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    • Striking a Measure

    • As the conference committee on the US Congress' financial regulatory overhaul bill prepares to meet later today, Congressional negotiators are considering striking a measure, i.e. removing it, from the bill that would have established an investor-led board empowered to select firms on a rotation to rate structured securities products. In addition, the language to be proposed by negotiators from the House of Representatives would direct the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) to stu [...]
    • Striking a Measure

    • Lifting the Liability Cap

    • The catastrophic oil leak caused by the explosion and subsequent sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico has lead many to call for changes to the way off-shore oil drilling is regulated, and for companies to be required to pay unlimited damages caused by deep-water drilling accidents and spills. The Justice Department maintains that the current $75 million liability cap should be eliminated in the future, arguing that there should not be an arbitrary cap on corporate re [...]
    • Lifting the Liability Cap

    • Finally a National Cyber Office?

    • In what amounts to an “about time” move, the US House of Representative’s Oversight and Government Reform Government Management Subcommittee has reported a bill that mandates creation of a national office for cyberspace within the White House. The purpose of the proposed office is to oversee government-wide efforts to protect computer systems from terrorist attacks and other threats. Under the proposed legislation, the office would have a Senate-confirmed director and include a panel [...]
    • Finally a National Cyber Office?

    • Wall Street Reform Express

    • The Senate is attempting to quickly move forward with financial regulatory overhaul. Naturally, though in this election year politics is too often trumping policy. As this issue cuts deeply across both party's bases, the bill will ultimately be enacted though as no one wants to go to the polls in November with Wall Street reform still not done. Senate leaders are hopeful now that an agreement has been reached between the leaders of the Banking Committee, Chairman Christopher Dodd and ranking [...]
    • Wall Street Reform Express

    • Financial Reform

    • On Monday, Republicans, united in opposition to what some call the most sweeping overhaul of the United States financial regulatory system since the Great Depression, thwarted an effort to end debate on the matter voting 57 to 41 against cloture, thus falling short of the 60 votes needed to cut off a threatened filibuster of the Democrats’ motion to proceed. So, at least for the moment, the bill has been blocked from reaching the Senate floor for debate. However, Democratic leaders of the S [...]
    • Financial Reform

    • Confirmation

    • On Friday, Justice John Paul Stevens announced that he was retiring from the US Supreme Court after 34 years of service on the Court. His retirement is effective one day after the Court rises for this summer’s recess. When he leaves the Court this summer, Justice Stevens, who will then be 90, will have been one of the oldest and longest serving Supreme Court justices in US history. This weekend’s announcement while not unexpected – indeed Justice Stevens had hinted at it for some time – [...]
    • Confirmation

    • Recess Appointment

    • President Obama is taking some heat over 15 recess appointments he made this weekend. What is a recess appointment? Before answering that, it is important to understand what a recess is. From a legislative perspective, a recess is a temporary break in a Congressional (Senate or House of Representative’s) session for a short period of time within the same day. Also, the Senate often recesses overnight rather than adjourning at the end of the day. In the context of recess appointments however, [...]
    • Recess Appointment

    • Unfunded Mandates

    • As President Barak Obama’s health care reform law, a signature piece of his agenda, passed Congress this weekend and will be signed into law tomorrow, there have been cries of unfunded mandates by many members of Congress and state governors as well. Just what is an unfunded mandate? An unfunded mandate is a requirement imposed by Congress on state or local governments with no funding from the federal government to pay for it. As you can imagine, cash strapped states struggling to maintain [...]
    • Unfunded Mandates

    • A Tea Party

    • The Tea Party movement is a fragmented movement of anti big government protesters named after the Boston Tea Party, a 1773 protest by citizens in Boston, Massachusetts against the British government, and an historic event that served as a precursor to the American Revolution in 1776. Indeed, some of today's tea party members compare themselves to the patriots of 1776 and America's Founding Fathers. But what does the 21 century Tea Party stand for? The Mission Statement of the Tea Party Patrio [...]
    • A Tea Party

    • What is government relations?

    • People often ask what is government relations? The short answer is that it is an educational process mixed in with a liberal amount of advocacy. Simply put, it is an essential component of any business that is subject to government regulations. At its core, government relations is an educational process: educating business and industry leaders about the governmental process; educating officials about the issues important to business or other constituencies; and educating governmental and busine [...]
    • What is government relations?

    • Reaching the Summit

    • Last week the press, both in the US and internationally, devoted a significant amount of coverage to President Obama’s bipartisan health summit. So what is a summit? A summit is generally understood to be a meeting of heads of state, i.e. heads of governments. However, it can also be used to describe a meeting of leaders in any field. Last week’s health summit in Washington was a meeting of US political leaders. The Obama health summit was meant to help leading lawmakers from both parties, [...]
    • Reaching the Summit

    • Reconciliation

    • According to press accounts, the United States Congress is in a state of irreconcilable conflict due to differences among the two major political parties. Ironically, the ongoing healthcare reform debate, which has been dragging on for nearly a year, could lead to “reconciliation”. Let me explain. President Obama released the text of a new proposal for healthcare reform yesterday and according to the White House it has been carefully drafted in anticipation of a Republican filibuster attemp [...]
    • Reconciliation

    • Pork

    • In last week's post on holds I mentioned that a senator was blocking action in the Senate by placing a hold on 70 presidential nominees. The reason he placed this blanket hold was to secure government funding of projects in his home state. Such projects are commonly referred to as pork or pork-barrel spending in the US -- they have various other names the world over such as election pork, election sausage, electoral alms, election sweetener, or simply patronage. In essence, pork is a derogatory [...]
    • Pork

    • Hold on

    • As we've previously written, many lawyers are familiar with the use of the term holding to describe a court's ruling. However, lawyers and public policy professionals in the US use hold in another, very specific context. As the news has reported in recent days, one senator can hold up action on any and all items in the Senate through the use of a hold. Indeed one senator, Senator Richard Shelby, has in the past week, though he subsequently reduced the broad scope of it. Until this week he had be [...]
    • Hold on

    • Cloture

    • We've previously discussed filibusters in this series and this naturally leads to the question of how to end a filibuster in the US Senate. To refresh then, there is a tradition of open and unlimited debate in the Senate and Senators have the right of extended debate, which allows any Senator to speak on any matter for as long as he or she wishes. This right of extended debate can lead to filibusters, which is any attempt to block or delay Senate action on a matter by debating it at length, by [...]
    • Cloture

    • The Volcker Rule

    • This week, President Obama announced that he will push a controversial new rule that would force banks to choose between being a commercial institution or an investment bank. The plan is named the Volcker Rule after former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, who has pushed to prohibit commercial banks from engaging in so-called proprietary trading, that is transactions conducted for an institution’s own benefit as opposed to transactions carried out for clients, because he deems it is too r [...]
    • The Volcker Rule

    • Filibuster

    • There is a lot of attention being focused on the health care reform debate in America at the moment and many commentators do not understand why a bill has not yet been enacted into law. After all, President Obama has a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate as well. So the simple question is, “Why can’t he drive his health care reform legislation through?” Naturally, the answer is more complicated, but it basically boils down to the right of extended debate in [...]
    • Filibuster

    • SOX

    • SOX is a popular name for the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which is the U.S. government's legislative response to corporate and accounting scandals such as Enron, WorldCom and Adelphia. SOX establishes new and  enhanced standards for all public company boards and management as well as public accounting firms ranging from corporate board responsibilities to criminal penalties to strengthening corporate accounting controls. [...]
    • SOX

    • Eurojargon

    • Eurojargon describes itself as a plain language guide to Eurojargon -- the specialized language characteristic of people within the EU institutions. Similar to Beltway-ese which is the jargon used inside the Beltway in government offices and Congress and among lobbyists in Washington, DC. Eurojargon is a great reseorce for penatrating Europen Union jargon. [...]
    • Eurojargon

    • What is the Electoral College?

    • With the U.S. Presidential Election recently completed, and thankfully without significant controversy, it is interesting to examine the role of the Electoral College. Americans elect the President and Vice-president through a method of indirect popular election. On November 4, voters cast their ballots for the presidential candidate of their choice. However, votes actually count towards a group of electors who pledge to vote for a specific candidate when theElectoral College meets in Decemb [...]
    • What is the Electoral College?

    • Extenders

    • As part of the U.S. Government's recent $700 billion package to bailout U.S. financial institutions, Congress included numerous tax breaks. The tax breaks, called extenders in Washington, DC because they renew or extend expiring tax benefits, were added to gain the support of legislators and to provide political cover for politicians supporting the bill. Indeed, the inclusion of tax extenders and other provisions swayed some members of the House of Representatives to reconsider their position [...]
    • Extenders

    • Amendment Tree

    • Last time we looked at the so-called slow-walking of measures through the US Senate. One possible result of such delay tactics is that the Senate Majority Leader may decide to fill the amendment tree. Filling the tree is the controversial practice of taking all of the available slots for amendments on a particular piece of legislation in order to block competing amendments. Senate rules limit the number of amendments that may be attached to a bill at any one time. This finite number of ame [...]
    • Amendment Tree

    • Override

    • In a rare occurrence and the most significant legislative rejection of the Bush Administration to date, last week the US Congress voted to override President Bush's veto of a comprehensive farm bill, even though the vetoed version was missing a section on trade, the so-called "trade title". What this means is that Congress has set aside or canceled the President's veto through a super-majority vote. An override is the vote taken to pass a bill again, after it has been vetoed by the President [...]
    • Override

    • Recess

    • In Legal English, recess typically means a break in a trial or other court proceeding or a legislative session until a certain date and time. In the United States Congress, a recess is a temporary break in a session of the Senate or House of Representatives (often referred to as simply as the House) for a short period of time within the same day. The Senate also often recesses overnight rather than adjourn at the end of the day -- recess is not to be confused with “adjourn,” which means t [...]
    • Recess

    • Delegates

    • Delegates from the major political parties participate in the selection of nominees to serve as their party’s candidate for President of the United States. The Democratic party has pledged delegates and superdelegates. Pledged delegates are elected or chosen at the state or local level, with the understanding that they will support a particular candidate at the convention. Of the 4,049 total Democratic delegates, there are currently 3,253 pledged delegates and 796 superdelegates. Superdeleg [...]
    • Delegates

    • Primary

    • A previous Capitol Corner addressed the term caucus, and in that discussion I mentioned that caucus is also used in US presidential politics to describe the process whereby party members register preferences for candidates and/or select convention delegates. For example, the Iowa caucuses. As you may know, the US Presidential Preference Primary season starts in January 2008. So what is the difference between a primary election and a caucus system? Essentially, primary elections and a caucu [...]
    • Primary

    • Ad hoc

    • Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning "for this purpose". The phrase generally signifies a solution that is intended to address a specific problem and which cannot be adapted to other purposes. Ad hoc can also connote a makeshift solution, inadequate planning or improvised events. Ad hoc committee - Ad hoc is also used to describe a temporary committee in an organization, or a legislative or governmental body. The U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate use ad hoc committees or a temporary jo [...]
    • Ad hoc

    • Caucus

    • In the U.S. Congress, a caucus is an informal group of legislators who share an interest in the same policy issues and represent this interest throughout the legislative process and generally seeks to influence the debate on the issue in the public policy arena. For example, the Americans Abroad Caucus, the Arts Caucus, the Democratic Caucus, the Republican Caucus, and the Black Caucus. Generally these caucuses are informal, though the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control was formall [...]
    • Caucus

    • Inside the Beltway

    • The Beltway is an interstate highway that encircles Washington, DC & passes through the states of Maryland and Virginia. When something is referred to as inside the Beltway it means that the question is only of interest to Washington, DC residents and workers, specifically policymakers and law enforcement agencies. An individual may also be characterized as having an inside the Beltway mentality, meaning that he or she does not have the broad perspective of the average American citizen. Deni [...]
    • Inside the Beltway

    • Veto

    • In the Legal Latin feature of this issue veto is defined in the context of corporate meetings. However, veto is more famously known for its use in the public policy arena. A veto most generally describes the method by which the President of the United States says no to a bill from Congress. When Congress is in session, the president has ten days to exercise a veto after he or she has received a bill enacted by Congress. If the president fails to act, whether to veto the bill or to sign the [...]
    • Veto

    • Quorum

    • In the Legal Latin feature of this issue quorum is defined in the context of corporate meetings, however quorums are also used in legislative bodies. In the US Senate, a quorum is the number of Senators (51) who must be present before business may be conducted in the Senate. In practice, unless challenged by a point of order, the Senate conducts daily business without a quorum present. If a senator notes the absence of a quorum a quorum call is initiated. Noting the absence of a quorum is a p [...]
    • Quorum

    • Earmarking

    • One controversial practice of the U.S. Congress which has recently been the subject of heightened criticism and much debate is that of earmarking. Earmarking is the dedication of public funds for a specific program or purpose by Congress. Revenues are earmarked by law, while expenditures are earmarked by appropriations (spending) bills or reports. In practice, lawmakers often place earmarks in appropriations to reward lobbyists and campaign donors. This practice has been targeted for elimination [...]
    • Earmarking

    • Hold

    • Many lawyers are familiar with the use of the term holding as used to describe the ruling of a court. However, lawyers and public policy professionals in the U.S. use hold in another, very specific context. As used in Professor Kelly’s article on Internet gambling in this issue of the Digest, a hold describes an anonymous objection one or more United States Senators may have to scheduling a matter for consideration. When a senator places a secret hold on a measure it signals serious opposition [...]
    • Hold

    • Third Rail

    • The phrase third rail is a political metaphor used to denote an issue or topic that is so controversial or charged that it is actually politically dangerous. Indeed, any politician who introduces such a subject runs the risk of suffering political damage. “His district is in the agricultural belt so the cutting of farm subsidies is a third rail issue for him.” The metaphor stems from the third rail in train systems—the exposed electrical rail that carries high-voltage power to run [...]
    • Third Rail