The rooms of the Committees on Military Affairs, adorned with a series of paintings of the forts of the United States, and on Ways and Means, decorated in fresco, are on the main floor and front to the east. It is the duty of the latter committee to frame in the first instance all tariff legislation for the country. Each bill is customarily named, by courtesy, after the chairman of the committee at the time, as he is usually the leader of his party and necessarily represents the measure upon the floor. In this room, the famous Mills, McKinley, Wilson and Dingley tariff bills were formulated before they were reported to the House for its action.

In the southeast corner of the wing is the office of the Sergeant-at-Arms, one of whose agreeable duties it is to compel the attendance of absent Members upon a " call " of the House. As its disbursing officer, he pays the salaries, mileage and funeral expenses of its Members, disbursing yearly from $2,250,000 to $2,500,000.