Between 1973 and 2016, Members of Congress introduced resolutions of censure directed against federal officials on 59 occasions, according to the Congressional Research Service. Of those, 14 were filed against the Obama Administration.
Such resolutions have little or no practical significance, though they may serve a limited political purpose.
“The adoption of a simple or concurrent resolution expressing the House’s or Senate’s ‘censure,’ ‘condemnation,’ or ‘no confidence’ in a particular officer of the federal government does not have any immediate or binding legal import, but does express a particular moral judgment and may have both symbolic as well as political implications,” the CRS report said. See Congressional Censure and “No Confidence” Votes Regarding Public Officials, June 23, 2016.
Other new and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service include the following.
The European Union: Current Challenges and Future Prospects, updated June 21, 2016 (pre-Brexit)
Does Foreign Aid Work? Efforts to Evaluate U.S. Foreign Assistance, updated June 23, 2016
Salaries of Members of Congress: Recent Actions and Historical Tables, udpated June 21, 2016
Salaries of Members of Congress: Congressional Votes, 1990-2016, updated June 21, 2016
The State of Campaign Finance Policy: Recent Developments and Issues for Congress, updated June 23, 2016
U.S. Crude Oil and Natural Gas Production in Federal and Non-Federal Areas, updated June 23, 2016
Trade-Based Money Laundering: Overview and Policy Issues, June 22, 2016
Mileage-Based Road User Charges, June 22, 2016
Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP): History and Overview, updated June 22, 2016
Statements of Administration Policy, June 21, 2016
By better harnessing the power of data, we can build a learning healthcare system where outcomes drive continuous improvement and where healthcare value leads the way.
In this unprecedented inflection point (and time of difficult disruption) for higher education, science funding, and agency structure, we have an opportunity to move beyond incremental changes and advocate for bold, new ideas that envision a future of the scientific research enterprise that looks very different from the current system.
Assigning persistent digital identifiers (Digital Object Identifiers, or DOIs) and using ORCIDs (Open Researcher and Contributor IDs) for key personnel to track outputs for research grants will improve the accountability and transparency of federal investments in research and reduce reporting burden.
Research funding agencies should apply the content of grant applications to AI tools to predict the future of scientific and technological breakthroughs, enhance peer review, and encourage better research investment decisions by both the public and the private sector.