Introduction Of Bills Research Articles

The British influence on the initiation and introduction of commonwealth bills of rights

The British influence on the initiation and introduction of commonwealth bills of rights

COMPARABLE WORTH IN STATE GOVERNMENT; TRENDS AND ISSUES

Comparable worth continues to be a controversial issue both in the private and public sector, but particularly in state government. Between 1981 and 1985, a t least 38 states entertained the comparable worth issue at some level. Based on three surveys conducted in 1984 and 1985, this study found that the extent o f states' comparable worth activities, when measured by the introduction of comparable worth bills, tends to vary depending upon the states' geographical location, party line‐ups in the legislatures, unionization of state employees, and the states' votes on the Equal Rights Amendment. The study also identifies a few issues in implementing comparable worth in state government–such as job evaluation, and costs of comparable worth.

President, Congress and American Foreign Policy: Confrontation or Collaboration?

W HEN the Prime Minister of Australia advises the leadership of the People's Republic of China that the United States is unreliable because of the influence Congress exercises upon the conduct of its foreign policy,' it is less an indication of Mr. Fraser's knowledge of American government than a recognition-at last-by the outside world that Congress cannot be ignored. Even though they are usually careful to express themselves quietly, lest they be accused of trying to interfere in the domestic affairs of another country, statesmen are increasingly concerned about the role Congress is playing and can play in determining American goals and the means of achieving them, particularly now that faraway Indochina is no longer the focus of the lawmakers' attention and Europe may become so. This is due partly to a probably mistaken conclusion, drawn from Congressional pressure to withdraw from South-east Asia, that a new form of isolationism is on the horizon, and partly to specific utterances, interference and even legislation which directly affects transatlantic relations. As Flora Lewis has recently written in the New York Times, the 'renewed interest of Congress in U.S. foreign policy has begun to trouble European leaders and officials as they gradually become aware that decisions can no longer be made at the summit alone.' 2 Observers have witnessed the refusal to provide last-minute support to Saigon; the cutting off of even modest aid to the F.N.L.A. and others trying to prevent a Cuban and Soviet-sponsored takeover in Angola; the repeated introduction of bills by the Majority Leader of the Senate (a member of the Foreign Relations Committee) to reduce American troop strength in Europe; the investigation of bribes to high foreign officials by corporations seeking contracts, and the embarrassing publication of the results; the leaking of secret testimony by members of Con-

Quality Clinical Laboratory Services for the American People

A LTHOUGH those close to the clinical laboratory have long recognized that laboratory errors can occur, the problem has not been openly discussed until recently. Walter Cronkite in a Columbia Broadcasting System program in 1965 focused lattention on the poor performance of certain mail-order laboratories and stimulated, in part, the introduction of bills in Congress to establish performance standards for clinical laboratories engaged in interstate commerce. In testifying before a Senate subcommittee, Dr. David J. Sencer, 'director, National Communicable Disease Center (NCDC), cited proficiency testing studies that demonstrated significant degrees of unsatisfactolry performance in various fields of clinical laboratory work (1). Although the results varied from labo,ratory to laboratory, he concluded that information indicates that erroineous results are obtained in more than 25 percent of all tests analyzed by these studies. As might be expected, this statement caused great concern and, at first, certain groups challenged 25 percent as being too high a percentage or maintained that it applied to laboratories other than their own. Others have maintained that this percentage is too conservative. Although s,cientists in clinical laboratories would like to be immune to error, there is no reason to expect human beings a,nd machines to obtain perfect results in a clinical laboratory when they do not elsewhere. Additional obijective evidence obtained since 1965 makes it unnecessary to belabor the point that medical laboratories can make errors or to debate the extent of the errors. All types of medical laboratori dependent, hoispital, and public hea re now generally recognized to, be subject For, and we can therefore proceed with the )f improving laboratory services. A number of significant programs and cooperative efforts have been started which should result in major improvements. Onlyua few can be considered in this discussion, but they illustrate what must be done to provide quality laboratory services for the American people.

Jeffersonian Attitudes Toward Executive Leadership and Committee Development in the House of Representatives, 1789-1829

HE RULES adopted by the House of Representatives when it convened for the first time in the spring of 1789 were quite different in nature from those which govern the conduct of business in the House today.' The initiation of business began not with the introduction of bills, but rather with the introduction of subjects. Within the rules subjects could be introduced either through resolutions, memorials, or petitions brought forward by individual legislators or through communications received from members of the Executive Branch. As for bills, it was not assumed, as it is today, that members ought to be free to introduce bills whenever they chose. Rather, the power to introduce bills was closely guarded on the theory that a bill was inchoate law and therefore not properly introducible on the responsibility of a single member.2 The rules provided that bills could be introduced only through forms of action which involved agreement on the part of the House as a whole by permission of the House on the request of an individual member or by permission of the House after a subject had been referred to and reported on by a committee.3 Moreover, once permission had been granted, the task of framing and reporting the bill had to be vested in a committee. Once introduced, the rules provided that every bill was to undergo three readings and that motions to refer to a committee of the whole or a select committee would be in order upon the second reading. It should be noted that originally the House saw little need for standing or permanent committees. The rules, as first adopted, provided for the existence of only one standing committee, a committee on elections.4 It should also be noted that the committee of the whole was viewed dif-

Unemployment Insurance for Agricultural Workers in Hawaii

Discusses the unemployment insurance for agricultural workers in Hawaii. History of agricultural exclusion from the employment security laws of Hawaii; Overview on the agricultural industry in Hawaii; Introduction of bills to provide benefits to Hawaii's agricultural workers. (Abstract copyright EBSCO.)

Race Relations

It is difficult to detect changes of any magnitude in the status of the race problem in the United States on such a short-term base as that afforded by one year's time. However, there have been certain developments which show, after a fashion, the trends that may be looked for. In the case of the Indian, the new administration has replaced the old commissioner of Indian affairs with two men who have given years to sympathetic study of the practical problem. However, the statements of the Secretary of the Interior show a regrettable lack of comprehension of the point of view of the Indian himself in the proposed Americanization of the aboriginal American stock. In immigration, the proclamation of the new quotas based on national origins is the outstanding fact, and there is also to be noted the extension of the restrictionist feeling in the introduction of bills applying the quota system to countries of the new world. As to the Negro, there is a balancing of hopeful and sinister aspects, with perhaps a revealing light on how little progress has been made toward easing racial tensions when the incident of Mrs. Hoover's mixed tea-party, which included the wife of Representative Oscar De Priest, is considered and contrasted with the same furor raised by President Roosevelt's dinner to Mr. Booker T. Washington almost thirty years ago.