A bill to establish the Office of General Counsel to the Congress.

Summary

Title I: Office of General Counsel to the Congress - Establishes within the Congress the Office of the General Counsel to the Congress to provide legal advice, and legal counseling to the Congress, its committees, Members, officials, and employees relating to their official duties. Requires the Counsel, upon request of the Congress, either of its two Houses, any congressional committee or subcommittee, or any Member, to commence a civil action against the President, any officer or employee of the Executive Branch, or any officer or employee of any State or its political subdivisions to compel compliance with any Federal law or with any request for information, or to represent the Congress, either of its two Houses, its committees or subcommittees, Members, former Members, officers, or employees before any grand jury proceeding or in any civil or criminal action arising from their performing or not performing any action relating to their institutional, official, or representative duties. Requires the Counsel, upon the request of the Congress, either of its two Houses, or its committees or subcommittees, to intervene or appear as amicus curiae on behalf of such persons making the request in any action pending in any court of the United States or of a State or political subdivision of such State in which there is placed in issue the constitutionality or interpretation of any law of the United States, or the validity of any official proceeding of, or official action taken by, either House of Congress, a congressional committee, a Member of Congress, or any officer, employee, office, or agency of the Congress. Directs the Counsel to review the rules published for comment or promulgated by agencies of the Federal Government and report to Congress whether such rules effectively implement the policy authorized by the Congress. Relieves the Attorney General of responsibility and authority to perform any duty which the Counsel has informed him that the Counsel has undertaken pursuant to this Act. Title II: Legal Proceedings - Confers original jurisdiction upon the district courts of the United States without regard to the amount in controversy over actions brought under this Act. States that the parties for whom the Counsel is authorized to act shall be deemed to have sufficient injury in fact to confer standing to sue.

This text is taken from the official record. PoliticalRepo does not editorialize.

Timeline

No timeline events have been ingested for this record yet.

Votes

No vote records are attached yet.

Versions

No version snapshots stored. Document URLs remain at the source.

Documents

1 official file

• Introduced in House

  summary · EN · 4 January 1977

  Open at official source

Sponsors

No sponsors or actors listed by the source.

Related records

No cross-record relationships stored yet.