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Congressional Access to Executive Branch Information: Legislative Tools

Description: 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 e… more
Date: May 17, 2001
Creator: Fisher, Louis
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Item Veto and Expanded Impoundment Proposals

Description: 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.
Date: May 8, 2003
Creator: McMurtry, Virginia A.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Item Veto: Budgetary Savings

Description: 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.”
Date: May 26, 2005
Creator: Fisher, Louis
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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National Emergency Powers

Description: 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.
Date: May 1, 2006
Creator: Relyea, Harold C.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Senate Executive Business and the Executive Calendar

Description: 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.
Date: May 19, 2008
Creator: Oleszek, Walter J.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Supreme Court Nominations, 1789 - 2009: Actions by the Senate, the Judiciary Committee, and the President

Description: 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.
Date: May 13, 2009
Creator: Rutkus, Denis Steven & Bearden, Maureen
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Speed of Presidential and Senate Actions on Supreme Court Nominations, 1900 - 2009

Description: 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).
Date: May 29, 2009
Creator: Garrett, R. Sam & Rutkus, Denis Steven
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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