Jesse M. Cross† & Abbe R. Gluck

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Jesse M. Cross† & Abbe R. Gluck ARTICLE THE CONGRESSIONAL BUREAUCRACY JESSE M. CROSS† & ABBE R. GLUCK†† INTRODUCTION ........................................................................... !"#$ I. THE BUREAUCRACY’S INSTITUTIONS: COMMON ORIGINS IN SEPARATION OF POWERS AND PRESENT-DAY OPERATIONS ..... !""" A. Congressional Research Service .................................................... !"%& B. O!ces of the Legislative Counsel .................................................. !"%$ C. O!ce of the Law Revision Counsel .............................................. !"%' D. Congressional Budget O!ce (CBO) ............................................... !"'$ E. Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) .............................................. !"'( F. O!ces of the Parliamentarians ...................................................... !"($ G. Government Accountability O!ce (GAO) ..................................... !"(' H. MedPAC and MACPAC ........................................................... !")# II. THE BUREAUCRACY’S FEATURES AND FUNCTIONS ................. !%&& A. The Standard Account ............................................................... !%&& B. How the Congressional Bureaucracy Intervenes in This Account ....... !%&" † Assistant Professor, University of South Carolina Law School. †† Professor of Law and Faculty Director, Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy, Yale Law School. Soren Schmidt, Yale Law School Class of $%$%, was our outstanding partner on an earlier version of this Article; he was instrumental in working as our partner in conceptualizing it, doing the &rst round of interviews, and working with us to write the &rst draft. We are grateful to Josh Chafetz, Douglas Elmendorf, Bill Eskridge, Sherry Glied, Ed Grossman, Rick Hills, Anne Joseph O'Connell, Nick Parrillo, George Yin, Kevin Kosar, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Nina Kohn, participants at the NYU Public Law Workshop, faculty workshops at the University of North Carolina, Seton Hall, and Yale law schools, participants at the $%$% Legislation Works-in-Progress Roundtable, and Yale Law School students Josh Feinzig, Sumer Ghazala, Hilary Higgins, Jade Ford, and Natasha Khan. This Article was also presented at the Gray Center $%$% Roundtable on Congress and the Administrative State, and we are appreciative of support and comments received there. Finally, we are deeply grateful to the editors at the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and to all the current and former sta'ers who spoke with us con&dentially. (!"#!) !"#* University of Pennsylvania Law Review [Vol. !%(: !"#! !. Internal Separation of Powers ............................................. !%&( B. Di"erent Types and Structures of Congressional Bureaucratic Expertise .................................................................................. !%!* !. Nonpartisanship .................................................................. !%!$ *. Specialization and Long Tenure .......................................... !%!% $. Nonpartisan Is Not Necessarily Position-Neutral or Non Substantive ....................................................................... !%*! #. Policy Versus Procedure ..................................................... !%*# ". Con+dential Versus Transparent: “The Atmosphere Has Changed” ......................................................................... !%*" %. Authoritative Versus Permissive ......................................... !%*( '. Trust with Low Salience Tasks: Why OLRC? “No Members Know We’re Here” ........................................... !%$& (. Timing .............................................................................. !%$* III. LEGISLATION AND STATUTORY INTERPRETATION THEORY .... !%$$ A. What the Congressional Bureaucracy Tells Us About Congress’s Rationality and Changes in Modern Lawmaking ........................... !%$( B. Unorthodox Lawmaking Is the New Orthodox Lawmaking: Implications for Understanding Statutes ........................................ !%#& !. Congress Is Still Informed in Key Ways .............................. !%#& *. New Timing and “Preconference”—and Their Challenges for Textualists .................................................................. !%#$ $. More Mistakes and Gaps .................................................... !%#" #. Highly Specific, Negotiated, Language Used to Clear Procedural Hurdles ........................................................... !%#% ". Less Legislative History .................................................... !%#' %. More Visibility and Politicization ....................................... !%#( C. What Does the Supreme Court Think About Unorthodox Lawmaking? ............................................................................ !%#( IV. DOCTRINAL IMPLICATIONS AND STATUTORY "DECONSTRUCTION" .............................................................. !%"! A. Deconstructing the Concept of “a Statute” ...................................... !%"$ B. What You Think Is the “Statute” Is Not; OLRC As a Deeper Example .................................................................................. !%"% !. When You Open the U.S Code You Only See About Half of Enacted Statutory Law ................................................. !%"% *. Text Is Added, Edited, and Rearranged After Enactment .... !%%# $. Yates v. United States—A Legislation Chestnut Misunderstood ................................................................. !%%( #. Positive v. Nonpositive Law ............................................... !%'& C. New Canons, Canons, Canons .................................................... !%'# *&*&] #e Congressional Bureaucracy !"#$ !. The CBO Canon—And Now, the JCT Canon, OLRC Canon, Parliamentarian’s Canon ....................................... !%'% D. Anti-Canons ............................................................................. !%') !. Drop Canons on Code Organization ................................... !%') *. Drop Grammar Canons ...................................................... !%(& $. Drop Anti-Purpose Canons and Recognize Congress’s Own Instructions to Construe Purposively ................................. !%(! #. Drop the Whole-Code Canons ........................................... !%(* CONCLUSION ............................................................................... !%(* INTRODUCTION Congress has a bureaucracy. Legal scholarship, judicial discourse, and doctrine about Congress and statutes have focused almost entirely on elected members of Congress and the ascertainability of their purported intentions about policymaking and statutory language. In recent years, we and others have broadened that perspective, with new scholarship about the on-the-ground realities of the congressional drafting process—including the essential role that staff plays in that process—and have argued the relevance of those realities for theory and doctrine.1 Here we go deeper. This Article goes beyond our previous accounts of partisan committee sta,, congressional counsels, and other select sta, o-ces to introduce the broader concept of what we call the congressional bureaucracy. The congressional bureaucracy is the collection of approximately a dozen nonpartisan o-ces that, while typically unseen by the public and largely ignored by courts and practicing lawyers, provides the specialized expertise 1 See generally Lisa Schultz Bressman & Abbe R. Gluck, Statutory Interpretation from the Inside— An Empirical Study of Congressional Drafting, Delegation, and the Canons: Part II, (( STAN. L. REV. )$" ($%!#) (studying drafting practices of congressional counsels and the assumptions they make about judicial interpretation); Jesse M. Cross, Legislative History in the Modern Congress, ") HARV. J. LEGIS. *! ($%$%); Jesse M. Cross, The Sta!er’s Error Doctrine, "( HARV. J. LEGIS. +, ($%!*); Jesse M. Cross, When Courts Should Ignore Statutory Text, $( GEO. MASON L. REV. #", ($%!+); Abbe R. Gluck, Congress, Statutory Interpretation, and the Failure of Formalism: The CBO Canon and Other Ways that Courts Can Improve on What They Are Already Trying to Do, +# U. CHI. L. REV. !)) ($%!)) (defending an approach based on congressional process and calling attention to the role of the Law Revision Counsel and Congressional Budget O-ce in drafting statutes) [hereinafter Gluck, Statutory Interpretation]; Abbe R. Gluck & Lisa Schultz Bressman, Statutory Interpretation from the Inside—An Empirical Study of Congressional Drafting, Delegation, and the Canons: Part I, (" STAN. L. REV. *%! ($%!,); Abbe R. Gluck, Anne Joseph O’Connell, & Rosa Po, Unorthodox Lawmaking, Unorthodox Rulemaking, !!" COLUM. L. REV. !)+* ($%!") (detailing recent deviations from traditional legislative and processes and their implications for doctrine and theory); Abbe R. Gluck, The “CBO Canon” and the Debate Over Tax Credits on Federally Operated Health Insurance Exchanges, BALKINIZATION (July $%, $%!$), https://balkin.blogspot.com/$%!$/%)/cbo-canon-and-debate-over-tax-credits.html (introducing concept of CBO canon) [hereinafter Gluck, CBO Canon]. !"## University of Pennsylvania Law Review [Vol. !%(: !"#! that helps make congressional lawmaking possible. In the process, the bureaucracy furthers Congress’s own internal separation of powers and safeguards the legislative process from executive and interest-group encroachment. These institutions internal to Congress use bureaucracy’s traditional tools—including nonpartisanship and technical expertise—to separate powers both inside of Congress and external to it. But they do
Recommended publications
  • NGPF's 2021 State of Financial Education Report
    11 ++ 2020-2021 $$ xx %% NGPF’s 2021 State of Financial == Education Report ¢¢ Who Has Access to Financial Education in America Today? In the 2020-2021 school year, nearly 7 out of 10 students across U.S. high schools had access to a standalone Personal Finance course. 2.4M (1 in 5 U.S. high school students) were guaranteed to take the course prior to graduation. GOLD STANDARD GOLD STANDARD (NATIONWIDE) (OUTSIDE GUARANTEE STATES)* In public U.S. high schools, In public U.S. high schools, 1 IN 5 1 IN 9 $$ students were guaranteed to take a students were guaranteed to take a W-4 standalone Personal Finance course standalone Personal Finance course W-4 prior to graduation. prior to graduation. STATE POLICY IMPACTS NATIONWIDE ACCESS (GOLD + SILVER STANDARD) Currently, In public U.S. high schools, = 7 IN = 7 10 states have or are implementing statewide guarantees for a standalone students have access to or are ¢ guaranteed to take a standalone ¢ Personal Finance course for all high school students. North Carolina and Mississippi Personal Finance course prior are currently implementing. to graduation. How states are guaranteeing Personal Finance for their students: In 2018, the Mississippi Department of Education Signed in 2018, North Carolina’s legislation echoes created a 1-year College & Career Readiness (CCR) neighboring state Virginia’s, by which all students take Course for the entering freshman class of the one semester of Economics and one semester of 2018-2019 school year. The course combines Personal Finance. All North Carolina high school one semester of career exploration and college students, beginning with the graduating class of 2024, transition preparation with one semester of will take a 1-year Economics and Personal Finance Personal Finance.
    [Show full text]
  • Impeachment on a Page
    Impeachment on a Page Whistleblower Complaint “In the course of my official duties, I have received information from multiple U.S. Government officials that the President of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election” Chairman Schiff outlines the 4 questions of his investigation 1. Did Trump seek foreign assistance for an election? 3. Was military assistance withheld until confirmation that the investigation would occur? 2. Was the meeting sought by the Ukrainian government conditioned on the Ukraine investigation of Vice President Biden and his son? 4. Were these issues covered up by the Trump administration? Headlines from Testimony to House Investigators “Joseph Maguire defends his handling of the “Kent told investigators he was cut out of Ukraine whistleblower complaint involving President policymaking after May meeting with Chief of Staff Mick Joseph Maguire Trump” – Fox News George Kent Mulvaney” – New York Times Acting Director of National Deputy Assitant Secretary Intelligence of State Testified September 25-26 Testified October 15th “Volker depicts Giuliani as the driving force “Sondland testifies that Trump directed diplomats to work behind an effort to get Ukraine to investigate Joe with Giuliani on Ukraine” – CNN Kurt Volker and Hunter Biden” – CBS News Gordon Sondland Former U.S. Special Envoy U.S. Ambassador to the to Ukraine European Union Testified October 3rd Testified: October 17th “McKinley told House investigators that he quit his job
    [Show full text]
  • NGPF's 2021 State of Financial Education Report
    11 ++ 2020-2021 $$ xx %% NGPF’s 2021 State of Financial == Education Report ¢¢ Who Has Access to Financial Education in America Today? In the 2020-2021 school year, nearly 7 out of 10 students across U.S. high schools had access to a standalone Personal Finance course. 2.4M (1 in 5 U.S. high school students) were guaranteed to take the course prior to graduation. GOLD STANDARD GOLD STANDARD (NATIONWIDE) (OUTSIDE GUARANTEE STATES)* In public U.S. high schools, In public U.S. high schools, 1 IN 5 1 IN 9 $$ students were guaranteed to take a students were guaranteed to take a W-4 standalone Personal Finance course standalone Personal Finance course W-4 prior to graduation. prior to graduation. STATE POLICY IMPACTS NATIONWIDE ACCESS (GOLD + SILVER STANDARD) Currently, In public U.S. high schools, = 7 IN = 7 10 states have or are implementing statewide guarantees for a standalone students have access to or are ¢ guaranteed to take a standalone ¢ Personal Finance course for all high school students. North Carolina and Mississippi Personal Finance course prior are currently implementing. to graduation. How states are guaranteeing Personal Finance for their students: In 2018, the Mississippi Department of Education Signed in 2018, North Carolina’s legislation echoes created a 1-year College & Career Readiness (CCR) neighboring state Virginia’s, by which all students take Course for the entering freshman class of the one semester of Economics and one semester of 2018-2019 school year. The course combines Personal Finance. All North Carolina high school one semester of career exploration and college students, beginning with the graduating class of 2024, transition preparation with one semester of will take a 1-year Economics and Personal Finance Personal Finance.
    [Show full text]
  • Senate Confirms Acting OMB Chief to Be Permanent Director
    https://www.govexec.com/management/2020/07/senate-confirms-acting-omb-chief-be- permanent-director/166623/ Management Senate Confirms Acting OMB Chief to Be Permanent Director Russell Vought has said he will "be as responsive as we possibly can" to Congress and prioritize requests from overseers related to the novel coronavirus pandemic. JULY 20, 2020 COURTNEY BUBLÉ Late Monday afternoon, the Senate voted 51-45, along party lines, to confirm acting Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought to fill the position permanently. Vought was the OMB deputy director from early in the Trump administration and then took over as acting OMB head in January 2019 when Mick Mulvaney left to become the president’s acting chief of staff. President Trump announced his intent to nominate Vought as the permanent OMB director on March 18. Vought has been able to remain as acting director due to two exceptions under the 1998 Federal Vacancies Reform Act, which typically precludes acting officials from remaining in their roles once they are formally nominated. As acting director, Vought has pushed for evidence-based policy making, championed the administration’s deregulatory agenda and handled the aftermath of the longest government shutdown in history. Also, during Vought’s tenure watchdogs and Democratic lawmakers have raised concerns about the Trump administration's perceived lack of cooperation with various investigative probes. During his confirmation hearing in June, Vought said he will “be as responsive as we possibly can” to Congress and “certainly work with [the Government Accountability Office] closely [since] it is our practice to do that.” He also said he would prioritize requests about the novel coronavirus pandemic.
    [Show full text]
  • OMBFOIA@Omb.Eop.Gov Dionne Hardy FOIA Officer Office Of
    February 12, 2020 BY EMAIL: OMBFOIA@omb.eop.gov Dionne Hardy FOIA Officer Office of Management and Budget 725 17th Street, N.W., Suite 9204 Washington, D.C. 20503 Re: Freedom of Information Act Request Dear Ms. Hardy: Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (“CREW”) makes this request pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), 5 U.S.C. § 552, and Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) regulations. First, CREW requests records sufficient to show every delegation of authority by an OMB Director to any other officer or employee that was in effect at any time from December 1, 2018 to present. Second, CREW requests all email communications sent to or received by OMB Acting Director Russell Vought, OMB Deputy Director for Management Margaret Weichert, or OMB General Counsel Mark Paoletta from December 1, 2018 to the present regarding any delegation of authority to an OMB officer or employee by OMB Director John Michael “Mick” Mulvaney. This request includes, but is not limited to, records tied to any email address Mr. Vought, Ms. Weichert, or Mr. Paoletta has used to conduct OMB business, not just email addresses with the domain @omb.eop.gov. Third, CREW requests all records of reimbursement(s) made to OMB by the White House Office or any other component of the Executive Office of the President from December 1, 2018 to the present in connection with Mr. Mulvaney’s detail to serve as Acting White House Chief of Staff, including the reimbursement of salary or any other item or expense associated with the detail.
    [Show full text]
  • Proceedings S T E P U P
    PROCEEDINGS S T E P U P. S TA N D O U T. 1 Table of Contents 2009 National Officers ............................................................................................... 77 Ag-Entreprenuers ............................................................................................................2 Agricultural Proficiency Winners ............................................................................. 15 Agriscience Fair Awards ............................................................................................... 9 Agriscience Student of the Year ................................................................................8 Agriscience Teacher of the Year .................................................................................8 American Degree Recipients ....................................................................................45 American Star Winners ............................................................................................... 25 Band and Chorus Participants .................................................................................69 Candids ............................................................................................................................. 79 Career Development Event Winners ......................................................................10 Days of Service Candids ............................................................................................. 78 Delegates .........................................................................................................................70
    [Show full text]
  • DCN Subject Received Input Date To
    DCN Subject Received Input Date To (Recipient) From (Author) Comments Opposition to Proposals to Re-open the David Bernhardt, Brian Schatz, Tulsi EST-00016583 Papahanaumokuakea Marine National 07/07/2020 07/07/2020 Wilbur Ross Gabbard, Ed Case Monument to Commercial Fishing Richard Blumenthal, Brian Schatz, Jeffrey Merkley, Dianne Feinstein, Martin Heinrich, Mark Udall, PR-076143: Pres. Trump's June 5 Christopher Murphy, Proclamation that lifts the prohibition on Ron Wyden, Mazie - Forwarded from the WH for EST-00016577 commercial fishing within the Northeast 07/06/2020 07/06/2020 Donald Trump Hirono, Cory Booker, response Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Chris Coons, Thomas - From Sen. Richard Blumenthal +18 Monument Carper, Kamala Harris, Maria Cantwell, Jacky Rosen, Patrick Leahy, Catherine Cortez Masto, Richard Durbin, Amy Klobuchar Support for Darcelle XV in Portland, OR to EST-00016566 be Listed on the National Register of 06/30/2020 07/01/2020 David Bernhardt Earl Blumenauer Historic Places John Barasso, M.D., Liz Non-Energy Solid Leasable Mineral Russell Vought, Russell Cheney, Michael Enzi, cc: The Honorable David Bernhardt, EST-00016564 07/01/2020 07/01/2020 Royalty Rate Reduction - Soda Ash Vought Kevin McCarthy, Paul Secretary of the Interior Cook, Mike Garcia Letter of Support - City of Las Vegas, David Bernhardt, David EST-00016558 Charleston Heights Park - LWCF 06/30/2020 06/30/2020 Catherine Cortez Masto Vela Application EST-00016541 SNPLMA Funds Titus 06/26/2020 06/29/2020 David Bernhardt Dina Titus Letter of Support
    [Show full text]
  • 2020 Mentor Handbook
    CLASS OF MENTOR 2020 HANDBOOK The mission of tnAchieves is to increase higher education opportunities for Tennessee high school students by providing last-dollar scholarships with mentor guidance. IN PARTNERSHIP WITH: WELCOME TABLE OF CONTENTS Dear tnAchieves Mentor, This handbook outlines, in chronological order, the steps you will take to complete the college process and to begin your journey as a TN Promise Scholar. Thank you for your commitment to the thousands of students across our state, but particularly to those you will serve in your community. In its inaugural year, TN Promise accepted more than 58,000 students statewide from the Class of 2015, leading Welcome to tnAchieves 1 to an unprecedented 4.6 percent increase in our state’s college-going rate. As we prepare for the Class of 2020, we are projecting that more than 60,000 students will apply. This means we simply cannot do this work without you! Table of Contents 2 Connect With Us 3 Students that apply for TN Promise in 90 of the state’s 95 counties are served by tnAchieves and must complete the tnAchieves program outlined in this handbook to access the scholarship’s funding. As a last-dollar scholarship, TN Promise ensures tnAchieves and TN Promise Partnership 4 access to tuition and mandatory fee free community and technical college. Eligible institutions across the state will provide Student Checklist 5 students with access to programs that will prepare them to meet 21st century workforce demands. Apply to TN Promise by November 1, 2019 6 This handbook will serve as a guide to both you and the students as they complete the scholarship requirements.
    [Show full text]
  • Of 217 11:45:20AM Club Information Report CUS9503 09/01/2021
    Run Date: 09/22/2021 Key Club CUS9503 Run Time: 11:53:54AM Club Information Report Page 1 of 217 Class: KCCLUB Districts from H01 to H99 Admin. Start Date 10/01/2020 to 09/30/2021 Club Name State Club ID Sts Club Advisor Pd Date Mbr Cnt Pd Amount Kiwanis Sponsor Club ID Div H01 - Alabama Abbeville Christian Academy AL H90124 Debbie Barnes 12/05/2020 25 175.00 Abbeville K04677 K0106 Abbeville High School AL H87789 Valerie Roberson 07/06/2021 9 63.00 Abbeville K04677 K0106 Addison High School AL H92277 Mrs Brook Beam 02/10/2021 19 133.00 Cullman K00468 K0102 Alabama Christian Academy AL H89446 I Page Clayton 0 Montgomery K00174 K0108 Alabama School Of Mathematics And S AL H88720 Derek V Barry 11/20/2020 31 217.00 Azalea City, Mobile K10440 K0107 Alexandria High School AL H89049 Teralyn Foster 02/12/2021 29 203.00 Anniston K00277 K0104 American Christian Academy AL H94160 I 0 Andalusia High School AL H80592 I Daniel Bulger 0 Andalusia K03084 K0106 Anniston High School AL H92151 I 0 Ashford High School AL H83507 I LuAnn Whitten 0 Dothan K00306 K0106 Auburn High School AL H81645 Audra Welch 02/01/2021 54 378.00 Auburn K01720 K0105 Austin High School AL H90675 Dawn Wimberley 01/26/2021 36 252.00 Decatur K00230 K0101 B.B. Comer Memorial School AL H89769 Gavin McCartney 02/18/2021 18 126.00 Sylacauga K04178 K0104 Baker High School AL H86128 0 Mobile K00139 K0107 Baldwin County High School AL H80951 Sandra Stacey 11/02/2020 34 238.00 Bayside Academy AL H92084 Rochelle Tripp 11/01/2020 67 469.00 Daphne-Spanish Fort K13360 K0107 Beauregard High School AL H91788 I C Scott Fleming 0 Opelika K00241 K0105 Benjamin Russell High School AL H80742 I Mandi Burr 0 Alexander City K02901 K0104 Bessemer Academy AL H90624 I 0 Bob Jones High School AL H86997 I Shari Windsor 0 Booker T.
    [Show full text]
  • ('Inngreaa of the Finiteh §Taiea
    ('Inngreaa of the finiteh §taiea Maahiugtmt. EOE EUEIE October 10, 2019 VIA US. AND ELECTRONIC MAIL The Honorable J ames Richard “Rick” Perry Secretary Department of Energy 10001ndependence Avenue, S.W. Washington, DC. 20585 Dear Secretary Perry: Pursuant to the House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry, we are hereby transmitting a subpoena that compels you to produce the documents set forth in the accompanying schedule by October 18, 2019. This subpoena is being issued by the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence under the Rules of the House of Representatives in exercise of its oversight and legislative jurisdiction and after consultation with the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on Oversight and Reform. The subpoenaed documents shall be collected as part of the House’s impeachment inquiry and shared among the Committees, as well as with the Committee on the Judiciary as appropriate.1 Your failure or refusal to comply with the subpoena, including at the direction or behest of the President or the White House, shall constitute evidence of obstruction of the House’s impeachment inquiry and may be used as an adverse inference against you and the President. The Committees are investigating the extent to which President Trump jeopardized US. national security by pressing Ukraine to interfere with our 2020 election and by withholding a White House meeting with the President of Ukraine and military assistance provided by Congress to help Ukraine counter Russian aggression, as well as any efforts to cover up these matters. Recently, public reports have raised questions about any role you may have played in conveying or reinforcing the President’s stark message to the Ukrainian President.
    [Show full text]
  • Elliott School Strategic Initiatives Fund
    ELLIOTT SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 2013/14 ANNUAL REPORT 2 CONTENTS 2 MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN 4 EDUCATION 20 RESEARCH 28 CISTP 30 IERES 32 IGIS 34 IIEP 36 IMES 38 IPDGC 40 ISCS 42 SIGUR 44 SPI 46 ENGAGEMENT 58 SUPPORT 64 Board of Advisors 66 International Council 68 Endowments Our Supporters 72 L’Enfant Society 72 1821 Benefactors 73 The George Washington Society 1 74 The Tempietto Circle of the Heritage Society 75 The Heritage Society Gifts 76 Friends 78 Parents 79 Faculty and Staff 80 Alumni 90 Students 91 Corporations, Foundations, and Institutional 2013-14 ANNUAL REPORT | GWU ELLIOTT SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS MESSAGE FROM DEAN MICHAEL E. BROWN This is an exceptionally exciting time at the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. As we reflect on another academic year of tremendous accomplishments, we are also refining the Elliott School’s priorities in the run-up to GW’s 200th anniversary in the year 2021. GW’s Strategic Plan, adopted in May 2013, identifies four university priorities that are also real- world imperatives: the need to understand and address the challenges posed by globalization and other global issues; the worldwide necessity for better governance and policy; the continu- ing imperatives of citizenship and leadership; and the need for intellectual innovation through cross-disciplinary collaboration. As one of the world’s elite schools of international affairs, the Elliott School is well-positioned to support the university’s goals in all of these areas. To turn the Strategic Plan into a reality, GW officially launched a $1 billion philanthropic cam- paign–Making History: The Campaign for the George Washington University–in June 2014.
    [Show full text]
  • The Congressional Bureaucracy
    The Congressional Bureaucracy Jesse M. Cross Abbe R. Gluck CSAS Working Paper 20-23 First Branch, Second Thoughts — What Is Congress’s Proper Role in the Administrative State? Article The Congressional Bureaucracy Jesse M. Cross* & Abbe R. Gluck** Introduction Congress has a bureaucracy. Legal scholarship, judicial discourse, and doctrine about Congress and statutes have focused almost entirely on elected members of Congress and the ascertainability of their purported intentions about policymaking and statutory language. In recent years, we and others have broadened that perspective, with new scholarship about the on-the-ground realities of the congressional drafting process--including the essential role that staff plays in that process--and have argued the relevance of those realities for theory and doctrine.1 Here we go deeper. This Article goes beyond our previous accounts of partisan committee staff, congressional counsels, and other select staff offices to introduce the broader concept of what we call Congress’s bureaucracy. The congressional bureaucracy is the collection of approximately a dozen nonpartisan offices that, while typically unseen by the public and * Assistant Professor, University of South Carolina School of Law. ** Professor of Law and Faculty Director, Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy, Yale Law School. Soren Schmidt, Yale Law School Class of 2020, was instrumental in working as our partner for the first draft of this article, including doing the first round of interviews and working with us to write the first draft. We are grateful to Douglas Elmendorf, Bill Eskridge, Sherry Glied, Ed Grossman, Rick Hills, Anne Joseph O’Connell, Nick Parrillo, George Yin, Kevin Kosar, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Nina Kohn, Josh Chafetz, participants at the NYU Public Law Workshop, faculty workshops at the University of North Carolina, Seton Hall and Yale law schools, participants at the 2020 Legislation Works-in-Progress Roundtable, and Yale Law School students Josh Feinzig, Sumer Ghazala, Hilary Higgins, Jade Ford, and Natasha Khan.
    [Show full text]