From the Texas Tribune:For second time, federal judge finds Texas is violating voter registration law

This will be the subject of the second written assignment.

We will begin discussing federalism soon, and the different responsibilities of the state and national governments. Often these overlap, this story in an example. Explain what is happening here, and highlight the separate roles of the state of Texas and the national government.

- Click here for the article. 

A persistent Texas voter, twice thwarted when he tried registering to vote while renewing his driver's license online, has for the second time convinced a federal judge that the state is violating federal law.

In a 68-page ruling Friday, U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia of San Antonio found that Texas continues to violate the federal National Voter Registration Act by not allowing residents to register to vote when they update their driver’s license information online.

Garcia found that DPS is “legally obligated” to allow voters to simultaneously register to vote with every license renewal or change-of-address application, and ordered the state to set up a “fully operable” online system by Sept. 23. The Texas attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the state is likely to appeal the ruling.

It's the second time Garcia has sided with the voter, former English professor Jarrod Stringer. Garcia's first ruling was overturned on appeal on a technicality.

From Public Opinion Quarterly: The Importance of Political Knowledge for Effective Citizenship: Differences Between the Broadcast and Internet Generations

This is related to the subject matter of the first set of slides. The abstract is below so you can get the gist of it.

- Click here for the article.

General political knowledge is a central variable in American politics research. Individuals with high political knowledge exhibit behaviors that are consequential to a well-functioning democracy, including holding more stable political opinions, exhibiting greater ideological constraint, knowing more about political candidates, and being more likely to vote correctly. In this paper, we examine whether the internet revolution, enabling citizens to look up anything at any time, has changed the relative importance of political knowledge in American politics. We show that important generational differences exist between Americans raised during the broadcast era and Americans raised with the presence and accessibility of the internet. Internet access can be a substitute for political knowledge stored in long-term memory, particularly among this younger generation, who may be relying on the internet to store knowledge for them.

From Wikipedia: Hatch Act of 1939

This has been discussed recently in light of the use of government property for political purposes. 

- Click here for the entry.

Provisions: 

The 1939 Act forbids the intimidation or bribery of voters and restricts political campaign activities by federal employees. It prohibits using any public funds designated for relief or public works for electoral purposes. It forbids officials paid with federal funds from using promises of jobs, promotion, financial assistance, contracts, or any other benefit to coerce campaign contributions or political support. It provides that persons below the policy-making level in the executive branch of the federal government must not only refrain from political practices that would be illegal for any citizen, but must abstain from "any active part" in political campaigns, using this language to specify those who are exempt:

(i) an employee paid from an appropriation for the Executive Office of the President; or
(ii) an employee appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, whose position is located within the United States, who determines policies to be pursued by the United States in the nationwide administration of Federal laws.

History: 

Widespread allegations that local Democratic Party politicians used employees of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the congressional elections of 1938 provided the immediate impetus for the passage of the Hatch Act. Criticism centered on swing states such as Kentucky,[6] Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. In Pennsylvania, Republicans and dissident Democrats publicized evidence that Democratic politicians were consulted on the appointment of WPA administrators and case workers and that they used WPA jobs to gain unfair political advantage.[7] In 1938, a series of newspaper articles exposed WPA patronage, and political contributions in return for employment, prompting an investigation by the Senate Campaign Expenditures Committee, headed by Sen. Morris Sheppard, a Texas Democrat.[8]

Despite that investigation's inconclusive findings, many in both parties determined to take action against the growing power of the WPA and its chief administrator, Harry Hopkins, an intimate of President Franklin Roosevelt. The Act was sponsored by Senator Carl Hatch, a Democrat from New Mexico. At the time, Roosevelt was struggling to purge the Democratic party of its more conservative members, who were increasingly aligned with the administration's Republican opponents. The president considered vetoing the legislation or allowing it to become law without his signature, but instead signed it on the last day he could do so. His signing message welcomed the legislation as if he had called for it, and emphasized the protection his administration would provide for political expression on the part of public employees.

Constitutional challenges: 

United Public Workers v. Mitchell 
United States Civil Service Commission v. National Association of Letter Carriers

Final FY20 Appropriations: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

 - Click here for info.

The organizational chart of the Department of Commerce

- Click here for the Wikipedia entry.

- Click here for the chart.

The organizational chart of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

 - Click here for the Wikipedia entry on it.

- Click here for the organizational chart.

The organizational chart of the National Weather Service

 

- Click here for the source.

The National Weather Service

 - Wikipedia entry.

Here's info from the entry's section on its history. It has bounced around from department to department: 

In 1870, the Weather Bureau of the United States was established through a joint resolution of Congress signed by President Ulysses S. Grant with a mission to "provide for taking meteorological observations at the military stations in the interior of the continent and at other points in the States and Territories...and for giving notice on the northern (Great) Lakes and on the seacoast by magnetic telegraph and marine signals, of the approach and force of storms." The agency was placed under the Secretary of War as Congress felt "military discipline would probably secure the greatest promptness, regularity, and accuracy in the required observations." Within the Department of War, it was assigned to the U.S. Army Signal Service under Brigadier General Albert J. Myer. General Myer gave the National Weather Service its first name: The Division of Telegrams and Reports for the Benefit of Commerce.

Cleveland Abbe – who began developing probabilistic forecasts using daily weather data sent by the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce and Western Union, which he convinced to back the collection of such information in 1869 – was appointed as the Bureau's first chief meteorologist. In his earlier role as the civilian assistant to the chief of the Signal Service, Abbe urged the Department of War to research weather conditions to provide a scientific basis behind the forecasts; he would continue to urge the study of meteorology as a science after becoming Weather Bureau chief. While a debate went on between the Signal Service and Congress over whether the forecasting of weather conditions should be handled by civilian agencies or the Signal Service's existing forecast office, a Congressional committee was formed to oversee the matter, recommending that the office's operations be transferred to the Department of War following a two-year investigation.

The agency first became a civilian enterprise in 1890, when it became part of the Department of Agriculture. Under the oversight of that branch, the Bureau began issuing flood warnings and fire weather forecasts, and issued the first daily national surface weather maps; it also established a network to distribute warnings for tropical cyclones as well as a data exchange service that relayed European weather analysis to the Bureau and vice versa. The first Weather Bureau radiosonde was launched in Massachusetts in 1937, which prompted a switch from routine aircraft observation to radiosondes within two years. The Bureau prohibited the word "tornado" from being used in any of its weather products out of concern for inciting panic (a move contradicted in its intentions by the high death tolls in past tornado outbreaks due to the lack of advanced warning) until 1938, when it began disseminating tornado warnings exclusively to emergency management personnel.

From Wikipedia: History of United States patent law

 For future reference.

- Click here for the entry.

The board members and commissioner of the THECB

 All appointed by the Texas governor, with the approval of the Texas Senate.

- Click here for them. 

The Enumerated Powers

We will be looking through these in both 2305 and 2306. They are the specific powers the authors of the Constitution gave to Congress and are listed in Article 1, Section 8 of the document. 

They primarily focus on commercial and security concerns for the new nation. I've been posting items related to them, and will continue to do so. 

In order to help make sense of these, I've posted the full list of enumerated powers below. 

- Click here for the source.

The Congress shall have the power

1. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States:

2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States:

3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states,and with the Indian tribes:

4. To establish an uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States:

5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures:

6. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States:

7. To establish post-offices and post-roads:

8. To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries:

9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the supreme court:

10. To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offences against the law of nations:

11. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water:

12. To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years:

13. To provide and maintain a navy:

14. To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces:

15. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions:

16. To provide for organizing, arming and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress:

17. To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful buildings: And,

18. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.

From 538: Is The Electoral Map Changing?

 A look at the current condition of recent swing states.

- Click here for the article.

From Science Direct: James Watt: The steam engine and the commercialization of patents

This is behind a pay wall, so you can't access it freely, but the abstract is interesting and relates to the role the national government was established to play in establishing a commercial republic. Allowing for patent and copyright protections helps encourage people to do so.

The development of steam engines helped lead to the development of railroads, among many other things.

- Click here for the article. 

- Click here for Science Direct's page on steam engines.

Great Britain (GB) was the first country to undergo an Industrial Revolution (1760–1850) and, in consequence, the first where patents for inventions evolved from an occasional curiosity to a powerful commercial tool. It is argued that this paradigm shift was largely caused by the later development of the steam engine and especially the first patent of James Watt (1736–1819). Despite extensive litigation, this proved extremely lucrative and thereby convinced GB’s rapidly growing industry of the importance of strong patent protection.

In an annex, the author notes that 2008 is the 200th anniversary of the demonstration of the first practical steam railway engine, Richard Trevithick’s ‘Catch me who can’ on a circular track in London.

For more on the Watt steam engine, click here.

From the TSHA: Junior-College Movement

 A look at how institutions like ACC and HCC came to exist.

- Click here for the link. 

The success and growth of the two-year college in Texas was one of the state's most significant developments in education. The junior-college movement in Texas began in the 1890s. Decatur Baptist College (established 1891 or 1892; now Dallas Baptist University) has been credited with being not just the first junior college in Texas, but arguably the first in the nation as well. These two-year schools were usually church-sponsored and offered courses similar to those in the first two years of four-year colleges and universities.

The first publicly supported junior college in Texas was established in Wichita Falls in 1922, and subsequently the junior-college movement grew most rapidly in the public sector. Usually the public junior-college district was based on the boundaries of an existing independent school district, and the junior college was established as an extension of the high school. Ordinarily, it shared the physical facilities of that school, normally after the end of the high school's daily schedule. Though state recognition and authorization for funding did not occur until 1929, seventeen public junior colleges were established between 1922 and 1928 as auxiliaries of the public schools; they were under the administration of these local school districts' boards of trustees.

In 1929 the state legislature validated these colleges and provided a process whereby additional junior colleges might be established. This legislation gave specific taxing powers to the local school districts for the junior colleges. Many taxpayers saw the new junior-college tax as nothing more than a surcharge on current school district taxes. In 1941 the legislature granted direct state aid to the junior colleges in the amount of fifty dollars per full-time student. Also, the Texas Education Agency became the supervisory agency for junior colleges. As junior colleges were seen at this time as an extension of secondary education, this administrative arrangement seemed most appropriate.

The Texas Education Agency continued as the supervisory agency for junior colleges until 1965, when junior colleges were placed under control of the Coordinating Board, Texas College and University System, now known as the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. This move solidified the position of junior colleges as institutions of higher education. However, not included in the 1965 authorization were supervision over programs under approval authority of the State Board of Vocational Education, and construction financed by local property taxes.

From the Texas Tribune: Analysis: The Texas Legislature can meet for up to 140 days. The pandemic raises a question: Should it?

A point we will raise in 2306. The legislature is part-time, it meets for 140 days every other years.

Here is commentary about how that works in a pandemic.

- Click here for it.

Conversations about how to legislate during a pandemic have animated lawmakers since the new coronavirus reared its head in Texas earlier this year.

The budgets they churn out are on the must-do list. Money makes the wheels turn, keeping the government going for the next three years or so. The census is expected to be late, and that’s needed for the redrawing of the state’s political districts, another must-do item for the 87th Legislature.

That’s why Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said last week that he’s telling senators not to plan any vacations next year before the end of September. He’s saying there will be special sessions on redistricting and that they could take all summer. Under non-pandemic conditions, he and other state leaders would at least be pretending new political maps could be turned out during the regular session.

There are always a few things — not as many as campaigning politicians promise — that have to be done right away. But other normal and regular functions of the Legislature — most of them, honestly — can probably wait.

What is the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board?

 Aside from being the people responsible for making you take two government classes?

Here's links to more info about the agency:

- From the Sunset Review Commission.

- TSHA: Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

The Texas College and University System Coordinating Board was established by the Fifty-ninth Texas Legislature in 1965 to provide unified planning and development of a comprehensive system of higher education. In 1987 the name was changed to Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Under provisions of the Higher Education Coordinating Act of 1965, the board was founded as the state's highest authority for issues of public higher education; it was made responsible for coordinating all state-supported colleges and universities in Texas. The board provides statewide leadership in achieving excellence in college education through efficient and effective use of resources and the elimination of unnecessary duplication in program offerings, faculties, and campus facilities. Eighteen members, appointed by the governor and approved by the Texas Senate, serve on the board for six-year overlapping terms of office. To qualify for board service, no member may be professionally employed in education or serving on the board of a junior college. Members serve without pay and are appointed from various geographical sections of the state. The governor designates the chairman and vice chairman of the board. Meetings are held quarterly in Austin and at other times on the call of the chairman.

Wikipedia: United States presidential nominating convention

 Since the Republican Party is are having its national convention now - after the Democratic  Party had its last week - its useful to figure out just what they are.

- Click here for the link.

Warning, the ones going on now bear little relationship to those of the past. 

Center for the Study of the American Constitution: THE DEBATE OVER THE PRESIDENT AND THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH

 This looks to be a good place to begin to get information regarding limits on the power of the executive.

- Click here for it.

You might look through a few of the links.

Soon after it convened, the Constitutional Convention agreed to have a single executive as opposed to a plural executive which was favored by a few delegates who feared the reinstitution of a monarchy. Greater disagreements persisted on the manner of electing the executive. Some wanted the President to be elected by Congress for a long term, but ineligible for reelection. Others favored direct election by the people for a shorter term with no term limits. A compromise eventually provided that the President would be elected for a four-year term by electors chosen in a manner prescribed by the state legislatures. No restrictions were placed on the President’s eligibility for reelection.

During the ratification debates, Antifederalists charged that the President would become an elected monarch, that cabals would develop to ensure his reelection, and that the presidential veto power would be abused. They further feared that presidential power to grant pardons would allow the president to conspire with others in treasonable activities with impunity.

Federalist praised the Presidency. They pointed to the weaknesses of the Confederation and state governments with their nearly powerless executives. For Federalists, America needed a separate President with executive powers to enforce federal laws and conduct foreign policy effectively. Federalists contrasted the American Presidency with the British Monarchy. They argued that the former had limited power, checked by the two other branches whereas the latter had almost unlimited power. Federalists maintained that the President would be accountable to both the people and Congress. If he failed to satisfy the people, he would not be reelected; if he committed crimes, he could be impeached by Congress. Furthermore, everyone realized that George Washington would be elected the first President. Washington had previously rejected total power in 1783, preferring retirement. He could be expected to follow a similar course of action after he set in motion the new government under the Constitution. Federalists argued that this example would be followed by his successors.

From Roll Call: A reality check on Joe Biden’s Democratic convention promises

A good look at what Biden proposes to do if he wins the November election.

- Click here for the article.

Presidential nominee Joe Biden and other speakers at the Democratic National Convention laid out a bold and ambitious to-do list this week. Some of it was thematic, like the promises to unify the country and make the government more accountable to the public.

But there were also specific plans in Biden’s speech accepting the nomination Thursday night, many contained in one section building off the theme to “build back better” from the current economic downturn. Those plans likely rely on his party winning control of the Senate and House in November.

But while some might be low-hanging fruit, others are a reach even with solid control and the elimination of the filibuster in the Senate. Here’s a look at what he said — and the reality confronting those promises.

From Wikipedia: Public Land Survey System

Here's terrific background of the institution responsible for getting the information that facilitated  westward expansion and the actual physical creation of the nation.

- Click here for the entry.

Originally proposed by Thomas Jefferson to create a nation of "yeoman farmers", the PLSS began shortly after the American Revolutionary War, when the federal government became responsible for large areas of land west of the original thirteen states. The government wished both to distribute land to Revolutionary War soldiers in reward for their services, as well as to sell land as a way of raising money for the nation. Before this could happen, the land needed to be surveyed.

The Land Ordinance of 1785 marks the beginning of the Public Land Survey System. The Confederation Congress was deeply in debt following the Declaration of Independence. With little power to tax, the federal government decided to use the sale of the Western Territories to pay off American Revolutionary War debt. The Public Land Survey System has been expanded and slightly modified by Letters of Instruction and Manuals of Instruction, issued by the General Land Office and the Bureau of Land Management and continues in use in most of the states west of Pennsylvania, south to Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi, west to the Pacific Ocean, and north into the Arctic in Alaska.

More on the Pacific Railroad Surveys

 I'm kinda fascinated by these things.

From what I can tell, these were carried out by the War Department.

- Click here for links to the surveys themselves.

- Central Pacific Railroad: Explorations and Surveys.

- Stanford: Pacific Railroad Surveys.

The Seal of the City of Houston

 

Its got a big old railroad on it.

- Click here for more.

- Houston, Where Seventeen Railroads Met the Sea.

From the TSHA: Railroads

The development of Texas, including its major cities, would not have been possible without railroads.

This is because Texas is not connected to any major waterway in the US, notably the Mississippi River and all its tributaries. Commerce could not reach the port of Houston like it reached the port of New Orleans, via a massive river that connected much of the US. 

Railroads were necessary to bring commerce to the Port of Houston.

- Click here for the article.

Transportation was a major problem facing early settlers in Texas. As late as 1850 the settled area of the state was largely confined to the river bottoms of East and South Texas and along the Gulf Coast. Although steamboat navigation was common on the lower stretches of a number of such rivers as the Rio Grande, Brazos, and Trinity, Texas rivers were not deep enough for dependable year-round transportation. Roads were either poor or nonexistent and virtually impassable during wet weather. Ox carts hauling three bales of cotton could only travel a few miles a day and the cost of wagon transport was twenty cents per ton mile. Many proposals to improve internal transportation were both considered and attempted during the period of the Republic of Texas and early statehood. These included river improvements, canals, and plank roads in addition to railroads. However, it was the railroads that made the development of Texas possible, and for many years railroad extension and economic growth paralleled each other.

The routes of the Southern Pacific RR as of 1925

Railroads were central to the early development of Texas, since it had little access to large river systems, like the Mississippi/

 

From 1862 - An Act to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri river to the Pacific ocean, and to secure to the government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes.

A series of acts which created incentives for railroad companies to build railroad lines to the west coast.

- Wikipedia: Pacific Railroad Acts.

- Wikipedia: Pacific Railroad Surveys.

The Transcontinental Railroad

 

Wikipedia: Central Pacific.

Wikipedia: Union Pacific.

From UMass: Transcontinental Railroad, United States

Building off the info below ....

- Click here for the page.

Connecting the country was challenging. The first American railroad to carry passengers and freight was the Baltimore and Ohio, chartered in Maryland in 1827. At midcentury, the federal government began granting land to certain railroads in exchange for reduced carriage charges for government use. By 1853, one could ride by rail from New York to Chicago. One year later, Chicago was connected to the Mississippi River at Rock Island, Illinois. The west coast followed suit: in 1856, the Sacramento Valley Railroad (running between Sacramento and Folsom) was operational. But there were vast stretches of territory that could only be traversed by stagecoach, wagon, horseback or – worst of all – walking.

President Abraham Lincoln structured the railroad’s contract with both generosity and constraint. Railroad builders were given 6,400 acres of land for every mile of track laid, and $48,000 in government bonds for every mile completed. But there were strictures: the government withheld 20% of the bonds until the entire railroad was in working order, and would not release any money to either company until 40 miles of operative railroad was complete. And further, if the railroad between Missouri and Sacramento were not completed within 12 years, all the assets would be forfeited.

If Abraham Lincoln authorized the railroad, it was Theodore Judah who persuaded Congress. Judah was fascinated with railroads and had gone out to map the route, working on the western rails in 1854, to the displeasure of his wife it is rumored. When he’d completed the land survey in October of 1861, Judah set up an office at the end of the long corridor in the Capital Office Building in Washington, DC. As Congress members passed by, he’d lure them into his office to show close-ups of important areas of the route, including a certain point he’d recently found that might make the whole thing possible.

The History of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

 It dates back to the early days of the post office, which explains its jurisdiction over USPS.

- Click here for the history page on the committee's website.

Note the committee's role in funding the transcontinental railroads.

Some text: 

The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs as we know today did not begin as a committee charged with overseeing how the federal government operates. In 1816 it was originally formed as the Committee on the District of Colombia and the Committee on Post Office and Postal Roads/Post Office and Civil Service. In 1854, the Committee on Post Office and Postal Roads introduced “A Bill to Provide for the Transportation of the Mails upon Railroads,” one of the first pieces of legislation advocating for the Transcontinental Railroad. Eight years later, the Committee on the District of Columbia created the basis for the D.C. Emancipation Bill, signed by President Lincoln on April 16, 1862 and on display in the Capitol Visitor Center. The Emancipation Proclamation was signed eight months later.

. . . Later, in 1842 the Senate Committee on Retrenchment was created. This Committee stemmed from the Committee on Organization, Conduct, and Expenditures in the Executive Departments which then eliminated forty standing and select committees. These committees were then consolidated in 1921 to form the Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Departments. Its first bill, S 1084, established the system for our National Budget. The Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Department was renamed the Committee on Government Operations in 1952, transforming the Committee’s jurisdiction to overseeing how the federal government operates. In the next two decades the Commitee established itself as the primary investigative body of the Senate. When the Committee on Government Operations was created the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) was also created. PSI led its broad mandate to investigate inefficiency, mismanagement, and corruption in Government. Between 1953 and 1954, PSI Chairman Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.) held 169 hearings on espionage and subversive activities. In April 1954, Sen. McCarthy clashed with Secretary of the Army Robert T. Stevens, leading to the Army-McCarthy Hearings and the Chairman’s censorship and ultimate political downfall. In the 1960’s and 1970’s the PSI’s investigation of labor unions led the Senate to appoint the Select Committee on Improper Activities which gave public prominence to Senator John F. Kennedy and his brother, the PSI’s lead counsel, Robert F. Kennedy. Government financial scandals and labor racketeering were the PSI’s main focus.

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee

This is the committee where the postmaster general answered questions over recent allegation regarding the post office in the run up to the election. 

Here's info and background about it.

legislative committees are discussed in various places in the 2305 and 2306 textbooks. 

- Click here for the committees website.

- Click here for its history.

- Click here for its jurisdiction.

Regarding its jurisdiction: 

The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (HSGAC) is the Senate’s primary oversight committee with broad jurisdiction over government operations generally and the Department of Homeland Security in particular. Its primary responsibilities are to study the efficiency, economy, and effectiveness of all agencies and departments of the federal government; evaluate the effects of laws enacted to reorganize the legislative and executive branches of government; and study the intergovernmental relationships between the U.S. and states and municipalities, and between the U.S. and international organizations of which the U.S. is a member.

The year after passage of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, the Committee's name changed from the Governmental Affairs Committee to the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee as its jurisdiction expanded to include homeland security issues. In addition to governmental affairs, the Committee now oversees and receives legislation, messages, petitions, and memorials on all matters relating to the Department of Homeland Security, except for appropriations, the Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration, immigration, customs revenue, commercial operations, and trade.

Among the Committee’s governmental affairs responsibilities are the Archives of the United States, budgeting and accounting measures generally, government contracting, the Census and collection of statistics, Congressional organization, the federal Civil Service, government information, intergovernmental relations, the municipal affairs of the District of Columbia, the organization and management of U.S. nuclear export policy, the organization and reorganization of the executive branch, the Postal Service, and the status of officers and employees of the U.S., including their classification, compensation, and benefits. The Committee also receives and examines reports of the Comptroller General of the United States and submits recommendations to the Senate as it sees fit related to the subject matter of the reports.

ACC GOVT 2305 - 1000 word essay - Fall 2020

What are the limits on executive power?

Since we have a presidential election underway. and they only happen once every four years, we should focus on it. Instead of the election however, lets think about the office, and not simply what it is supposed to do, but what it is not supposed to do.

As you'll see soon when we go over the Constitution, the document does not create power as much as it limits it. This goes for all the governing institutions it establishes. The executive power is especially problematic considering it posses the power of the sword - which includes both military and policing power. With that in mind, limits on its power are especially important, and were a major concern of the Constitution's framers.

Among the things to consider are the mechanisms that are put in place to limit executive power, this includes elections and the checks the other institutions have upon it. But these are balanced by arguments that favor executive power in certain defined areas. I will provide a variety of links on the log (www.theweakerparty.com) from time time to time that will help you develop your topic.

The precise direction you take is up to you. I will ask you questions over the course of the semester about it, so keep thinking it over.

From the Texas State Law Library: Neighbor Law

 I had no idea such a thing existed, but it makes total sense.

For our look at local government.

- Click here for the page.