Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 March 1905 — MUCH WORK BY CONGRESS. [ARTICLE]

MUCH WORK BY CONGRESS.

Record Shows Bast Session to Have Been the Busiest on Record. F. 11. Wakefield, docket clerk of the House of Representatives, has prepared a statement showing the amount of work done by the Fifty-eighth Congress as compared with previous Congresses as far back as the Fifty-second. The report shows that the number of bills and resolutions introduced aggregated 20,074. The various House committees reported on a total of 4,904 measures, including Senate acts and resolutions. The House passed 11,550 of its own bills and resolutions during the second session and 551 of the 620 Senate acts and resolutions that had been reported from committees. At the close of the session it left on the union calendar unacted on 112 bills, of which thirty originated in the Senate, having passed 247 of the 359 bills and resolutions referred to that calendar. Upon the House calendar, to which there were referred 409 bills and resolutions, only sixty-four remained unacted upon, of which--fifty-three- were of House origin, and eleven of Senate. On the private calendar, to which was referred a total of 3,841 bills and resolutions, 232 remained unacted upon, of which twen-ty-eight were of Senate origin. Of the House bills sent to the Senate for concurrence only 122 failed to be acted on, while twenty-five House bills were indefinitely postponed in the Senate. These were largely private pension bills and were postponed mostly because of the death of the proposed beneficiary. For the same reason the Senate recalled twenty of its own bills after the House committee had favorably reported them. Of all the House bills sent to the President for his approval only one failed to receive his signature and become a law. The work of the House in the Fiftyeighth Congress, as compared with the Fifty-seventh Congress, shows an increase of 2,514 in the number of bills introduced; an increase of 25 per cent, or 985 in the number of reports made, and an increase of 104 in the number of public acts. The number of private acts showed a gain of 1,156. From the Fif-ty-second to the Fifty-eighth Congress tiie number of bills and resolutions introduced increased in number from 10,623 to 20,074; the number of reports made from 2,613 to 4,904; the public laws enacted from 398 to 574; the private laws from 324 to 3,467, and the number of pages "of the Congressional Record from 2,620 to 4,246. The number of days of actual session of the House in the Fifty-eighth Congress were 190. as compared with 340 in the Fiftysecond. 447 in the Fifty-third, 280 in the Fifty-fourth, 242 in the Fifty-fifth, 197 in the Fifty-sixth, and 222 in the Fiftyseventh.