    [Constitution, Jefferson's Manual, and the Rules of the House of Representatives, 109th Congress]
    [109th Congress]
    [House Document 108-241]
    [Jeffersons Manual of ParliamentaryPractice]
    [Pages 299-302]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                               sec. xlviii--assent

    [[Page 300]]

    observed between the two Houses from motives of respect and good
    understanding. 2 Hats., 242. Were the bill to be withheld from being
    presented to the King, it would be an infringement of the rules of
    Parliament. Ib.

    Sec. 572. Parliamentary law as to presenting a bill for
    the King's assent.

      The  House which has received a bill and passed it may
    present it for the King's assent, and ought to do it, though they have
    not by message notified to the other their passage of it. Yet the
    notifying by message is a form which ought to be

      In the House it was held that where there had been no unreasonable
    delay in transmitting an enrolled bill to the President, a resolution
    relating thereto did not present a question of privilege (III, 2601).

    Sec. 573. Parliamentary law as to enrollment of
    bills.

      When a  bill has passed both Houses of Congress, the House last acting
    on it notifies its passage to the other, and delivers the bill to the
    Joint Committee on Enrollment, who sees that it is truly enrolled in
    parchment. When the bill is enrolled it is not to be written in
    paragraphs, but solidly, and all of a piece, that the blanks between the
    paragraphs may not give room for forgery. 9 Grey, 143. * * *

    [[Page 301]]

    P.L. 100-454, Sept. 29, 1988). Where an enrolled bill enacts another
    numbered bill by reference, that same law may require the Archivist to
    include as an appendix to that law the text of the referenced bill (see,
    e.g., 106-554). Only in a very exceptional case have the two Houses
    waived the requirement that bills shall be enrolled (IV, 3442). The
    enrolling clerk should make no change, however unimportant, in the text
    of a bill to which the House has agreed (III, 2598); but the two Houses
    may by concurrent resolution authorize the correction of an error when
    enrollment is made (IV, 3446-3450), and this seems a better practice
    than earlier methods by authority of the Committee on Enrolled Bills
    (IV, 3444, 3445).

    Sec. 574. Practice of the two Houses of Congress
    as to enrollment of bills.

      Formerly the  enrollment in the House and the Senate was
    in writing (IV, 3436, 3437); but in 1893 the two Houses, by concurrent
    resolution, provided that bills should be enrolled on parchment by
    printing instead of by writing, and also that the engrossment of bills
    before sending them to the other House for action should be in printing
    (IV, 3433), and in 1895 this concurrent resolution was approved by
    statute (IV, 3435; 1 U.S.C. 106). In the last six days of a session of
    Congress the two Houses, by concurrent resolution, may permit the
    enrolling and engrossing to be done by hand (IV, 3435, 3438; H. Con.
    Res. 436, Dec. 20, 1982, p. 32875; H. Con. Res. 375, Oct. 11, 1984, p.
    32149), and such a concurrent resolution is privileged for consideration
    in the House during the last six days of the session (see 1 U.S.C. 106
    for authority to waive ordinary printing requirements at the end of a
    session), but before the last six days, a joint resolution changing the
    law to permit hand enrollments is required and may be considered in the
    House by unanimous consent (Dec. 10, 1985, p. 35741) or by special order
    of business (H. Res. 580, Oct. 8, 1998, p. 24735). The two Houses have
    by joint resolution authorized not only a ``hand enrollment'' of a time-
    sensitive bill but also a parchment enrollment of the same measure, to
    be prepared at a later time for deposit in the National Archives with
    the original (P.L. 100-199, Dec. 21, 1987;

    Sec. 575. Signing of enrolled bills for
    presentation to the President.

      * * * It is  then put into the hands of the Clerk of
    the House to have it signed by the Speaker. The Clerk then brings it by
    way of message to the Senate to be signed by their President. The
    Secretary of the Senate returns it to the Committee of Enrollment, who
    present it to the President of the United States. * * *

      The practice of the two Houses of Congress for the signing of enrolled
    bills was formerly governed by joint rules, and has continued since
    those rules were abrogated in 1876 (IV, 3430). The bills are signed
    first by the Speaker, then by the President of the Senate (IV, 3429). By
    unanimous consent where errors are found in enrolled bills that have
    been signed, the two Houses by concurrent action may authorize the
    cancellation of the signatures and a reenrollment (IV, 3453-3459), and
    in the same way the signatures may be cancelled on a bill prematurely
    enrolled (IV, 3454).

    Sec. 576. Authority of pro tempore presiding
    officers to sign enrolled bills.

      A Speaker pro  tempore elected by the House (II,
    1401), or whose designation has received the approval of the House (II,
    1404; VI, 277), signs enrolled bills (see clause 4 of rule I); but a
    Member merely called to the chair during the day (II, 1399, 1400; VI,
    276), or designated in writing by the Speaker, does not exercise this
    function (II, 1401).

      The Senate, by rule, has empowered a presiding officer by written
    designation to sign enrolled bills (II, 1403).

    [[Page 302]]

    rolled bills was transferred from the Committee on House Administration
    to the Clerk (sec. 2(b), H. Res. 5, Jan. 3, 2001, p. 25). Enrolled bills
    pending at the close of a session have, at the next session of the same
    Congress, been ordered to be treated as if no adjournment had taken
    place (IV, 3487-3488). Enrolled bills signed by the presiding officers
    at one session have been sent to the President and approved at the next
    session of the same Congress (IV, 3486). At the close of the 97th
    Congress, some enrollments were presented to the President, and were
    signed by him, after the convening of the 98th Congress.

    Sec. 577. Presentation of enrolled bills to the
    President.

      In early  days a joint committee took enrolled bills to the President
    (IV, 3432); but in the later practice the chairman of the committee in
    each House that had responsibility for the enrollment of bills also had
    the responsibility of presenting the bills from that House, and
    submitted from his committee daily a report of the bills presented for
    entry in the Journal (IV, 3431). In the 107th Congress the
    responsibility in the House for en