The Nature of Public Policy

1
The Nature of Public Policy

• How much government have we got?
• How much are we willing to pay for?
• What are we not willing to pay for?

2
Census of Governments

• 87,504 governmental units in the United States
• A federal government
• 50 state governments
• 87,453 units of local government
• 39,044 are general purpose local governments
• 3,043 county governments
• 36,001 subcounty general purpose governments -
  municipalities, towns(hips)
• 48,409 are special-purpose local governments
• 13,726 school district governments
• 34,683 special district governments
• All publish material that carries some measure of
  legal authority

3
The Paradigm

• The US Government Manual (National Archives)
• Ben's Guide to the US Government (GPO)
• University of Minnesota Government Publications
• University of Minnesota Law Library
• Llrx.com

4
The Problems

• A. Understanding the outcomes of the various
  debates that lead to acts, rules, and judicial
  opinions
• Legislation (act, statute, laws), legislative
  process, cumulation and codification
• Regulations (rules), rule-making process,
  cumulation and codification
• Judicial Opinions, litigation process, court
  rules, encyclopedias, digests
• B. Understanding the data (electronic and text)
  in which these outcomes, even the debates, are
  published
• Statutes at Large (Public Law), US Code
• Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations
• United States Reports, other reporters
• There may not be a single data set that can
  answer all your questions
• Not every database is useful each has good and
  bad points

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6
Legislation and the Legislative Process
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The Alligators!

• The objective of all dedicated employees is to
  thoroughly analyze all situations, anticipate all
  problems prior to their occurrence, have answers
  for these problems, and move swiftly to solve
  these problems when called upon
• However, when you are up to your ass in
  alligators, it is difficult to remember that your
  initial objective was to drain the swamp

8
Muddling Through

• Decisions get made in the light of
• Goals that have been established
• An evaluative method
• Available technical skills
• Available empirical knowledge

9
Public policy (Law) - created by federal and
state governments acting under authority defined,
somewhat imperfectly, in a constitution

• The Legislative branch of government enacts
  legislation, statutes, acts
• defines and establishes broad social goals
• outlines what behavior modifications are needed
  to achieve those goals
• delegates authority necessary to change behavior
• appropriates revenue
• The Executive branch of government creates
  (promulgates) rules, regulations that are
  designed to change behavior
• The Judicial branch examines claims by
  individuals, organizations, even government
  itself, that specific legislation or specific
  regulation violates their constitutional rights
  and cause some harm

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The Origins of Current Law
12
A decision made by a branch of the federal
government
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Legislation and Legislative History
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Federal Policy

• Principles reflecting the Constitution
•  
• The United States Constitution (National
  Archives)
• Cornell University Legal Information Institute
• The Constitution Society
• Practices/programs embodying those principles
• GPO Access
• University of Minnesota Government Publications
  Library
• Ben's Guide to U.S. Government (Government
  Printing Office)
• The United States Government Manual (National
  Archives)

15
Data

• Official published by the federal government
• USA.gov
• GPOAccess
• Unofficial published by a commercial publisher
• LexisNexis Congressional (Elsevier)
• FedLaw (Center for Regulatory Effectiveness)
• Legal Information Institute (Cornell University)
• FindLaw (ThomsonWest Group)
• Uncle Sam (Google)

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Structure of the Legislative Branch

• Senate
• House of Representatives
• Legislative Agencies Commissions
• Library of Congress
• Congressional Research Service (University of
  Oregon)
• Congressional Research Service. Reports (National
  Council for Science the Environment)
• Selected Congressional Research Service Reports
  on Congress and Its Procedures (Law Librarians
  Society)
• General Accountability Office
• Government Printing Office
• Congressional Budget Office

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Outcome - Statute enacted by Congress and signed
into law by the President

• End of every session of Congress
• Statutes-at-Large
• Pub.L. 110-288 To amend the Federal Water
  Pollution Control Act to address certain
  discharges incidental to the normal operation of
  a recreational vessel. NOTE July 29, 2008 - S.
  2766
• LexisNexis Congressional
• Popular Names of Acts (Cornell University)

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Legislative History

• Researching Federal Legislation (University of
  Minnesota)
• Legislative Sourcebook (Law Librarians' Society
  of Washington DC)
• Enactment of a law (Senate)
• How our laws are made (House of Representatives)
• Federal Legislative History Research A
  Practitioner's Guide to Compiling the Documents
  and Sifting for Legislative Intent (PDF version)
  (Law Librarians Society)
• Legislative Histories United States Congress
  (University of Michigan)
• Finding Federal Legislative History (University
  of Minnesota Law Library)
• LexisNexis Congressional

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Statutes at Large Citation is always to a
Statutes at Large volume and a page number

• When a bill becomes law it is published in the
  Statutes at Large
• Published by the United States Government
  Printing Office, it is slow to be produced
• Commercial publishers, on the other hand, publish
  them much faster
• United States Code Congressional and
  Administrative News (University of Florida)
• The Statutes at Large contain public laws,
  private laws usually applying to a particular
  party proclamations, and resolutions
• A record of all the statutes that have been
  passed during a particular congressional session
• The statutes are arranged chronologically but
  there is a subject index
• NB There is no cumulative index. Each volume,
  which may consist of several parts, has an index

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Outcome Legislation enacted over time

• Cumulative U. S. Code
• GPO Access
• Office of the Law Revision Counsel (House)
• Cornell University Legal Information Institute
• United States Code Annotated (Thomson West)
• United States Code Service (Elsevier) LexisNexis
  Congressional

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United States Code

• Federal statutes currently in force are arranged
  by subject matter in fifty titles
• Published by Government Printing Office it is
  recompiled every six years and is supplemented
  annually
• USCA and USCS are preferred to the U.S.C.
• They are more current, and they have annotations
  e.g., references to cases, law review articles,
  and books
• The first attempt at a federal code was the
  publication,  Revised Statutes published in 1875
• A second edition was published in 1878
• The current  version of the USC began in 1926
• All three sources of federal statutes have a
  subject index, a volume of tables for converting
  Statutes at Large citations to code citations,
  and a popular name listing

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Legislative History

• Parts of a Legislative History
• Introduced bills
• Congressional Record
• Committee Hearings
• Committee Prints
• Committee Reports
• House and Senate documents
• Presidential messages

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• The legislative process starts when a bill is
  introduced into Congress and ends when the
  President signs the engrossed bill into law
• Bills are numbered consecutively within the House
  and Senate starting with 1 at the beginning of
  each new Congress
• Thus, for the 106th Congress, H.R. 100 was the
  100th bill introduced in the House of
  Representatives. S. 100 was the 100th bill in the
  Senate
• When a Committee reports on a bill, the bill is
  reprinted, with any amendments indicated - italic
  text for additions and strikethrough through text
  for deletions

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Congressional Record

• The Congressional Record, issued daily when
  Congress is in session, contains transcriptions
  of the proceedings of Congress, including debates
  and voting records
• The Daily volumes are later replaced by annual
  bound volumes with different pagination
• The Index consists of two parts
• an alphabetical index of names and subjects.
  Citations to bill numbers provided under subjects
  
• "History of Bills and Resolutions" arranged by
  bill number, citing page references to all
  citations in the Congressional Record about the
  bill, from its introduction to its final passage
• Note Members of Congress have the right to alter
  their statements before the Congressional Record
  is printed. Therefore the Congressional Record is
  not a true verbatim record of Floor discussions

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Committee Hearings

• Transcripts of testimonies from witnesses and
  other related materials
• GPO Access
• Congressional Bibliography (North Carolina State
  Univ.)
• LexisNexis Congressional
• Congressional Hearings on the Web (Univ. of
  Michigan)

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Congressional Information Service (CIS)

• CIS Congressional Committee Hearings Index for
  published hearings from the 23rd to 69th
  Congresses (1833-1969)
• CIS Index and abstracts produced since 1970
• Indexes include subjects and names, bill numbers,
  titles, and reports
• Abstracts include the names of all witnesses and
  summaries testimonies
• Separate legislative history volumes have been
  published since 1984. (1970-1983 legislative
  histories are in Public Law number order at the
  end of Abstracts volumes)
• Issued monthly with quarterly and annual
  cumulations

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Committee Prints

• Committee Prints are informational and research
  publications produced by committees or parts of
  committees
• Committee prints often are the most useful
  publications to examine for situation reports,
  statistical or historical information, and
  legislative analysis
• CIS Congressional Committee Prints Index catalogs
  committee prints from the 1830s through 1969
• Includes indexes by Subject and Name, Title,
  Congress and Committee, Bill Number and
  Superintendent of Documents Number
• Congressional Committee Prints (GPO) 

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Committee Prints sort of

• Congressional Research Service Reports provide
  detailed background information for use by
  Congressional committees
• Some of the reports are published as Committee
  Prints
• Various organizations provide electronic access
  to a portion of the reports, for example National
  Council for Science and the Environment

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Committee Reports

• Committee Reports are the means by which
  Congressional Committees report their findings
  and make recommendations to the House or Senate
• Reports include lengthy and detailed analyses of
  each section of legislation under consideration
  and an explanation of the committee's thoughts on
  significant points
• When a Conference Committee is formed to
  reconcile differences between the House and
  Senate versions of a bill, a Conference Report is
  prepared.  Reports are numbered in sequence with
  other reports
• CIS US Serial Set Index  catalogs the United
  States Serial Set and the American State Papers
  from 1789 through 1969
• Reports and Documents are indexed by subject and
  keyword (based on words in the title)
• The Finding Aid volumes are used to search by
  Congress and report/document number

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Committee Reports

• U.S. Serial Set comprises a series of bound
  volumes containing the texts of House and Senate
  Reports and Documents, Senate Treaty Documents,
  and Senate Executive Reports
• Older issues contain House and Senate Journals,
  agency reports to Congress, and varies other
  publications
• Began with the 15th Congress. (Earlier
  publications can be found in the American State
  Papers)
• Congressional Reports (GPO)
• US Congressional Serial Set (GPO)
• Serial Set (Readex) Access via UMN Libraries
  

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Historical Material

• Century of American Lawmaking (Library of
  Congress)
• Journals of the Continental Congress (1774-93)
• Annals of Congress (1789-1824)
• Register of Debates (1824-1837)
• Congressional Globe (1833-1873)
• House and Senate Journals (1789-1873)
• Senate Executive Journal (1789-1873)
• Journal of William Maclay (1789-91)
• Congressional Record, 1873 Congressional Globe,
  1833-73
• Documentary History of the First Federal Congress
  (Univ. of So. Carolina)
• Register of Debates, 1824-1837
• Annals of Congress, 1789-1824

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• Statutes-at-Large
• Statutes, acts, or legislation often amend
  existing statutory law
• Statutes, acts, or legislation enacted
  chronologically
• Need for some sort of subject classification -
  codification
• Need for a publication that includes only
  existing or current statutory law, not statutory
  law that has been repealed - cumulation
• US Code

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The Process of Cumulation

• Part of a statute enacted in 1945 amended in 1950
  
• The statutory law in 1950 thus was a compilation
  of statutes enacted in 1945 and 1950
• The 1950 statutory law was amended in 1978
• The amendments concerned parts of the 1945
  legislation and the 1950 legislation
• In 1978, the statutory law was a compilation of
  statutes enacted in 1945, 1950, and 1978
• The statutory law has not been changed since
• The US Code today reflected the existing
  statutory law 1945 1950 1978

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United States Code - Cumulation and Codification

• Federal statutes currently in force are arranged
  by subject matter in fifty titles
• Published by Government Printing Office it is
  recompiled every six years and is supplemented
  annually
• The current  version of the USC began in 1926
• USCA and USCS are preferred to the USC
• They are more current, and they have annotations
  e.g., references to cases, law review articles,
  regulations authorized by the statutes, and books
  
• All three sources of federal statutes have a
  subject index, a volume of tables for converting
  Statutes at Large citations to code citations,
  and a popular name listing

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Other sources of legislative information

• National Journal
• Congressional Quarterly Weekly
• CQ Researcher
• CQ Almanac
• Congress and the Nation
• Government Information Quarterly (TC Internet
  Resource Online Resource)
• National Library for the Environment
• Statistical Resources on the Web (University of
  Michigan Documents Center)
• News Media newspaper, journals, television
• Law review articles

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Congressional Quarterly Inc.

• Congress and the Nation
• vol. 1. 1945-1964
• vol. 2. 1965-1968
• vol. 3. 1969-1972
• vol. 4. 1973-1976
• vol. 5. 1977-1980
• vol. 6. 1981-1984
• vol. 7. 1985-1988
• vol. 8. 1989-1992
• vol. 9. 1993-1996
• vol. 10.1997-2000
• vol. 11. 2001-2004

• CQ Weekly
• CQ Researcher
• CQ Almanac
• CQ Almanac Plus

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LexisNexis Academic

• Legal Research
• Federal Code
• Endangered Species
• 16 USCS 668dd TITLE 16. CONSERVATION, CHAPTER
  5A. PROTECTION AND CONSERVATION OF
  WILDLIFE, ENDANGERED SPECIES OF FISH AND
  WILDLIFE,  668dd.  National Wildlife Refuge
  System, UNITED STATES CODE SERVICE
• Text of current Statutory Law
• Amendments
• Regulations
• Court Cases

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Notes for Project 2

• All legislation found in the U S Code has been
  published as a Public Law in a Statutes at Large
  volume (or the electronic equivalent)
• Not all legislation published as a Public Law in
  a Statutes at Large volume will be published in
  the US Code
• Each Public Law has a legislative history
• A Public Law published in a Statute at Large
  volume is divided into sections
• Large pieces of legislation may be divided into
  separate parts called Titles
• A Public Law usually retains its structure when
  codified and compiled in the U S Code
• Each section in the US Code is a section in a
  Public Law. It is not the entire statute enacted
  by Congress
• Choose a statute that was enacted after 1970 but
  not very recently

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Look at a particular agencys web site
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Compiling a Legislative History

• Find the Public Law number or Statutes at Large
  citation
• Newspaper and journal articles frequently cite
  the popular names of statutes
• Use Popular Names Index (US Code) or LexisNexis
  Congressional to obtain the correct citation
• Find the statute in the appropriate volume of the
  Statutes at Large
• Overviews and analyses of the act
• Look in the index of the Congressional Quarterly
  Almanac volume for the year the legislation was
  passed
• Look in the index of the volume of the National
  Journal for the year the law was passed
• Look for a law review article