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1 (May 27, 2003)

handle is hein.crs/crsuntaaaxr0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Order Code RS20147 Updated May 27, 2003 CRS Report for Congress Received through the CRS Web Committee of the Whole: An Introduction Judy Schneider Specialist on the Congress Government and Finance Division Summary The Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, more often referred to as the Committee of the Whole, is the House of Representatives operating as a committee on which every Member of the House serves. The House of Representatives uses this parliamentary device to take procedural advantage of a somewhat different set of rules governing proceedings in the Committee than those governing proceedings in the House. The purpose is to expedite legislative consideration. This report briefly reviews the history of the Committee of the Whole, describes the current procedure associated with it, and identifies its procedural advantages. It will be updated if the rules and procedures change. History The Committee of the Whole has been an accepted practice in the United States Congress since the First Congress convened in 1789. It was used earlier in many of the colonial legislatures, as well as in the Continental Congress. The custom has its antecedents in English parliamentary practice. De Alva Stanwood Alexander, an historian of the House of Representatives and a former Representative himself, wrote: This Committee has a long history. It originated in the time of the Stuarts, when taxation arrayed the Crown against the [House of] Commons, and suspicion made the Speaker a tale-bearer to the King. To avoid the Chair's espionage the Commons met in secret, elected a chairman in whom it had confidence, and without fear of the King freely exchanged its views respecting supplies. The informality of its procedure survived the occasion for secrecy, but to this day the House of Commons keeps up the fiction of concealment, the Speaker withdrawing from the hall when the Committee convenes, and the chairman occupying the clerk's desk.1 Congressional Research Service +** The Library of Congress 1 Alexander, De Alva Stanwood. History and Procedure of the House of Representatives. Boston and New York. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1916, p. 257.