Showing 1091–1100 of 2202

• 3/24/1982

  Payment of Expenses Associated With Travel by the President and Vice President

  Funds appropriated for the official functioning of the offices of the President and the Vice President may be used for travel expenses only if the travel is reasonably related to an official purpose; and, official activities may be funded only from funds appropriated for such purposes. Thus appropriated funds should not be used to pay for political travel and political funds should not be used to pay for official travel. Whether an event is official or political for purposes of paying its expenses must be determined on a case-by-case basis, and both the nature of the event and the nature of the individual involved should be considered. Where both official and political activities occur on the same trip, the expenses of individuals on the trip for both political and official reasons can be apportioned between the government and a political committee on a basis which reflects the time spent on the respective activities. During the period of a presidential election campaign. Federal Election Commission regulations may require a different rule of allocation. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/file/22996/download.

  3/24/1982

• 3/23/1982

  Award of Attorney Fees in Administrative Adjudications Under § 609 of the Federal Aviation Act

  The Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) authorizes an award of attorney fees to prevailing parties in administrative adjudications conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board under § 609 of the Federal Aviation Act to review decisions of the Federal Aviation Administration. There is no support in the terms of the EAJA or its legislative history for an argument that an individual's eligibility for an award of fees—and an agency's liability—are confined to situations in which the agency whose position is at issue in the adjudication also controls its conduct; in any case, agencies generally have only a limited power to review their administrative law judges' decisions under the EAJA. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/file/22986/download.

  3/23/1982

• 3/23/1982

  Funding of Attorney Fee Awards Under the Equal Access to Justice Act

  Under the Equal Access to Justice Act, the authority and responsibility of an agency adjudicative officer or judge to make an award of attorney fees against the United States does not depend upon the availability of appropriated funds to pay the award. If no appropriated funds are available to pay an award, it remains an obligation of the United States until sufficient funds are appropriated. Section 207 of the Equal Access to Justice Act precludes payment of a fee award against the United States from the judgment fund without some additional legislative action However, under the funding provision of the Act, an agency's unrestricted general appropriation is available to pay such awards. Congress intended agencies to bear the major burden of paying fee awards under the Act from their own general appropriation, so as to encourage more responsible agency behavior, and an agency thus has only limited discretion to decline to pay such awards. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/file/22991/download.

  3/23/1982

• 3/17/1982

  Power of the President to Remove Presidential Appointees From the National Capital Planning Commission

  There is no indication in the text or legislative history of the Home Rule Act that Congress intended to limit the President's power to remove his appointees from the National Capital Planning Commission. The composition of the Commission and the duties imposed on it indicate that Congress did not intend it to be a quasi-legislative or quasi-judicial body operating free of the President's policy influence, and its duties are essentially of an executive nature. Thus any limitation on the President's removal power would be unconstitutional. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/file/22981/download.

  3/17/1982

• 3/11/1982

  Removal of Members of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation

  Congress did not intend to limit the President's power to remove members of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation without cause prior to the expiration of their terms of office. While certain of the Council's structural attributes and substantive functions suggest that Congress intended to vest the Council with a measure of day-to-day independence from other federal agencies, this does not mean that it intended the Council to operate free of the supervision and control of the President himself through his exercise of the removal power. The primary functions of the Council are executive in nature, and thus not such as would permit Congress constitutionally to insulate its members from the President's removal power; it will therefore not be inferred from Congress' silence on the matter that it intended to do so. A legislative scheme in which disputes between executive agencies are to be settled in federal or state court would raise a number of serious constitutional problems, under both Article II and Article III, and such an intent on Congress' part will not be assumed absent the most compelling and unambiguous language. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/file/22976/download.

  3/11/1982

• 3/2/1982

  Bonneville Power Administration's Claim for Reimbursement in Connection with Land Transfer

  Under the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949, the Bonneville Power Administration is entitled to be reimbursed the fair value of certain property that it transferred to the Secretary of the Interior for the use and benefit of the Puyallup Indian Tribe, without regard to whether said property is located within the Puyallup Indian Reservation. Under the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949, fair value reimbursement to the transferor agency by the acquiring agency is mandatory in all cases where the property was acquired with funds from a revolving fund, 40 U.S.C. §§ 483(a)(1), 485(c). The General Services Administration has no discretion to waive such a repayment obligation by the acquinng agency, even where, as is arguably the case here, the acquiring agency is under an independent statutory obligation to acquire the land. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/file/22971/download.

  3/2/1982

• 2/26/1982

  Compensation of Standing Trustees Under the Bankruptcy Reform Act

  The compensation scheme made applicable to court-appointed chapter 13 standing trustees by the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978 is designed to encourage maximum economic efficiency in administering plans, and it would be contrary to congressional intent to permit a subsequent year's surplus to be applied to a prior year's deficit so as to increase the trustee's compensation for that prior year. However, a subsequent surplus may be applied to offset out-of-pocket losses suffered by the trustee in a prior year so as to permit the trustee to break even for that year. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/file/22966/download.

  2/26/1982

• 2/25/1982

  Employment Status of "Volunteers" Connected with Federal Advisory Committees

  The Department of Commerce may employ volunteers as consultants to the President's Task Force on Private Sector Initiatives pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 3109, as long as the services involved are temporary or intermittent, and purely advisory in nature. It must also be clearly understood that such volunteers expect no governmental compensation. Federal agencies ordinarily may not accept voluntary services or other donations in the absence of express statutory authority, and volunteers should not in any case be used on a broad scale or to accomplish tasks ordinarily performed by paid government employees. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/file/22961/download.

  2/25/1982

• 2/24/1982

  Application of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution and the Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act

  The Emoluments Clause of the Constitution prohibits government employees from accepting any sort of payment from a foreign government, except with the consent of Congress. Congress has consented to the receipt of minimal gifts from a foreign state, 5 U.S.C. § 7342, but has not consented to receipt of compensation for services rendered. The fact that an employee of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would be paid by an American consulting firm for services he rendered in connection with construction of a nuclear power plant in Mexico would not, under the circumstances presented here, avoid the Emoluments Clause, since the Mexican government would be the actual source of the payment. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/file/22956/download.

  2/24/1982

• 2/22/1982

  Applicability of Freedom of Information Act to White House Records Entered and Stored in Office of Administration Computers

  9/2/2022