Hostname: page-component-6d856f89d9-jrqft Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-16T06:20:10.273Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An Analysis of Present Methods of Congressional Legislation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 October 2013

J. David Thompson
Get access

Extract

It is well known that the organization, functions and mode of operation of political institutions as set forth in articles of constitutions, statutes, legislative manuals, etc., frequently differ widely from what they are in fact. This is particularly true of legislative bodies. A good deal has been written on our form of congressional government by committees, outlining the main features of organization and procedure, but detailed operation is not shown. In order to throw some light on the latter I have undertaken an intensive study of the actual proceedings on bills, other than debate on the floor of both houses, to cover the whole period of the life of one congress, the sixty-second. The immediate purpose was to ascertain what developments of the law library service at the capitol would be most serviceable to its congressional public in connection with pending legislation, particularly in view of the probable provision of a bill drafting and legislative reference service in the near future. As, however, such a service, if established, would have to be adapted to the present methods of congressional legislation and to the actual needs of the various committees as well as of individual members, the results of this investigation may also be useful when the plan of organization is formulated in detail. The conditions in congress differ so markedly from those which obtain in the state legislatures that any plan for expert assistance in the improvement of federal statute law must be worked out de novo. The experience of the state bureaus is most suggestive but hardly conclusive as to the scheme to be adopted here.

Type
Papers and Discussions
Information
Proceedings of the American Political Science Association , Volume 10 , Issue 1: Tenth Annual Meeting , December 1914 , pp. 168 - 175
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1914

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 This large number of bills and joint resolutions produced only 457 public acts, 73 public resolutions, 180 private acts and 6 private resolutions.

A preliminary count of the 3355 bills and joint resolutions introduced in the senate during the 1st session only shows that the number of those referred to each senate committee was as follows:

Agriculture and forestry, 17; appropriations, 12; civil service, 5; claims, 503; coast defenses, 1; commerce, 35; District of Columbia, 107; education and labor, 7; finance, 31; fisheries, 17; foreign relations, 10; forest reservations, etc., 4; immigration, 4; Indian affairs, 53; Indian depredations, 2; industrial expositions, 4; interoceanic canals, 1; interstate commerce, 21; irrigation, 8; judiciary, 55; library, 25; manufactures, 3; military affairs, 222; mines and mining, 1; naval affairs, 53; Pacific islands and Porto Rico, 1; patents, 2; pensions, 1921; Philippines, 2; post-offices and post-roads, 18; printing, 5; private land claims, 2; privileges and elections, 2; public buildings and grounds, 90; public expenditures, 1; public health and national quarantine, 4; public lands, 71; railroads, 1; Revolutionary claims, 1; standards, weights and measures, 1; territories, 13; University of the United States, 1.

An approximate calculation shows that 80 per cent were private bills.

2 A summary of the statistical results obtained in (2) and (3) is shown in the following tables, giving the number of reports from each committee, by sessions and

3 The term “private bill” shall be construed to mean all bills for the relief of private parties, bills granting pensions, bills removing political disabilities, and bills for the survey of rivers and harbors (28 Stat. L., p. 609).

4 Cf. Report of select committee concerning the introduction of bills with the name of more than one member attached thereto (H. rep. 2322, 60th cong., 2d sess.; in vol. B, serial no. 5386).

5 The difference between the functions of house and senate committees with similar names at the present time is well illustrated by the following tabular comparison showing how the subjects of legislation within the jurisdiction of the senate committee on commerce and the house committee on interstate and foreign commerce are allotted in the house and senate respectively: