a subject under consideration and has made certain amendments, which he will report." Then the subject comes before the assembly as if reported by a committee. The clerk keeps a memorandum for temporary use, but only enters the chairman's report upon the minutes. CHAPTER IV COMMISSIONS A Commission is of the nature of a committee, and yet there is some difference, so that it has come to have a meaning of its own. A commission has been defined as "A body of persons intrusted jointly with the performance of certain special duties, usually of a public or legal character, either permanently or temporarily." A commission, like a committee, has something committed to it, but it is usually something outside or beyond the routine duties of an ordinary committee. Sometimes it is delegated to execute some specific order. It may be commissioned and empowered with a mandate of authority, for example, to summon witnesses or to issue legal commands. It may be commissioned as an agent of the house, or an executive body, to carry out some distinctively defined purpose; or to gather information along some particular line or in regard to some specified matter and to formulate recommendations drawn from the investigations. Such a commission may be empowered to sit at any time and even beyond the session of the house. "Committees may be appointed to sit during a recess by adjournment, but not by prorogation. Neither House can continue any portion of itself in any parliamentary function beyond the end of the session without the consent of the other two branches. When done, it is by a bill constituting them commissioners for the particular purpose" (Jefferson: Manual, Section LI). "The House of Representatives may empower a committee to sit during a recess which is within the constitutional term of the House, but not thereafter. Therefore committees are created commissioners by law if their functions are to extend beyond the term of the Congress" (Digest of the United States House of Representatives). The commission is to make report to the body that created it or to its legitimate successor. PART VII SPECIAL METHODS CHAPTER I. Progressive Action on Bills CHAPTER II. Proceedings in Bicameral Bodies |
