Congressional Research Service Reports - 23 Matching Results
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- Congressional Access to Executive Branch Information: Legislative Tools
- This report begins by reviewing the precedents established during the Washington Administration for withholding documents from Congress. Close examination reveals that the scope of presidential privilege is often exaggerated. Congress had access to more documentation than is commonly believed and might have had more had it pressed for it. Subsequent sections focus on various forms of congressional leverage: the power of the purse, the power to impeach, issuing congressional subpoenas, holding executive officials in contempt, House resolutions of inquiry, GAO investigations, and blocking nominations, all of which may force executive officials to release documents they would otherwise want to keep private and confidential. Even if Presidents announce perfectly plausible grounds for withholding documents, they may have to comply with the congressional will to achieve other more important goals.
- Congressional Liaison Offices of Selected Federal Agencies
- This list of about 150 congressional liaison offices is intended to help congressional offices in placing telephone calls and addressing correspondence to government agencies. In each case, the information was supplied by the agency itself and is current as of the date of publication. Entries are arranged alphabetically in four sections: legislative branch; judicial branch; executive branch; and agencies, boards, and commissions.
- Conventional Arms Transfers: President Clinton's Policy Directive
- President Clinton released details of his Conventional Arms Transfer Policy on February 17, 1995, which are embodied in Presidential Decision Directive 34 (PDD-34). The President's action followed several months of internal debate and discussion by the Clinton Administration, the first detailed examination of conventional arms transfer policy since the Cold War's end.
- Fast-Track Legislative Procedures for Trade Agreements: The Great Debate of 1991
- No Description Available.
- Former Presidents: Pensions, Facilities, and Services
- The Former Presidents Act (72 Stat. 838) of 1958 provides financial and practical means to those who have served as President of the United States and still retain certain implicit public duties. In 1958, the cost of former Presidents to the public was an estimated $64,000. In FY84, approximately $27 million will be spent on benefits to former Presidents and their widows. Operation and maintenance of Presidential Libraries was approximately $14.9 million in FY83. This report discusses increasing concerns regarding the amounts and the types of expenditures that have been made.
- Former Presidents: Pensions, Office Allowances, and Other Federal Benefits
- This report provides a legislative and cultural history of the Former Presidents Act. It details the pension and benefits provided to former U.S. presidents and their costs; Congress has the authority to reduce, increase, or maintain these benefits.
- Funding of Presidential Nominating Conventions: An Overview
- This report provides a historical overview of how Presidential Election Campaign Fund (PECF) convention funding functioned. It also describes private funding sources that remain available after legislation (H.R. 2019) became law (P.L. 113-94) eliminating PECF funding for convention operations.
- Item Veto and Expanded Impoundment Proposals
- In recent years conflicting budget priorities and divided political control have accentuated the institutional tensions between the executive and legislative branches inherent in the federal budget process. President Clinton, like his two predecessors, called for an item veto, or possibly expanded impoundment authority, to provide him with greater control over federal spending. This report provides a brief history of impoundment and discusses the debate surrounding the line item veto.
- Item Veto: Budgetary Savings
- Congressional interest in an item veto for the President may resurface during the 109th Congress. At a news conference on November 4, 2004, President George W. Bush expressed an interest in receiving item-veto authority “to maintain budget discipline.”
- National Emergency Powers
- This report the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601-1651) that eliminated or modified some statutory grants of emergency authority, required the President to declare formally the existence of a national emergency and to specify what statutory authority, activated by the declaration, would be used, and provided Congress a means to countermand the President's declaration and the activated authority being sought.
- NATO Enlargement: Senate Advice and Consent
- No Description Available.
- Obama Library Likely Headed to Chicago's South Side
- This report briefly discusses the proposed construction of President Barack Obama's presidential library in the South Side of Chicago.
- Powers of the President
- This report is about the powers of the President.
- Powers Of The President
- This report consists of the powers of president.
- President Obama's First-Term U.S. Circuit and District Court Nominations: An Analysis and Comparison with Presidents Since Reagan
- This report seeks to inform the current debate in three ways: first, by providing a statistical analysis of President Barack Obama's nominees, during his first term, to U.S. circuit court of appeals and U.S. district court judgeships, and of any actions taken on their nominations by the Senate Judiciary Committee and the full Senate; second, by using various statistical measures to compare the success of President Obama's judicial nominees, during his first term, in advancing through the Senate confirmation process with the success of the judicial nominees during the first terms of the four most recent preceding Presidents (Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush); and third, by identifying various factors which might help explain differences or variations found in judicial nomination statistics across the first terms of the five Presidents.
- The Presidential Records Act: Background and Recent Issues for Congress
- This report discusses the Presidential Records Act (PRA) and examines policy options related to the capture, maintenance, and use of presidential records.
- Presidential Travel: Policy and Costs
- This report discusses the issues regarding the President, Vice President, and First Lady travels, official and political, or unofficial. Whether a trip is for official or political purposes, the Air Force pays all operational and other costs incurred by the use of the aircraft.
- Recess Appointments: A Legal Overview
- This report provides an overview of the Recess Appointments Clause, exploring its historical application and legal interpretation by the executive branch, the courts, and the Comptroller General. Furthermore, congressional legislation designed to prevent the President's overuse or misuse of the Clause is also explored.
- Senate Executive Business and the Executive Calendar
- The Senate has responsibilities under both Article I (outlining legislative prerogatives) and Article II of the Constitution. As a result, the upper body handles legislative and executive business differently. This report discusses the Senate’s lawmaking responsibilities under Article I; executive business, which consists of treaties and nominations.
- Speed of Presidential and Senate Actions on Supreme Court Nominations, 1900 - 2009
- This report provides information on the amount of time taken to act on all Supreme Court nominations occurring between 1900 and the present. It focuses on the actual amounts of time that Presidents and the Senate have taken to act (as opposed to the elapsed time between official points in the process). This report focuses on when the Senate became aware of the President's selection (e.g., via a public announcement by the President).
- Supreme Court Nominations, 1789 - 2009: Actions by the Senate, the Judiciary Committee, and the President
- This report explains in detail the process of appointing Supreme Court Justices, both as it stands currently and how it has changed over the last two centuries. The report includes a table that lists and describes actions taken by the Senate, the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the President on all Supreme Court nominations, from 1789 to the present.
- War Powers Resolution: Presidential Compliance
- No Description Available.
- War Powers Resolution: Presidential Compliance
- No Description Available.