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[Hinds Precedents -- Volume V]
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[DOCID: f:hinds_cxlvii.wais]

 
                            Chapter CXLVII.

                         SERVICE OF THE HOUSE.

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   1. No officer or employee to be agent for claims. Section 7227.
   2. Compensation of employees. Sections 7228-7231.
   3. Duties, etc., of employees. Sections 7232-7243.
   4. The House restaurant. Section 7244.

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  7227. No officer or employee of the House shall be an agent for the 
prosecution of a claim against the Government.
  Duty of the Committee on Accounts to examine as to observance of the 
rule forbidding officers and employees of the House from being 
interested in claims.
  Present form and history of Rule XLIII.
  Rule XLIII relates to the qualifications of officers and employees:

  No person shall be an officer of the House, or continue in its 
employment, who shall be an agent for the prosecution of any claim 
against the Government, or be interested in such claim otherwise than 
as an original claimant; and it shall be the duty of the Committee on 
Accounts to inquire into and report to the House any violation of this 
rule.

  This rule dates from March 8, 1842,\1\ and was not changed 
essentially in the revision of 1880.\2\
  7228. The representatives of an employee deceased before the passage 
of an act granting a month's extra pay are not entitled to what would 
be paid to the employee were he alive.--On March 21, 1895, the 
Comptroller of the Treasury decided that an appropriation for one 
month's extra pay of the Senate and House employees borne on the rolls 
on February 1, 1895,\3\ would not authorize payment to the 
representatives of such an employee who died after that date but prior 
to the passage of the act making the appropriation.\4\
  7229. In case of a month's extra pay an employee having an annual 
salary is entitled to one-twelfth of the sum of that salary.--March 13, 
1895, the Comptroller of the Treasury decided that under an 
appropriation for a month's extra pay to Senate and House employees and 
the Congressional Record clerk, the latter, being an employee of the 
Public Printer, should be paid a sum equal to one-
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  \1\ Second session Twenty-seventh Congress, Globe, pp. 291, 295.
  \2\ Second session Forty-sixth Congress, Record, p. 207.
  \3\ 28 Stat. L., 864.
  \4\ Decisions of Comptroller of the Treasury (Bowler), Vol. I, p. 
310.
                                                            Sec. 7230
twelfth of the annual salary which, according to the certificate of 
that officer, is paid to him.\1\
  7230. Decision as to per diem employees in case of an appropriation 
for a longer time than their actual employment.--By the legislative, 
executive, and judicial appropriation act of July 31, 1894,\2\ there 
was made appropriation sufficient for one hundred and twenty-one days 
at per diem or monthly rates for certain clerks and other employees of 
the House of Representatives employed during the session, with the 
proviso that wherever the words ``during the session'' occurred they 
should mean one hundred and twenty-one days, although the actual 
session covered but ninety-one days. The Comptroller of the Treasury 
decided that such persons should be paid for each day's service at the 
rate of one ninety-first of the amount appropriated for their services, 
respectively, for the session.\3\
  7231. An ordinary appropriation for session employees is not 
available at an extra session.--By the act of March 3, 1893,\4\ 
provision was made for the payment of certain employees of the House of 
Representatives ``during the session.'' It was held by the First 
Comptroller, in a decision rendered July 20, 1893, that the session 
meant was the regular session beginning on the first Monday in 
December, 1893, and not the extraordinary session held in August, 1893. 
The appropriation in the act of March 3, 1893, was therefore not 
available for use during the extraordinary session. This decision was 
based upon the fact that at the time the law was passed the regular 
session must have been the only one in contemplation, and also upon the 
fact that the act qualified its expression ``during the session'' by a 
specification as to number of days which would apply manifestly to the 
regular session.\5\
  7232. Employees under the Clerk, Sergeant-at-Arms, Doorkeeper, and 
Postmaster shall generally be assigned only to the duties for which 
they are appointed.
  Employees of the House may not sublet their duties or divide their 
compensation with others.
  The legislative, executive, and judicial act of 1901 \6\ provides:

  Hereafter employees of the House of Representatives under the Clerk, 
Sergeant-at-Arms, Doorkeeper, and Postmaster shall only be assigned to 
and engaged upon the duties of the positions to which they are 
appointed and for which compensation is provided, except that in cases 
of emergency or congestion of public business incident to the close of 
a session of Congress or other like cause an employee or employees may 
be assigned or required to aid in the discharge of the duties of any 
other employee or employees, and in the discretion of the Doorkeeper 
not more than one folder may, if necessary, be assigned to do clerical 
work under the direction of the foreman of the folding room, but all 
assignments made hereunder shall be without additional compensation and 
shall not constitute the basis of a claim therefor.
  It shall not be lawful to appoint or employ in any position under the 
House of Representatives more than one person at any one time, or to 
require or permit any such person to divide with another any portion of 
his salary or compensation while so employed.
  It shall not be lawful to require or permit any person in the employ 
of the House of Representatives to sublet to another the discharge of 
any portion of the duties of the position to which he is appointed.\7\
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  \1\ Decisions of Comptroller of the Treasury (Bowler), Vol. I, p. 
297.
  \2\ 28 Stat. L., 166.
  \3\ Decisions of Comptroller of the Treasury (Bowler), Vol. I, p. 98.
  \4\ 27 Stat. L., 675.
  \5\ Decisions of the First Comptroller (Bowler), 1893, 1894, p. 45.
  \6\ 31 Stat. L., 968.
  \7\ See, also, 28 Stat. L., 771.
Sec. 7233
  7233. No page, except chief pages and riding pages, shall be under 
twelve or more than eighteen years of age.
  The officers of the House, except the Speaker, are required to make 
monthly certificates as to the presence of the employees on their pay 
rolls.
  The Committee on Accounts are to inquire into the enforcement of the 
statutes relating to employees of the House, and are empowered to send 
for persons and papers.
  The legislative, executive, and judicial act of 1901 \1\ provides:

  No person shall be appointed or employed as a page in the service of 
the House of Representatives who is under 12 years or more than 18 
years of age; but this provision shall not apply to chief pages, riding 
pages, and telephone pages.
  The Clerk, Sergeant-at-Arms, Doorkeeper, and Postmaster shall make 
certificate each month to their respective pay rolls, stating whether 
the persons named in such pay rolls and employed in their respective 
departments have been actually present at their respective places of 
duty and have actually performed the services for which compensation is 
provided in said pay rolls, and in each case where a person carried on 
such pay roll has been absent and has not performed the services in 
whole or in part for which payment is proposed, the reason for such 
absence and for such nonperformance of services shall be stated.
  The violation of any of the foregoing provisions of law shall, upon 
ascertainment thereof, be deemed to be cause for removal from office.
  It shall be the duty of the Committee on Accounts of the House of 
Representatives from time to time to inquire into the enforcement or 
violation of any of the foregoing provisions of law; \2\ and for this 
purpose they are hereby authorized to send for persons and papers, and 
to administer oaths; and they shall report to the House at least once 
every session their compliance with the duty herein imposed.

  7234. Decision of the Comptroller of the Treasury as to the 
employment of the index clerk.--On April 20, 1897, the Comptroller of 
the Treasury decided that the Clerk of the House of Representatives was 
authorized to pay the assistant index clerk employed by him for the 
first session of the Fifty-fifth Congress, beginning March 15, 1897, 
the per diem compensation fixed by the appropriation,\3\ although the 
assistant index clerk employed during the last session of the Fifty-
fourth Congress continued to serve under the terms of the appropriation 
for his payment \4\ for eighty-nine days after the close of the 
session, on March 3, 1897. The provisions of the act of February 19, 
1897, were so modified by the joint resolution of March 24, 1897, as to 
authorize the employment of both clerks.
  7235. The Postmaster having died, it was held that contracts for 
carrying the mails must be made by the Clerk and not by the Assistant 
Postmaster.--On May 31, 1895, the Comptroller of the Treasury decided 
that upon the death of the Postmaster of the House of Representatives 
the Assistant Postmaster does not become the acting Postmaster so as to 
be authorized to make contracts under the act of March 3, 1891,\5\ for 
conveying the mails. Such contracts must, during a vacancy in the 
office of Postmaster, be entered into by the Clerk of the House.\6\
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  \1\ Stat. L., p. 968.
  \2\ This refers also to the provisions in section 7032.
  \3\ 29 Stat. L., 541, act February 19, 1892.
  \4\ 29 Stat. L., 144, act May 28, 1896.
  \5\ 26 Stat., 914.
  \6\ See Decisions Comptroller of the Treasury (Bowler), Vol. I p. 
496.
                                                            Sec. 7236
  7236. Authority of the Committee on Accounts and the accounting 
officers of the Treasury over the expenditure of the contingent fund of 
the House.--July 16, 1895, the Comptroller of the Treasury decided that 
under the act of March 2, 1895,\1\ making the approval of the temporary 
Committee on Accounts, House of Representatives, ``conclusive upon all 
the departments and auditing officers of the Government,'' the 
Comptroller has no jurisdiction to render a decision upon any question 
involved in the payment of accounts which have been so approved.\2\
  The approval by the Committee on Accounts of expense lawfully 
chargeable to the contingent fund \3\ of the House is conclusive on all 
departments of the Government.\4\
  The act of February 14, 1892 (32 Stat. L., p. 26) has since provided, 
however:

  That hereafter appropriations made for contingent expenses of the 
House of Representatives or the Senate shall not be used for the 
payment of personal services, except upon the express and specific 
authorization of the House or Senate in whose behalf such services are 
rendered. Nor shall such appropriations be used for any expenses not 
intimately and directly connected with the routine legislative business 
of either House of Congress, and the accounting officers of the 
Treasury shall apply the provisions of this paragraph in the settlement 
of the accounts of expenditures from said appropriations incurred for 
services or materials subsequent to the approval of this act.

  7237. As to the allowances for clerk hire to the chairman of the 
temporary Committee on Accounts.--On April 19, 1895, the Comptroller of 
the Treasury decided that the chairman of the temporary Committee on 
Accounts of the House of Representatives, provided for by the act of 
March 2, 1895,\5\ was chairman of a committee of the Fifty-fourth 
Congress, and was therefore not deprived of the allowance for clerk 
hire, after the adjournment of Congress, made to Members of the Fifty-
third Congress.\6\
  7238. Extra services of employees are properly compensated under 
authority of a resolution agreed to by the House.--On February 12, 
1903,\7\ the House, on recommendation of the Committee on Accounts, 
agreed to the following resolutions:

                         House resolution 416.
  Resolved, That the Committee on Appropriations is authorized to 
provide in the general deficiency appropriation bill for the payment to 
Herman Gauss of the sum of $500 for extra and expert services to the 
Committee on Invalid Pensions as assistant clerk of said committee by 
detail.

                         House resolution 417.
  Resolved, That the Committee on Appropriations is authorized to 
provide in the general deficiency appropriation bill for the payment to 
D. S. Porter of the sum of $500 for extra and expert services to the 
Committee on Pensions as assistant clerk of said committee by detail.
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  \1\ 28 Stat. L., p. 764.
  \2\ Decisions of Comptroller of the Treasury (Bowler), Vol. II, p. 
24.
  \3\ The legislative, etc., appropriation bill makes annual 
appropriation for the contingent funds of the two Houses. The act of 
1907 (34 Stat. L., p. 942) appropriated $158,100 for contingent 
expenses of the House, apportioning sums for paper, stationery, fuel, 
etc.
  \4\ Supplement of the Revised Statutes (1892-1895), p. 414, which 
also has provision as to the making of contracts involving the 
employment of horses.
  \5\ 28 Stat. L., p. 768.
  \6\ Decisions of the Comptroller of the Treasury (Bowler), Vol. I, p. 
384.
  \7\ Second session Fifty-seventh Congress, Journal, p. 237; Record, 
pp. 2070, 2072.
Sec. 7239
  7239. The House has at times laid down general principles to govern 
the selection of its employees.--On June 27, 1864,\1\ on motion of Mr. 
William S. Holman, of Indiana, the House agreed to the following:

  Resolved, That the officers of this House having authority to employ 
others in duties connected with this House ought to give the preference 
in making their appointments, other things being equal, to disabled 
soldiers, who have been permanently disabled while in the military 
service of the United States in the line of duty, and honorably 
discharged.
  Resolved, That the officers of this House, in making future 
appointments, be governed by the principle above expressed.

  7240. On December 5, 1865,\2\ Mr. Thomas T. Davis, of New York, 
offered. the following resolution, which was agreed to:

  Resolved, as the sense of this House, That the appointment of the 
sons of Members of the House to any office under the Clerk, Doorkeeper, 
Sergeant-at-Arms, or Postmaster thereof is improper, and the same is 
therefore prohibited.

  7241. The House has insisted on its right to determine the 
compensation of its own officers and employees.--On March 3, 1881,\3\ 
the House, by a resolution of instructions to its conferees, insisted 
on its right to determine the compensation of its officers and 
employees, and forced the Senate to recede.
  7242. In 1875,\4\ a prolonged disagreement occurred between the House 
and Senate over the Senate amendments to the legislative appropriation 
bill. The Senate insisted on diminishing the amount of compensation of 
the clerks at the desk of the House, and the House insisted that that 
was a matter in which the courtesy between the two Houses should leave 
it to the House to fix. There were four conferences without an 
agreement. The fifth conference agreed, on March 3, and the report was 
drawn up on the principle as stated by Mr. Horace Maynard, of 
Tennessee, chairman of the House conferees, ``that each House shall be 
intrusted by the other to regulate the number and pay of its own 
employees.''
  7243. By concurrent resolution the two Houses authorized their 
Sergeants-at-Arms to appoint special police for an important 
occasion.--On January 31, 1877,\5\ the House agreed to the following:

  Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), 
That the Sergeants-at-Arms of the Senate and House of Representatives, 
respectively, be, and they are hereby, authorized each to appoint fifty 
men to serve as a special police at the Capitol during the canvassing 
of the votes for President and Vice-President, or for such portion of 
said time as they shall deem necessary, said special police to be paid 
equally from the contingent funds of the Senate and House of 
Representatives.

  The House also at this time adopted a rule that admission to the 
House during the counting of the vote should be by tickets to be 
distributed under direction of the Committee on Rules of the House and 
Senate.
  7244. References to the practice governing management of the House 
restaurant, especially as to the sale of intoxicating liquors.--On 
December
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  \1\ First session Thirty-eighth Congress, Journal, p. 912; Globe, pp. 
2310, 2311.
  \2\ First session Thirty-ninth Congress, Journal, p. 17; Globe, p. 9.
  \3\ Third session Forty-sixth Congress, Journal, pp. 600, 604.
  \4\ Second session Forty-third Congress, Record, p. 2259.
  \5\ Second session Forty-fourth Congress, Journal, pp. 341, 344; 
Record, p. 1138.
                                                            Sec. 7244
4, 1867,\1\ a debate occurred which showed the former method of letting 
out the restaurant of the House to the highest bidder.
  On November 2, 1902,\2\ in the District court of appeals, Chief 
Justice Alvey handed down a decision reversing, the action of the 
police court in the cases of the managers of the House and Senate 
restaurants, convicted of violation of the excise law of March 3, 1893, 
in selling or offering for sale intoxicating liquors in the Senate and 
House restaurants in the United States Capitol building. The court of 
appeals held that the defendants in this case did not come within the 
meaning, of the excise law referred to, and the cases were remanded to 
the police court, with directions to quash the informations against the 
defendants and dismiss the proceedings.
  The court held that the sole question for decision was whether or not 
the act of Congress of March 3, 1893, applied to Congressional 
restaurants in the Capitol building, managed by the committees of 
Congress for the sole use of Congress and the Members thereof. The act 
of March 3, 1893, is very broad in its provisions, the court held, for 
it provides that no person shall sell, offer for sale, traffic in, 
barter, or exchange for goods any intoxicating liquor in the District 
of Columbia, with sundry exceptions, which do not apply to the case at 
hand, without first having applied for and obtained a license to carry 
on such sale, etc., from the excise board of the District of Columbia 
to conduct business under the rules and regulations therein provided. 
This law, it is declared, is very comprehensive, and provides for all 
contingencies. There is, however, no word or action to show that there 
was any express or definite intention on the part of Congress to 
include within its provisions the restaurants in the Capitol building, 
and thus to modify the rules of the Houses of Congress and to transfer 
the regulations of Congress from the committees of the two Houses to 
the municipal agents.
  The decision of the court was therefore that to make the law apply to 
Congress it must be definitely provided and specifically stated that 
the provisions included apply with equal force to the restaurants in 
the Capitol and those in other parts of the city for the municipal 
authorities to secure and exercise jurisdiction over them. As these two 
restaurants are by acts of the two Houses placed under the exclusive 
control of the committees thereof, the restaurant keepers thereby 
become quasi agents and officers of their respective Houses in carrying 
out and enforcing the regulations for the conduct of the restaurants 
which were made by these committees.\3\
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  \1\ Second session Fortieth Congress, Globe, p. 27.
  \2\ Page v. District of Columbia, 20 Tucker, p. 469.
  \3\ The brief for the plaintiffs in error in this case gives this 
resume of the system of administering the restaurants:
  \4\ ``It is historically true that intoxicating liquors were 
permitted to be sold in the Capitol without question by either House up 
to the Twenty-fifth Congress and up to the time of the completion of 
the new wings of the Capitol; it was permitted to be sold in the crypt 
for a time and afterwards in a room set apart for that purpose known as 
`a hole in the wall,' easily accessible from the old Supreme Court and 
Senate Chambers, and in a similar room in the old south wing for the 
accommodation of the House of Representatives.
  ``The Twenty-fifth Congress passed two concurrent resolutions, the 
first prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors in the Capitol, and 
a second resolution as follows: `Resolved, That no spirituous liquors 
shall be offered for sale or exhibited within the Capitol or on the 
public grounds adjacent thereto.' This was and still is known as joint 
rule 19. Both were imperfect.
  ``In the Thirty-ninth Congress, for the purpose of enlarging the 
nineteenth rule, the Senate passed a concurrent resolution known as the 
Wilson Resolution. It was upon the subject of this resolution
Sec. 7244
  The act of March 3, 1903,\1\ provides:

  That no intoxicating liquors of any character shall be sold within 
the limits of the Capitol building of the United States.
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  that Senator McDougal, of California, made his famous speech in 
opposition. The resolution was as follows: `Resolved, That the sale of 
spirituous liquors, wines, and intoxicating drinks of any description 
whatever is hereby prohibited in the Capitol building and grounds, and 
it shall be the duty of the Commissioner of Public Buildings and 
Grounds, under the direction of the President of the Senate and Speaker 
of the House of Representatives, immediately to cause to be moved 
therefrom such articles and prevent the sale hereafter of the same in 
the Capitol building and grounds.' The House concurred in this, but 
with an amendment and the resolution failed in conference. (First 
session Thirty-ninth Congress, Globe, p. 1879.)
  ``In the Fortieth Congress, March, 1867, Mr. Fessenden, from the 
Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, reported a concurrent 
resolution on this subject, as follows: `Resolved by the Senate (the 
House of Representatives concurring), That the nineteenth joint rule of 
the two Houses be amended so as to read as follows: ``No spirituous or 
malt liquors or wines shall be offered for sale, exhibited, or kept 
within the Capitol or any room or building connected therewith, or on 
the public grounds adjacent thereto; and it shall be the duty of the 
Sergeants-at-Arms of the two Houses, under the supervision of the 
presiding officers thereof, respectively, to enforce the foregoing 
provisions, and any officer or employee of either House who shall in 
any manner violate or connive at the violation of this rule shall be 
discharged from office.'' \1\ This passed both Houses. (See Senate 
Journal, first session Fortieth Congress, p. 43.)
  ``Under the operation of this rule the keeper of the House restaurant 
surrendered his contract and in the second session of the Fortieth 
Congress (Dec. 4, 1867; see Globe, first session Fortieth Congress, p. 
333) a House resolution permitting him to resume his contract, with the 
privilege of selling small beer and malt liquors, was introduced and 
referred to the Committee on Rules.
  ``Mr. Blaine reported a substitute for this from the committee as 
follows: `Resolved, That the subject of leasing the restaurant and 
prescribing the rules under which it shall be kept is hereby committed 
to the Committee on Revisal and Unfinished Business, with full power to 
make such regulations as may to them seem expedient; and all 
resolutions heretofore passed relating thereto are hereby repealed.'
  ``In the Forty-first Congress (April 8, 1869) the House passed a 
resolution as follows: `Resolved, That the House restaurant be placed 
in charge of the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, with the 
same powers heretofore possessed by the Committee on Revisal and 
Unfinished Business.'
  ``The House thus committed, with all the force of law, to its 
Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds the full power to prescribe 
the rules under which its restaurants shall be kept and to select the 
person or persons by whom its business shall be conducted.
  ``The Senate also made it the duty of its Committee on Rules by a 
standing order `to make all rules and regulations respecting such parts 
of the Capitol, its passages and galleries, including the restaurant, 
as are or may be set apart for the use of the Senate and its officers, 
to be enforced under the direction of its presiding officer.' (See rule 
34, Standing Rules of the Senate, p. 29.)
  \1\ 32 Stat. L., 1221.