Pruposess of Bills in the US Congress

Pruposess of Bills in the US Congress The bill is the most commonly used form of legislation considered by the US Congress. Bills may originate in either the House of Representatives or the Senate with one notable exception provided for in the Constitution. Article I, Section 7, of the Constitution provides that all bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives but that the Senate may propose or concur with amendments. By tradition, general appropriation bills also originate in the House of Representatives. Purposes of Bills Most bills considered by Congress fall under two general categories: Budget and spending, and enabling legislation. Budget and Spending Legislation Every fiscal year, as part of the federal budget process, the House of Representatives is required to create several â€Å"appropriations† or spending bills authorizing the expenditure of funds for the daily operations and special programs of all federal agencies. Federal grant programs are typically created and funded in the appropriations bills. In addition, the House may consider â€Å"emergency spending bills,† which authorize the expenditure of funds for purposes not provided for in annual appropriations bills. While all budget- and spending-related bills must originate in the House of Representatives, they must also be approved by the Senate and signed by the president as required by the legislative process. Enabling Legislation By far the most prominent and often controversial bills considered by Congress, â€Å"enabling legislation† empower appropriate federal agencies to create and enact federal regulations intended to implement and enforce the general law created by the bill. For example, the Affordable Care Act – Obamacare – empowered the Department of Health and Human Services, and several of its sub-agencies to create what are now hundreds of federal regulations to enforce the intent of the controversial national health care law. While enabling bills create the overall values of the law, such as civil rights, clean air, safer cars, or affordable health care, it is the massive and rapidly-growing collection of federal regulations that actually define and enforce those values. Public and Private Bills There are two types of billspublic and private. A public bill is one that affects the public generally. A bill that affects a specified individual or a private entity rather than the population at large is called a private bill. A typical private bill is used for relief in matters such as immigration and naturalization and claims against the United States. A bill originating in the House of Representatives is designated by the letters H.R. followed by a number that it retains throughout all its parliamentary stages. The letters signify House of Representatives and not, as is sometimes incorrectly assumed, House resolution. A Senate bill is designated by the letter S. followed by its number. The term companion bill is used to describe a bill introduced in one chamber of Congress that is similar or identical to a bill introduced in the other chamber of Congress. One More Hurdle: The Presidents Desk A bill that has been agreed to in identical form by both the House and Senate becomes the law of the land only after: The President of the United States signs it; orThe president fails to return it, with objections, to the chamber of Congress in which it originated, within 10 days (Sundays excepted) while Congress is in session; orThe presidents veto is overridden by a 2/3 vote in each chamber of Congress. A bill does not become law without the presidents signature if Congress, by their final adjournment, prevents its return with objections. This is known as a pocket veto.

Crucial, Vital, Essential

Crucial, Vital, Essential Crucial, Vital, Essential Crucial, Vital, Essential By Sharon Some words just cant be qualified, such as unique. Something either is or isnt unique – thats all there is to it. Here are a few more words of that type. Crucial Crucial derives from the Latin crux, meaning cross. The word originally meant cross shaped, but took on the meaning of deciding between opposing arguments in the 19th century. From there it was a short stretch to its current meaning of decisive. Vital Vital derives from the Latin words vitalis and vita meaning life. Its meaning has changed through the centuries. In the 14th century it meant pertaining to life; in the 15th it meant essential to life or sustaining life; in the 16th it meant endowed with life. By the 17th it had come to mean life giving or essential to the existence of something, which is its meaning now. Essential Essential is presumed to be derived from the Latin esse – to be – via essence, which denotes that qualities that make a thing what it is. Its common to hear people talking about issues that are highly crucial, most essential and very vital, however these uses are wrong. Something is either crucial or essential or it isnt – and nothing can be more vital than another thing which is vital. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:7 English Grammar Rules You Should KnowUsed To vs. Use ToUses of the Past Participle

Week 2 Participation Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Week 2 Participation Questions - Essay Example Misinterpreting messages that are sent using online communication tools is a common occurrence. Sometimes online communication leads to misunderstanding because the receptor never read the message and the sender assumed that it was read. Imagine a customer that sends three emails complaining about something, but due to a system error nobody at the company ever received the messages. The customer assumes the messages were read and the customer service of the company is poor. I understand your perspective that person to person communication can be much harder than other ways of communication. One of the primary reasons for this is that emotions are always present during person to person communication. It is much easier to block the emotional aspect of communicating when there is a computer in front of you instead of a real person. Also when a person is in a tough spot in a person to person communication it is hard to get out of the situation without hurting the others feelings. If a phone communication is going downhill it is simple just to hang up and blame the communication cutoff on technical difficulties. I agree with you that online communication is the best way to keep track of a conversation or message. Online communications such as emails are automatically saved without any special commands. The content of an email can be easily transferred into database software to save the conversation for quality assurance purpose and to document the incident. In the business world documentation of conversation is extremely important to reduce liability and other risks. Also the online medium is the fastest and cheapest alternative that provides companies with the greatest reach. After reading your personal miscommunication at work example my view is that in order to prevent miscommunication from occurring when dealing with complex situations that require fast action team members need to have identical written copies of the

Deregulation of Airline Industry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Deregulation of Airline Industry - Essay Example This turned away many potential investors’ as well international airlines to the restrictive measures that this body had put in place. This led to policy makers to rethink the operation in this industry and the contribution that the regulation imposed by the CBA affected the growth of this industry (Sinha, 2004). Therefore, in 1978 the Airline Deregulation Act was enacted in an effort to reverse the slow growth that this industry experienced. The main aims of this paper is critical analyze and evaluate the effects of deregulation to the major stake holders in this industry as well consider how it affected various micro economic variables (Smith & Cox, 2011). Before deregulation airline on competed on the basis of the quality of the cabin crew, the frequency in which the airline offered its services and other auxiliary services such food they offered to their client, price were fixed since they were regulated by the CBA (Smith & Cox, 2011). ... This increased completion among the existing airlines and the new airlines that were joining the market. Therefore, competition basis shifted from food and the frequency to the fares that airlines charged (Sinha, 2004). The increased competition which was being experienced in the market, led to establishment of low cost airlines such as the Ryanair in Europe after the European Union deregulated the airline industry. Low cost airlines charges lower prices so to facilitate their establishment in the market. The low cost airlines assumed that consumers of airlines service were rational that is there price responsive, therefore if the charged lower price they would be to capture a considerable proportion of the market (Krugman & Wells, 2009). Deregulation was advantages to the consumers of services from this industry since increases in supply caused the prices charged in this to decline as illustrated below by graph entitled average domestic airfares. Decline in the fares charged by the airlines was beneficial to consumers, since this increased consumer surplus (Krugman & Wells, 2009). In addition to this consumers had a wide variety to choose from; that is due to the increase in the number of airlines the consumers now had wide service provider to choose from. The quality of services offered in this industry also improved as compared to the time before deregulation. When the number of airline service provider increased in the market every airline had to brand its services as best in the market. This was beneficial to the customer as he obtained more quality services at cheaper prices (Sinha, 2004). The decrease in prices and improvement in quality fostered increased

Alumni Tracking System Essay Example for Free

Alumni Tracking System Essay An issue tracking system (also ITS, trouble ticket system, support ticket or incident ticket system) is a computer software package that manages and maintains lists of issues, as needed by an organization. Issue tracking systems are commonly used in an organizations customer support call center to create, update, and resolve reported customer issues, or even issues reported by that organizations other employees. An issue tracking system often also contains a knowledge base containing information on each customer, resolutions to common problems, and other such data. An issue tracking system is similar to a bugtracker, and often, a software company will sell both, and some bugtrackers are capable of being used as an issue tracking system, and vice versa. Consistent use of an issue or bug tracking system is considered one of the hallmarks of a good software team.[1] A ticket is an element contained within an issue tracking system which contains information about support interventions made by technical support staff or third parties on behalf of an end-user who has reported an incident that is preventing them from working with their computer as they would expect to be able to. Tickets are commonly created in a help desk or call center environment. Typically the ticket will have a unique reference number, also known as a case, issue or call log number which is used to allow the user or support staff to quickly locate, add to or communicate the status of the users issue or request. These tickets are so called because of their origin as small cards within a typical wall mounted work planning system when this kind of support started. Operators or staff receiving a call or query from a user would fill out a small card with the users details and a brief summary of the request and place it into a position (usually the last) in a column of pending slots for an appropriate engineer, so determining the staff member who would deal with the query and the priority of the request.

The Way Technology Has Changed Man: Hopkins And Wordsworth :: essays research papers

"Where do you want to go today?". We all know this slogan of the most advanced software company in the world, Microsoft. The question we will soon have to answer is were we can't go today. William Wordsworth, a quaint man from the late 18th century and early 19th century, understood the need for change in this world and expressed a pre-mature concern for the future that still applies to this very day in "The world is too much with us". Gerald Hopkins, a poet from the later 19th century, expressed many of same ideas and philosophies as Wordsworth in "God's Grandeur". Their main points were that man's continuous journey towards the future has led us to forget our roots. Though how could two poets from two different lifestyles, Wordsworth the revolutionary and Hopkins the Jesuit, come up with the same basic ideas? They both showed that our continuous journey towards the future has led us to forget our roots as shown by our destruction of nature, by the way the Industrial Revolution has torn us away from our harmony with nature and by the ways we can return back to mother earth.Man continues to destroy nature in an attempt to strengthen himself. Wordsworth and Hopkins talk about man's primal instinct to destroy what is around him. Ironically our destruction of nature leads to the advancements in our personal technologies. This is made evident when Wordsworth says "getting and spending we lay waste our powers." While it is obvious is that Wordsworth thinks we have become to attached to material goods, what does he mean by "lay waste our powers"? Perhaps the only explanation we can give is that Wordsworth believes that Man has, somewhere deep down in him, the ability to be a creator, an architect who can use nature and not abuse it. He also believes that Man keeps destroying nature without realizing the effects this adds to our lives. Hopkins shows this same type of idea but with a higher connection, the power of God. He uses God as a way of showing us the wrong we are doing. He shows Man's disobedience of God as a way to show that we have forgotten nature. Wordsworth thinks our own ambitions have led us to this point and we can't say that Hopkins completely disagrees with that. Hopkins shows how nature accumulates our pollution. They both must have realized the influence these technologies were having on their societies.

Trey Songs

trey songs November 29, 2009 Music The Petersburg, Virginia celebrity didn’t always have a musical career in mind. As a child, there were no voice or piano lessons. In fact, all through high school, Trey was doing what most kids his age were doing: playing basketball, throwing parties, and getting dragged to church by his grandmother, who sang in a gospel choir . â€Å"I wasn’t even paying attention to R&B at the time,† says Trey. I was listening to straight rap, like Biggie, Jay-Z, and Nas. †. â€Å"Although Trey Songz loved hip-hop while growing up, the only R&B he could get into was R. Kelly. When his friends heard his perfect tenor voice, however, they pushed him to drop rap and start crooning. Songz did just that, and after winning numerous talent shows in his native Petersburg, VA, the 15-year-old singer met Troy Taylor, who had worked behind the scenes with such artists as Patti LaBelle, SWV, and B2K.Taylor encouraged Trey to finish high school firs t, and then they could talk about a possible music career. Trey received his diploma and immediately moved to New Jersey to work with Taylor. Soon, the singer was appearing on Kevin Lyttle's debut album and Trick Daddy's Thug Matrimony as a sideman, as well as striking out on his own with â€Å"About the Game,† a solo cut from the Coach Carter soundtrack.As he was working on his debut album — not to mention several collaborations with Lil' Kim, Trina, and Snoop Dogg — Trey Songz released some street-level mixtapes under his alias, the Prince of Virginia. His proper debut, I Gotta Make It, was released by Atlantic Records in 2005, and the sophomore effort, Trey Day, charted at number 11 upon its release in 2007. In 2009 the single â€Å"I Need a Girl† announced the coming of his third album, Ready. David Jeffries, All music guide. Wikepidia/trey songz!

Encounters with crocodiles Essay

I found the crocodiles so intresting that i soon got over my loathing for them and yet with possible exception of as they run the hyenas they must be the meanest creatures in the AFRICAN scene.They will never openly attack,and they will not defend their own eggs ; directly you attempt to land ,into the water they go.It was unwise however to stand to close to the river bank especially at dusk the crocodile lunge out at you with his paws ;instead,having observed you carefully from midstream ,hen swim submeged into the shallows ,and with a sudden like moment of his tail he sweeps you into the water.One of the African boys in the park had been taken like this a few days before we arrived ,and it was no rare thing ,we were told ,for baby elephants to meet their end in just this way when they came down to the river to drink. then the mother elephants goes ranging along the bank quite powerless to retaliate.The crocodiles itself shas mortal enemies ,and not many of the sixty or seventy eggs which female lays,like turtle ,in a hole in a sand bank are destined to survive .Having laid her eggs (they are rather like large white goose -eggs),the mother covers up the hole and then sometimes departs. This is the moment for the moniter lizard to creep out of the undergrowth to scrape the sand away and then to gorge himself .Even if the nest remains undiscovered the young crcodiles need a gold deal of luck to survive. They come struggling to the surface of the sand little ten_inch_long rubbery thing ,and make directly for the water , hissing and snapping as they run .On the bank the marabaou stork with the speed of sword_play flicks them into his long bill ; and if you care to watch you can see the wriggling passage of the young crocodile down the bird scraggy throat.Sometimes the mother crocodile will try to defend her young at this perilous moment ,and this is a facinating thing to see.The marabou, with elaborate unconcern stand in about six inches of water waiting for the next tit bit to come swimming by,and from about twenty yards away the mother crocodile watches :just two murderous eyes above the surface of the stream .Then silently she submerges and come up again about ten y ards from marabou .The bird takes no notice .And now ,having again goes down .This time she is coming in for the kill .it is a matter of about two seconds the marabou abstractely and casually takes a backward step . At the same instant the tremendous jaws of the crocodiles come rearing out of the river and snap together in the empty air at the prcise spot where he was standing .green water streaming off her back ,the crocodiles subsides into river again;and the bird steps back to res ume its meal QUESTIONS/ANSWERS: Q1:what enabled the writer to get over his loathing for the crcodiles? Q2:what do crcodiles do when a person attempts to land on the river bank ? Q3:what method does the crocodiles use to capture ots prey?

Understanding and Defining White Privilege

Understanding and Defining White Privilege White privilege refers to the collection of benefits that white people receive in a racially structured society in which they are at the top of the racial hierarchy. Made famous by scholar and activist Peggy McIntosh in 1988, the concept includes everything from whiteness being equated with being normal and native to the U.S. to being represented in the media, being trusted, and easily finding makeup products for ones skin tone. While some might view some of these privileges as trivial, its important to recognize that no form of privilege comes without its counterpart: oppression. White Privilege According to Peggy McIntosh In 1988, Peggy McIntosh, a women’s studies scholar with sociological inclinations, penned an essay and cemented a concept that has become a mainstay for the sociology of race and ethnicity. â€Å"White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,† provided real-world, tangible examples of a concept and social fact that had been acknowledged and discussed by others, but never before in such a compelling way. At the heart of the concept  is the assertion that, in a racist society, white skin confers on those who live in it an extensive array of unearned privileges not available to people of color. White privilege is for the most part invisible to those who have it and unacknowledged by them. McIntoshs list of fifty privileges includes things like regularly being surrounded - in everyday life and in media representations - by people who look like you, and the ability to avoid those who do not; not being  interpersonally or institutionally discriminated against on the basis of race; never feeling afraid to defend oneself or speak out against injustice for fear of racially motivated retaliation; and, being viewed as normal and belonging, among others. The key point made by McIntosh’s list of privileges is that they are not typically available to or experienced by people of color in the U.S. In other words, they experience racial oppression and white people benefit from this. By illuminating the many forms that white privilege takes, McIntosh urges readers to exercise a sociological imagination. She asks us to consider how our individual life experiences are connected to and situated within large-scale patterns and trends in society. In this sense, seeing and understanding white privilege is not about blaming white people for having unearned advantages. Rather, the point of reflecting on one’s white privilege is to recognize that the social relations of race and the racial structure of society have created conditions in which one race has been advantaged over others, and that many aspects of everyday life that white people take for granted are not even available to people of color. Further, McIntosh suggests that white people have a responsibility to be conscious of their privileges and a responsibility to reject and diminish them as much as possible. Understanding Privilege in the Greater Sense Since McIntosh solidified this concept, social scientists and activists have expanded the conversation around privilege to include things like sex, gender, ability, culture, nationality, and class. This expanded understanding of privilege is premised on the concept of intersectionality popularized by black feminist sociologist Patricia Hill Collins. This concept refers to the fact that individuals in society are simultaneously recognized as, classified by, and interacted with on the basis of a variety of social characteristics, including and not limited to race, sex, gender, sexuality, ability, class, and nationality. Thus, our everyday life experiences are shaped by all of these things. In terms of privilege, then, sociologists today consider a variety of social characteristics and classifications when determining the level of privilege one possesses at any given moment. White Privilege Today Yet, in societies fundamentally structured by race, understanding one’s white privilege, regardless of other social characteristics or positions one embodies, is still deeply important. And, given that the meaning of race and the forms that racism takes are ever-evolving in the process of racial formation, it is important to update our sociological understanding of how white privilege has changed over time. While McIntoshs descriptions of white privilege are still perfectly relevant, there are some additional ways in which it manifests today, like: The ability to speak and write from an unchallenged position of authority (see, for instance, commenters online);The ability to hold onto wealth during economic crisis (Black and Latino families lost far more wealth during the home foreclosure crisis than did white families);Protection from experiencing the brunt of negative implications of climate change (economically vulnerable and politically unstable populations, mostly people of color in the global south, are disproportionally affected);Protection from the lowest wages and most dangerous labor conditions cultivated by the globalization of production;Being able to deny that racism exists;Believing in and cultivating sympathy from others for â€Å"reverse racism;Being unconcerned with the racial implications of political candidates one supports;Believing you worked hard for and earned everything you have without receiving any help or advantages;Believing that people of color who have achieved success have been given racially moti vated advantages; The ability to adopt a victim status rather than engaging in critical self-reflection when accused of racism;Believing it is acceptable to be â€Å"ironically† racist;Believing that people need to â€Å"get over it† or â€Å"move on† when they point out racism; and,The belief that cultural products and practices that come from communities of color are yours for the taking. There are many other ways in which white privilege manifests today - take a moment to think about the forms of privilege you can see in your life or in the lives of those around you.

The Number of Pardons Granted by Obama

The Number of Pardons Granted by Obama President Barack Obama granted 70 pardons during his two terms in office, according to United States Department of Justice records.   Obama, like other presidents before him, issued pardons to convicts who the White House said  had demonstrated genuine remorse and a strong commitment to being law-abiding, productive citizens and active members of their communities. Many of the  pardons granted by Obama were to drug offenders in what was seen as an attempt by the president to lessen what he perceived to be overly severe sentences in those types of  cases. Obama Focus on Drug Sentences Obama has pardoned more than a dozen drug offenders convicted of using or distributing cocaine. He described the moves as an attempt to rectify disparities in the justice system that  sent more African-American offenders to prison  for crack-cocaine convictions. Obama described as unfair the system that more harshly penalized crack-cocaine offenses compared to powder-cocaine distribution and use.   In using his power to pardon these offenders, Obama called on lawmakers to ensure  taxpayer dollars are spent wisely, and that our justice system keeps its basic promise of equal treatment for all. Comparison of Obama Pardons to Other Presidents Obama issued 212 pardons during his two terms. He had denied 1,629 petitions for pardons. The number of pardons issued by Obama was  far fewer than the number granted by Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and  Jimmy Carter. In fact, Obama used his power to pardon relatively rarely in comparison with every other modern president. Criticism Over Obamas Lack  of Pardons Obama has come under fire for his use, or lack of use, of the pardon, particularly in drug cases.   Anthony Papa of the Drug Policy Alliance, author of 15 to Life: How I Painted My Way to Freedom, criticized Obama and pointed out that the president had exercised his authority to issue pardons for Thanksgiving turkeys almost as much as he had for convicts. I support and applaud President Obama’s treatment of turkeys, Papa wrote in November 2013.  But I have to ask the President: what about the treatment of the more than 100,000 thousand people who are incarcerated in the federal system because of the war on drugs?  Surely some of these non-violent drug offenders deserve treatment equal to a turkey pardon.

Philosophical Theories Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Philosophical Theories - Essay Example Specifically, it has been argued that Machiavelli's positions have contrasted greatly with the views of Aristotle and Plato, particularly their views on the government and the State. However, this paper would like to forward the central thesis that if one analyzes carefully their works, it would prove that the theories of Machiavelli have actually benefited much from the theories of Aristotle and Plato and one can see some areas of intersection. We study the ancient theories, then, but with some doubt as to what they are theories of. We tend in fact to talk of ancient ethics, not ancient morality, and we do the same for modern theories containing elements that are prominent in the ancient ones: thus, we talk of virtue ethics, not virtue morality. There is a fairly widespread attitude that ancient theories of virtue and the good life are concerned not with what we take to be morality, but with something different, an alternative which can be labeled ethics. Platonic philosophy is hinged on moral virtue as practiced by just rulers. According to him, man served the State and hence, ethics and politics were the same. This is to be contradistinguished with Machiavellian principles, which states that the State should serve the people. That is its whole reason for being. Under Machiavelli's consent, a ruler is justified in doing whatever needs to be done to maintain the country, even if his actions may be deemed unjust. This is the source of the famous quote: "The end justifies the means." This is a complete opposite of the Platonic model which argues that a ruler may never be unjust. It is immoral and unethical, maintains Plato, for a ruler to rule solely by might. A background on Plato's methodology and work is provided by Bruell (1994): Plato's political philosophy is accessible to us primarily through the three great works whose very titles point to their political themes: the Republic, the Laws, the Statesman. The Republic and the Laws, which happen to be his longest works by far, are devoted chiefly to developing very thoroughgoing themes of political reform; the Statesman is devoted to the search for rare qualities or qualifications that would make a man worthy of that name. Plato's political philosophy first come to sight both as critical and reformist: it establishes immediately its distance from actual politics and looks to the true politics, which Plato's own educational efforts are presumably intended to help bring about. It can thus have an apparently contrary effect, however. Even as it raises readers' political hopes, it may lower their willingness to participate in the only politics available to them, for the small good that might be done there seems smaller still when it is compared with the good they have been led to expect from the schemes of radical reform that they have become acquainted with in Plato. Plato's theories have found traces in the writings of the more modern