X-Nico

26 unusual facts about United States Congress


Cohort default rate

In 1998, the United States Congress decided to extend the amount of time (from 180 to 270 days) before loans were considered to be in default.

Commercial Internet eXchange

The focus of this group was either military/government or research and education communications, especially support for the separately funded NSF supercomputing initiatives that started after Nobel laureate Ken Wilson's testimony to Congress in the 1980s.

Dean McHenry

During his time at UCLA, he ran for several political campaigns, including mayor of Los Angeles and for the United States Congress; he also authored numerous books.

Director of National Intelligence

After considerable debate on the scope of the DNI's powers and authorities, the United States Congress passed the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 by votes of 336–75 in the House of Representatives, and 89–2 in the Senate.

Droit

American law does not recognize any such droits, and the disposition of captured property is regulated by various acts of Congress.

E. T. Kingsley

Born in the United States, he had previously been a member of DeLeon's Socialist Labor Party of America and had been a candidate for the United States Congress several times including in the Fourth Congressional District of California in 1896 and the Fifth Congressional District of California in 1898.

Farm Credit Council

The Farm Credit Council represents the Farm Credit System in legislative and regulatory lobbying before the United States Congress government and state legislatures.

General Education Board

The board was founded in New York City in February 1902 and chartered by the United States Congress on 12 January 1903, its object being the promotion of education throughout the United States, without distinction as to race, sex or creed.

Ginery Twichell

In 1867 Twichell was elected to Congress where he served as a Republican Representative for Massachusetts.

Heat of the Moment

In a 2001 episode of South Park titled "Kenny Dies", Eric Cartman sings the song to the United States Congress to convince them to reverse a ban on stem cell research (telling them that he wanted to save his 8-year-old friend Kenny McCormick from muscular dystrophy), eventually leading members of Congress in a sing-along.

Mr. Dugan

Dugan is an American sitcom about a black Congressman that was scheduled to air in March 1979 on CBS, but was pulled at the last minute and never shown.

Museum of Government Waste

Museum of Government Waste is an upcoming documentary produced by American Film Renaissance that follows Florida resident Greg Knapp on his mission to obtain an earmark from Congress to construct a museum dedicated to careless government spending.

National Association of Personal Financial Advisors

NAPFA, the Financial Planning Association, and the CFP Board of Standards formed the Financial Planning Coalition to work with Congress and federal agencies to strengthen the rules on financial advisors' fiduciary conduct, fee disclosures, and conflicts of interest.

National Collegiate women's ice hockey championship

In 1978, American universities became subject to the law often known as Title IX, approved by the United States Congress in 1972.

Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability

The federal Government Accountability Office (GAO) is the audit, evaluation, and investigative arm of the United States Congress.

Omnibus Foreign Trade and Competitiveness Act

The Omnibus Foreign Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 is an act passed by the United States Congress and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan.

Oslo-class frigate

Half of the project expenses were funded by the United States as a part of the Mutual Defense Assistance Program (MDAP) (a program that ran from when it was passed by the Congress in October 1949 until 1967–68).

Pavement life-cycle cost analysis

Since 1995, United States Congress has been expressing an interest in LCCA and it is now required for projects exceeding $25 million.

Philippine constitutional plebiscite, 1935

The Hare–Hawes–Cutting Act, which provided for the independence of the Philippines, was passed by the United States Congress, but was rejected by the Philippine Congress.

Randall Terry

Rather than pay the settlement, Terry promptly filed bankruptcy, prompting Senator Charles Schumer to propose an amendment to a bankruptcy bill in Congress which would "specifically ... prevent abortion opponents from using the bankruptcy code to escape paying court fines."

Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum

Alarmed that Nixon's tapes may be lost, Congress abrogated the Nixon-Sampson Agreement by passing S.4016, signed into law by President Gerald Ford in December 1974 as the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act.

Seduction of the Innocent

At the same time, a U.S. Congressional inquiry was launched into the comic book industry.

Special Purpose Individual Weapon

However, the program came under attack by the United States Congress as a waste of money, and was forced to scale back.

Theodore Roosevelt Cyclopedia

The Association was formally chartered by special Act of Congress, May 31, 1920,

United States Secretary of the Army

The Secretary presents and justifies Army policies, plans, programs, and budgets to the Secretary of Defense, other executive branch officials, and to the Congressional Defense Committees.

Zombie Strippers

The United States Congress has been disbanded; public nudity is banned; the United States is embroiled in wars with France, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Syria, Venezuela, Canada, and Alaska.


A More Perfect Constitution

The twenty-three proposals run the gamut from changing the length of the U.S. President's term in office and the number and terms of Supreme Court justices to altering the structure of Congress, modifying the Electoral College, and introducing universal national service.

Access 5

The cancellation of the program led members of the UAV National Industry Team (UNITE) alliance, which includes Boeing, General Atomics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, AeroVironment, and Aurora Flight Sciences to advocate for a new national plan in testimony before the United States Congress.

Albert F. Canwell

He is best remembered as the namesake of the legislature's Canwell Committee to investigate communist influence in Washington state, patterned after the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) of the United States Congress.

Alcohol during and after prohibition

The nation was highly optimistic and the leading prohibitionist in the United States Congress confidently asserted that "There is as much chance of repealing the Eighteenth Amendment as there is for a hummingbird to fly to the planet Mars with the Washington Monument tied to its tail.

American Iron and Steel Institute

In 1933, at the depths of the Great Depression, United States Congress adopted the National Industrial Recovery Act, and AISI was called upon by the federal government to act for the steel industry in the establishment and administration of a Code of Fair Competition.

Antarctica Service Medal

The Antarctica Service Medal (ASM) was established by the United States Congress on July 7, 1960 under Public Law 600 of the 86th Congress.

Antiquities Act

The Antiquities Act is referenced in The West Wing season one episode "Enemies", where President Bartlet uses it to counter an amendment attached to a bill by Congress that would allow an area of the Montanan wilderness to be strip-mined.

Barbara Jordan Health Policy Scholars

As a member of the United States Congress and the Texas State Legislature, Barbara Jordan's distinguished career was exemplified by her tireless advocacy of behalf of vulnerable populations.

Bingham County, Idaho

Bingham County was created January 13, 1885, and named after Henry H. Bingham, a congressman from Pennsylvania and friend of William Bunn, Idaho's Territorial Governor.

Charles Valentine Riley

He convinced the United States Congress to establish the United States Entomological Commission, which included a Grasshopper Commission, to which Riley was appointed chairman.

Children of the American Revolution

After the idea for a children’s branch was proposed at the Daughters of the American Revolution Continental Congress, the organization was promptly chartered by the United States Congress.

Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia

In the United States an organization with a similar name, the American Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia, was founded in the late 1940s, and became known for their CIA-run and later Congress-funded propaganda broadcaster Radio Liberty, which operated from Munich, in West Germany.

Daniel Siebert

In 2002, Siebert wrote a letter to the United States Congress in which he objected to bill H.R. 5607 introduced by Rep. Joe Baca (D-California) which sought to place Salvia divinorum in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act.

Dave Crooks

In May 2011 Dave Crooks announced his candidacy to represent Indiana's 8th Congressional District in the United States Congress.

Disability in children's literature

Beginning in the 1970s, the United States Congress passed several Acts to legally protect the right of children and adults with disabilities to be included in schools and the workforce, first with the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and then the Education for All Handicapped Children Act in 1975.

Disinvestment

The effort to disinvest in Northern Ireland met with little success, but the United States Congress did pass (and then-President Bill Clinton signed) a law requiring American companies with interests there to implement most of the MacBride Principles in 1998.

Donation Land Claim Act

The passage of the law was largely due to the efforts of Samuel R. Thurston, the Oregon territorial delegate to Congress.

Edward Aloysius Kenney

Kenney was elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-third, Seventy-fourth, and Seventy-fifth Congresses and served from March 4, 1933, until his death in Washington, D.C. due to an accidental fall from a window on January 27, 1938.

Edward Fenwick Tattnall

He was reelected to the 18th, 19th and 20th United States Congresses and served from March 4, 1821, until his resignation in 1827 before the start of the 20th Congress.

Erland and the Carnival

The track "Everything Came Too Easy" was inspired by a speech by Charles Van Doren to the House Subcommittee on Legislative Oversight, a United States Congress subcommittee, investigating a rigging scandal on the quiz show Twenty One.

Fernand St. Germain

St. Germain was elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-seventh and to the thirteen succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1961 – January 3, 1989).

Floride Calhoun

Soon after their marriage, her husband was elected to Congress, leaving his wife in charge of his plantation, "Fort Hill," in present-day Clemson, South Carolina.

Frequency coordinator

In 1982, the United States Congress provided the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) the statutory authority to use frequency coordinators to assist in developing and managing the Private Land Mobile Radio (PLMR) spectrum.

Helmut Christoferus Calabrese

His song, "The Most Beautiful Lady in the World: Statue of Liberty Anthem", was the subject of two bills in the New Jersey Legislature calling on the United States Congress to designate it as the official anthem of the Statue of Liberty.

John L. McMillan

Born on a farm near Mullins, he was educated at Mullins High School, the University of North Carolina, as well as the University of South Carolina Law School and National Law School in Washington, D.C. He was selected to represent the United States Congress at the Interparliamentary Union in London in 1960, and in Tokyo in 1961.

Joseph Bryan

Bryan was elected as a Republican to the 8th and 9th United States Congresses and served from March 4, 1803, until his resignation in 1806.

Kathleen A. McGrath

In the spring of 2000, during her command of the Jarrett,and just six years after Congress revoked rules prohibiting women from serving on combat aircraft and warships, the ship deployed to the northern reaches of the Persian Gulf, hunting boats suspected of smuggling Iraqi oil in violation of United Nations sanctions.

KUAM-TV

Madeleine Bordallo — Former TV host; now serving as the territory's Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Leonardo Mascheroni

Since then, he has been critical of Los Alamos and has attempted to lobby the United States Congress to fund his idea.

Morris K. Udall and Stewart L. Udall Foundation

The Foundation was established by the Congress in 1992 to honor Morris Udall’s thirty years of service in the House of Representatives.

Naval Clemency and Parole Board

In certain other cases, the NC&PB only makes recommendations to the Secretary, specifically issues where (1) any offense carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years or more; (2) any offense involving a victim under 16 years of age or the offender's spouse; and (3) cases where a release might lead to Congressional or media interest.

Peng-Peng Gong

He was invited twice, on personal request, by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to perform for the United States Congress.

Raker Act

The Raker Act was an act of the United States Congress that permitted building of the O'Shaughnessy Dam and flooding of Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park, California.

Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building

In 1998, the United States Congress passed a bill naming the building for former mayor and Congressman Ronald V. Dellums.

Silver Falls State Park

In January 2008, during the 2008 supplemental legislative session, Fred Girod of the Oregon House of Representatives sought federal designation of the area as a national park via a house joint memorial to the United States Congress, but the bill died in committee.

Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance

The primary campaign of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance is to build public support for America's Red Rock Wilderness Act, which was first introduced in Congress in 1989 by Utah Congressman Wayne Owens.

Thomas Telfair

Telfair was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the 13th and 14th United States Congresses, serving from March 4, 1813, to March 3, 1817.

Unified Smart Grid

President Barack Obama asked the United States Congress "to act without delay" to pass legislation that included doubling renewable energy production in the next three years and building a new electricity "smart grid".

United States Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council

Besides Eleanor Roosevelt, the position has attracted some well-known Americans, including four past members of the United States Congress, one of whom, Geraldine Ferraro, had been her party's nominee for vice president.

USA International Ballet Competition

In 1982, the United States Congress passed a Joint resolution designating Jackson, Mississippi, as the official home of the USA International Ballet Competition.

Wally Bruner

Natalie co-starred on Wally's Workshop, and in the early 1990s, ran unsuccessfully for the United States Congress on the Democratic ticket against Dan Burton of Indiana.

Walt Horan

Walter Franklin "Walt" Horan (October 15, 1898 – December 19, 1966) was an American politician, a congressman from eastern Washington for 22 years.

Wendover, Utah

Movements to unite Wendover with West Wendover, which is located across the border in Nevada and allows gambling operations, have taken place but require the approval of the U.S. Congress and the Nevada and Utah legislators.

WEUP-FM

The Garretts made history when they testified before a congressional committee in 1963, the outcome of which resulted in the change of a Federal Communications Commission law regulating 24-hour broadcasts in the 1960s.