Congressional Research Service Reports - 28 Matching Results
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- Impeachment Grounds: Part I: Pre-Constitutional Convention Materials
- This report is a collection of selected background materials pertinent to the issue of what constitutes impeachable misconduct for purposes of Article II, section 4 of the United States Constitution quoted below. It includes excerpts from Blackstone, Wooddeson, and the impeachment clauses in pre-Constitutional Convention state constitutions.
- Congressional Resolutions on Presidential Impeachment: A Historical Overview
- This report summarizes instances in which Congress has considered proposals to impeach or to investigate the possibility of impeaching a President of the United States. It cites the formal impeachment charges that have previously been brought against eight Presidents, as well as the current resolutions calling for an investigation of whether impeachment articles should be files against President William J. Clinton.
- Executive Orders and Proclamations
- No Description Available.
- Congressional Overrides of Presidential Vetoes
- The President's veto authority is among their most significant tools in the legislative dealing with Congress. It is effective not only in preventing the passage of legislation undesirable to the President, but also as a threat, sometimes forcing Congress to modify legislation before it is presented to the President. As of the writing of this document, Presidents had vetoed 1,471 bills and Congres had overridden only 105 of them. This report details what bills have been vetoed by President Clinton and how they were vetoed.
- Impeachment Grounds: Part 6: Quotes from Sundry Commentators
- This is a collection of selected background materials pertinent to the issue of what constitutes impeachable misconduct for purposes of Article II, section 4 of the United States Constitution quoted below. It includes quotations from treatises and law reviews on the question.
- Fast-Track Legislative Procedures for Trade Agreements: The Great Debate of 1991
- No Description Available.
- 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.
- President Bush's Judicial Nominations During the 101st and 102nd Congresses
- There are ten categories of courts (including the local courts of the District of Columbia) to which the President nominates judges. The report provides background and statistics concerning President Bush's judicial nominations in each court category as well as actions taken on those nominations by the United States Senate. Each of the report's ten sections discusses the composition and jurisdiction of the court in question and notes the committee to which nominations to this court were referred when received by the Senate. Also, statistics on judicial nominations received by the Senate during the four years of the Bush Presidency are presented.
- 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.
- The Intersection Between the Former Presidents Act and the Impeachment Process
- This report is on The Intersection Between the Former Presidents Act and the Impeachment Process.
- Presidential Claims of Executive Privilege: History, Law, Practice and Recent Developments
- Presidential claims of a right to preserve the confidentiality of information and documents in the face of legislative demands have figured prominently, though intermittently, in executive-congressional relations since at least 1792, when the president Washington discussed with his cabinet how to respond to a congressional inquiry into the military debacle that befell General St. Clair's expedition. Few such interbranch disputes over access to information have reached the courts for substantive resolution, the vast majority achieving resolution through political negotiation and accommodation. In fact, it was not until the Watergate-related lawsuits in the 1970s seeking access to President Nixon's tapes that the existence of a presidential confidentiality privilege was judicially established as a necessary derivative of the President's status in our constitutional scheme of separated powers.
- Congressional Overrides of Presidential Vetoes
- The President’s veto is effective not only in preventing the passage of legislation undesirable to the President, but also as a threat, sometimes forcing Congress to modify legislation before it is presented to the President. However, as a veto threat is carried out, Congress is faced with choices: letting the veto stand, the difficult task of overriding the veto, meeting the President’s objections and sending a new bill forward, or resubmitting the same provisions under a new bill number.
- The Presidential Veto and Congressional Procedure
- No Description Available.
- The New Vacancies Act: Congress Acts to Protect the Senate's Confirmation Prerogative
- No Description Available.
- APEC and the 1997 Summit in Vancouver
- This report discusses the November 25, 1997 summit held by leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. The purpose of the summit was to further pursue the APEC agenda of endorsing a framework developed by APEC leaders' finance ministers to promote financial stability in the Asia-Pacific region and to supplement resources by the International Monetary Fund when necessary.
- NATO: July 1997 Madrid Summit Outcome
- No Description Available.
- Election of the President and Vice President by Congress: Contingent Election
- The 12th Amendment to the Constitution requires that candidates for President and Vice President receive a majority of electoral votes (currently 270 or more of a total of 538) to be elected. If no candidate receives a majority, the President is elected by the House of Representatives, and the Vice President is elected by the Senate. This process is referred to as contingent election and is the topic of discussion in this report.
- The Electoral College: How it Works in Contemporary Presidential Elections
- The Constitution assigns each state a number of electors equal to the combined total of the state’s Senate and House of Representatives delegations; at present, the number of electors per state ranges from three to 55, for a total of 538. This report discuses constitutional origins, the electoral college today and explains the allocation of electors and electoral votes.
- Foreign Policy Roles of the President and Congress
- he United States Constitution divides foreign policy powers between the President and the Congress so that both share in the making of foreign policy. The executive and legislative branches each play important roles that are different but that often overlap. Both branches have continuing opportunities to initiate and change foreign policy, and the interaction between them continues indefinitely throughout the life of a policy. This report reviews and illustrates 12 basic ways that the United States can make foreign policy.
- Shutdown of the Federal Government: Causes, Effects, and Process
- No Description Available.
- Censure of the President by the Congress
- Exploring a possible compromise between an impeachment and taking no congressional action, certain Members of Congress and congressional commentators have suggested a congressional “censure” of the President to express the Congress’ disapproval of the President’s conduct which has been the subject of an ongoing independent counsel investigation. This report provides and overview and discussion of the legal basis and congressional precedents regarding a congressional “censure” of the President.
- Congressional Liaison Offices of Selected Federal Agencies
- This is a directory of approximately 150 government agencies designed to assist congressional staff in contacting agencies of the legislative branch, cabinet departments and other executive branch agencies and boards and commissions. This directory contains names of congressional liaison officers, addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and occasionally e-mail addresses. It is regularly updated each spring.
- The Role of the President in Budget Development
- The Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 established the executive budget process, which requires the President to prepare and submit a comprehensive federal budget to Congress each year for the fiscal year that begins on October 1. The President sets out his national priorities and proposes policy initiatives in the federal budget submitted to Congress soon after Congress convenes in January. The President's budget submission provides him the opportunity to influence the agenda for the upcoming budget and policy debate in Congress.
- Line Item Veto Act Unconstitutional:
- No Description Available.
- Line Item Veto Act of 1996: Lessons from the States
- The Line Item Veto Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-130) authorizes the President to cancel discretionary budget authority, new entitlements, and limited tax benefits. When this authority becomes available on January 1, 1997, it will change the dynamics among all three branches of government. In response to presidential decisions to cancel certain provisions, Congress may change the way it drafts bills and committee reports. Lawsuits will bring these presidential and congressional actions before federal courts, raising a number of constitutional and statutory questions.
- Line Item Vetoes in the 105th Congress, First Session: A Finding Aid
- No Description Available.
- The Line Item Veto Act: Procedural Issues
- At various times, Congress has given the President statutory authority not to spend appropriated funds. That authority was elaborated and made more systematic with the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which permitted the President to delay the expenditure of funds (deferral authority) and to cancel funds (rescission authority). To rescind funds, the President needed the support of both houses within 45 days.
- The Line Item Veto Act
- The Line Item Veto Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-130, 110 Stat. 1200), gives the President expanded rescission authority by changing the burden of action and coverage. Under the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (88 Stat. 332), the President must obtain the support of both Houses within a specified time period for a rescission to become permanent, while the new law puts the burden on Congress to disapprove presidential rescission proposals within a 30-day period. Along with rescission of discretionary appropriations, the new law subjects any new item of direct spending (entitlement) and certain limited tax benefits to cancellation as well.