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AMERICAN drama, NATIONAL security, TERRORISM, and CHRONOLOGY

The National Security Act of 1947 was neither the first nor the last legislative word on intelligence coordination. Instead, it was the second of three formative, although not formidable, acts of Congress that have provided models for U.S. intelligence coordination: the Contingent Fund for Foreign Intercourse, the National Security Act of 1947, and the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. This article reveals how the debate over intelligence coordination in the United States reaches back further than existing accounts that examine the origins of the Central Intelligence Agency. This article also uses the theme of intelligence coordination to introduce a new chronology for U.S intelligence history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BIPARTISANSHIP, PARTISANSHIP, WOMEN legislators, POLITICAL image, LEADERSHIP, and POWER (Social sciences)

High-profile examples of the Senate women's cross-party collaboration, such as the 2013 government shutdown, contribute to the perception that women policymakers are bipartisan. Print, digital, and broadcast journalism serve as units of observation for understanding how the women senators cultivated a shared political image imbued with conventionally-defined "feminine" leadership qualities that linked to bipartisanship. Drawing on their mediated perspectives, I argue that the women of the 113th Senate's portrayal of feminine leadership traits contributed to the conventional wisdom that women are bipartisan. My analysis indicates that, during a time of rancorous partisanship, the women senators' public discussion of a sisterhood, a supper club, and communication norms advanced the appearance of being a united force while seeking policy goals in a partisan chamber. By analyzing mediated texts that featured the women in the 113th Senate, I demonstrate how women policymakers collectively depict a legislative style that can become a tool for harnessing power in numbers and maximizing political influence as women while navigating a gendered and partisan space. The contributing factors discussed serve as an entry point for critical inquiry into bipartisan image construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After nearly two decades under U.S. rule, the 1917 Jones Act granted American citizenship to Puerto Ricans. I argue that the United States strategically granted collective citizenship in order to strengthen its colonial rule. The convergence of two conditions prompted the grant of citizenship: Congress determined that the islands were strategically valuable to the United States; and Congress registered an independence movement on the island that could threaten colonial control. When Puerto Ricans demanded independence, Congress enveloped them in a bear hug that granted citizenship to weaken their movement. While citizenship was an attractive solution to many of the problems of colonial rule, there were strong objections within the United States to granting citizenship to a population considered to be nonwhite. As a result, Congress created a workaround by disentangling citizenship from statehood and from many of the rights and privileges that typically accompany it. Though citizenship is often associated with democracy and equality, American officials turned citizenship into a mechanism of control for the empire they were building. This work uncovers strategies of American territorial expansion and colonial governance and confronts deeply held notions about American citizenship and political community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last two Republican presidents' hostility to multilateralism has produced striking departures from postwar American foreign policy, but this position is not as new as it sometimes appears. It has deep historical roots in the conservative wing of the Republican Party. Using data on congressional voting and bill sponsorship, we show that Republicans, especially those from the party's conservative wing, have tended to oppose multilateral rules for more than a century. This position fit logically into the broader foreign policy that Republican presidents developed before World War I but posed problems in light of the changing conditions during the mid-twentieth century. The importance of multilateral cooperation for U.S. national security during the Cold War and the growing international competitiveness of American manufacturing split the party on multilateral rules, but it did not reverse the conservative wing's longstanding skepticism of them. Congressional leaders' efforts to keep consequential choices about multilateral rules off the legislative agenda for most of the postwar era contributed to the persistence of this position. This move spared conservative members of Congress from confronting the costs of opposing multilateral institutions, giving them little incentive to challenge ideological orthodoxy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the first attempt to raise congressional pay in 1816, voters have judged members harshly for increasing their own compensation. During debates on the Compensation Act of 1856, members acknowledged that the experience of 1816 still loomed over them, though they disagreed about whether the lesson was not to increase pay or not to replace the per diem with a salary. In the end, they did both. Unlike the "salary grabs" of 1816 and 1873, however, few were punished directly by voters and the law was not repealed. The splintering of the party system allowed representatives to shift responsibility and obscure accountability. The timing of elections and addition of anticorruption provisions further limited backlash. Senators recognized the electoral jeopardy of representatives and so built a broad multiparty coalition for passage. While representatives were sensitive to the judgment of voters, the brief period of a multiparty Congress aided adoption of salary-based compensation in spite of that judgment, making possible later moves toward professionalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SPECIALISTS, PROFESSIONS, LABOR market, EMPLOYMENT, INDUSTRIAL relations, DISPLACED workers, OCCUPATIONAL mobility, and REGRESSION discontinuity design

Existing theories offer conflicting perspectives regarding the relationship between career specialization and labor market outcomes. While some scholars argue it is better for workers to specialize and focus on one area, others argue it is advantageous for workers to diversify and compile experience across multiple work domains. We attempt to reconcile these competing perspectives by developing a theory highlighting the voluntary versus involuntary nature of worker–firm separations as a theoretical contingency that alters the relative advantages and disadvantages associated with specialized versus generalized careers. Our theory is rooted in the notion that the characteristics of involuntary worker–firm separations (i.e., job displacement) simultaneously amplify the disadvantages associated with specialized careers and the advantages associated with generalized careers, thereby giving displaced generalists a relative advantage over displaced specialists. We find support for our theory in the context of U.S. congressional staffing, using administrative employment records and a regression discontinuity identification strategy that exploits quasi-random staffer displacement resulting from narrowly decided congressional reelection bids. Our theoretical contingency is further supported in supplemental regressions where correlational evidence suggests that while specialists tend to be relatively penalized in the labor market after involuntary separations, specialists appear to be relatively privileged when separations are plausibly voluntary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BUREAUCRACY, IMMIGRATION enforcement, JUDGES, LEGISLATIVE oversight, JUDICIAL process, and JUDICIAL independence

At the center of contentious debates concerning U.S. asylum policy are immigration judges, bureaucrats who decide life and death cases on a daily basis. Congress, the executive and the courts compete for influence over these key actors — administrative judges distinct from those examined in much of the bureaucratic control literature. They are hired, fired, promoted or demoted by executive officials; face congressional oversight; and must follow circuit law. We argue that, because of the fear of reversal, immigration judges will look most to the courts in the decision-making process. Our results support our theory. Examining over 900,000 immigration judges' decisions, we find that, although IJs are influenced by a fear of pushback from the elected branches, the impact is conditional on circuit preferences. Our findings inform scholarly understanding of judicial behavior and bureaucratic accountability, and support the pursuit of judicial independence and due process in immigration courts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

FOREIGN physicians, FOREIGN workers, PHYSICIAN supply & demand, ASIANS, COMMUNITIES, ARCHIVES, and RURAL poor

This essay traces the transformation and standardization of the first cohort of Asian physicians trained outside the United States into Foreign Medical Graduates (FMGs) within the United States through documentary regimes. Congress solicited foreign physicians under the Hart-Celler Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 to address doctor shortages in inner-city and rural communities throughout the country—a trend that continues today. Central to their migratory journey was an archive of expertise, a compilation of documents intended to verify identity, skill, and competence. Through the analysis of a physician's case file, new relations to documentation emerge that reveal how claims of underdocumentation, incorrect documentation, and overdocumentation regulate immigrant possibilities. In adopting this approach, this case study moves away from the unskilled / model minority dichotomy to show how documentary proceduralism operates as a racializing, disciplinary strategy across categories of immigrant labor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HATE crimes, HATE crime laws, LAW enforcement agencies, LAW enforcement, VICTIMS of hate crimes, and WESTLAW (Database)

Hate-motivated crime remains problematic in the United States. California passed the first hate crime law in 1978; Congress followed in 1990. States continue to amend their hate crime legislation, producing an amalgam of statutory provisions. This article creates a conceptual framework from which to classify hate crime legislation across the 50 states and Washington, DC. Laws were identified through Westlaw. Analyses compared the types of crimes covered, discrete and insular minorities protected, prosecutorial alternatives, mandates for law enforcement agencies, and additional rights provided to victims among states' legislation. Considerable variation in scope and content of hate crime legislation exists among states, leaving several vulnerable groups unprotected, law enforcement underprepared, and victim rights and resources sparse. Future directions for hate crime policy and legislation are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INNOCENT spouse tax relief, LEGAL liability, TAX laws, and TAXATION

The article explores the innocent spouse relief from joint and several tax liability in the U.S. Topics discussed include the enactment of the Innocent Spouse Relief section in the Internal Revenue Code (I.R.C.) 6015 by the U.S. Congress, ways for a taxpayer to claim innocent spouse relief, the relief provisions under I.R.C. 6015, and the amendment of 6015 by the Taxpayer First Act.

MICROPLASTICS, PLASTICS, PLASTIC bag laws, ENVIRONMENTAL toxicology, and WASTE recycling

As the levels of plastic use in global society have increased, it has become crucial to regulate plastics of all sizes including both microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs). Here, the published literature on the current laws passed by the US Congress and regulations developed by various federal agencies such as the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that could be used to regulate MPs and NPs have been reviewed and analyzed. Statutes such as the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and the Clean Air Act can all be used to address plastic pollution. These statutes have not been invoked for MP and NP waste in water or air. The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act provides guidance on how the FDA should evaluate plastics use in food, food packaging, cosmetics, drug packaging, and medical devices. The FDA has recommended that acceptable levels of ingestible contaminant from recycled plastic are less than 1.5 µg/person/day, which is 476 000 times less than the possible ingested daily dose. Plastic regulation is present at the state level. States have banned plastic bags, and several cities have banned plastic straws. California is the only state beginning to focus on monitoring MPs in drinking water. The future of MP regulation in the USA should use TSCA to test the safety of plastics. The other statutes need to include MPs in their definitions. For the FDA, MPs should be redefined as contaminants—allowing tolerances to be set for MPs in food and beverages. Through minor changes in how MPs are classified, it is possible to begin to use the current statutes to understand and begin to minimize the possible effects of MPs on human health and the environment. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2023;19:474–488. © 2022 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC). Key Points: Microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs) are largely absent from regulatory statutes.The typical American ingests 467 000 times the recommended acceptable daily dose of recycled plastic.Both the science of MP and NP research and regulatory policies must be addressed to solve the plastic crisis.By redefining MPs as toxic or contaminants, these particles can use the existing statutes for regulatory purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WESTERN countries, INTERNATIONAL sanctions, INTERNATIONAL relations, and PATRONAGE

The United States Congress enacted CAATSA in 2017 to impose various restrictions on traditional rivals of the United States, which, however, was also imposed on a long-term strategic ally, Turkey. How can the application of sanctions designated for strategic rivals and enemies on an ally be explained? This article incorporates the hierarchy theory with Kai He's negative balancing strategy notion, which provides a solid theoretical explanation for patron states' punitive measures against their allies. We argue that CAATSA is part of the United States' current negative balancing strategy, which aims to undermine the power of rising challengers, Russia and China, by preventing (Western) secondary states, including Turkey, from getting (nuclear) weapons from these two countries. In this context, the US used CAATSA sanctions to punish Turkey's non-compliant and autonomous foreign policy behaviour when Russia and China rivalled the US-led order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CONFISCATIONS and LAND grants

In 1848, the US Senate ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which held that treaty citizens' land claims would be "inviolably respected." Three years later, the US Senate passed the 1851 Land Claims Act, which violated the treaty by requiring private Mexican land grant holders to prove the legitimacy of their claims to the US Land Commission. This article examines Anglo-American and Californio settlers' efforts to establish legitimate landholding practices according to their culturally specific racial logic. By tracing encounters between the commission and Californios, this article argues that through their participation in the land claims process, Californios became "colonized colonizers" and were instrumental to statemaking in California. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

POLITICAL scientists, COMMUNITIES, REGIME change, FATHERS, BLOGS, and FRIENDSHIP

On the way to the RMDSZ congress in Brassó (15-17 January 1993), András Ludányi, American political scientist and professor, visited the Korunk editorial office. As he was in Debrecen on a Fulbright scholarship, he did not only investigate the phenomena after the regime change in Hungary; he also visited Transcarpathia, Upper Hungary, Transylvania, and Csángóföld. I learned later that his grandmother was born and died in Borbátvíz, in southern Transylvania. After the Romanian invasion, their father moved with the children to Szentes, then to Austria in 1945, and finally to the United States.The most memorable experience of our first meeting was the discovery that I personally knew his closest comrade-inarms and friend, Lajos Éltetõ (1938-2019), a professor at the University of Portland, with whom he organized the maildistributed “blog”, the ITT-OTT correspondence and friendship community, and then in 1974 they founded the Hungarian Communion of Friends in the US. As his 2020 book, Amerikai életutam, reveals, reflecting on our past led Ludányi to consider the prospects for democracy in both the United States and the Carpathian Basin. His insights should be taken to heart. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

POLITICAL parties, PARTISANSHIP, CITIZENS, IDEOLOGICAL conflict, COLLECTIVE representation, FORTUNE, and IDEOLOGY

While scholars posit an electoral link between congressional approval and majority party electoral fortunes, it is unclear whether citizens are grounding their assessments of approval on policy or valence grounds, such as retrospective economic evaluations. Whereas it is commonly understood that there is an ideological component to constituents' job approval of their individual members of Congress, in addition to a strong partisan effect, the ideological basis of institutional approval has not been established. Using cross-sectional and panel survey data, which allow for scaling citizens and the congressional parties in the same ideological space, I demonstrate that, distinct from the partisan basis of congressional approval, citizens' ideological distance from the majority party has a separate and distinct effect. These results suggest that the link between congressional approval and majority party fortunes is rooted in the collective ideological representation provided by the legislative majority in an increasingly responsible U.S. Congress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

EXECUTIVE power, PRESIDENTS of the United States, SEPARATION of powers, UNILATERAL acts (International law), and POLICY sciences

Though the US presidency literature widely examines how Congress limits executive power, recent discourse argues the public is the more effective restraint. This paper develops a theory explaining when inter-institutional relations and public constraints influence the alteration of unilateral directives. Both are important for curbing substantial policy changes that likely provoke congressional and public response. Using data on when executive orders are amended and revoked between 1955 and 2013 to measure policy shifts, I find orders are less likely to be altered under presidents facing oppositional or cohesive congresses and high public disapproval. Both types of constraints are strongest for large policy changes, that is, revocations or targeting ideologically distant orders. This study advances the unilateralism literature by examining interactions between multiple constraints and degrees of policy change, while also contributing to studies of policy duration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

FEDERAL government, STATE governments, UNITED States legislators, LEGISLATIVE bills, and DEMOCRACY

A persistent question in the study of American federalism is if the states actually serve as "laboratories of democracy" for the country as a whole. I argue that political attention to policy areas can diffuse upwards, from state legislatures to Congress. National and state legislators share a party brand and can learn from policy debates in other levels. In particular, we should expect to see the diffusion of messaging legislation, or bills that were introduced without the intention of becoming law, after members of Congress observe their political effects in the states. Using an original dataset of introduced bills in all 50 state legislatures in 22 policy areas since 1991 drawn from LexisNexis, I show a positive association between changes in the number of state legislative bills introduced in 12 policy areas and the number of Congressional bills introduced in the next session, which is taken as evidence of "bottom-up" diffusion. This relationship is more prevalent between Republican state legislators and members of Congress, within state delegations, and in issue areas where the interest group community lobbies before both the states and national government. To the extent that states are laboratories for the nation, they may be political laboratories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PATRIOTISM, MINORITY politicians, SOUTH Asian Americans, POLITICAL candidates, MINORITIES in the military, MILITARY service, and GROUP identity

South Asians have seen an increase in representation at all levels of US government, from Congress to the Vice Presidency, yet a paucity of work has been done examining South Asian candidates in America. The distinct nature of South Asian candidacies allows us to examine the intersection between race and religious identity and how emphasizing different social and political identities impact minority candidate evaluations. We theorize the potential effects of racial-political stereotyping of South Asians, focusing specifically on how a Hindu or Muslim background may negatively influence candidate evaluation. Additionally, we consider whether military service has any effect on evaluations of South Asian candidates as dangerous or deficient. We test this theory with a survey experiment that varies both South Asian religious identity, political ideology, and military service. Our findings indicate that white respondents are more hostile to South Asian candidates when compared to white candidates with similar biographies, and that respondents are particularly hostile to Muslim candidates. Cueing military service alleviates this handicap for Muslim candidates, but further analysis reveals that military service only improves perceptions among Democratic respondents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WOMEN legislators, WOMEN in politics, GENDER differences (Psychology), LEGAL status of women, REPRODUCTIVE rights, WOMEN'S health, and MILITARY policy

Scholars interested in substantive representation for women have primarily focused on whether women vote for and prioritize "women's issue" legislation. It is now well established that female lawmakers do vote for and introduce bills on issues like reproductive rights, childcare, and women's health at rates higher than men. With this finding widely accepted, scholars have more recently investigated levels of female involvement on a wider range of topics and find that women are just as active as men—sometimes even more active—on an array of policy topics other than "women's issues." Several studies show women are more active sponsors of defense-related bills than are their male colleagues. We provide a case study that investigates whether female lawmakers offer distinct perspectives on these topics. We use structural topic modeling to explore sex and party differences in floor speeches delivered in the House of Representatives. Our analysis of these floor speeches given in the 109th Congress reveals that women and men do focus their attention on distinct facets of defense issues—focusing on the implications of war for women, civilians, and communities—and that these differences are conditioned by party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

UNITED States legislators, REPRESENTATIVE government, DEMOCRACY, RESPECT, POLITICAL parties, and MEDIATION

Canonical theories of democratic representation envision legislators cultivating familiarity to enhance esteem among their constituents. Some scholars, however, argue that familiarity breeds contempt, which if true would undermine incentives for effective representation. Survey respondents who are unfamiliar with their legislator tend not to provide substantive answers to attitude questions, and so we are missing key evidence necessary to adjudicate this important debate. We solve this problem with a randomized field experiment that gave some constituents an opportunity to gain familiarity with their Member of Congress through an online Deliberative Town Hall. Relative to controls, respondents who interacted with their member reported higher esteem as a result of enhanced familiarity, a mediation effect supporting canonical theories of representation. This effect is statistically significant among constituents who are the same political party as the member but not among those of the opposite party, although in neither case did familiarity breed contempt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]