    [Constitution, Jefferson's Manual, and the Rules of the House of Representatives, 105th Congress]
    [105th Congress]
    [House Document 104-272]
    [Jeffersons Manual of ParliamentaryPractice]
    [Pages 183-187]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                        sec. xviii.--orders of the house.

    [[Page 184]]

    Sec. 380. Keeping of the doors of the House.

      Of  right, the
    door of the House ought not to be shut, but to be kept by porters, or
    Sergeants-at-Arms, assigned for that purpose. Mod ten. Parl., 23.

    Sec. 381. Right of the Member to demand execution of the
    subsisting order.

      The  only case where a Member has a right to insist on
    anything, is where he calls for the execution of a subsisting order of
    the House. Here there having been already a resolution, any person has a
    right to insist that the Speaker, or any other whose duty it is, shall
    carry it into execution; and no debate or delay can be had on it.

    <> Thus
    any Member has a right to have the House or gallery cleared of
    strangers, an order existing for that purpose; or to have the House told
    when there is not a quorum present. 2 Hats., 87, 129. How far an order
    of the House is binding, see Hakew., 392.

      As a request for unanimous consent to consider a bill is in effect a
    request to suspend the order of business temporarily, a Member has the
    right at any time to demand the ``regular order'' (IV, 3058). Where the
    regular order is demanded pending a request for unanimous consent,
    further reservation of the right to object thereto is precluded (Speaker
    Foley, Nov. 14, 1991, p. 32128). Occasionally a Member may incorrectly
    demand the ``regular order'' to assert that remarks are not confined to
    the question under debate. On such an occasion the Chair may treat the
    demand as a point of order requiring a ruling by the Chair (May 1, 1996,
    p. ----).

      Absent ``an existing order for that purpose,'' a Member may not demand
    that the galleries be cleared, as this power resides in the House (II,
    1353), which has by rule extended the power to the Speaker (clause 2 of
    rule I) and the chairman of the Committee of the Whole (clause 1 of rule
    XXIII), but not to the individual Member.

    [[Page 185]]

    on till an hour at which the House is usually full [which in
    Senate is at noon].

    Sec. 383. Parliamentary law as to proceeding with orders
    of the day.

      But  where an order is made that any particular matter be taken
    up on a particular day, there a question is to be put, when it is called
    for, whether the House will now proceed to that matter? Where orders of
    the day are on important or interesting matter, they ought not to be
    proceeded

      The rule of the House of Representatives providing for raising the
    question of consideration (clause 3 of rule XVI) has, in connection with
    the practice as to special orders, superseded this provision of the
    parliamentary law. The House always proceeds with business at its hour
    of meeting, unless prevented by a point that no quorum is present (IV,
    2732).

    Sec. 384. Orders of the day now obsolete.

      Orders  of the day
    may be discharged at any time, and a new one made for a different day, 3
    Grey, 48, 313.

      The House of Representatives found the use of ``Orders of the day'' as
    a method of disposing business impracticable as long ago as 1818, and
    not long after abandoned their use (IV, 3057), although an interesting
    reference to them survives in clause 1 of rule XXIV. The House proceeds
    under rule XXIV unless that order is displaced by the use of ``special
    orders'' or the intervention of privileged business.

    Sec. 385. Business at the end of a session.

      When  a session
    is drawing to a close and the important bills are all brought in, the
    House, in order to prevent interruption by further unimportant bills,
    sometimes comes to a resolution that no new bill be brought in, except
    it be sent from the other House. 3 Grey, 156.

      This provision is obsolete so far as the practice of the House of
    Representatives is concerned, as business goes on uninterruptedly until
    the Congress expires (rule XXVI).

    Sec. 386. Effect of end of the session on existing orders,
    especially as to imprisonment.

      All  orders of the House determine with the
    session; and one taken under such an order may, after the session is
    ended, be discharged on a habeas corpus. Raym., 120; Jacob's L. D. by
    Ruffhead; Parliament, 1 Lev., 165, Pitchara's case.

    [[Page 186]]

    with a session (I, 104-109). The House
    uses few standing orders. However, in the first session of the 104th
    Congress, the House continued a standing order regarding special-order
    and morning-hour speeches for the remainder of the entire Congress (May
    12, 1995, p. ----). In 1866 the House discussed its power to imprison
    for a period longer than the duration of the existing session (II,
    1629), and in 1870, for assaulting a Member returning to the House from
    absence on leave. Patrick Woods was committed for a term extending
    beyond the adjournment of the session, but not beyond the term of the
    existing House (II, 1628).

      The House of Representatives, by rule XXVI and the practice
    thereunder, has modified the rule of Parliament as to business pending
    at the end of a session which is not at the same time the end of a
    Congress. A standing order, like that providing for the hour of daily
    meeting of the House, expires

    Sec. 387. Jefferson's views as to the constitutional
    power to make rules.

      Where  the Constitution authorizes each House to
    determine the rules of its proceedings it must mean in those cases
    (legislative, executive, or judiciary) submitted to them by the
    Constitution, or in something relating to these, and necessary toward
    their execution. But orders and resolutions are sometimes entered in the
    journals having no relation to these, such as acceptances of invitations
    to attend orations, to take part in procession, etc. These must be
    understood to be merely conventional among those who are willing to
    participate in the ceremony, and are therefore, perhaps, improperly
    placed among the records of the House.

    [[Page 187]]

    (IV, 3579). In modern practice, existing statutory procedures are readopted
    as rules of the House at the beginning of each Congress (see, e.g., H.
    Res. 6, Jan. 4, 1995, p. ----). The theories involved in this question
    have been most carefully examined and decisively determined in reference
    to the law of 1851, which directs the method of procedure for the House
    in its constitutional function of judging the elections of its Members;
    and it has been determined that this law is not of absolute binding
    force on the House, but rather a wholesome rule not to be departed from
    except for cause (I, 597, 713, 726, 833; II, 1122). Under current
    practice, the House in the resolution adopting its rules adopts
    provisions of law, and of concurrent resolutions adopted pursuant to law
    which have constituted rules of the House at the expiration of the
    preceding Congress, as the rules of the new House (see H. Res. 5, Jan.
    3, 1983, p. 34; Sec. 1013, infra). Where the House amended a standing
    rule of general applicability during a session and the amended rule did
    not require prospective application, the rule was interpreted to apply
    retroactively (Sept. 28, 1994, p. ----).

    Sec. 388. The House's construction of its power to adopt
    rules.

      The  House of Representatives has frequently examined its
    constitutional power to make rules, and this power has also been
    discussed by the Supreme Court (V, 6755). It has been settled that
    Congress may not by law interfere with the constitutional right of a
    future House to make its own rules (I, 82; V, 6765, 6766), or to
    determine for itself the order of proceedings in effecting its
    organization (I, 242-245; V, 6765, 6766). It has also been determined,
    after long discussion and trial by practice, that one House may not
    continue its rules in force to and over its successor (I, 187, 210; V,
    6002, 6743-6747; Jan. 22, 1971, p. 132). A law passed by the existing
    Congress has been recognized as of binding force in matters of procedure
    (II, 1341; V, 6767, 6768); but when a law passed by a preceding Congress
    presumes to lay down a rule of procedure the House has been inclined to
    doubt its binding force (V, 6766), and in one case the Chair denied the
    authority of such a law that conflicted with a rule of the House

      As to the participation on occasions of ceremony, the House has
    entered its orders on its journal; but it rarely attends outside the
    Capitol building as a body, usually preferring that its Members go
    individually (V, 7061-7064) or that it be represented by a committee (V,
    7053-7056). It has discussed, but not settled, its power to compel a
    Member to accompany it without the Hall on an occasion of combined
    business and ceremony (II, 1139). But the House remains in session for
    the inauguration of the President on the portico of the Capitol (Jan.
    20, 1969, pp. 1288-92) and the mace is carried to the ceremony.