to appropriate committees.

6. Upon all general appropriation and revenue bills, and bills for the improvement of rivers and harbors, the yeas and nays shall be taken on the passage of such bills in the House and entered upon the Journal.

RULE XXII.

OF PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS.

1. Members having petitions or memorials 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, except such as, in the judgment of the Speaker, are of an obscene or insulting character, shall be entered on the Journal together with the names of the members presenting them, and the Clerk shall furnish a transcript thereof to the official reporters of debates for publication in the Record.

2. Any petition or memorial excluded under this rule shall be returned to the member from whom it was received; and petitions which have been inappropriately referred may, by direction of the committee having possession of the same, be properly referred in the manner originally presented.

RULE XXIII.

OF COMMITTEES OF THE WHOLE HOUSE.

1. In all cases in forming a Committee of the Whole House the Speaker shall leave his chair after appointing a chairman to preside who shall, in case of disturbance or disorderly conduct in the galleries or lobby, have power to cause the same to be cleared.

2. Whenever a Committee of the Whole House finds itself without a quorum, the Chairman shall cause the roll to be called, and thereupon the committee shall rise, and the Chairman shall report the names of the absentees to the House, which shall be entered on the Journal; but if on such call a quorum shall appear, the committee shall thereupon resume its sitting without further order of the House.

3. All motions or propositions involving a tax or charge upon the people; all proceedings touching appropriations of money, or bills mak ing appropriations of money or property, or requiring such appropriation to be made, or authorizing payments out of appropriations already made, or releasing any liability to the United States for money or property, shall be first considered in a Committee of the Whole, and a point of order under this rule shall be good at any time before the consideration of a bill has commenced.

4. In Committees of the Whole House, business on their calendars shall be taken up in regular order, except bills for raising revenue, general appropriation bills, and bills for the improvement of rivers and harbors, which shall have precedence, and when objection is made to the consideration of any bill or proposition, the committee shall thereupon rise and report such objection to the House, which shall decide, without debate, whether such bill or proposition shall be considered or laid aside for the present; whereupon the committee shall resume its sitting without further order of the House.

5. When general debate is closed by order of the House, any member

shall be allowed five minutes to explain any amendment he may offer, after which the member who shall first obtain the floor shall be allowed to speak five minutes in opposition to it, and there shall be no further debate thereon; but the same privilege of debate shall be allowed in favor of and against any amendment that may be offered to an amendment; and neither an amendment nor an amendment to an amendment shall be withdrawn by the mover thereof unless by the unanimous consent of the committee.

6. The House may, by the vote of a majority of the members present, at any time after the five minutes' debate has begun upon proposed amendments to any section or paragraph to a bill, close all debate upon such section or paragraph, or, at its election, upon the pending amendments only; but this shall not preclude further amendment, to be decided without debate.

7. A motion to strike out the enacting words of a bill shall have precedence of a motion to amend; and, if carried, shall be considered equivalent to its rejection. Whenever a bill is reported from a Committee of the Whole with an adverse recommendation, and such recommendation is disagreed to by the House, the bill shall stand recommitted to the said committee without further action by the House. But before the question of concurrence is submitted, it is in order to entertain a motion to refer the bill to any committee, with or without instructions, and when the same is again reported to the House, it shall be referred to the Committee of the Whole without debate.

8. The rules of proceeding in the House shall be observed in Committees of the Whole House so far as they may be applicable.

RULE XXIV.

ORDER OF BUSINESS.

1. Each Monday morning during a session of Congress, immediately after the Journal of the proceedings of the last day's sitting has been read and approved, the Speaker shall call all the States and Territories in alphabetical order for bills and joint resolutions for printing and reference, on which call, joint and concurrent resolutions and memorials of State and Territorial legislatures may be presented and appropriately referred, and on this call only, resolutions of inquiry directed to the heads of the executive departments shall be in order for reference to appropriate committees, which resolutions shall be reported to the House within one week thereafter.

2. On all days other than Monday as soon as the Journal is read and approved, and on all Mondays (except the first and third in each month) after the call of States and Territories, there shall be a morning hour for reports from committees, which shall be appropriately referred and printed, and a copy thereof mailed by the Public Printer to each Member and Delegate; and the Speaker shall call upon each standing committee in regular order and then upon the select committees; and if the whole of the hour is not consumed by this call, then it shall be in order to proceed to the consideration of other business; but if he shall not complete the call within the hour, he shall resume it in the succeeding morning hour where he left off.

3. The morning hour for the call of committees shall not be dispensed with except by a vote of two-thirds of those present and voting thereon. 4. After the hour shall have been devoted to reports from committees, it shall be in order to proceed to the consideration of the unfinished business in which the House may have been engaged at an adjourn

ment, and at the same time each day thereafter, other than the first and third Mondays, until disposed of; and it shall be in order to proceed to the consideration of all other unfinished business whenever the class of business to which it belongs shall be in order.

5. Unfinished business having been disposed of, it shall be in order to entertain a motion that the House do now proceed to the business on the Speaker's table, which, the motion, prevailing, the Speaker shall dispose of in the following order:

First. Messages from the President and other executive communications.

Second. Messages from the Senate and amendments proposed by the Senate to bills of the House.

Third. Bills and resolutions from the Senate on their first and second reading, that they be referred to committees or put on their passage; and the motions so to refer shall have precedence of all other motions touching their disposition.

Fourth. Engrossed bills and bills from the Senate on their third reading 6. Business on the Speaker's table having been disposed of, it shall then be in order to entertain motions, in the following order, viz:

First. That the House resolve itself into the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union to consider, first, bills raising revenue and general appropriation bills, and then other business on its calendar. Second. To proceed to the consideration of business on the House calendar.

Third. On Friday of each week, after the morning hour, it shall be in order to entertain a motion that the House resolve itself into the Committee of the Whole House to consider business on the private calendar; and, if this motion fail, then public business shall be in order as on other days.

RULE XXV.

MISCELLANEOUS RULES.

PRIORITY OF BUSINESS.

All questions relating to the priority of business shall be decided by a majority without debate.

RULE XXVI.

PRIVATE BUSINESS.

Friday in every week shall be set apart for the consideration of private business, unless otherwise determined by a two-thirds vote of the members present and voting.

RULE XXVII.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS OF THE SESSION.

After six days from the commencement of a second or subsequent session of any Congress, all bills, resolutions, and reports, which originated in the House, and remained undetermined at the close of the last preceding session, shall be in order for action, and all business before committees of the House at the end of one session shall be resumed at the commencement of the next session of the same Congress in the same manner as if no adjournment had taken place.

RULE XXVIII.

CHANGE OR SUSPENSION OF RULES.

No standing rule or order of the House shall be rescinded or changed without one day's notice of the motion therefor, and no rule shall be suspended except by a vote of two-thirds of the members present, nor shall the Speaker entertain a motion to suspend the rules except on the first and third Mondays of each month after the call of States and Territories shall have been completed, preference being given on the first Monday to individuals and on the third Monday to committees, and during the last six days of a session.

2. All motions to suspend the rules shall, before being submitted to the House, be seconded by a majority by tellers, if demanded.

3. When a motion to suspend the rules has been seconded, it shall be in order, before the final vote is taken thereon, to debate the proposition to be voted upon for thirty minutes, one-half of such time to be given to debate in favor of, and one-half to debate in opposition to, such proposition, and the same right of debate shall be allowed whenever the previous question has been ordered on any proposition on which there has been no debate.

RULE XXIX.

CONFERENCE REPORTS.

The presentation of reports of committees of conference shall always be in order, except when the journal is being read, while the roll is being called, or the House is dividing on any proposition. And there shall accompany every such report a detailed statement sufficiently explicit to inform the House what effect such amendments or propositions will have upon the measures to which they relate.

RULE XXX.

SECRET SESSION.

Whenever confidential communications are received from the President of the United States, or whenever the Speaker or any member shall inform the House that he has communications which he believes ought to be kept secret for the present, the House shall be cleared of all persons except the members and officers thereof, and so continue during the reading of such communications, the debates and proceedings thereon, unless otherwise ordered by the House.

RULE XXXI.

READING OF PAPERS.

When the reading of a paper other than one upon which the House is called to give a final vote is demanded, and the same is objected to by any member, it shall be determined without debate by a vote of the House.

RULE XXXII.

DRAWING OF SEATS.

At the commencement of each Congress, immediately after the members and delegates are sworn in, the Clerk shall place in a box, prepared

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for that purpose, a number of small balls of marble or other material equal to the number of Members and Delagates, which balls shall be consecutively numbered and thoroughly intermingled, and at such hour as shall be fixed by the House for that purpose, by the hands of a page, draw said balls one by one from the box and announce the number as it is drawn, upon which announcement the Member or Delegate whose name on a numbered alphabetical list shall correspond with the number on the ball, shall advance and choose his seat for the term for which he is elected.

2. Before said drawing shall commence, each seat shall be vacated and so remain until selected under this rule, and any seat having been selected shall be deemed forfeited if left unoccupied before the call of the roll is finished, and whenever the seats of Members and Delegates shall have been drawn, no proposition for a second drawing shall be in order during that Congress.

RULE XXXIII.

HALL OF THE HOUSE.

The hall of the House shall be used only for the legislative business of the House, and for the caucus meetings of its members, except upon occasions where the House by resolution agree to take part in any ceremonies to be observed therein; and the Speaker shall not entertain a motion for the suspension of this rule.

RULE XXXIV.

OF ADMISSION TO THE FLOOR.

The persons hereinafter named, and none other, shall be admitted to the hall of the House or rooms leading thereto, viz: The President and Vice-President of the United States and their private secretaries, Judges of the Supreme Court, Members of Congress and Memberselect, contestants in election cases during the pendency of their cases in the House, the Secretary and Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate, Heads of Departments, Foreign Ministers, Governors of States, the Architect of the Capitol, the Librarian of Congress and his assistant in charge of the Law Library, such persons as have, by name, received the thanks of Congress, ex-members of Congress who are not interested in any claim or directly in any bill pending before Congress, and clerks of committees, when business from their committee is under consideration; and it shall not be in order for the Speaker to entertain a request for the suspension of this rule or to present from the chair the request of any member for unanimous consent.

RULE XXXV.

OF ADMISSION TO THE GALLERIES.

The Speaker shall set aside a portion of the west gallery for the use of the President of the United States, the members of his Cabinet, Justices of the Supreme Court, Foreign Ministers and suites, and the members of their respective families, and shall also set aside another portion of the same gallery for the accommodation of persons to be admitted on the card of members. The southerly half of the east gallery shall be assigned exclusively for the use of the families of members of Congress, in which the Speaker shall control one bench, and on request of a member the Speaker shall issue a card of admission to his family, which shall include their visitors, and no other person shall be admitted to this section.