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"A bill passed by the one house with blanks. These may be filled up by the other by way of amendments, returned to the first assuch, and passed."-Manual, p. 80.

"In all ballotings blanks shall be rejected, and not taken into the count in enumeration of votes, or reported by the tellers."-Rule 12, p. 105.

BLUE-BOOK.

(See BIENNIAL REGISTER.)

BOND.

Of Sergeant-at-Arms.-Rule 26, p. 108.

Of Clerk: Custody of-R. S., Sections 58, 59.

BOOKS.

Price of, to be deducted from compensation of Member or Delegate.-R. S., Sec. 42.

BRIBERY.

An offer to bribe a member is held to be a breach of the privileges of the House.-Journals, 1, 4, p. 389; 1, 15, pp. 117, 154; Manual, p. 55.

Every person who promises, offers, gives, or causes or procures to be promised, offered, or given, any money or other thing of value, or makes or tenders any contract, undertaking, obligation, gratuity, or security for the payment of money, or for the delivery or conveyance of anything of value, to any member of either house of Congress, either before or after such member has been qualified or has taken his seat, with intent to influence his vote or decision on any question, matter, cause, or proceeding which may be at any time pending in either house of Congress, or before any committee thereof, shall be fined not more than three times the amount of money or value of the thing so offered, promised, given, made, or tendered, or caused or procured to be so offered, promised, given, made, or tendered, and shall be, moreover, imprisoned not more than three years.-R. S., Sec. 5450.

Every person who promises, offers, or gives, or causes or procures to be promised, offered or given, any money or other thing of value, or makes or tenders any contract, undertaking, obligation,

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gratuity, or security for the payment of money, or for the delivery or conveyance of anything of value, to any officer of the United States, or to any person acting for or on behalf of the United States in any official function, under or by authority of any department or office of the government thereof, or to any officer or person acting for or on behalf of either house of Congress, or of any committee of either house, or both houses thereof, with intent to influence his decision or action on any question, matter, cause, or proceeding which may at any time be pending, or which may by law be brought before him in his official capacity, or in his place of trust or profit, or with intent to influence him to commit, or aid in committing, or to collude in, or allow any fraud, or make opportunity for the commission of any fraud, on the United States, or to induce him to do or omit to do any act in violation of his lawful duty, shall be punished as prescribed in the preceding section.-R. S., Sec.

5451.

Any member of either house of Congress who asks, accepts, or receives any money, or any promise, contract, undertaking, obligation, gratuity, or security for the payment of money, or for the delivery or conveyance of anything of value, either before or after he has been qualified or has taken his seat as such member, with intent to have his vote or decision on any question, matter, cause, or proceeding which may be at any time pending in either house, or before any committee thereof, influenced thereby, shall be punished by a fine not more than three times the amount asked, accepted, or received, and by imprisonment not more than three years.-R. S., Sec. 5500.

Every officer of the United States, and every person acting for or on behalf of the United States, in any official capacity, under or by virtue of the authority of any department or office of the Government thereof; and every officer or person acting for or on behalf of either house of Congress, or of any committee of either house, or of both houses thereof, who asks, accepts, or receives any money, or any contract, promise, undertaking, obligation, gratuity, or security for the payment of money, or for the delivery or conveyance of anything of value, with intent to have his decision or action on any question, matter, cause, or proceeding which may, at any time, be pending, or which may be by law brought before him in his official

capacity, or in his place of trust or profit, influenced thereby, shall be punished as prescribed in the preceding section.-R. S., Sec. 5501. Every member, officer, or person convicted under the provisions of the two preceding sections, who holds any place of profit or trust shall forfeit his office or place, and shall thereafter be forever disqualified from holding any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States.-R. S., Sec. 5502.

BUSINESS, DAILY ORDER of.

"The Speaker shall take the chair every day precisely at the hour to which the House shall have adjourned on the preceding day; shall immediately call the members to order; and, on the appearance of a quorum, shall cause the Journal of the preceding day to be read."-Rule. 1, p. 103.

"The consideration of the unfinished business in which the House may be engaged at an adjournment shall be resumed as soon as the Journal of the next day is read, and at the same time each day thereafter until disposed of.”—Rule 56, p. 115. But where it is from a committee having a special assignment of a day to report, it must go over to be disposed of on the next day assigned to said committee under the rules.-Journal, 1, 44, p. 860.

"As soon as the Journal is read, and the unfinished business in which the House was engaged at the last preceding adjournment has been disposed of, reports from committees shall be called for and disposed of; in doing which the Speaker shall call upon each standing committee in regular order, and then upon select committees; and if the Speaker shall not get through the call upon the committees before the House passes to other business, he shall resume the next call where he left off-giving preference to the report last under consideration: Provided, That whenever any committee shall have occupied the morning hour on two days, it shall not be in order for such committee to report further until the other committees shall have been called in their turn.-Rule 51, p. 113. [But this proviso does not prevent the House from occupying the morning hour on more than two days in the consideration of a report previously made.] [In the first session Forty-fourth Congress, House bill No. 3635 occupied seven morning hours.]-(See MORNING HOUR ON MONDAYS.)

BUSINESS, DAILY ORDER of.

173

Call of States and Territories for resolutions and bills on leave.— Rule 52, p. 114, and Rule 115, p. 130.

Business on the Speaker's table.-Rule 54, p. 114.

(The order of business prescribed by the aforesaid rules is pursued each day, except Mondays and Fridays, though it is often interfered with by questions of privilege, special orders, privileged questions, &c., which must be disposed of in preference to the ordinary course of business.)

"Friday in every week shall be set apart for the consideration of private bills and private business, in preference to any other, unless otherwise determined by a majority of the House."-Rule 128, p. 133. [On that day, as soon as the Journal is read, and the unfinished business of the last private-bill day is disposed of, the Speaker proceeds to call the committees for reports of a private nature, which being disposed of, it is his practice, without motion, to lay before the House such private business as may be upon his table. It is then usual for some member (commonly the chairman of the Committee of Claims) to move that the House resolve itself into a Committee of the Whole on the private calendar. This motion may be, and often is, made as soon as the Journal is read. Although it takes precedence of the motion to go into Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union (unless there be a special order pending therein), and, if made, must be first voted on, the latter motion is often made and carried, and thus private bills fail to receive consideration.]

"On the first and fourth Friday of each month the calendar of private bills shall be called over (the chairman of the Committee of the Whole House commencing the call where he left off the previous day), and the bills to the passage of which no objection shall then be made shall be first considered and disposed of. But when a bill is again reached, after having been once objected to, the committee shall consider and dispose of the same, unless it shall again be objected to by at least five members."-Rule 129, p. 134. It has been decided that this rule, so far as relates to the consideration of bills only which are not objected to, applies as well to private bills in the House as in committee.-Journal, 1, 31, p. 697.

On Monday, call for resolutions and bills on leave.-Rule 130, p.

(See also MORNING HOUR ON MONDAYS.)

On Monday of every week, at the expiration of one hour after the Journal is read, or earlier, if the call of States and Territories for bills and resolutions is concluded, the Speaker may entertain a motion to suspend the rules.-Rule 125, p. 133.

The third Monday of each month, from the hour of 2 o'clock p. m. until the adjournment of that day, shall, when claimed by the Committee for the District of Columbia, be devoted exclusively to business reported from said committee.-Rule 82, p. 123.

"The order of business, as established by the rules, shall not be changed, except by a vote of at least two-thirds of the members. present."-Rule 145, p. 140.

BUSINESS ON THE SPEAKER'S TABLE.

"After one hour shall have been devoted to reports from committees and resolutions, it shall be in order, pending the consideration or discussion thereof, to entertain a motion that the House do now proceed to dispose of the business on the Speaker's table."-Rule 54, p. 114. [The "hour" known as the "morning hour" is con strued to begin from the announcement by the Speaker to the House that reports of committees are in order, and it is not necessary that resolutions shall have been called for. It is an invariable practice, too, to permit a member, upon the expiration of the morn ing hour, to take the floor, even though another may be occupying it, to make the motion to proceed to business on the Speaker's table.-Barclay.]

The motion to go to business on the Speaker's table being decided in the affirmative, the Speaker shall dispose of it in the order specified in Rule 54, p. 114, which see.

"The Clerk shall make a weekly statement of the resolutions and bills upon the Speaker's table."-Rule 19, p. 106. [A printed copy of this statement is laid upon each member's table every Monday morning, or can be obtained of the assistant doorkeeper in the hall. The statement is headed "DAILY ORDER OF BUSINESS."]

BUSINESS UNFINISHED AT END OF A FIRST SESSION.

Bills, resolutions, and reports before the House to be resumed. after six days; before committees, to be resumed as though no adjournment had been had.-Rule 136, p. 138.

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