Loe raamatut: «Government in the United States, National, State and Local», lehekülg 12

Special Functions of the Senate.– The senate is not only a coequal branch of the national legislature but it possesses in addition certain powers not enjoyed by the lower house.

Share in the Appointing Power.– First of all, it shares with the President the power of appointment to federal offices. The Constitution makes its approval necessary to the validity of all appointments made by the executive, the idea being that the participation of the senate would serve as a restraint upon the errors or abuses of the President and thus insure the appointment of honest and capable men to office. But it was never intended to give the senate anything more than the negative power of rejecting the nominations of the President. It is his power to nominate and that of the senate to approve or disapprove the nomination. Nevertheless, there has grown up in the senate a practice by which the senators from a particular state in which an appointment to a federal office is to be made, claim the right to select the appointee themselves and when they have agreed upon him to present his name to the President for appointment; provided, of course, that they are of the same party as the President. If the President refuses to comply with the request of the senators from a particular state, and nominates an official who is unacceptable to them, the custom of "senatorial courtesy," which has become one of the traditions of the senate, requires that the senators from the other states shall stand by their associates in question and reject the nomination of the President. In this way the senate has, in effect, assumed the power of dictating to the President appointments to many federal offices in the states, such as those of postmaster, federal judge, attorney, revenue collector, and the like. If the two senators from a state belong to different political parties, the one with whom the President is in political sympathy controls the federal patronage in the state.

Share in the Treaty-Making Power.– The senate also shares with the President the power of making treaties with foreign countries. The ordinary procedure is for the President, through the Department of State, to negotiate the treaty, after which it is laid before the senate for its approval. Approval by a two-thirds vote of the senators is necessary to the validity of the treaty. The purpose of giving the senate a share in the treaty-making power was to provide a check or restraint upon the possible abuses or errors of the executive. The extraordinary majority required for the approval of the treaty, however, has frequently proved a handicap and led to the defeat of a number of valuable treaties. Thus a small political minority can prevent the ratification of a treaty and sometimes does so when it sees an opportunity to reap political advantage thereby.

The Constitution speaks of the "advice and consent" of the senate, but in practice all the senate does is to give its consent. In the early days, however, the President not infrequently requested the "advice" of the senate before starting the negotiation of a treaty, and if the advice was unfavorable the proposed negotiations were abandoned. Even now if the President has doubts as to whether a proposed treaty would receive the approval of two thirds of the senate he will sometimes consult with the members of the senate committee on foreign relations and with other influential members, before beginning the negotiations.

The senate may reject a treaty in toto, and has done so in many instances, or it may amend a treaty laid before it, in which case it must be sent back to the government of the other country which is a party thereto for concurrence in the amendments. After the senate has consented to the ratification of a treaty, the President may ratify it or not as he likes.

The Senate as a Court of Impeachment.– Another special function of the senate is that of acting as a court for the trial of impeachment cases. The Constitution declares that the President, Vice President, and all civil officers of the United States shall be removed from office on impeachment for and conviction of treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. Military and naval officers are tried by court-martial and are not therefore liable to impeachment.²⁹ To impeach an officer is to bring charges against him. So far as federal officers are concerned this power belongs exclusively to the house of representatives, which acts somewhat as a grand jury does in finding indictments against ordinary criminals. When sitting as a court of impeachment the senators are under a special oath, and when the President is on trial the chief justice of the Supreme Court is the presiding officer instead of the Vice President, who, in such a case, would be directly interested in the outcome of the trial, since in the event of the conviction and removal of the President he would succeed to the office. Managers appointed by the house of representatives appear at the bar of the senate to prosecute the charges preferred by the house, witnesses are examined, evidence presented, and the accused is defended by counsel of his own choosing. In order to prevent the employment of the impeachment power for party purposes, the Constitution provides that the concurrence of two thirds of the senators shall be necessary to convict.

The punishment which the senate may inflict in case of conviction is limited to removal from office and disqualification from holding office in the future. The Constitution makes it mandatory upon the senate to remove the convicted official, but whether he shall forever be disqualified from holding office in the future is left to the discretion of the senate. In England the House of Lords, which tries impeachment cases, is not limited in the extent of punishment which it may inflict, but may, at its discretion, sentence the convicted official to imprisonment or the payment of a fine. While the senate of the United States cannot do this, the person convicted and removed may, nevertheless, be indicted and tried by the courts as any other criminal may.

The procedure of removing an officer by impeachment is so cumbersome and unwieldy that it has rarely been resorted to. During our entire history there have been only eight impeachment trials of federal officers, and of these there were convictions in but three cases.³⁰ If this were the only method of removal it would be difficult to get rid of corrupt and incompetent officials, but it must be remembered that any federal official except the judges may be removed from office by the President for any reason that to him seems fit and proper; and the power is frequently exercised.

References.– Andrews, Manual of the Constitution, pp. 47-68. Beard, American Government and Politics, chs. xii-xiii. Bryce, The American Commonwealth (abridged edition), chs. ix-xii. Harrison, This Country of Ours, ch. ii. Hart, Actual Government, ch. xiii. Hinsdale, American Government, chs. xvii-xxiii. Wilson, Congressional Government, secs. 1273-1293.

Documentary and Illustrative Material.– 1. Copy of the Congressional Directory. 2. Copies of the Congressional Record. 3. A map showing the Congressional districts of the state.

Research Questions

1. How many representatives in Congress has your state?

2. Is there any evidence that your state is "gerrymandered"?

3. In what congressional district do you live? How many counties are there in the district? What is its population? How much does the population vary from the congressional ratio? Who is your representative? How many terms has he served? What is his party? By how large a majority was he elected?

4. Who is the senior senator from your state? The junior senator? How many terms has each served? To which of the three classes does each belong?

5. If the first congressional ratio of one member for 30,000 inhabitants were now in force, what would be the number of representatives in the house? Give arguments for and against the proposition that a house of 435 members is too large.

6. Is the present salary of members of Congress sufficiently large to attract the best men? Do you think the European custom of not paying salaries to members of Parliament a wise one?

7. Do you think members of Congress are morally entitled to "constructive" mileage, that is, for mileage not actually traveled, as where one session merges into another?

8. Members of the British Parliament are elected for a term of five years, those of the German Reichstag for five years, those of the French Chamber of Deputies for four years. In view of these rather long terms, do you think a two-year term for American representatives is too short?

9. Do you think the practice of members of Congress of distributing large quantities of garden seed among their constituents at public expense a wise or a vicious one?

10. Do you think public documents printed by authority of Congress should be distributed free of cost to all who desire them?

11. What is your opinion of the practice of members of Congress of printing in the Congressional Record long speeches never delivered in Congress?

12. Would the nomination of members of Congress by direct primary be a better method than nomination by convention?

13. What would be the advantage in requiring a newly elected Congress to assemble shortly after the election instead of about thirteen months thereafter, as is the present rule?

14. Ought the qualifications for voting for representatives in Congress to be determined by national authority instead of by the states?

15. Ought a representative to be required to be a resident of the district from which he is elected?

16. Do you think the states should be equally represented in the senate?

CHAPTER XI
ORGANIZATION AND PROCEDURE OF CONGRESS

Organization of the Two Houses.—Officers.– Each house of Congress is free to organize itself in such a manner as it pleases, and to choose its own officers, except that the Vice President of the United States is, by the Constitution, made the presiding officer of the senate. The presiding officer of the house of representatives is called the speaker; that of the senate, the president. Each house has one or more clerks who keep the journals, call rolls, read bills, and have custody of all bills, resolutions, petitions, and memorials; a sergeant-at-arms who preserves order, has charge of the halls, pays members their salaries, and performs various other duties³¹; a postmaster; a doorkeeper; a chaplain; and other minor officials.

Opening of a New Congress.– When a new Congress assembles, the house of representatives is called to order by the clerk of the preceding house. He then calls the roll of the members whose credentials or certificates of election have been filed with him, and if a quorum is present the house proceeds to the election of a speaker. The members of each political party represented in the house have already in caucus agreed upon their candidates, and they are now put in nomination before the house by some member representing each party. Usually the action of the caucus of the majority party is equivalent to an election, and the house has only to ratify its choice. In several instances, however, the election of the speaker involved long and bitter contests. Thus in 1849, 63 ballots were taken, and again in 1855-1856, 133 ballots were necessary, and in each case a special rule was adopted permitting a plurality to elect.

The senate, on the other hand, is always an organized body. The presiding officer – the Vice President – at the opening of a new Congress calls the senate to order, and the other officers, who hold during the pleasure of the senate, resume their duties. The senate elects one of its own members as president pro tempore to preside over its deliberations during the absence of the Vice President or in case there is no Vice President, as has often happened.

The Oath of Office is usually administered to the speaker by the oldest member in point of service, – called "the Father of the House," – after which the speaker calls the other members to the front – usually by state delegations – and administers the oath to them. Newly elected senators are escorted to the Vice President's desk, usually each by his state colleague, and are sworn in individually.

Adoption of the Rules.– After the administering of the oaths of office, the house adopts the rules of the preceding Congress for regulating its procedure pending the adoption of new rules. Usually this is a perfunctory performance and is carried through without opposition. At the opening of the sixty-first Congress, however, strong opposition was manifested toward the old rules and they were not readopted until important amendments had been made in them.

After the adoption of the rules each house appoints a committee to notify the other of its readiness for business, and the two then appoint a joint committee to inform the President of the United States that Congress is ready to receive any communication that he may be pleased to make. The message of the President is then laid before each house and the business of Congress proceeds.

Quorum.– The Constitution provides that a majority of each house shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, but that a smaller number may compel the attendance of absent members in such manner and under such penalties as each house may prescribe.

Old Method of Counting a Quorum.– For a long time the method of ascertaining whether a quorum was present was by a roll call. If the roll call failed to show the presence of a majority, the speaker ruled that no quorum was present, even though every member of the house was actually in his seat. In the course of time this rule came to be frequently abused by the minority for the purpose of preventing consideration of measures to which it was opposed. Thus in January, 1890, when the Republicans had only a slight majority in the house of representatives, the Democrats were able, owing to the absence of a few Republican members, to break a quorum and prevent consideration of important measures, by refusing to answer to the roll call. On a notable occasion in January, 1890, the roll call showed 161 yeas, 2 nays, and not voting 165, the 165 who refused to vote being Democrats who were opposed to the taking up of a certain measure which the Republicans desired to pass. Under the rules the roll call did not show a quorum present, though more than two thirds of the members were actually in their seats.

The New Method.– The Republican majority therefore adopted a new rule, that members who were actually in their seats were to be counted by the speaker as present, no matter whether they voted or not. The action of Speaker Reed in enforcing this rule raised a storm of protest by the minority, but he courageously stood his ground. The new rule was readopted by the next Congress though the Democrats were then in the majority, and it has been continued ever since with the exception of one or two Congresses when the old rule was reverted to. Much of the business of Congress is really done, however, when there is no quorum present, this being permissible so long as the point of "no quorum" is not raised by any member.

Open Sessions.– The ordinary sessions of both houses are open to the public, though until 1794 the senate held its sessions in secret. When the senate goes into executive session, as it may do when it is considering nominations of the President to public office or is engaged in considering treaties, the galleries are cleared, the doors closed, and its deliberations are conducted in secret, though, the results of its transactions usually leak out in some way.

Seating of Members.– Until 1913 each member of each house was provided with a seat and a desk, but in that year the desks were removed from the house of representatives in order to bring the members nearer together. Prior to that date, seats were assigned to members by lot at the opening of Congress, but the leader of the minority party and one or two other members of long service were usually allowed to select their seats without resort to the lot. The Democrats are seated on the right of the speaker and the Republicans on the left. In the senate, each seat as it becomes vacant is assigned to the member who first makes application for it to the presiding officer. The house chamber is so large that members in the rear seats are at a disadvantage, and speech making is carried on with difficulty. In 1913, however, this inconvenience was diminished by a reduction in the size of the hall by about one third of the floor space.³² The senate chamber is less spacious, and debate can be conducted with much greater satisfaction and effectiveness. It would be a great advantage if the number of representatives could be reduced to 250 or 300 so as to make the house less unwieldy, but there is little probability that such a reform will ever be effected. If smaller in size, the house could transact its business with more dispatch, give more careful consideration to bills, and allow members a greater opportunity for discussion.

Committees.– Obviously an assembly of more than 400 members cannot legislate effectively as a whole; its work must be done largely by committees. To some committee every measure and every petition is referred, as are also the various recommendations of the President. In the sixty-seventh Congress (1921-1923) there were thirty-four standing committees in the senate and sixty in the house. Usually there are also several select committees, and occasionally a few joint committees. In the senate, the committees vary in size from three to sixteen members; in the house from three to thirty-five.

The most important committees in the senate are those on appropriations, commerce, finance, foreign relations, interstate commerce, judiciary, military affairs, naval affairs, and public expenditures. The least important are those on disposition of useless papers, University of the United States, and Revolutionary claims, since there is little or no business referred to them. The most important committees in the house are those on ways and means, appropriations, banking and currency, public expenditures, foreign affairs, interstate and foreign commerce, judiciary, military affairs, naval affairs, public buildings and grounds, rivers and harbors, and rules (twelve members now, formerly five). The least important is that on the disposition of useless papers.³³

Method of Choosing Committees.– In the senate committee assignments are nominally made by the senate itself, but in reality they are made by two committees on committees selected by a caucus of the members of each party, the recommendations of the two committees usually being accepted by the senate without debate. Both parties are represented on each committee, the dominant party, of course, being given a majority of the places. Thus on a committee of thirteen members, the majority party is usually represented by eight members and the minority by five; on a committee of seventeen, the numbers are eleven and six respectively, and so on.

In the house of representatives, from the beginning until very recently, all the committees were appointed by the speaker, a power which gave him great influence in shaping and determining the course of legislation, since he might constitute the committees with reference to their friendliness or unfriendliness toward legislative measures that were referred to them for investigation and report. In making committee assignments, however, the speaker was not entirely free to follow his own individual preferences. Thus the tradition of the house required that he must take into consideration the claims of members whose service had been long and distinguished, while political gratitude led him to reward with desirable committee assignments those to whom he was especially indebted for his election as speaker. Seniority of committee service was also taken into account when the chairmanship of an important committee became vacant, the next ranking member of the committee having a strong claim to be promoted to the vacancy. In 1911, however, the house, then controlled by the Democrats, adopted a rule providing for the election of all standing committees by the house; thus making the method of choosing committees the same as in the senate.

In the house, the chairmanship of every committee, whether important or unimportant, is given to a member of the dominant party, and of course also a majority of the other places on the committee, the proportion between the representation of the two parties being about the same as on the senate committees.

Introduction and Reference of Bills.– After the appointment of the committees the house is ready for the transaction of legislative business. Bills are introduced by sending them, indorsed with the name of the introducer, to the presiding officer's desk, where the fact of presentation is entered on the journal and the bill is given a number.³⁴ Thus the first bill introduced at the beginning of a new Congress is designated as "S. 1," if presented in the senate, and "H. R. 1," if presented in the house of representatives.

Reference to Committees.– The next step is to refer the bill to a committee for consideration, and in the meantime it is printed and placed on the desks of members. Reference to the appropriate committee is usually made by the presiding officer, though the house may direct that it shall be referred to a particular committee.

Some idea of the mass of legislative projects referred to the committees may be gained from the fact that in the sixtieth Congress 27,114 bills and resolutions were introduced into the two houses, and that of these, 7,839 were reported by the committees to which they were referred. We have here a good illustration of the necessity of the committee system, since it would have been a physical impossibility for either house as a whole to have considered even slightly so many bills. The committees sift out of the mass of proposed legislation such measures as they think worthy of enacting into law, and report their recommendations to the house as a whole.

Committee Hearings.– Committees charged with the consideration of important bills frequently hold public hearings at which interested parties may appear and present arguments for and against the measures under consideration. Thus the ways and means committee of the house in 1909 held public hearings at Washington for many weeks on the tariff bill, and scores of persons appeared to advocate lower or higher rates on various articles on which duties were to be imposed. Frequently members who introduce bills appear before committees and urge favorable action. The more important committees in each house have a regular day in each week for meeting, and a few of those in the house of representatives meet twice a week. Most of the committees, however, have no regular meeting day, being called together by their chairmen as occasion requires.

Forms of Committee Action.– The committee to which a bill is referred may pursue any one of the following courses: (1) It may report the bill back to the house with a recommendation that it be passed; (2) it may amend the bill and recommend that it be passed as amended; (3) it may throw the bill aside and report an entirely new one in its place; (4) it may report the bill unfavorably with a recommendation that it do not pass; (5) it may "pigeonhole" the bill, that is, take no action on it at all, or report it so late in the session that no opportunity is allowed for its consideration. The latter method of disposal, sometimes called "smothering," is the fate that awaits the great majority of bills introduced into Congress. The "smothering" of bills became the subject of so much complaint among members recently that the rules were amended so as to allow members to demand that their bills be reported to the house for consideration. The house, of course, may at any time instruct a committee to report a bill for its action, but this is rarely done.

The report to the house is usually made by the chairman of the committee, or some one designated by him. Not infrequently the minority members of the committee also make a report opposing the recommendation of the majority. The committee system of legislation is so thoroughly established in Congress that a bill favorably reported stands an excellent chance of being passed, while one adversely reported hardly ever passes.

Rules of Procedure.– The Constitution provides that each house may frame its own rules of procedure, though it requires certain things to be done in the interest of publicity and to insure a reasonable degree of careful deliberation. Thus each house is required to keep and publish a journal which must show how motions are disposed of and the vote for and against measures voted on. It also requires that on demand of one fifth of the members present the yeas and nays upon a measure shall be entered upon the journal. The purpose of this provision is to enable a small number of members to put the house on record so that the people may know how their representatives have voted on important measures.

Filibustering.– This requirement serves a useful purpose, but it is sometimes taken advantage of by the minority in "filibustering," that is, in obstructing and delaying legislative proceedings. Thus a member may move to adjourn or to take a recess and ask that the roll be called and the yeas and nays on the question be entered upon the journal. If one fifth of the members join in the demand, the roll must be called and the process may be repeated indefinitely. On one occasion in the fiftieth Congress the house remained in session eight days and nights, during which time there were over one hundred roll calls on motions of this kind.

The Rules of the House of Representatives have evolved gradually out of the experience of the house during its long existence, and have come to be so complex and elaborate that they are really understood by only a few of the members, principally those who have had long experience in administering them. They have been revised from time to time, but except in a few particulars they are essentially what they were in 1880. They prescribe a certain order of business for each day's work, which, however, may be departed from by unanimous consent of all the members or by the adoption of a "special order" reported by the committee on rules.

Committee of the Whole.– Revenue and appropriation bills are considered by the house of representatives in committee of the whole. When the house goes into committee of the whole, the speaker leaves the chair and calls some one else to preside in his place, and the presence of 100 members constitutes a quorum. Debate in committee of the whole is conducted rather informally, and greater freedom of discussion is allowed. It is when in committee of the whole that many of the lengthy speeches printed in the Congressional Record are supposed to be delivered. In reality, however, only a small portion of these speeches are actually delivered, for members after addressing the house a few minutes often secure leave to print the remainder of their remarks. Under this leave, members frequently print long speeches which have little or no relation to the subject under consideration but are intended for campaign purposes or for effect upon their constituents. They are then franked through the mails to the voters throughout the district which the member represents.

If the bill is a private bill, it is called up for consideration on Friday, which is private bill day. Most of the private bills are reported from the committees on claims and on pensions. Six or seven thousand such bills are passed by each Congress, and they constitute about nine tenths of the entire number enacted.

Suspension of the Rules.– The regular order of business may be departed from at any time on the demand of privileged committees like those on ways and means, appropriations, elections, rules, and a few others which have a sort of right of way in the house, because of the urgent character of the matters with which they deal. Furthermore, by unanimous consent, often granted, a particular member is allowed to bring up a bill for consideration outside the regular order. Finally, on two Mondays in every month and during the last six days of the session, the rules may be suspended by a two-thirds vote and measures to which there is little objection may be quickly passed and thus the business of the house expedited.

The Speaker and the Committee on Rules.– No discussion of the procedure of the house of representatives would be adequate without a consideration of the part played by the speaker and the committee on rules in determining the course and character of legislation.

The English Speaker.– The speakership is an ancient office inherited from England, where it originated in the fourteenth century, and is an outgrowth of the practical necessities of legislative procedure. The American speakership, however, differs widely from its English prototype. The speaker of the House of Commons has no such power in shaping legislation and controlling debate as does the American speaker. He is in fact little more than a moderator with power to put motions, state questions, and preserve order and decorum in debate. He is entirely impartial, with no party prejudices.

Powers of the American Speaker.– The American speaker, on the contrary, is not merely the presiding officer of the house, but he is an active party leader who seldom hesitates to give members of his own party every possible advantage in the course of debate. His right to appoint the committees of the house until 1911 gave him increased power over the shaping of legislation, because of the fact that the legislation of the house has come to be legislation largely by its committees. As has already been said, he gave the members of his own party all the chairmanships of committees, as well as a majority of the places on every committee, so that they easily controlled the work of the committees and hence of the house itself.