articles+ search results

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]

POLITICAL science, ACTIVISM, PRESIDENTIAL administrations, HISTORICAL analysis, CONTENT analysis, and CHINA-United States relations

The Sino-U.S. relations tumbled during the Trump Administration. The talk of decoupling permeated the decision-making circle in Washington D.C. Many factors have contributed to the free fall. The roles Congress has played are undoubtedly one of them. Based on the new institutionalist approach, this study provides three analyses of recent China-related legislative activities. First, the historical analysis of legislative data illustrates a surge in congressional activism on China-related legislative activities. Second, the content analysis reveals some of the triggers in the deterioration of bilateral relations in recent years. Third, the political analysis of the critical congressional players and the structures and procedures Congress created provides some insight into the domestic and political logic of the congressional crusade against China. Finally, the paper ends with assessing the impact of the surge in Congressional activism on the new Biden Administration. [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]

CONGRESSIONAL hearings (U.S.), DELIBERATION, SOCIAL groups, WOMEN legislators, and PARTICIPATION

The rising number of women in Congress changes deliberation. Using committee hearing transcripts from 1995 to 2017, we analyze how the gender composition of committees affects group dynamics in committee hearings. While we find limited evidence that increasing proportions of women affects women's participation, we find that discussion norms within committees change significantly in the presence of more women. Namely, interruptions decrease when there are more women on the committee; with higher proportions of women, men are less likely to interrupt others. Furthermore, committee members are more likely to engage and stay on the same topics in the presence of more women, suggesting a shift in norms toward more in-depth exchange. Overall, our results show that increasing the proportion of women changes discussion dynamics within Congress by shifting norms away from interruptions and one-sided talk in committees, thereby shifting group norms that govern decision-making during an important policy-making stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LEGISLATIVE bodies, UNITED States legislators, LEGISLATIVE committees, LEADERSHIP, and LOBBYISTS

The article provides a blueprint for making the U.S. Congress great again and re-empowering the legislature. Topics discussed are disappearance of legislative victories of the Congress starting in the late 1970s with the shrinking of the size and effectiveness of the Congressional Representative and crumbling committees, as well as the rise of powerful leadership staff and lobbyists, and atrophy of the Congress driven by the Republican Revolution of 1994 and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

PRESIDENTS of the United States, AGGRESSION (International law), NUCLEAR weapons, WAR powers, EXCLUSIVE & concurrent legislative powers, and WAR of 1812

This article argues that Congress can exercise its constitutional war powers to enact a law restricting the President from using nuclear weapons first. The article contends that using a nuclear weapon is qualitatively different from conventional warfare and that the first use of nuclear weapons marks a decision to enter into war. Therefore, nuclear first use is not a battlefield decision within the President's commander in chief power but rather a choice to enter the United States into a new type of conflict that could pose a direct, immediate, and existential threat to the U.S. homeland. Regulating that decision falls under Congress's exclusive war powers. Congress can limit its authorizations of war and prohibit military actions beyond its authorization. Therefore, Congress could stipulate that its war authorizations extend only to conventional hostilities unless Congress expressly authorizes the first use of nuclear weapons. Using its authority to limit authorizations of for the use of military force, Congress can enact a no-first-use law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IMPEACHMENT of presidents, PRESIDENTS of the United States, TRIALS (Impeachment), and POLITICAL corruption

The conventional wisdom is that the two impeachments of Donald Trump demonstrated the ineffectiveness of impeachment as a remedy for serious presidential misconduct. Meeting the constitutional threshold for conviction and removal requiring at least two-thirds approval of the Senate is practically impossible so long as the members of the President's party in Congress control at least a third of the seats in the Senate and are united in opposition to his impeachment and conviction. This Article challenges this conventional wisdom and argues instead that the two Trump impeachments have enduring effects on Trump's political future and legacy, especially in light of the fact that the vast majority of senators condemned his actions in his second trial and the voluminous records of his misconduct serving as the basis for his first impeachment. The Article also assesses the lessons the trials have taught about the effectiveness of various safeguards against the misconduct of presidents and the lawyers who enable their corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

QUANTITATIVE research, CHINA-United States relations, LEGISLATION, ACTIVISM, and GOVERNMENTALITY

Through a quantitative analysis of Taiwan–related legislation between 1979 and 2020, the article finds that the degree of Taiwan–related legislation is significantly correlated with the degree of tension in U.S.—China relations. While a deteriorating cross–Taiwan Strait relationship is clearly associated with the increasing legislative activities for the sake of Taiwan, an improving relationship from the state of fair to good cannot guarantee a decrease of such activities. A unified government and the extent of the Taiwan lobby are both helpful in passing pro–Taiwan acts but statistically insignificant. A content analysis of pro–Taiwan bills approved by the Trump administration suggests a creeping movement to "normalize" U.S–Taiwan relations with congressional activism and the less-restrained White House as a co–engine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

POLITICAL participation, GATEKEEPING, and UNITED States history

Throughout U.S. history, the rules in the House of Representatives have evolved in cycles--shifting power back and forth between House leadership and rank-and-file representatives. Recent decades have seen the rise in restrictive rules, which curtail the amendments members may offer on the House floor. While at first glance these rules seem undemocratic, this Note takes a deeper dive into the content of recent amendments which were screened out by restrictive rules during 2021. This analysis highlights several indicators that the rejected amendments were often dilatory. Finding restrictive rules to be a practical necessity, this Note suggests several possible reforms to bolster democratic participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

POLITICAL development, BUREAUCRACY, DEMOCRACY, and POLITICAL systems

The institutional history of the United States Congress has lagged in recent decades as historians of American political development have focused on the history of administration and defined the state in terms of the autonomy of bureaucratic government institutions. In this article, I argue that the history of both Congress and the American state would benefit from analyzing Congress as an institution of the democratic state—an ongoing historical project in which the American people and their representatives in Congress have shaped American democracy and the creation, evolution, and administration of the American state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PRIVATE sector, OPPORTUNITY costs, LEGISLATORS, LOBBYISTS, and UNITED States senators

Does the potential for a successful private sector career induce legislators to leave office? How does this affect the representation voters receive? I show that when former US senators—who now work as lobbyists—become more successful, currently serving senators with similar characteristics are more likely to take private sector employment. I replicate all results on data from the House. A number of tests suggest that senators react to the opportunity costs of holding office. Investigating selection effects, I find that legislative specialists are attracted the most in the Senate. Preliminary evidence suggests that the least wealthy respond most strongly in the House. This suggests that the revolving door shapes the skill set of legislators and the representation voters receive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HIGHER education, EDUCATION policy, LEADERSHIP, and NEGOTIATION

It has become increasingly difficult for the two major parties in Congress to reach agreement on major higher education legislation. As a result, the Higher Education Act is long overdue for reauthorization. Congressional stalemates on higher education legislation are not conducive to effective and productive governance in this important area of federal policy. The purpose of this comparative case study is to understand why some federal higher education legislative bills are successfully enacted while others, including some with bipartisan support, are not. Through the lens of negotiation theory, this study examines six federal higher education bills in order to understand the common characteristics of successfully enacted legislation and the common characteristics of unenacted legislation. Data sources include interviews with 28 policy actors and analysis of documents relevant to each case-study bill. [End Page 1] Findings from this study illuminate factors that make the passage of federal higher education bills more likely, including leadership and presidential priorities, cost savings, noncontroversial issues involving sympathetic policy beneficiaries, urgency, favorable congressional rules, support from the higher education lobby, and avoidance of political victories for the opposing party. Understanding how and why Congress members reach agreements on legislation may help forge a pathway toward more effective legislating in the higher education policy arena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WAR, AERIAL bombing, PRESIDENTIAL administrations, WAR powers, ACTIVISM, DRONE warfare, and UNITED States presidential election, 2020

During his four years in office, Congress made historic challenges to President Donald Trump's authority as Commander in Chief, twice invoking the 1973 War Powers Resolution. The first resolution, passed in 2019, expressed disapproval of the U.S.' logistical and material support for Saudi Arabia's campaign against the Houthi rebel movement in Yemen. The second challenge occurred in 2020 after Trump authorized a drone strike that killed Iranian Major General Qassam Soleimani. In response, Congress passed a WPR that stipulated that any future military action against the regime would require express legislative authorization. Using a case study approach, this essay examines why Congress chose to employ the WPR as a policy tool after decades of dormancy. Ultimately, I argue that a confluence of factors compelled majorities in both chambers of Congress to use the War Powers Resolution to make a powerful rebuke of the administration's policy. Drawing on a wealth of existing literature about the factors that impede or compel Congressional activism in use-of-force debates, I find that in both cases, members of Congress faced strong moral, legal, and strategic incentives to act, with few attendant political risks. As such, while the passage of two wars powers resolutions represented an important milestone in interbranch relations, it likely does not presage a new era of Congressional assertiveness in war powers. Keywords: U.S. foreign policy; Donald Trump; Congress [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SOCIOCULTURAL factors, UNITED States presidential election, 2016, POLITICAL campaigns, and UNITED States politics & government, 2017-2021

Objectives: The political discourse surrounding the 2016 U.S. presidential election highlighted discontent with both Congress and corporations, a reality corroborated in recent scholarship highlighting declines in institutional confidence among U.S. citizens. Here we test theories of institutional confidence to understand the social and cultural determinants of confidence in Congress and corporations prior to the start of the 2016 presidential campaigns. Methods: We draw on data from the Religious Understandings of Science Survey, a nationally representative survey conducted in 2013–2014 (N = 9,416). Results: We find that political ideology largely explained confidence in corporations while social location (particularly racial‐ethnic identity and gender) strongly related to confidence in Congress. Seemingly opposing factors converged to predict trust in both institutions. Conclusions: Institutional confidence is shaped not only by social and cultural factors but also by the symbolic functions of institutions themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CHINA-United States relations, FREEDOM of the seas, GREAT powers (International relations), and NUCLEAR submarines

INCOME inequality, PARTISANSHIP, and UNITED States legislators

Over the past twenty years, there has been much discussion about two of the most important recent trends in American politics: the increase in income inequality in the United States and the increase in ideological and partisan polarization, particularly in the U.S. House. These two national-level trends are commonly thought to be positively related. But, there are few tested theoretical connections between them, and it is potentially problematic to infer individual-level behavior from these aggregate-level trends. In fact, an examination of the literature reveals, at least, three different theoretical outcomes for district-level income inequality on voter and congressional ideological positions. I explore these district-level theoretical and empirical possibilities as well as test them over decades with three different measures of income inequality. I argue and demonstrate that higher district levels of income inequality are related to higher levels of ideological liberalism in the U.S. House. This stands in contrast to the national-level trends, but it tracks closely to traditional understandings of congressional behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ATTORNEY-client privilege, CRIME, UNITED States Capitol Insurrection, 2021, HARASSMENT, and CONSTITUTIONAL law

PARTISANSHIP, EXPRESS highways, PUBLIC works, BANK loans, INFRASTRUCTURE (Economics), and UNITED States history

In the mid-1950s, the Eisenhower administration and Congress erupted in a sharp partisan debate over how to pay for the novel National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, slated to become the most expensive and expansive public works project in United States history. Republicans advocated for interest-bearing bonded debt borrowed from banks, while Democrats preferred to avoid debt service costs and apply a direct tax-and-pave approach to the enormous state building project. The chosen fiduciary practices promised to be as permanent as the physical infrastructure they paid to construct and maintain. Consequently, the fraught episode saw the two parties contest not only transportation infrastructure and the capital supply upon which it depended, but indeed the very nature and future of American political economy. When the tax-and-pave approach prevailed, it saved taxpayers interest costs, but came with its own perilous consequences as it set near-limitless development in motion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WORLD War II and COUNTERTERRORISM

SEPTEMBER 11 Terrorist Attacks, 2001, UNITED States legislators, COUPS d'etat, INTELLIGENCE service, ASSASSINATION, and BLACK feminism

Copyright of Przeglad Sejmowy is the property of Kancelaria Sejmu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

UNITED States Congressional elections, RACIAL minorities, and LEGAL status of voters

The author comments on the single-member district mandate for U.S. House of Representatives elections that was enacted by the Congress in 1967. Topics covered include the Congress' intentions for enacting the law including the representation of racial minority communities in the House, the law's unintended consequences on the political process, and the implications for the First Amendment political association rights of voters.

SOCIAL scientists, POLITICAL scientists, CIVIL service positions, CONGRESSIONAL hearings (U.S.), and RESEARCH institutes

Congressional hearings are a venue in which social scientists present their views and analyses before lawmakers in the United States, however quantitative data on their representation has been lacking. We present new, publicly available, data on the rates at which anthropologists, economists, political scientists, psychologists, and sociologists appeared before United States congressional hearings from 1946 through 2016. We show that social scientists were present at some 10,347 hearings and testified 15,506 times. Economists testify before the US Congress far more often than other social scientists, and constitute a larger proportion of the social scientists testifying in industry and government positions. We find that social scientists' testimony is increasingly on behalf of think tanks; political scientists, in particular, have gained much more representation through think tanks. Sociology, and psychology's representation before Congress has declined considerably beginning in the 1980s. Anthropologists were the least represented. These findings show that academics are representing a more diverse set of organizations, but economists continue to be far more represented than other disciplines before the US Congress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PARTISANSHIP, WAR, DEMOCRATS (United States), PRESIDENTIAL administrations, WAR crimes, SOCIAL media, and ASSASSINATION

Since March 2015, a coalition of states led by Saudi Arabia has been engaged in an armed conflict in Yemen. By the end of September 2018, and prior to the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, the conflict had been ongoing for an equal 21 months under the Obama and Trump administrations. During this 42-month period, US support for the Coalition was largely consistent in terms of the material and logistical aid provided, despite well-documented war crimes and a humanitarian crisis in Yemen. Nonetheless, Congressional Democratic positions on US support for the Coalition shifted following the political transition from Obama to Trump. Through an analysis of congressional resolutions and social media engagement, it is argued that political interests rather than ideological preferences were the primary source of Democratic positions on US support for the Coalition in Yemen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ENVIRONMENTAL policy, UNITED States elections, VOTING, and LEGISLATORS

Copyright of Review of Policy Research is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

GENDER, WOMEN legislators, WOMEN'S rights, VIOLENCE against women, and ABORTION laws

As critical mass theorists have argued, the number of female legislators is important in the enactment of gender-status laws. Female legislators share strong beliefs on women's rights and have easily coordinated their legislative activities on gender issues. In addition, their strong coordination and consequent political influence have often allowed them to form a legislative majority by influencing male legislators. Gender policies, however, are frequently associated with non-gender policy dimensions on which female legislators tend to have different ideas. Thus, when a gender issue is interpreted in terms of a conspicuous non-gender policy dimension, critical mass theory may not work properly; the heterogeneity of female legislators regarding non-gender policy dimensions can weaken their legislative coordination, thereby hampering gender-status lawmaking. This article examines these propositions by reviewing the legislative histories of violence against women and the legality of abortion in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BIPARTISANSHIP and GENDER

This paper uses data on bill co-sponsorship in the U.S. House of Representatives to estimate gender differences in cooperative behaviour. We find that among Democrats there is no significant gender gap in the number of co-sponsors recruited, but women-sponsored bills tend to have fewer co-sponsors from the opposite party. On the other hand, we find robust evidence that Republican women recruit more co-sponsors and attract more bipartisan support on the bills that they sponsor. We interpret these results as evidence that cooperation is mostly driven by a commonality of interest, rather than gender per se. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CLIMATE change & politics, UNITED States climate change policy, CLIMATE change skepticism, POLARIZATION (Social sciences), PARTISANSHIP, ENVIRONMENTAL policy, and UNITED States politics & government

Scholars who study the failure of climate change policy in the United States tend to focus on the mechanics of denial and the coordinated efforts of political operatives, conservative think tanks, and partisan news outlets to cast doubt on what has become overwhelming scientific consensus. In contrast, we address a factor that has been understudied until now – the role of climate change advocacy in the U.S. Congress. Using quantitative text analysis on a corpus of floor speeches published in the Congressional Record between 1996 and 2015, we find notable differences in the language partisans use. Democrats communicate in ways that are message-based, emphasizing the weight of scientific evidence, while Republicans tend towards a softer, cue-based narrative based on anecdotes and storytelling. We end with a discussion of what climate change advocates can hope to accomplish through the 'politics of talk,' especially in an age of heightened polarization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

EXECUTIVE orders, PRESIDENTS of the United States, MASS media & politics, GOVERNMENT policy, and DIVIDED government

Do politicians tend to adopt unpopular policies when the media and the public are distracted by other events? We examine this question by analyzing the timing of executive orders signed by U.S. presidents over the past four decades. We find robust evidence that executive orders are more likely to be signed on the eve of days when the news is dominated by other important stories that can crowd out coverage of executive orders. This relationship only holds in periods of divided government when unilateral presidential actions are more likely to be criticized by Congress. The effect is driven by executive orders that are more likely to make the news and to attract negative publicity, particularly those on topics on which president and Congress disagree. Finally, the timing of executive orders appears to be related to predictable news but not unpredictable ones, which suggests it results from a deliberate and forward‐looking PR strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SOCIAL Security (United States), COST-of-living adjustments, RETIREMENT age, FINANCIAL security, and RIGHT & wrong

Congress has a long menu of ways to reduce the growth of Social Security's future benefit costs. These include increasing the full retirement age, means testing benefits, reducing cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs), and modifying the benefit formula. Choosing from that long menu is totally a political matter, without obvious right and wrong answers. Something must be done before too long to solve Social Security's financial problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MIDDLE East-United States relations, FOREIGN relations of the United States -- 21st century, INTERNATIONAL relations -- Congresses, and CONFERENCES & conventions

The following is an edited transcript of the 103rd in a series of Capitol Hill conferences convened by the Middle East Policy Council. The event took place on January 29, 2021, via Zoom, with Council Vice‐Chair Gina Abercrombie‐Winstanley moderating, Council President Richard J. Schmierer contributing, and Council Executive Director Bassima Alghussein serving as discussant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTERNAL revenue law, TAX reform, TAX deductions, DRUG control, CANNABIS (Genus), and MARIJUANA legalization

Historically, the Internal Revenue Code ("Code") and U.S. courts applied a taxpayer-friendly approach to determine the deductibility of business expenses. As long as the taxpayer paid taxes, the Code and U.S. courts allowed her to deduct certain business expenses, even if the source of her income was illegal. But, with the rise of President Richard Nixon's "War on Drugs" and the enforcement of "no tolerance" drug policies in the 1970s, Congress restricted the taxpayer-friendly approach. In 1981, Congress enacted Section 280E, which forbids businesses who traffic Schedule I or II substances from deducting ordinary business expenses when filing their federal taxes. Today, with thirty-three states and the District of Columbia allowing the sale of medical or adult-use cannabis--defying the plant's Schedule I status--state-legal cannabis business owners must pay taxes on gross receipts, instead of net income. Section 280E does not satisfy any War on Drugs policy goals and cripples the development of the legal cannabis industry. To remedy these shortcomings, Congress must reform Section 280E by enacting the STATES Act. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

RELIGIOUS identity, LABOR unions, POLITICAL science, RELIGIOUS groups, and POLITICAL participation

This article examines the relationship between senators' personal religious affiliations and their roll-call voting record on organized labor's policy agenda. While an impressive body of literature now demonstrates clear connections between religion and representation in the U.S. Congress, fewer studies have linked religion to issues outside of the realm of cultural and moral policy. Based on a data set spanning 1980 through 2020, our findings show that evangelical Protestants are significantly the most opposed to organized labor's legislative agenda, while Jewish senators are the most supportive. Other religions fall in between, depending on the decade. The findings imply that the reach of religion in Congress may run even deeper than is commonly understood. It extends beyond the culture wars to one of the most salient issue cleavages in the modern history of the American politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

POLITICAL systems, CONGRESSIONAL hearings (U.S.), IMPEACHMENTS, IMPEACHMENT of presidents, BALANCE of power, INCUMBENCY (Public officers), and CONSTITUTIONAL history

Copyright of Przeglad Sejmowy is the property of Kancelaria Sejmu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

LEGISLATORS, SOCIAL influence, and POLITICAL attitudes

Legislators often rely on cues from colleagues to inform their actions. Several studies identify the boardinghouse effect, cue-taking among U.S. legislators who lived together in the nineteenth century. Nevertheless, there remains reason for skepticism, as legislators likely selected residences for reasons including political similarity. We analyze U.S. House members' residences from 1801 to 1861, decades more than previously studied, and show not only that legislators tended to live with similar colleagues but also that coresidents with divergent politics were more likely to move apart. Therefore, we deploy improved identification strategies. First, using weighting, we estimate that coresidence increased voting agreement, but at only half of previously reported levels. Consistent with theoretical expectations, we find larger effects for weaker ties and those involving new members. Second, we study legislators who died in office, estimating that deaths increased ideological distance between survivors and deceased coresidents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PARTISANSHIP, CAMPAIGN funds, POLITICAL campaigns, CAMPAIGN promises, PRESIDENTIAL candidates, and INAUGURATION

On the campaign trail and at his inauguration, Joe Biden pledged, above all else, to be a uniter to restore the soul of America. At the end of his first year in office, many campaign promises have been met, but unity has not been one. Far from transcending partisanship as promised, Biden has embraced the levers of presidential discretion and power inherent within the modern executive office to advance partisan objectives. He is not just a victim of polarization, but actively contributes to it. This is not unexpected. Rather it is the culmination of a decades-long reorientation within both major parties: the rise of an executive-centered party-system, with Democrats and Republicans alike relying on presidents and presidential candidates to pronounce party doctrine, raise campaign funds, campaign on behalf of their partisan brethren, mobilize grass roots support, and advance party programs. Like Barack Obama and Donald Trump before him, Biden has aggressively used executive power to cut the Gordian knot of partisan gridlock in Congress. Even pandemic politics is not immune to presidential partisanship; in fact, it has accentuated the United States' presidency-centered democracy, which weakens the public resolve to confront and solve national problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

UNITED States senators, CONSTITUENTS (Persons), POLICY sciences, DOMESTIC travel, REPRESENTATIVE government, ELECTION districts, and ATTENTION

Is local attention a substitute for policy representation? Fenno (1978) famously described how legislators develop personal ties with their constituents through periodic visits to their districts and carefully crafted communications. Existing work suggests that such interactions insulate incumbents electorally, creating less need to represent constituents' policy preferences. Surprisingly, this important argument has never been tested systematically. In this paper, I use data on senator travel and staffing behavior along with survey data from the 2011–2018 Cooperative Congressional Election Study to investigate this claim. In addition to showing that areas with important campaign donors are significantly more likely to receive resources, I find that local visits may decrease approval among ideologically opposed constituents. Furthermore, I find inconsistent evidence regarding the effectiveness of local staff. These results suggest that local attention does not always cultivate goodwill in the district. Under polarized politics, home style does not effectively substitute for policy representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

UNITED States presidential election, 2020 and FOR-profit universities & colleges

RIGHT of privacy, PRIVACY, CONGRESSIONAL hearings (U.S.), FORUMS, GOVERNMENT corporations, DISCOURSE analysis, PUBLIC spaces, and DATA privacy

This study explores how emerging US data privacy regulations are discussed at state and federal levels, examining Twitter discourse around Senate public hearings on data privacy and public forums on the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). The recent legal steps reflect growing public outcry over corporate data misuses and lack of appropriate legislation. The findings suggest that the issue public of Twitter users in this study largely considered corporations and the government as untrustworthy actors for privacy legislation. The political distrust was raising doubts over regulatory capture and if a future US federal privacy law will be weaker than state laws (e.g., CCPA) while overriding them. The study explores implications of the findings on the current deadlock over the state preemption clause in developing a comprehensive federal privacy law. I argue that the emerging regulatory efforts on data privacy may not be effective unless the public trust in institutions is regained in the US and that the continuing absence of a federal law amid the political distrust can leave people with limited individual privacy strategies as a result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

VETO, BICAMERALISM, PRESIDENTS of the United States, POLITICAL parties, and POWER (Social sciences)

According to the conventional view, presidents are largely bereft of influence with an opposition-controlled Congress. Congress sends them legislation with a "take it or leave it" choice that maximizes the preferences of the opposition majority while minimizing presidents' preferences. To extricate themselves from this bind, presidents threaten vetoes. Past research suggests that their efforts largely fail, however, for two model-driven reasons: first, veto threats amount to minimally informative "cheap talk," and second, Congress is a unitary actor with firm control over its agenda. We relax both assumptions, bringing veto rhetoric into a setting more closely resembling real-world conditions. Presidents transmit credible veto threats to a heterogeneous, bicameral Congress where chamber rules enable the minority party to wield some influence over legislation. Examining the legislative histories of all veto-threatened bills passed between 1985 and 2016, we confirm that veto threats ward off about half of veto-targeted legislative provisions—a far greater share than for comparable unthreatened provisions. The House of Representatives is more likely to introduce and pass legislation objectionable to presidents and the Senate is more likely to accommodate presidents, findings consistent with the textbook description of the modern bicameral Congress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CORRUPTION laws, POLITICAL corruption, UNITED States politics & government, and POLITICAL corruption -- Law & legislation

Ninety three of the 1,818 people who served in the U.S. House of Representatives between 1972 and 2012 were investigated for corruption by the Ethics Committee. Eighteen were acquitted and 75 suffered consequences (reprimand/payback/resignation/conviction). Detailed analysis of the data shows that the longer one is in Congress, the more likely is the chance of corruption. In addition, the more powerful one is in Congress, the more likely is the chance of corruption. This article concludes that corruption follows opportunity. In general, the more opportunity members of Congress have to engage in corruption, the more they will ultimately succumb to corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ISLANDS, TYPE 1 diabetes, and ISLANDS of Langerhans

Clinical islet allotransplantation has been successfully regulated as tissue/organ for transplantation in number of countries and is recognized as a safe and efficacious therapy for selected patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus. However, in the United States, the FDA considers pancreatic islets as a biologic drug, and islet transplantation has not yet shifted from the experimental to the clinical arena for last 20 years. In order to transplant islets, the FDA requires a valid Biological License Application (BLA) in place. The BLA process is costly and lengthy. However, despite the application of drug manufacturing technology and regulations, the final islet product sterility and potency cannot be confirmed, even when islets meet all the predetermined release criteria. Therefore, further regulation of islets as drugs is obsolete and will continue to hinder clinical application of islet transplantation in the US. The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network together with the United Network for Organ Sharing have developed separately from the FDA and BLA regulatory framework for human organs under the Human Resources & Services Administration to assure safety and efficacy of transplantation. Based on similar biologic characteristics of islets and human organs, we propose inclusion of islets into the existing regulatory framework for organs for transplantation, along with continued FDA oversight for islet processing, as it is for other cell/tissue products exempt from BLA. This approach would reassure islet quality, efficacy and access for Americans with diabetes to this effective procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

UNITED States legislators, MICROBLOGS, POLITICAL communication, MASS media policy, and RHETORIC

Social media incentivizes members of Congress to routinely advertise their policy agenda for the public; however, it is unclear whether those expressed policy priorities are linked to their legislative behaviour. The incongruous nature of unlimited, online messages with constrained policy agendas necessitates assessing the association between what politicians say and their institutional actions. Using a dataset of senators' tweets from the 114th Congress, we analyse policy rhetoric on Twitter and bill sponsorship across a variety of issues in the Senate to show that senators' policy priorities on Twitter are representative of congressional activity. These results broaden the application of social media as a tool for policy agendas – extending theories of limited attention to lawmakers' political communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LEGISLATIVE bills, CONGRESSIONAL hearings (U.S.), LEGISLATIVE histories, and LEGISLATIVE bodies

The U.S. House and Senate were designed to have an adversarial relationship. Yet, House members and senators often collaborate on the introduction of “companion” bills. We develop a theory of these cross-chamber collaborations, which asserts that companion bill introductions are driven by legislators’ desire to increase the probability of bill passage and the relational difficulties in developing companion bill partnerships. To test the expectations emerging from our theory, we develop a novel data set of every companion bill introduction in the 111th and 112th U.S. Congress. Then, using social networking techniques, we develop an empirical model of partner selection in companion bill introduction. Our results are supportive of our expectations, and suggest that companion bills are more likely to survive chamber deliberation and are typically introduced by senior members with secure electoral margins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WOMEN in politics, UNITED States elections, and REPUBLICANS

Using a new data set of state political party bylaws and demographics of state party chairs, I evaluate whether women were more likely to run for Congress during the 2018 midterm elections from parties with higher levels of gender diversity. I construct three measures of gender diversity, whether each party was chaired by a woman, granted committee membership to an allied women's group, and required gender parity among their committee members. Democratic parties are more likely to be chaired by a woman and to require gender parity among their members, but Republican parties are more likely to grant membership to allied women's groups. Considering the implications of these rules, I find Democratic women were more likely to run for Congress representing parties that grant membership to an allied women's group and parties chaired by a woman. [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]

POLITICAL parties, FEDERAL legislation, and TWENTY-first century

U.S. federal environmental legislation has followed a significant logistic growth curve from 1862 through 2012, as determined by the cumulative number of acts per Congress. Growth of federal environmental legislation reached an asymptote around 2003; the number of environmental regulatory acts passed per year has sharply declined since 2002. Republican presidential years generally resulted in more federal environmental acts than Democratic presidential years, with the greatest total number of acts passed occurring during the eight occurrences of a Republican president and Democratic control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Statistically, however, the number of acts is evenly distributed among presidential political parties. The significant decline in U.S. federal environmental legislation since 2003 is presumably due to the second anti-environmental regulation backlash in the U.S. Congress that began in 1995, and an apparent, recent reversal by the Republican Party of its historically strong support of pro-environmental legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SENTENCING reform, PRISON sentences, and FEDERAL courts

In 1984, Congress passed the Sentencing Reform Act in an effort to bring consistency and certainty to federal sentencing. As part of the Sentencing Reform Act, Congress eliminated federal parole and replaced it with a new form of post-confinement monitoring: supervised release. While Congress created supervised release as a way to solve thenexisting issues with federal parole and to help Congress achieve its overall goal in reforming federal sentencing, this new form of supervision did not accomplish everything that Congress hoped it would. When Congress created supervised release, it did not address the fugitive tolling doctrine. Under the fugitive tolling doctrine, a term of supervised release tolls, or pauses, when defendants flee from supervision and become fugitives. After defendants are apprehended, they must serve the time that they were not under supervision. Congress's decision not to address the doctrine has resulted in a circuit split over whether the fugitive tolling doctrine should apply to supervised release, creating the very inconsistencies in sentencing that Congress sought to avoid. While one circuit court of appeals has held that the doctrine does not apply to supervised release, five have held that the doctrine does apply to supervised release. Furthermore, the United States Supreme Court has declined to consider the issue. This Comment discusses federal sentencing before and after the Sentencing Reform Act, including the creation of supervised release. Then, this Comment introduces the issues surrounding the fugitive tolling doctrine and the resulting circuit split. Ultimately, this Comment recommends that Congress should create a fugitive tolling provision for supervised release that would allow for consistency across all federal courts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BIPARTISANSHIP, LOGISTIC regression analysis, ARTS endowments, PARTISANSHIP, REGRESSION analysis, FORTUNE, and DEMOCRATS (United States)

Objective: We examine the relationship between the Congress and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), from the agency's inception in the mid‐1960s to the present. The NEA has seen its fortunes rise and fall over time, as congressional appropriations and scrutiny have fluctuated with ideological and partisan change in the House and Senate. Methods: We use Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and logistic regression models to examine the politics of the NEA systematically. Results: We find that while the NEA has enjoyed some bipartisan support throughout its tenure, assistance for the agency has been more likely to come from more liberal members and Democrats, respectively. We also uncover some evidence that particular states and districts benefit more of less from NEA grants. Conclusion: Overall, states and districts represented by Democrats do better in terms of both grants and grant dollars than states and districts represented by Republicans, with the most liberal Democratic House members doing especially well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DRUG traffic and DRUG trafficking laws

The article discusses the court case U.S. v. Davila-Mendoza, wherein the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit restricted the Commerce Clause authority of the Congress over economic activity on foreign waters, particularly the regulation of maritime drug trafficking under the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP, PROBLEM solving, LEGISLATORS, MALES, and FEMALES

Research indicates that congresswomen are more effective at moving bills through the lawmaking process than their male counterparts. To investigate why, we discuss what legislative entrepreneurship involves and explain why it can serve as the basis for problem-solving and effective lawmaking in the U.S. Congress. We also examine the entrepreneurial work that members of Congress did on behalf of bills that they sponsored from 1973 to 2008. Among other findings, we observe that congresswomen, especially those in the minority party, are more entrepreneurial than their male colleagues. This finding enhances our understanding of why female lawmakers are more effective lawmakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NEW START Treaty, 2010, CONGRESSIONAL hearings (U.S.), FACTIONALISM (Politics), RATIFICATION of treaties, and BALLISTIC missile defenses

The United States Senate voted to ratify the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia in 2010 by 74-26, all 26 voting against being Republicans. The change in the voting outcome compared to the 95-0 result in the 2003 SORT vote was dramatic. Using inductive frame analysis, this article analyzes committee hearings in the Senate Foreign Relations and the Armed Services committees in order to identify competing narratives defining individual senators’ positions on the ratification of the New START. Building on conceptual framework introduced by Walter Russel Mead (2002), it distinguishes four schools of thought: Jacksonian, Hamiltonian, Jeffersonian, and Wilsonian. The argumentation used in the hearings is deconstructed in order to understand the increase in opposition to the traditionally bipartisan nuclear arms control regime. The results reveal a factionalism in the Republican Party. The argumentation in opposition to ratification traces back to the Jacksonian school, whereas argumentation supporting the ratification traces back to Hamiltonian, Jeffersonian and Wilsonian traditions. According to opposition, the Obama administration was pursuing its idealistic goal of a world-without-nuclear-weapons and its misguided Russia reset policy by any means necessary – most importantly by compromising with Russia on U.S. European-based missile defense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most climate change actions take place in the international context in terms of multilateral negotiations and accords or in bilateral agreements between heads of the state. Parliaments or legislatures such as the United States Congress are in a crucial position when it comes to converting agreements or aims to action in domestic politics. The United States has played a volatile role in international negotiations on climate change. From categorically rejecting the Kyoto protocol during the George W. Bush administration, President Barack Obama announced that the United States would join the Paris Climate Accord prior to President Donald J. Trump's announcement of the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Accord. In domestic politics, too, efforts to address climate change have likewise varied. This article explores the complexity of climate change as a political question in the United States and considers the problematic issue that explains why the United States Congress has not have similar momentum to address climate change since the House of Representatives passed cap and trade legislation in 2009. The focus will be on theoretical discussions on congressional inaction and the United States Congress members' views on how and to what extent that institution should play a role in addressing climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

EXECUTIVE-legislative relations, POLITICAL agenda, LEGISLATION, and UNITED States Congressional elections, 2018

Donald Trump came to the presidency claiming a unique proficiency in negotiating deals. Once in office, however, he floundered. He adopted a passive approach to agenda setting, putting him in a reactive mode. Although he received high levels of support from Republicans in both chambers of Congress and although their leaders kept votes that he might lose off the agenda, Congress passed little significant legislation at his behest. The president received historically low levels of support from Democratic senators and representatives and could not win congressional assent for new healthcare policy, immigration reform, or infrastructure spending. Government shutdowns and symbolic slaps at his foreign policies characterized his tenure, even with his party in control of the legislature. He was even less successful after Democrats gained control of the House in the 2018 midterm elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NONPROFIT organizations, TAX exemption, RELIGION & politics, CHARITIES, POLITICAL organizations, and RELIGIOUS institutions

IRC § 501(c)(3) grants federal tax exemption to nonprofit organizations, such as public charities, private foundations, and private operating foundations. Religious organizations classified as churches receive added preferential treatment, specifically, exemption from certain filing requirements and statutory audit protection through § 7611. Section 527 grants most political organizations tax-exempt status, although they are subject to tax on some income, are not exempt from filing requirements, and do not receive tax-deductible donations. This extreme disparity in treatment may incentivize political organizations to reconfigure their missions and organizational structures to meet the litmus test for classification as a church. After the awarding of church status to some seemingly politically charged organizations, we investigate this issue and propose that it is time for the U.S. Congress and the Internal Revenue Service to revisit, evaluate, and revamp the existing system to prevent political organizations from abusing the tax provisions intended to benefit churches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CHURCH schools, NINETEENTH century, COMMUNITY life, LOCAL history, CATHOLICS, TELEVISED sports, and SCHOOL building design & construction

When studying the history of our emigration, memorials of Slovak associations, organizations, and settlements, issued on the occasion of important anniversaries, jubilees, or on the occasion of building a new church or school or even their consecration are highly valued sources. There are hundreds of such memorials available in the libraries in the USA, which show a real picture of the life of the Slovak community in the USA without an ideological assessment coming from Slovakia. The first of such memorials originated in the early 1930s when the first Slovak associations established at the end of the 19th century began to celebrate their jubilees. Such an important memorial that shows a probe into the history of the Slovak community to the USA is the memorial of the XIII. congress and X. festival (Pamätnica XIII. Sjazdu a X. Sletu) of the Slovak Catholic Sokol in 1936. The Slovak Catholic Sokol was and still is one of the largest Slovak Catholic organizations ever, having branches in all US states where Slovaks settled down. It focused not only on social and organizational aspects but also on the sport being an important part of its programme. The memorial of the XIII. congress and the X. festival (Pamätnica XIII. Sjazdu a X. Sletu) of the Slovak Catholic Sokol describes the events which happened on August 21 - 26, 1936, when members of the Slovak Catholic Sokol met in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Since some of the contributions to this Memorial are so interesting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NORTH American Free Trade Agreement, INTERNATIONAL relations, and STATE power

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POLITICAL leadership, PRESIDENTS of the United States, TAX cuts, GOVERNMENT shutdown, and MEDICAL care

In examining Donald Trump's presidential leadership, this article focuses on determining his efficacy as a political leader evident through three critical turning points in his presidency. His presidency began with a key legislative defeat, followed by a rare policy victory and in 2019, he controversially shutdown the government in a failed attempt to gain congressional funding for the US-Mexico border wall. By comparing the GOP attempt to reform healthcare with the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, this article demonstrates how Republican legislative success relied upon a unified approach between Congress and the White House, with clear, long-established policy goals. Analysis of the longest government shutdown in US history provides insight into Trump's leadership style, presidential power and relationship with Congress. In all three cases, Trump's rhetoric failed to effectively support Republican policy efforts or convince Americans that their course of action was best. Indeed, Trump's rhetoric and actions often proved more contradictory and damaging to Republican efforts and to the overall future of the party. This article concludes that Trump inexperience and character was ill-equipped to be an effective political leader, evident in his few legislative achievements and the toxic environment of hyper-partisanship he left behind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTERNATIONAL cooperation, INTERNATIONAL relations, SPACE flight, and CHINA-United States relations

There are a growing number of U.S. space scientists and managers calling for reinitiating cooperation with China in space. It is well-known that investigations of the U.S. Congress into various allegations involving China have resulted in a series of laws curtailing space cooperation between these two countries. By surveying the concurrent political developments within the United States in the 1980s and 1990s, this article attempts to reveal the domestic compulsions that propelled changes in the U.S. space policy towards China. The fundamental impetus is the power struggle and differences between the U.S. president and Congress in their perception of U.S. economic interests and national security in the context of space technology that strained these relations. Recent U.S. presidents who inherited this situation added to the discourse based on their own perceptions about outer space and China. These perceptions either found congruence with the policy of the U.S. Congress or led to finding ways to circumvent its legal restrictions. Based on these developments, it is concluded that the view of the U.S. president has alternated between necessary, desirable, and objectionable on the issue of U.S.-China space cooperation, and the U.S. Congress has thus shifted from supporting to restricting and then legally banning cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

SECURITIES industry laws, CONSTITUTIONAL amendments (United States), STOCKS (Finance), UNITED States legislators, and MULTIVARIATE analysis

This paper examines the returns of stocks most frequently held by members of the US Congress surrounding the amendment to the "Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge" (STOCK) Act, which relaxed some of the restrictions that kept congressional staffers from trading on non-public information. Using a series of standard event study techniques, we find evidence that the stocks held most by members of Congress outperformed the market during the period immediately surrounding the amendment's passage. Our results are robust to different treatment samples, various methods of calculating abnormal returns, and a number of different placebo tests. In addition, our multivariate tests show that the positive CARs surrounding the amendment are driven by the number of congressmen holding the stock and the amount invested by members of Congress in a particular stock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PARTISANSHIP and SELECTION & appointment of U.S. Supreme Court justices

Partisan disputes are ubiquitous in Congress. Yet, participation in this bickering varies among legislators. Some eagerly join these fights while others abstain. What explains this variation? Previous research examines this question by studying members' partisan preferences expressed through votes or bill cosponsorships. However, preference-based studies miss much of the daily congressional bickering and cannot identify which legislators were most involved in the fighting. This paper considers lawmakers' partisan intensity, the time and effort they devote to partisanship. I argue the same factors that drive other forms of legislative participation—constituent demand, committee service, and a member's personal characteristics—also predict who joins a partisan dispute. Using Senators' daily Twitter communications during Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation, I show legislators' partisan intensity systematically varied based on these factors. In particular, I find that sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh altered Senators' partisan behavior in a predictable manner. This study helps explain why legislators choose to create the partisan acrimony that is omnipresent on Capitol Hill and contributes to our understanding of partisanship, messaging politics, and how social identity affects legislative participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OLDER women and DWELLINGS

More women are running for and serving in the U.S. House of Representatives than ever before, but how does gender influence the careers of House members once they arrive in Congress? We find that gender matters in two important ways: first, freshmen women are older than freshmen men. Second, women are both more likely to lose a reelection race and more likely to retire because of electoral concerns than men. The result is that women have significantly shorter careers in the House than men. Both factors—women's delayed entry and early exit—produce fewer women in the House at any given time than if these disparities did not exist. These findings have significant consequences for the House's demographic makeup, ideological makeup, and policy agenda. The broader implication of our findings is that more women in the electoral arena is a necessary but not sufficient condition to make the representation of women truly equal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LABOR unions

It has long been recognized that economic inequality may undermine the principle of equal responsiveness that lies at the core of democratic governance. A recent wave of scholarship has highlighted an acute degree of political inequality in contemporary democracies in North America and Europe. In contrast to the view that unequal responsiveness in favor of the affluent is nearly inevitable when income inequality is high, we argue that organized labor can be an effective source of political equality. Focusing on the paradigmatic case of the U.S. House of Representatives, our novel dataset combines income-specific estimates of constituency preferences based on 223,000 survey respondents matched to roll-call votes with a measure of district-level union strength drawn from administrative records. We find that local unions significantly dampen unequal responsiveness to high incomes: a standard deviation increase in union membership increases legislative responsiveness towards the poor by about six to eight percentage points. As a result, in districts with relatively strong unions legislators are about equally responsive to rich and poor Americans. We rule out alternative explanations using flexible controls for policies, institutions, and economic structure, as well as a novel instrumental variable for unionization based on history and geography. We also show that the impact of unions operates via campaign contributions and partisan selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Promoting evidence-informed health policymaking is a priority of the Society of Behavioral Medicine and other professional societies. However, politics often impede the translation of research into policy. Public opinion is an important feature of political context that influences policymakers' behaviors, but prior research has not examined public opinion about evidence-informed health policy development. This exploratory study sought to characterize public opinion about the influence that evidence should, and does, have on health policy development in U.S. Congress relative to other factors and examine differences by political party affiliation. A public opinion survey was conducted in 2018 using the SSRS Probability Panel (N = 532). Respondents separately rated the extent to which six factors (e.g. evidence, budget impact, industry interests) "should have" and "currently have" influence on U.S. congresspersons' health policy decisions. Evidence (59%) was the most frequently identified factor that should have "a lot of influence" on health policy development, but only 11% of respondents thought that evidence currently has "a lot of influence" (p <.001). Opinions about evidence did not vary significantly by political party. The interests of insurance and pharmaceutical companies were identified as factors that should have the least influence on policy development, but were perceived as having the most influence (p <.001). There is strong bipartisan public support for evidence to have much more influence on health policy development in U.S. Congress. Efforts that aim to improve evidence-informed health policymaking should consider harnessing the power of public opinion to change elected policymakers' behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

FEDERAL Reserve monetary policy, FEDERAL Reserve banks, UNITED States politics & government, and TWENTIETH century

Applying an array of quasi-experimental designs, proponents of causal inference approaches to studying American politics are setting their sights on the study of Congress. In many ways, that focus makes sense: improved research design allows us to draw stronger analytical inferences from observational data, bolstering our understanding of legislative politics. But are the pursuit and methods of causal inference equally well suited to the study of Congress and history? In this article, I consider the application of causal inference methods in historically oriented studies of Congress. Drawing from my coauthored work on the interdependence of Congress and the Federal Reserve over the Fed's first century and earlier work on the institutional evolution of Congress, I point to the tradeoffs between knowledge and certainty that are endemic in causal inference approaches—and arguably especially so in the study of Congress and history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTELLECTUAL property, COMMERCIAL treaties, INTERNATIONAL trade, FOREIGN trade promotion, and COMMERCIAL policy

Despite the large body of literature on the connection between intellectual property rights (IPRs) and trade at the international level, less attention has been paid to the impacts of such rights included in preferential trade agreements (PTAs) on domestic legislative debates. This article contributes to filling this gap by analyzing debates in the U.S. legislature where the IPRs included in PTAs were referred to. We consider the 1995–2012 period (104th to 112th Congresses). We also analyze trade laws enacted by Congress over the period. The data suggest that the IPRs negotiated with foreign partners affect Congress voting on the concession of trade promotion authority to the president. They may also trigger urges for adjustments to trade agreements and be tapped into by members of Congress to advocate for changes to domestic patent legislation. The importance placed on IPRs by members of Congress was not consistent over time and across parties. These results suggest that theoretical explanations of the U.S. trade policy must account for the diversity of views at the domestic level and for how such often divergent sentiments translate into policies, as framed by the domestic laws and institutions in place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DRUG efficacy, DRUG approval, PRACTICAL politics, BIOSIMILARS, and PATIENT safety

What is known and objective: The United States is the only country with legislation to approve two classes of biosimilars. One has "no clinically meaningful difference" from the reference product, and when it is tested for switching and alternating, it can receive an interchangeable status. The objective of this review is to establish whether it is possible from the switching and alternating studies to evaluate additional safety or efficacy. Methods: Analysed published data to ascertain if the testing with switching and alternating provide additional proof of safety or efficacy. Political and scientific rationale of creating a new class of biosimilars and how this affects the confidence in biosimilars. Results and discussion: There is no safety or efficacy concern when switching or alternating biosimilars with the reference product. Unfortunately, the rationale for interchangeability is more political than scientific, and it has brought more confusion and mistrust in using biosimilars in the United States. What is new and conclusion: The US Congress is requested to remove the interchangeability clause from the Biological Price and Competition Act to enable faster acceptance of biosimilars and remove the threat of lack of confidence in the safety of biosimilars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

UNITED States tax laws, TAX planning, FAIR value, TAX administration & procedure, and TAXPAYER compliance

Tax abuse--a process by which taxpayers secure tax outcomes that directly or indirectly contravene congressional intent--is a commonplace phenomenon that has plagued the nation's economic fabric since Congress instituted the income tax. A typical pattern associated with tax abuse is as follows: one or more taxpayers devise a methodology to mitigate their tax burdens in a way that skirts their civic obligations, the practice becomes widespread, and Congress responds by instituting reform measures. Often, however, the legislative process takes years or, in some cases, decades to unfold; in the meantime, billions of dollars of tax revenue are lost. Consider the case of upstream tax planning. This is a process by which younger-generation taxpayers gift appreciated assets to older loved ones with the expectation of receiving such assets back in the form of outright bequests or in trust for their benefit. After the application of the Internal Revenue Code's "basis equal to fair market value" rule, the transferred assets are cleansed of their former gains, making upstream tax planning very financially enticing. Using upstream tax planning as a case study, this Article advocates that Congress enact a general anti-abuse rule that vests the Treasury Department with broad administrative authority to promulgate anti-abuse regulations whenever the agency perceives a tax-compliance problem. The grant of such administrative authority combined with its utilization would yield a vast improvement over the status quo: it would safeguard the nation's coffers in a faster and more timely manner; enhance and invigorate taxpayer compliance; and, where necessary, shape the Code into being more standard based rather than rule based in nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

UNITED States tax laws, TAX Cuts & Jobs Act (U.S.), TAX credits, and CORPORATE taxes

The article discusses two major legislative acts passed by Congress to change tax law in the U.S., including the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) and the 2018 Bipartisan Budget Act (BBA). Topics covered include BBA's elimination of the production tax credit and the investment tax credit, and TCJA's creation of the base erosion anti-abuse tax (BEAT) and its elimination of the corporate alternative minimum tax.

CORONAVIRUS diseases, UNITED States tax laws, TAX cuts, and TAX rates

GREEN v. United States, DOUBLE jeopardy, TAXATION, and DUE process of law

In 1976, in Fisher v. United States, the Supreme Court first recognized the "act of production privilege" as being a necessary component of the Fifth Amendment's privilege against self-incrimination. A grand jury subpoena or Service summons does not violate the Fifth Amendment just because documents the government seeks are incriminating; pre-existing documents are not the result of government compulsion. But, a taxpayer may refuse to produce those same documents if the compelled act of producing them is testimonial and incriminating. By producing documents, a taxpayer may "testify" that the documents exist, that she possesses and controls them, that she believes that they are described in the subpoena or summons, and that they are authentic -- all admissions that may be incriminating. The act of production privilege does not apply, however, if factual admissions inherent in producing documents are a "foregone conclusion" (i.e., if the government can independently prove those facts without relying on the documents' production). In 2016, in United States v. Greenfield, the Second Circuit narrowly drew this foregone conclusion exception. Greenfield asserted his act of production privilege in response to a 2013 Service summons seeking records of foreign bank accounts. Evidence in the government's hands indicated that Greenfield might have controlled the accounts in 2001. But the court held that the "critical issue" was whether the government could prove that facts which would be conveyed by Greenfield's act of producing documents were a foregone conclusion in 2013. The government could not meet this burden (although it might have done so in 2001). The court therefore applied the act of production privilege to quash the summons, because the existence and Greenfield's control of the summonsed documents in 2013 could be incriminating. "One of Greenfield's strongest defenses to a charge of tax evasion would be to argue that his father [who died in 2009] was the sole person with knowledge of how the family's finances were organized," a defense which would be undermined by evidence that Greenfield took control of bank records after his father's death. Greenfield seems to be a robust affirmation of the Fifth Amendment's act of production privilege. Yet the Greenfield court was careful to distinguish its 2013 decision in In re Grand Jury Subpoena Dated Feb. 2, 2012, where it refused to apply the act of production privilege to a grand jury subpoena that sought a taxpayer's foreign bank account records, but only from the previous five years. In the earlier case, the Second Circuit applied the so-called "required records exception" to the Fifth Amendment privilege, because a regulation under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), 31 C.F.R. § 1010.420, requires taxpayers sometimes even to create, and to retain for five years, records of foreign bank accounts. The Greenfield decision stated: "The Government can require an individual to produce documents related to foreign bank accounts maintained pursuant to 31 C.F.R. § 1010.420, without violating an individual's right against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment." Consequently, the difference between Greenfield and In re Grand Jury Subpoena Dated Feb. 2, 2012 is not the result of meticulous constitutional analysis, but rests only on the length of time that an agency regulation requires foreign bank account records to be maintained. If the BSA regulation required taxpayers to maintain foreign bank account records for, say, 12 years, presumably the Greenfield court would not have engaged in its extensive discussion of the Fifth Amendment, but would simply have ordered Greenfield to respond to the summons. Greenfield thus, by its own terms, applies only if no statute or regulation requires a taxpayer to maintain records that the government seeks. Greenfield does nothing to mitigate the potentially far-reaching and troubling fallout from decisions of eight of the 12 federal circuit courts, dating from 2011 through 2016, all of which applied the so-called "required records exception" to the Fifth Amendment. This "exception" dates from the Supreme Court's 1948 decision in Shapiro v. United States, a case that involved emergency wartime recordkeeping regulations governing a publicly conducted business. Nevertheless, the eight circuit court cases all relied on Shapiro to hold that a taxpayer may not assert her Fifth Amendment act of production privilege (first recognized three decades after Shapiro) to refuse to produce records from the past five years in connection with the private act of owning a foreign bank account, no matter how testimonial and incriminating the taxpayer's act of producing those records may be. The eight circuit court decisions espoused the dubious notion that whether the Fifth Amendment act of production privilege applies depends on whether there is a statute or even a regulation that requires taxpayers to maintain for a specified period records that the government seeks via subpoena or summons. As a result, Congress, or even a federal agency, can "override" the Constitution's protection against compelled self-incrimination simply by prescribing recordkeeping requirements. This surely cannot be correct constitutional law; these decisions contravene the bedrock propositions that a statute (let alone a regulation) cannot override the Constitution, and that, when the prerequisites of compulsion, testimony, and possible self-incrimination are met, the Fifth Amendment's privilege is "unequivocal and without exception." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

POLITICAL elites, ECONOMIC elites, COMMERCIAL policy, LABOR market, PUBLIC housing, PARTISANSHIP, and LOCAL elections

Driven by concerns over American jobs, factions within both the Democrat and Republican parties have appealed for greater trade protection. Does the legislative record reflect this rhetoric and have protectionist demands impacted the direction of trade policy in recent decades? Our answers are yes and no, respectively. We investigate the content of all 3356 trade bills introduced in Congress, 2005–2016, and classify them as liberalizing and protectionist. Analyzing legislator decisions to sponsor or cosponsor bills, we show that legislators who represent districts hardest hit by trade competition promote protectionism at a higher rate. We find strong evidence that district economic conditions reinforce the party position for Democrats and reveal intra-party cleavages among Republicans. Yet, these local interests are quickly sidelined in the legislative process. The few trade bills that become public law advance liberalization. The attrition process reflects the positions of party leadership who exercise gatekeeping powers to promote legislation that aligns with productive firms and the broader national interest. Thus we show how local economic conditions, partisan politics, and Congressional elite jointly shape the direction of trade policy, reinforcing U.S. engagement in the global economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NATIONAL Labor Relations Act (U.S.), COLLECTIVE bargaining, PRESIDENTIAL administrations, and EMPLOYERS

After a period of labor hostility, Congress enacted the National Labor Relations Act ("NLRA") in 1935 to equalize the bargaining power between employers and employees, encourage collective bargaining, and protect "the exercise by workers of full freedom of association, selforganization, and designation of representatives of their own choosing, for the purpose of negotiating the terms and conditions of their employment or other mutual aid or protection." Nine decades later, its terms and provisions still inspire debate. Section 7 of the NLRA protects, among other things, employees' right to engage in concerted activities. Because the makeup of the National Labor Relations Board (the "Board"), tasked with interpreting the NLRA, is vulnerable to changes in presidential administrations, the Board has flip-flopped on the issue of what activities constitute concerted activities under section 7. As a result, employers and employees alike are left unsure of how to comply with or exercise their rights under the NLRA. Four major Board decisions have expanded or contracted the definition of concerted activity, creating both employer- and employeefriendly results along the way. Some interpretations of the term would protect individual employees, acting alone and with no evidence of group support. In contrast, other interpretations protect employees only when they band together with their coworkers or act alone, but with support from others or with an intention to induce their coworkers to act with them. In late 2021, the Board's General Counsel encouraged another shift from an employer-friendly interpretation back to a more expansive, employee-friendly interpretation. This Comment argues that the Board should stay its course and continue adhering to the current, more limited interpretation. This Comment also recommends that Congress amend the NLRA to define concerted activity to promote clarity and efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

STATUTES, GOVERNMENT agencies, GOVERNMENT regulation, and CONGRESSIONAL Review Act, 1996 (U.S.)

Congress routinely enacts substantive statutes that require federal agencies to adopt regulations. When agencies issue regulations under these statutes, their rules are then subject to potential disapproval by Congress under a process outlined in a separate procedural statute known as the Congressional Review Act (CRA). If Congress passes a CRA disapproval resolution, this voids the disapproved regulation and triggers a provision in the CRA that prohibits the agency from adopting any subsequent regulation that is “substantially the same†as the disapproved one. But a CRA disapproval resolution does nothing to eliminate the agency’s obligation under the substantive statute to put a regulation in place. And many times, the substantive statute does more than merely require that an agency adopt a regulation; it also provides considerable detail instructing the agency as to what the mandated regulation should require. What emerges in these cases is a conundrum—the CRA conundrum—created by a tension between the CRA and the detailed provisions of the substantive statute requiring adoption of a regulation. If an agency is obligated under the substantive statute to adopt a regulation meeting that statute’s detailed strictures, how can it respond to a disapproval resolution without offending the CRA’s ban on issuing a rule that is substantially the same as the disapproved one? This Article identifies the CRA conundrum and then shows how agencies can tackle it, using, as an example, the predicament that the Securities and Exchange Commission faced over an energy extraction disclosure regulation that was called for under the Dodd-Frank Act but was subsequently disapproved by a later Congress. The key to resolving the conundrum is to recognize that Congress's choice of imprecision in the CRA-that is, its choice to use the word "substantially"-allows agencies to follow the more specific language contained in a substantive statute. The test for substantial similarity must be measured against the discretion the substantive statute affords the agency. As a general procedural statute, the CRA can only impose obligations on an agency with respect to matters over which the agency retains discretion. An agency that finds itself facing the CRA conundrum simply needs to make sure that any reissued rule is no longer substantially the same with respect to those portions of the regulation over which the substantive statute allows the agency room to maneuver. Even with highly detailed statutory provisions, an agency will almost always still have some discretion over some of the regulation's terms. That discretion must then be exercised in a substantially different way, even if by only making available opportunities for waivers or by extending deadlines for compliance. In the end, by viewing "substantial" from the proper perspective, the CRA conundrum can be readily solved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PUBLIC housing, HOUSING policy, and UNITED States legislators

Prior research assumes that high-status actors have greater organizational influence than lower-status ones, that is, it is easier for the former to get their ideas and initiatives adopted by the organization than it is for the latter. Drawing from the literature on ideology, we posit that the status–influence link is contingent on actors' ideological position. Specifically, status confers organizational influence to the degree that the focal actor is ideologically mainstream. The more an actor's ideology deviates from the mainstream the less will her status translate into increased organizational influence. We find support for this hypothesis using data on the work of legislators in the House of Representatives in the United States Congress. By illuminating how and under what conditions status leads to increased influence, this study qualifies and extends current understandings of the role of status in organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MUSLIM Americans, RAMADAN, CONTRAST media, RELIGIOUS communities, UNITED States Congressional elections, RELIGIOUS minorities, and UNITED States presidential election, 2020

This article traces the history of the simple resolutions introduced in the United States Congress almost annually since 2001 to recognize the commencement of Ramadan, and to offer good wishes to Muslims in the United States and globally. Only one of these has passed. These symbolic resolutions have been little studied, in contrast to media attention on White House iftars and presidential Ramadan greetings. Using Congressional sources, this article argues that these symbolic resolutions, despite their limited success, offer an important lens for understanding a post-9/11 Congressional effort to recognize Muslims as an American religious minority community. The impact of these Ramadan resolutions lies in their attempt to grant national recognition to a minority religious community—an effort that has been both inclusive and contentious. Overall, Congressional resolutions and debates offer a fruitful source for scholarship on American Muslims and other religious minorities in the contemporary United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NOMINATIONS for public office, APPOINTMENT to public office, and UNITED States senators

CORRUPT practices in elections, ELECTRONIC newsletters, FALSE claims, FRAUD, DEMOCRATS (United States), REPUBLICANS, and ELECTIONS

Talk of fraud dominated President Donald J. Trump's campaign and time in office. In this article, we explore whether members of Congress followed Trump's lead in discussing all types of fraud, including electoral fraud as well as fraud, waste, and abuse. Using a unique dataset of the universe of congressional electronic newsletters from 2010 to 2021, we show that Republicans wrote to constituents about fraud much more than Democrats, especially about electoral fraud after Trump's election, but it was Democrats who used angrier rhetoric to discuss fraud, a check on the President and many of the false claims about voter fraud in 2016 and 2020. These findings show an important aspect of the inter-party and inter-branch dynamics at play during Trump's presidency; once keen to focus on fraud, waste and abuse in government congressional Republican attention shifted once the head of the executive branch was a co-partisan to parroting the claims of electoral and voter fraud made by the President. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CONGRESSIONAL hearings (U.S.), VERBAL behavior testing, POLITICAL oratory, LEGISLATIVE committees, and CORRUPT practices in elections

Many assumed that legislators send political messages or even grandstand in expectation of gaining electoral rewards. However, largely due to a lack of proper data and measurements, this assumption has not been tested. Publicized committee hearings provide a unique environment to consistently observe changes in legislators' speech patterns and test this assumption. Using House committee hearing transcripts from 1997 to 2016 and Grandstanding Scores-which capture the intensity of political messages conveyed in members' statements in hearings-I find that an increase in a member's messaging efforts in a given Congress leads to increased vote share in the following election. This suggests that legislators' grandstanding remarks, often regarded as cheap talk, can be an effective electoral strategy. Additional findings suggest that PAC donors respond differently to members' grandstanding behavior. Specifically, while voters react to members' grandstanding positively but are ignorant about their legislative effectiveness, PAC donors are unmoved by members' grandstanding behaviors and reward members' effective law-making activities instead. These asymmetric reactions from voters and donors may provide members with a twisted incentive to appeal to voters merely by making impressive, political speeches while legislating in favor of organized interests, which raises concerns about how representative democracy works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ELECTIONS, PUBLIC opinion, PRACTICAL politics, RED, and UNITED States Congressional elections

Republicans were initially optimistic that the 2022 midterms would result in a sizeable red wave that would lead them to win back control of the House and Senate in light of President Biden's low levels of approval and high rates of inflation. Although they did win enough seats to narrowly control the House, they failed to pick up a sufficient number of seats in the Senate to control that chamber during the next 2 years. This article examines the candidates, outcomes, and implications of the 2022 midterm elections. In doing so, we analyze the effect that former President Donald Trump had on the election while also considering the impact of factors such as inflation and abortion on congressional election outcomes. The article closes with a discussion of the effects of the 2022 midterms on both the incoming 118th Congress as well as the upcoming 2024 Presidential election. [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]

FRAUD, LEGISLATIVE bills, CONGRESSIONAL hearings (U.S.), and PUBLIC administration

Public administration scholars have taken up the study of fraud, waste, and abuse, but typically from an executive or bureaucratic perspective. The aim of this paper is to deepen what we know about the topic by re-orienting the focus back to Congress, in line with Paul Light's seminal book on the subject. By examining two decades of Congressional bill and hearings data, the findings show Congress has remained active on fraud, waste, and abuse, but no single theory of legislative behavior best explains the patterns of activity [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AMERICAN women legislators, PARTISANSHIP, UNITED States political parties, ELECTORAL college, and UNITED States politics & government, 21st century

The gender gap between female and male voters receives much attention during election season. But the partisan gap among women in Congress is a dramatically bigger gulf and arguably holds much more significant consequences for our democracy. This gap has been caused by long-term, structural changes in American electoral politics—specifically, the regional, racial and ideological realignments of the two major political parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

UNITED States Congressional voting, INTERNATIONAL relations, PUBLIC officers, PUBLIC administration, PRESIDENTIAL elections, and POLITICAL science

By tracing the changing electoral incentives and political circumstances of partisans in Congress over time, this paper unpacks how and why substantive policy content has lost its relevance for influencing Congressional voting on gun control. It argues that as gun control positions have crystallized to become part of partisan identity, policy specifics have come to matter less for partisans in Congress than the general pro gun control or pro gun rights position that a piece of legislation symbolizes. Today, regardless of the specific policy contents of a bill, a gun vote serves as a signaling device from members of Congress to their partisan supporters that they are either passionate defenders of the Second Amendment (Republicans) or fierce protectors of America's children from gun violence (Democrats). That policy content has lost its relevance for Congressional voting on gun control is evident through the marked decline in vote splitting, the extinction of gun control moderates, and the all or nothing voting behavior of partisan shifters – those formerly pro-control Republicans, anti-control Democrats, and gun control moderates who shifted positions over time to vote the party line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CONFERENCES & conventions, PHYSICAL fitness -- Congresses, and PUBLIC health -- Congresses

Information about the International Congress on Physical Activity and Public Health, held April 17-20, 2006, in Atlanta, Georgia is presented. The congress was made relative to the tenth-year anniversary of the publication of the “US Surgeon General's Report on Physical Activity and Health.” A forum for exchanging information on current research and practice in the area of physical activity and public health was also made.

GENDER inequality, TITLE IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, SPORTS participation, SCHOOL sports, ATHLETICS, and WOMEN athletes

In 1994, the United States Congress enacted The Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act (EADA). The EADA requires colleges and universities receiving federal financial assistance to provide an annual public report on the number of athletic participation opportunities provided to men and women athletes at the varsity level and the allocation of resources and personnel made in support of those opportunities. The passage of the EADA occurred on the heels of the 20th anniversary of Title IX of the Education Amendments Act, a time marked by the realization that the vast majority of schools around the country were not in compliance with Title IX's requirements as applied to athletic departments two decades after its passage. The purpose of the EADA when initially proposed in 1993 was to provide accessible information to stakeholders, most specifically prospective students, the public, and the U.S. Congress, that would allow interested parties to raise questions regarding the fair and equitable treatment of women athletes in the nation's intercollegiate athletic programs. The annual report, colloquially referred to as the EADA report, is officially called The Report on Athletic Program Participation Rates and Financial Support Data. Three decades after the passage of the EADA and five decades after the passage of Title IX, there is reason to question whether the EADA has served its purpose. During Title IX's 50th anniversary year, researchers and journalists uniformly reported a systemic failure to comply with Title IX in the area of athletics. Over the years, some have argued that the EADA should be eliminated; others have documented how valuable the information from the EADA is to researchers, journalists, and litigators; others have recommended changes that would strengthen the data collection required under the EADA; and others have argued that something akin to an EADA requirement needs to be adopted nationwide to help address sweeping gender inequities in athletics at the high school level. This essay begins with an overview of the current state of Title IX compliance and gender equity in college sport, revisits the history of the EADA, provides an overview of what the EADA covers and who uses it, explores the criticisms and limitations of the EADA, and concludes with recommendations for making the EADA a more effective tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WOMEN politicians, WOMEN in politics, WOMEN presidential candidates, POLITICAL leadership, PRESIDENTIAL nominations, UNITED States elections, and UNITED States politics & government, 1989-

Women are drastically underrepresented in American political institutions. This has prompted speculation about the impact of electing more women on policy and the functioning of government. Examining the growing presence of women in Congress, I demonstrate that women do exhibit unique policy priorities, focusing more on the needs of various groups of women. However, the incentive structure of the American electoral system, which rewards ideological purity, means that women are not likely to bring more consensus to Washington. Indeed, women's issues are now entrenched in the partisan divide. Since the 1990s, the majority of women elected to Congress have been Democrats, who have pursued their vision of women's interests while portraying Republican policies as harmful to women. In response, Republican women have been deployed to defend their party, further reducing the potential for bipartisan cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CHILD tax credits, AMERICAN Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (U.S.), POOR children, EDUCATIONAL vouchers, and CHURCH schools

The American Rescue Plan Act enacted in March 2021 expanded the child tax credit to as much as $3,600 a year for children under six and made it fully refundable and perhaps payable in advance. At least some are hailing the credit as something close to a school voucher, saying the money could help pay for parochial school. It would also lift millions of children out of poverty. Should this one-year provision be made permanent law as is? Or are there alternative uses of this federal money or modifications to the policy that would bring better outcomes for children, with a lower risk of unintended consequences? Matthew Yglesias, a journalist who writes about economics and politics, and Scott Winship, director of poverty studies at the American Enterprise Institute, weigh in on these questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The U.S. is experiencing an epidemic of type 2 diabetes. Socioeconomically disadvantaged and certain racial and ethnic groups experience a disproportionate burden from diabetes and are subject to disparities in treatment and outcomes. The National Clinical Care Commission (NCCC) was charged with making recommendations to leverage federal policies and programs to more effectively prevent and control diabetes and its complications. The NCCC determined that diabetes cannot be addressed simply as a medical problem but must also be addressed as a societal problem requiring social, clinical, and public health policy solutions. As a result, the NCCC's recommendations address policies and programs of both non–health-related and health-related federal agencies. The NCCC report, submitted to the U.S. Congress on 6 January 2022, makes 39 specific recommendations, including three foundational recommendations that non–health-related and health-related federal agencies coordinate their activities to better address diabetes, that all federal agencies and departments ensure that health equity is a guiding principle for their policies and programs that impact diabetes, and that all Americans have access to comprehensive and affordable health care. Specific recommendations are also made to improve general population-wide policies and programs that impact diabetes risk and control, to increase awareness and prevention efforts among those at high risk for type 2 diabetes, and to remove barriers to access to effective treatments for diabetes and its complications. Finally, the NCCC recommends that an Office of National Diabetes Policy be established to coordinate the activities of health-related and non–health-related federal agencies to address diabetes prevention and treatment. The NCCC urges Congress and the Secretary of Health and Human Services to implement these recommendations to protect the health and well-being of the more than 130 million Americans at risk for and living with diabetes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CAMPAIGN funds, FUNDRAISING, UNITED States Congressional elections, and POLITICAL party leadership

Members of the United States Congress labor under a pressing fundraising imperative. Congresspersons believe that they must raise very large sums of money in order to secure re-election, to help their fellow partisans in Congress get re-elected, and to rise to positions of Congressional and party leadership. This leads members of Congress to accord tremendous importance to fundraising while in office. In this article, I draw on the normative scholarship on domination to offer a novel critique of the Congressional fundraising imperative. There is good reason, I argue here, to believe that the fundraising imperative promotes the domination of non-affluent Americans by their wealthy counterparts, thereby unjustifiably depriving citizens of ordinary means of their freedom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CHURCH property, CHURCH property laws, UNITED States appellate courts, and RELIGIOUS communities

The First Amendment's Establishment Clause, in prohibiting Congress from making any law "respecting an establishment of religion." sets forth the separation of church and state so recognizable in American society. The First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause prevents Congress from "prohibiting the fiee exercise" of religion. When disputes arise within religious communities, such as when competing.factions both claiming to be the "true church" seek to secure church property rights, the interplay between the First Amendment's two religion clauses becomes particularly nuanced: the opposing parties seek an impartial tribunal (i.e., a secular court of law) to settle the dispute, but the triblinal must avoid interirring in the religious community's internal affairs. In response to this conundrum, American courts have oscillated between two judicial postures that the United States Supreme Court has ®und to be constitutionally permissible: (1) the "compulsory deference" method preferred in the 187 1 case Watson v. Jones, providing that for a hierarchical church (i.e., a church organized where local branches are situated within a larger structural tier), the secular tribunal should defrr to the decision of the church's hierarchical authority: and (2) the "neutral principles" method endorsed in the 1979 case Jones v. Wolf, whereby courts are permitted to review secular documents (e.g., property deeds, church constitutions, etc.) to determine for themselves which faction should triumph-even ij, in the case oj hierarchical churches, the church's higher structural level has already decided. The "neutral principles" judicial posture allows a secular court to nile forone party while the church hierarchy has supported the opposing party, thus creating a conflict between secular and religious interests that the "compulsory deference" method avoids. This Article argues that in cases involving the Roman Catholic Church, secular courts should use the compulsory deference method to resolve those property disputes. This position is warranted not only because the Catholic Church is hierarchically arranged but also because of the particular ways that the Catholic Church vests property ownership. This Article concludes that the compulsory deference approach is the only constitutionally permissible method that ensures that secular courts do not infringe upon the Catholic Church'sfree exercise rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19, SEX factors in disease, GENDER, REPRODUCTIVE rights, FRAMES (Social sciences), PARTISANSHIP, and UNITED States presidential election, 2020

Background: Previous research demonstrates that congressional communication on Twitter is gendered. Congresswomen are more likely to tweet about issues than Congressmen during elections, and they are also more likely to tweet about "women's issues" (healthcare, education, reproductive rights, welfare) than their male counterparts. Objectives: Given the partisan and gendered coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) pandemic effects researchers have documented, we examine whether Congressmembers. communication about COVID‐19 is also gendered and partisan. Methods: To examine how Senators and House Representatives were discussing the pandemic online, we collected the tweets sent by members of both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate from February 1st until May 14th, 2020. Results: Gender and partisanship shape how members communicate about COVID‐19 on Twitter, and this is especially pronounced in the framing of COVID‐19 in terms of "women's issues." Conclusion: We find evidence that there is a gendered partisan divide in both the frequency and framing of the issue on Twitter. This divide is likely to continue to shape how the public thinks about the pandemic and how elites. respond to the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INJUNCTIONS, CLASS actions, UNITED States. Immigration & Nationality Act, PLAINTIFFS, and FORUM shopping

A curious provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) precludes class actions challenging expedited removal, the system of fast-track deportations for individuals who have recently entered the country. The same provision authorizes nationwide relief in non-class actions, but it requires that plaintiffs in such non-class systemic challenges file their claims in the federal District Court for the District of Columbia and that they do so within sixty days of the challenged change to the system. This framework should matter to scholars of nationwide injunctions for two reasons. First, Congress took for granted in 1996 that federal district courts may issue nationwide injunctions without certifying a nationwide class. Second, by limiting individual nationwide actions to a single judicial district, Congress prevented plaintiffs from trying their luck in multiple judicial districts and prevented courts from issuing conflicting nationwide injunctions. The expedited removal statute therefore eliminates two of the most commonly cited harms of non-class nationwide injunctions-- heightened plaintiff forum shopping and the possibility of conflicting injunctions. At the same time, it requires a court to issue such injunctions when the federal government violates the law. In other words, this provision illustrates that solving the (real) policy problems posed by nationwide injunctions does not require the drastic measure of limiting all injunctive relief to the plaintiffs. More modest solutions are possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]