About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

31 Judge Advoc. J. 1 (1961)

handle is hein.journals/jajrnl33 and id is 1 raw text is: THE FEDERAL LEGISLATIVE PROCESS By Colonel James K. Gaynor * I. INTRODUCTION The President of the United States is the commander-in-chief,l but the military services are dependent upon the Congress for their existence, for the rules and regulations by which they are governed, and for the money necessary to maintain them.2 Most of the larger agencies of the executive branch of the Government have legislative offices to assist the President in performing the duty given him by the Constitution of recommending to the Congress such measures as he shall judge neces- sary and expedient. 3 The Secre- tary of Defense has an assistant for Legislative Affairs, the Army and the Air Force have Legislative Liaison offices, and the Navy has a Legisla- tive Affairs office. The Congress enacts many propos- als each session which in one way or another affect the military services. The process by which such proposals become public laws generally is known to all lawyers. The details of the process may not be so well known except to those lawyers who act as legislative counsel, or a part of the legislative branch of the Govern- ment. However, every military law- yer should have more than a passing knowledge of the federal legislative process. II. CONGRESSIONAL STRUCTURE That the Congress of the United States should consist of two houses was the result of a compromise. Most of the colonial legislatures were two-house bodies with a small cham- ber representing the Crown and a larger one selected by the people. The Congress established by the Arti- cles of Confederation was merely a gathering of delegates of the states, with voting by states.4 When the con- vention called to revise and strength- en the Articles of Confederation de- termined to overhaul completely the governmental structure, there were * B.S., J.D., Indiana University; LL.M., S.J.D., The George Washington University; Colonel, JAGC-USA; member of the Indiana bar; Chief of the Legislative Division, Office of the Chief of Legislative Liaison, Office of the Secretary of the Army, July 1957 to September 1960. All statements and opinions in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Department of Defense. I U. S. Const., Art. II, § 2. 2 Id., Art. I, § 8. 3 Id., Art. II, § 3. Cf. Nobleman, The Delegation of Presidential Functions, 307 Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 134' (1956). 4 Articles of Confederation, Art. V.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most