Chapter LXVI: Section XXX: Quasi-Committee

If on motion and question the bill be not committed, or if no proposition for commitment be made, then the proceedings in the Senate of the United States and in Parliament are totally different. The former shall be first stated.

[The 28th rule of the Senate says: “All bills on a second reading shall first be considered by the Senate in the same manner as if the Senate were in Committee of the Whole, before they shall be taken up and proceeded on by the Senate agreeably to the standing rules, unless otherwise ordered;” (that is to say, unless ordered to be referred to a special committee.) And when the Senate shall consider a treaty, bill, or resolution, as in Committee of the Whole, the Vice-President or President _pro tempore_ may call a member to fill the chair during the time the Senate shall remain in Committee of the Whole; and the chairman (so called) shall, during such time, have the powers of a President _pro tempore_.]

[The proceedings of the Senate, as in a Committee of the Whole, or in Quasi-Committee, are precisely as in a real Committee of the Whole, taking no questions but on amendments. When through the whole, they consider the Quasi-Committee as risen, the House resumes without any motion, question, or resolution to that effect, and the President reports that “The House acting as in Committee of the Whole, have had under their consideration the bill entitled, etc., and have made sundry amendments, which he will now report to the House.” The bill is then before them, as it would have been if reported from a committee, and the questions are regularly to be put again on every amendment; which being gone through, the President pauses to give time to the House to propose amendments to the body of the bill, and when through, puts the question whether it shall be read a third time.]

[After progress in amending the bill in Quasi-Committee, a motion may be made to refer it to a special committee. If the motion prevails, it is equivalent in effect to the several votes, that the committee rise, the House resume itself, discharge the Committee of the Whole, and refer the bill to a special committee. In that case, the amendments already made, fall. But if the motion falls, the Quasi-Committee stands _in statu quo_.]

[How far does this 28th rule subject the House, when in Quasi-Committee, to the laws which regulate the proceedings of Committees of the Whole?] The particulars in which these differ from proceedings in the House are the following: 1. In a committee every member may speak as often as he pleases. 2. The votes of a committee may be rejected or altered when reported to the House. 3. A committee, even of the Whole, cannot refer any matter to another committee. 4. In a committee no previous question can be taken: the only means to avoid an improper discussion is to move that the committee rise; and if it be apprehended that the same discussion will be attempted on returning into committee, the House can discharge them, and proceed itself on the business, keeping down the improper discussions by the previous question. 5. A committee cannot punish a breach of order in the House, or in the gallery. 9 _Grey_, 113. It can only rise and report it to the House, who may proceed to punish. [The first and second of these peculiarities attach to the Quasi-Committee of the Senate, as every day’s practice proves, and seem to be the only ones to which the 28th rule meant to subject them; for it continues to be a House, and therefore, though it acts in some respects as a committee, in others it preserves its character as House. Thus: 3. It is in the daily habit of referring its business to a special committee. 4. It admits of the previous question; if it did not, it would have no means of preventing an improper discussion, not being able, as a committee is, to avoid it by returning into the House, for the moment it would resume the same subject there, the 28th rule declares it again a Quasi-Committee. 5. It would doubtless exercise its powers as a house on any breach of order. 6. It takes a question by yea and nay, as the House does. 7. It receives messages from the President and the other House. 8. In the midst of a debate it receives a motion to adjourn, and adjourns as a house, not a committee.]