[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 223-225]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


 

              sec. xxxi--bill, second reading in the house



Sec. 428. Manner of reading a bill the second 
time.

  In  Parliament, after the bill has been read a second time, if on 
the motion and question it be not committed, or if no proposition for 
commitment be made, the speaker reads it by paragraphs, pausing between 
each, but putting no question but on amendments proposed; but when 
through the whole, he puts the question whether it shall be read a third 
time, if it came from the other house, or, if originating with 
themselves, whether it shall be engrossed and read a third time. The 
speaker reads sitting, but rises to put questions. The clerk stands 
while he reads.



[[Page 224]]

may, with the most innocent intentions, commit errors which can never 
again be corrected.

  But the Senate of the United States is so much in the habit of making 
many and material amendments at the third reading that it has become the 
practice not to engross a bill till it has passed--an irregular and 
dangerous practice, because in this way the paper which passes the 
Senate is not that which goes to the other House, and that which goes to 
the other House as the act of the Senate has never been seen in the 
Senate. In reducing numerous, difficult, and illegible amendments into 
the text the Secretary


  In the House the Clerk and not the Speaker or Chairman of the 
Committee of the Whole reads bills on second reading. After the second 
reading, which is by paragraph or section in the Committee of the Whole, 
the bill is open to amendment (see Sec. 980, infra). Clause 8 of rule 
XVI, as explained in Sec. 942, infra, governs first and second readings 
of bills in the House and in Committee of the Whole.



[[Page 225]]




Sec. 429. Test of strength on engrossment after 
amendment.

  The  bill being now as perfect as its friends can make it, this 
is the proper stage for those fundamentally opposed to make their first 
attack. All attempts at earlier periods are with disjointed efforts, 
because many who do not expect to be in favor of the bill ultimately, 
are willing to let it go on to its perfect state, to take time to 
examine it themselves and to hear what can be said for it, knowing that 
after all they will have sufficient opportunities of giving it their 
veto. Its two last stages, therefore, are reserved for this--that is to 
say, on the question whether it shall be engrossed and read a third 
time, and, lastly, whether it shall pass. The first of these is usually 
the most interesting contest, because then the whole subject is new and 
engaging, and the minds of the Members having not yet been declared by 
any trying vote the issue is the more doubtful. In this stage, 
therefore, is the main trial of strength between its friends and 
opponents, and it behooves everyone to make up his mind decisively for 
this question, or he loses the main battle; and accident and management 
may, and often do, prevent a successful rallying on the next and last 
question, whether it shall pass.



<>   
When the bill is engrossed the title is to be indorsed on the back, and 
not within the bill. Hakew, 250.



Sec. 430. Test of strength on a bill before amending.

  In  the 
House there are two other means of testing strength--one by raising the 
question of consideration when the bill first comes up (clause 3 of rule 
XVI), and the other by moving to strike out the enacting words when it 
is first open to amendment (clause 9 of rule XVIII). By these methods an 
adverse opinion may be expressed without permitting the bill to consume 
the time of the House.





  In the practice of the House and the Senate the title appears in its 
proper place in the engrossed bill, and also is endorsed, with the 
number, on the back.