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Posted by: Jenny Gesley
Today, March 30, 2018, is Good Friday, a day on which Christians commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Good Friday is an official public holiday in Germany; however it is also one of the “silent public holidays.” Other days on which a silent public holiday is observed include All Saints’ Day, All Souls’ Day, and …
Posted in: Global Law
Posted by: Ruth Levush
A 2017 report by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Parliamentary Oversight: Parliament’s Power to Hold Government to Account, states that parliamentary oversight of governmental actions is one of the three core functions of a parliament, in addition to legislating (especially passage of the annual budget) and the representation of constituents. The report recognized that holding governments to …
Posted in: Global Law
Posted by: Betty Lupinacci
Jennifer Gonzalez’s post on the centennial of the National Park Service made me want to travel more extensively to see what the U. S. National Park Service had to offer. So recently, friends and I took a vacation to Arizona (with forays into California and Nevada). Our itinerary included two national parks, seven national monuments, …
Posted in: Education
Posted by: Kelly Buchanan
I recently saw a tweet from the Twitter account of the New Zealand Parliament regarding the launch of an electronic petitions system. I’m not sure if the Australian House of Representatives social media people also read that tweet, but the next day I saw its account had sent a tweet reminding people that a new e-petition platform had …
Posted in: Global Law, Gov 2.0
Posted by: Robert Brammer
One of the questions we are frequently asked is how to locate a bill or amendment that a member of Congress has sponsored or cosponsored. There are a few ways to do this on Congress.gov. 1. Visit a member profile page Locate a member you are interested in and open their member profile page. Next, …
Posted in: Law Library, Congress
Posted by: Jennifer Davis
Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, has his feast day on the anniversary of his death, March 17. Thanks to the Irish diaspora, “St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated in more countries around the world than any other national festival” (Cronin, 242). Originally observed to celebrate Saint Patrick bringing Catholicism to Ireland, it has also …
Posted in: Law Library, Collections
Posted by: Jenny Gesley
Today’s interview is with Johannes Jäger, a foreign law intern at the Global Legal Research Directorate, Law Library of Congress. Describe your background. I come from the Eifel, which is a region in the westernmost part of Germany, near the Belgian and Dutch borders. After graduating from high school in the picturesque town of Bad Münstereifel, I …
Posted in: Law Library, Interview
Posted by: Andrew Weber
It seems like just yesterday that Robert was sharing the Congress.gov updates for February, which included doubling the downloads of search results from 500 to 1,000 items. New Enhancements for March 2018 One item we are working on is how to improve our Congress.gov alerts and saved searches. In this release we take a step forward by …
Posted in: Congress
Posted by: Jim Martin
This year my March 4 was a rather uneventful day. That may have been the case for most of you, but this wasn’t always so for American government. Until the ratification of the 20th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States in 1933, each congress began on March 4 of the year following the …
Posted in: Congress