Powers of the President during crisesSmith, J. Malcolm (John Malcolm)
History
Powers of the President during crises
Smith, J. Malcolm (John Malcolm)
Constitutional history -- United States; Executive power -- United States
_Reporting Administrative Activity_: In delegating powers in the areas
of defense, foreign affairs or in time of emergency, Congress is
inclined to insist upon frequent reporting, and to specify carefully
the kind of information and supporting documentation it expects to
receive. It may stipulate, as in the Japanese Evacuation Claims Act
of 1948 and the Mutual Defense Assistance Act of 1949, the subjects
on which it wishes reports, and refrain from imposing an obligation
to report at specified calendar intervals. The Japanese Claims Act
instructed the Attorney General to submit to Congress a full and
complete statement of all adjudications, name and address of each
claimant, the amount of the settlement and a brief synopsis of the
facts of each claim case and the reasons for each adjudication.[586] A
1935 statute required that the Secretary of the Navy report to Congress
at the next regular session thereof all expenditures on ship repairs
in excess of the amounts specified by appropriations legislation.[587]
In April, 1937 the Secretary of Agriculture was granted one million
dollars to “be expended for the control of grasshoppers, Mormon
crickets or cinch bugs,” and required to report to Congress on his
handling of the fund.[588] Similarly, in establishing an emergency fund
for the President in 1940, to enable him to furnish government-owned
facilities to privately owned plants and procure and train civilian
personnel in the production of critical materials, Congress stipulated
that an account be kept of all expenditures made from the fund and
required that a report on the condition of the fund be submitted to the
Congress on or before June 30, 1942.[589]
The Federal Emergency Relief Act of 1933 went so far as to require
the Federal Emergency Relief Administrator to print a report of his
activities and expenditures monthly, and submit them to the President
and the Congress.[590] The foregoing, like the statute of June
1942, mobilizing small business concerns for war production, which
provided for reports to Congress by the Attorney General at least once
every quarter (“not less frequently than once every one hundred and
twenty days”[591]) is somewhat unusual. Standard practice requires
quarterly,[592] biannual,[593] or annual reporting. Annual reporting
may be in terms of a report to be submitted to both houses of Congress
“on the first day of”[594] or “at the beginning of”[595] each regular
session of Congress. However, it more likely will be phrased an “annual
report.”[596]
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