Volume III Part 33 (1/2)

Mr. SPRINGER: I desire to call the attention of the Chair to Rule 10, which specifically provides for the appointment of the full number of committees this House is to have, and this is not one of them.

The SPEAKER: Not one of the standing committees, but a select committee.

Mr. SPRINGER: That rule provides there shall be a certain number of committees, the names of which are therein given.

Mr. REED: I sincerely hope this will not be made a matter of technical discussion or debate. It is a matter upon which members of this House must have opinions which they can express by voting, in a very short time, without taking up the attention of the House beyond what is really necessary for a bare discussion of the merits of the question.

Mr. MCMILLIN: Will the gentleman permit me to ask him a question?

Mr. REED: Certainly.

Mr. MCMILLIN: Would you not, as a parliamentarian, concede that this does change the existing rules of the House?

Mr. REED: By no manner of means, especially when the accomplished Speaker has decided the other way, and no gentleman has taken an appeal from his decision. [Laughter.]

Mr. MCMILLIN: Then you have no opinion beyond his decision?

The SPEAKER: The Chair will state to the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Springer] that this resolution does not change any of the standing committees of the House which are provided for in Rule 10.

Mr. SPRINGER: It provides for a new committee.

The SPEAKER: It provides for a select committee. The subject was referred to the Committee on Rules by order of the House, and this is a report on the resolution so referred.

Mr. SPRINGER: The rule provides that no standing rule or order of the House shall be rescinded or changed without one day's notice.

The SPEAKER: The Chair would decide that this does not propose any change or rescinding of any standing rule of the House.

Mr. SPRINGER: Does the Chair hold that the making of a new rule is not a change of the existing rules?

The SPEAKER: The Chair does not decide anything of the kind.

Mr. SPRINGER: What does the Chair decide?

The SPEAKER: The Chair does not undertake to decide any such question, for it is not now presented.

Mr. SPRINGER: Is this not a new rule?

The SPEAKER: It is not.

Mr. SPRINGER: It is not?

The SPEAKER: It is a provision for a select committee.

Mr. SPRINGER: Can you have a committee without a rule of the House providing for it?

The SPEAKER: The question is on the adoption of the resolution reported from the Committee on Rules.

Mr. ATKINS: On that question I call for the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

The question was taken and there were--yeas 115, nays 84, not voting 93; so the resolution was carried.[83]

Mr. REED moved to reconsider the vote by which the resolution was adopted; and also moved that the motion to reconsider be laid on the table. The latter motion was agreed to.