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Elizabeth MacDonough
Elizabeth MacDonough (born February 16, 1966) is an American lawyer and the Parliamentarian of the United States Senate since 2012. She is the first woman to hold the position. Early life and education MacDonough grew up near Washington DC, graduating from Greens Farms Academy in 1984 and earning her bachelor's degree from George Washington University in 1988. MacDonough began her career in 1990 as a legislative reference assistant in the Senate library and later as assistant morning business editor to the ''Congressional Record''. She left in 1995 to attend Vermont Law School, graduating with a JD in 1998. During law school, MacDonough interned with Judge Royce C. Lamberth (United States District Court for the District of Columbia) and the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Burlington, Vermont. Career After graduating, MacDonough worked as a trial attorney for the United States Department of Justice handling immigration cases in New Jersey. MacDonough joined the office ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vermont Law School
Vermont Law and Graduate School (VLGS) is a private law and public policy graduate school in South Royalton, Vermont. It offers several degrees, including Juris Doctor (JD), Master of Laws (LLM) in Environmental Law, Master of Environmental Law and Policy (MELP), Master of Food and Agriculture Law and Policy (MFALP), Master of Energy Regulation and Law (MERL), and dual degrees with a diverse range of institutions. According to the school's 2018 ABA-required disclosures, 61.5% of the Class of 2018 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation. History Vermont Law School was founded in 1972 by Anthony Doria and held its first classes in the summer of 1973 with 113 students in what was then known as the old South Royalton schoolhouse. In December 1973, VLS was certified by the Vermont State Board of Education as an institution of higher learning. Doria resigned as dean of the school in 1974, after it emerged that he had been convicted of embezzle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parliamentarian Of The United States Senate
The Parliamentarian of the United States Senate is the official advisor to the United States Senate on the interpretation of Standing Rules of the United States Senate and parliamentary procedure. Incumbent parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough has held the office since 2012, appointed by then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. As the Presiding Officer of the Senate may not be, and usually is not, aware of the parliamentary situation currently facing the Senate, a parliamentary staff sits second from the left on the Senate dais to advise the Presiding Officer on how to respond to inquiries and motions from Senators (including "the Sergeant at Arms will restore order in the gallery"). The role of the parliamentary staff is advisory, and the Presiding Officer or Senate may overrule the advice of the parliamentarian. In practice, this is rare; the most recent example of a Vice President (as President of the Senate) overruling the parliamentarian was Nelson Rockefeller in 1975. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mark Warner
Mark Robert Warner (born December 15, 1954) is an American businessman and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Virginia, a seat he has held since 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, Warner served as the 69th governor of Virginia from 2002 to 2006. He is vice chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus and chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Warner is the honorary chairman of Forward Together PAC. Apart from politics, he is known for his involvement in telecommunications-related venture capital during the 1980s; he founded the firm Columbia Capital. In 2006, Warner was widely expected to pursue the Democratic nomination in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, but he announced in October 2006 that he would not run, citing a desire not to disrupt his family life. Warner delivered the keynote address at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, and was considered to be a potential vice presidential candidate until he took himself out of considera ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steve Daines
Steven David Daines ( ; born August 20, 1962) is an American politician and former corporate executive serving as the junior United States senator for Montana since 2015. A Republican, he served as the U.S. representative for Montana's at-large congressional district from 2013 to 2015. In 2014, Daines won Montana's open U.S. Senate seat. He was reelected in 2020, defeating the Democratic nominee, Governor Steve Bullock. Before entering politics, Daines worked for Procter & Gamble and RightNow Technologies. Early life and education Daines was born in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles to Sharon R. and Clair W. Daines. The family moved to Montana in 1964. He was raised in Bozeman, where he attended school from kindergarten through college. Daines graduated from Bozeman High School, where he served as student body president. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from Montana State University. At Montana State, he became a brother of the Sigma Nu fra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Standing Rules Of The United States Senate, Rule XIX
Rule XIX of the Standing Rules of the United States Senate, established by the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, governs the subject of debate on the Senate floor. The Rules, including Rule XIX, were last updated in 2013. Content Section 1 of the rule establishes that in order to address the Senate, Senators must stand and be recognized by the Presiding Officer. After recognition, a Senator may not be interrupted by another Senator during debate, although another Senator may stand and address the Presiding Officer in order to speak. Senators also may not speak more than twice on one issue in a legislative day and must keep their debate relevant to the topic at hand. All of these items may be waived by vote of the full Senate. Sections 2 and 3 state that a Senator shall not impute to another Senator "by any form of words" any conduct or motive that is unworthy or unbecoming of a Senator and shall not speak offensively toward a U.S. state. Sections 4 and 5 outline wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Byrd Rule
Budget reconciliation is a special parliamentary procedure of the United States Congress set up to expedite the passage of certain budgetary legislation in the United States Senate. The procedure overrides the filibuster rules in the Senate, which may otherwise require a 60-vote supermajority for passage by the Senate. Bills described as reconciliation bills can pass the Senate by a simple majority of 51 votes or 50 votes plus the Vice President's as the tie-breaker. The reconciliation procedure also applies to the House of Representatives, but it has minor significance there, as the rules of the House of Representatives do not have a ''de facto'' supermajority requirement. Due to greater polarization, gridlock, and filibustering in the Senate in recent years, budget reconciliation has come to play an important role in how the United States Congress legislates. Budget reconciliation bills can deal with spending, revenue, and the federal debt limit, and the Senate can pass one ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Ryan
Paul Davis Ryan (born January 29, 1970) is an American former politician who served as the List of Speakers of the United States House of Representatives, 54th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2015 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he was the Vice President of the United States, vice presidential nominee in the 2012 United States presidential election, 2012 election running alongside Mitt Romney, but lost to incumbent president Barack Obama and then-vice president Joe Biden. Ryan is a native of Janesville, Wisconsin and graduated from Miami University in 1992. He spent five years working for Congress in Washington, D.C. He became a speechwriter and returned to Wisconsin in 1997 to work at his family's construction company. He was elected to Congress to represent the following year, replacing a Republican Congressman who left and ran for U.S. Senate. Ryan would represent the district for 20 years. He chaired t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Speaker Of The United States House Of Representatives
The speaker of the United States House of Representatives, commonly known as the speaker of the House, is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives. The office was established in 1789 by Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution. The speaker is the political and parliamentary leader of the House and is simultaneously its presiding officer, ''de facto'' leader of the body's majority party, and the institution's administrative head. Speakers also perform various other administrative and procedural functions. Given these several roles and responsibilities, the speaker usually does not personally preside over debates. That duty is instead delegated to members of the House from the majority party. Nor does the speaker regularly participate in floor debates. The Constitution does not require the speaker to be an incumbent member of the House of Representatives, although every speaker thus far has been. The speaker is second in the United States president ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johnson Amendment
The Johnson Amendment is a provision in the U.S. tax code, since 1954, that prohibits all 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations from endorsing or opposing political candidates. Section 501(c)(3) organizations are the most common type of nonprofit organization in the United States, ranging from charitable foundations to universities and churches. The amendment is named for then-Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas, who introduced it in a preliminary draft of the law in July 1954. In the early 21st century, some politicians, including former President Donald Trump, have sought to repeal the provision, arguing that it restricts the free speech rights of churches and other religious groups. These efforts have been criticized because churches have fewer reporting requirements than other non-profit organizations, and because it would effectively make political contributions tax-deductible. On May 4, 2017, Trump signed an executive order "to defend the freedom of religion and speech" for the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tax Cuts And Jobs Act Of 2017
The Act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to titles II and V of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018, , is a congressional revenue act of the United States originally introduced in Congress as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), that amended the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. Major elements of the changes include reducing tax rates for businesses and individuals, increasing the standard deduction and family tax credits, eliminating personal exemptions and making it less beneficial to itemize deductions, limiting deductions for state and local income taxes and property taxes, further limiting the mortgage interest deduction, reducing the alternative minimum tax for individuals and eliminating it for corporations, doubling the estate tax exemption, and cancelling the penalty enforcing individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The Act is based on tax reform advocated by congressional Republicans and the Trump administration. The nonpartisan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Cornyn
John Cornyn III ( ; born February 2, 1952) is an American politician and attorney serving as the senior United States senator from Texas, a seat he has held since 2002. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the Senate majority whip for the 114th and 115th Congresses, and previously served as chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee from 2009 to 2013. Born in Houston, Cornyn is a graduate of Trinity University and St. Mary's University School of Law, and received an LL.M. degree from the University of Virginia School of Law. He was a judge on Texas's 37th District Court from 1985 to 1991. He was elected an associate justice of the Texas Supreme Court, where he served from 1991 to 1997. In 1998, Cornyn was elected Attorney General of Texas, serving one term until winning a seat in the U.S. Senate in 2002. He was reelected in 2008, 2014, and 2020. Early life, education and legal career Cornyn was born in Houston, the second child of Atholene Gale Cornyn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
