The Lacuna Project

lacuna (n.) a gap in a record where something should be

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Agency

U.S. Congress

Findings that rest on exhibits naming this entity

  • DEF-1.4: Congress required contractors to submit and certify cost or pricing data for negotiated prime contracts expected to exceed $100,000 in 1962. Section 811 of the FY2018 National Defense Authorization Act raised the threshold for contracts awarded on or after 1 July 2018. GAO gives the new figure as $2 million, and the current FAR provision states $2.5 million. GAO reported in 2022 that DoD and NASA had not formally analyzed the effect of the increase.
  • INF-1.1: The Telecommunications Act of 1996 directed the FCC to eliminate any national limit on the number of AM or FM stations one entity may own, set the national television audience-reach limit at 35 percent and set broadcast license terms of up to 8 years. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2004, approved 23 January 2004, raised the television limit to 39 percent and exempted the 39 percent rule from the Commission's quadrennial review.
  • INF-1.2: On 19 March 2026 the FCC's Media Bureau granted Nexstar's acquisition of TEGNA and waived the National Television Ownership Rule; the order states that Nexstar would reach 54.5 percent of the national audience after the UHF discount, with six stations divested, and lists among its reasons that the combination will preserve Nexstar's ability to preempt network programming in favor of programming that better serves the local community. On 6 August 2026 the Commission adopted a Report and Order repealing the national television multiple ownership rule and replacing it with case-by-case review, over a dissent by Commissioner Gomez.
  • INF-1.8: FDA issued final guidance on consumer-directed broadcast advertisements in August 1999, after announcing a draft on 12 August 1997. The Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 27 September 2007 required FDA to set standards for a clear, conspicuous and neutral major statement in television and radio drug advertisements within 30 months; FDA proposed a rule on 29 March 2010 and published the final rule on 21 November 2023, with compliance required from 20 November 2024.
  • DEF-3.2: The FY2010 National Defense Authorization Act required the Department of Defense to validate its financial statements as ready for audit by 30 September 2017, and the FY2014 Act required a full audit of the department's fiscal year 2018 statements, with results due to Congress by 31 March 2019.
  • DEF-3.6: An unsupported accounting adjustment is a change to the accounting records that lacks the documentation showing why it was made. In 2018 the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) told the House Armed Services Committee that this is not the same thing as not being able to account for money that Congress has given the department to spend.
  • DEF-3.7: Congress made the full DoD audit annual in the FY2018 National Defense Authorization Act and required an unqualified opinion by 31 December 2028 in the FY2024 Act. The FY2024 Act also requires cancellation of 1.5 percent of unobligated amounts for any component that is not independently audited.
  • AGR-4.1: The 1990 statute requires the Dietary Guidelines every five years, "based on the preponderance of the scientific and medical knowledge," and does not mention advisory committees, their membership or conflicts of interest. The Congressional Research Service records that appropriations language in 1980 and 1987 directed the external review and advisory group that became the standing committee.
  • AGR-4.4: In 2015 the House Appropriations Committee wrote that the advisory committee's report "included extraneous factors and policy recommendations that are outside of the statutory requirement, such as agriculture production practices including sustainability, taxes, food labeling and marketing policies." Public Law 114-113 section 734 then barred release of the 2015-2020 guidelines unless each guideline "is based on significant scientific agreement" and "is limited in scope to nutritional and dietary information." On 6 October 2015 Secretaries Vilsack and Burwell announced that sustainability would not be in the guidelines "because this is a matter of scope."
  • DEF-4.1: Under 18 U.S.C. § 207, former executive-branch officials may not contact their former agency on behalf of others for one year (senior personnel) or two years (very senior personnel), and may never do so on matters they handled personally and substantially. The statute does not bar employment with a contractor.
  • DEF-4.2: Three further rules apply to former Defense Department personnel. Certain contracting officials may not take compensation from the contractor for one year (41 U.S.C. § 2104); covered officials must seek a written ethics opinion before contractor employment within two years (FY2008 NDAA § 847); and officers of grade O-9 and above, with civilian equivalents, may not lobby the Department for two years, and O-7 and O-8 officers for one year (FY2018 NDAA § 1045).
  • POL-6.1: FARA requires a person who acts at the direction or control of a foreign principal and engages in political activities in the United States to register and file disclosures. A willful violation or false statement in a filing carries up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, and the Attorney General may seek a civil injunction. Since 1995 an agent of a non-government foreign principal who registers under the Lobbying Disclosure Act is exempt from FARA registration.
  • POL-6.2: DOJ's registrant files show 66 new FARA registrations in 2014, 150 in 2019 and 138 in 2025. DOJ's report for July to December 2025 lists 565 active registrants representing 858 foreign principals, and the inspector general counted 916 active registrations in 1987 and 360 at the end of 2014.
  • POL-6.3: The DOJ inspector general found in 2016 that DOJ brought seven criminal FARA cases from 1966 to 2015 and had not sought civil injunctive relief since 1991. The audit found that 62 percent of initial registrations were untimely and that the National Security Division does not track FARA cases it declines to prosecute.
  • POL-6.4: GAO reported in 2008 that DOJ lacks clear legal authority to inspect the records of persons it believes should register, that DOJ sought that authority in 1991 without success, and that its FARA Registration Unit fell from 13 staff in 1990 to 8 in 2008.
  • POL-6.13: The National Endowment for Democracy Act of 1983 defines NED as a private nonprofit corporation that is not an agency of the U.S. Government, lists exchanges with "the two major American political parties, labor, and business" among its purposes, and subjects NED and its grantees to congressional oversight. The State Department paid NED congressional appropriations of $315,079,941 for fiscal 2022, $315,000,000 for 2023, $315,249,800 for 2024 and $315,860,780 for 2025.

Exhibits naming this entity

  • Exhibit 285 10 January 2018. House Committee on Armed Services: Department of Defense Update on the Financial Improvement and Audit Remediation Plan, H.A.S.C. No. 115-64
  • Exhibit 293 28 October 2009. U.S. Congress: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010, Pub. L. 111-84, sec. 1003
  • Exhibit 294 26 December 2013. U.S. Congress: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014, Pub. L. 113-66, sec. 1003
  • Exhibit 295 12 December 2017. U.S. Congress: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018, Pub. L. 115-91, sec. 1002
  • Exhibit 296 22 December 2023. U.S. Congress: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024, Pub. L. 118-31, secs. 920, 1004, 1005
  • Exhibit 297 December 2025. U.S. Congress: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026, Pub. L. 119-60, secs. 1002 and 1005
  • Exhibit 328 10 September 1962. United States Congress: Public Law 87-653 (76 Stat. 528)
  • Exhibit 349 Current text. United States Congress: Restrictions on former officers, employees, and elected officials, 18 U.S.C. § 207
  • Exhibit 350 Pub. L. 111-350 (2011), from 1988-1996 enactments. United States Congress: Prohibition on former official's acceptance of compensation from contractor, 41 U.S.C. § 2104 (with § 2103 employment-contact reporting)
  • Exhibit 351 28 January 2008. United States Congress: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, sec. 847 (ethics opinions for senior DoD officials seeking contractor employment)
  • Exhibit 352 12 December 2017. United States Congress: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018, sec. 1045 (lobbying prohibition for former senior DoD personnel)
  • Exhibit 533 22 October 1990. U.S. Congress: National Nutrition Monitoring and Related Research Act of 1990, sec. 301 (7 U.S.C. 5341): Dietary Guidelines for Americans
  • Exhibit 540 18 December 2015. U.S. Congress: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016, P.L. 114-113, Division A, secs. 734-735
  • Exhibit 541 31 March 2015. U.S. House of Representatives (Members of Congress): Letter from Reps. Hartzler, Conaway and other House members to Secretaries Vilsack and Burwell
  • Exhibit 816 8 June 1938 (as amended). U.S. Congress: Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, 22 U.S.C. 611 (definitions)
  • Exhibit 817 19 December 1995 (Pub. L. 104-65, sec. 9(3); amended Pub. L. 105-166, 1998). U.S. Congress: Foreign Agents Registration Act, 22 U.S.C. 613(h) (Lobbying Disclosure Act exemption)
  • Exhibit 819 September 2016. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General: Audit of the National Security Division's Enforcement and Administration of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, Audit Division 16-24
  • Exhibit 820 30 July 2008. U.S. Government Accountability Office: Post-Government Employment Restrictions and Foreign Agent Registration: Additional Action Needed to Enhance Implementation of Requirements, GAO-08-855
  • Exhibit 834 22 November 1983. U.S. Congress: National Endowment for Democracy Act, 22 U.S.C. 4411 (findings and purposes), Pub. L. 98-164, title V
  • Exhibit 835 22 November 1983 (amended 1987). U.S. Congress: National Endowment for Democracy Act, 22 U.S.C. 4412 (grants to the Endowment)
  • Exhibit 946 8 February 1996. United States Congress: Telecommunications Act of 1996, Pub. L. 104-104, sections 202 and 203 (broadcast ownership; term of licenses)
  • Exhibit 947 23 January 2004. United States Congress: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2004, Pub. L. 108-199, Div. B, sec. 629 (national television audience-reach limit)
  • Exhibit 950 6 August 2026 (adopted); 1 October 2026 (released). Federal Communications Commission: Report and Order, Amendment of Section 73.3555(e), National Television Multiple Ownership Rule, FCC 26-53, MB Docket No. 17-318 (with Gomez dissent)
  • Exhibit 987 27 September 2007. United States Congress: Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007, Pub. L. 110-85, Title IX, sec. 901(d)(3) and (4) (clear, conspicuous and neutral major statement; civil penalties for false or misleading DTC advertisements)
  • Exhibit 1113 18 February 2023. Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi), Twitter thread: Twitter Files #16: Comic Interlude: A Media Experiment (thread, 18-19 February 2023)
  • Exhibit 1273 Ratified 23 January 1933. United States Congress; text published by the National Archives: Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States (text as published by the National Archives)
  • Exhibit 1275 15 November 1990. United States Congress: Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990, Pub. L. 101-576, sec. 304 (agency financial statement audits)
  • Exhibit 1277 29 October 1992. United States Congress: Prescription Drug User Fee Act of 1992, Pub. L. 102-571, Title I
  • Exhibit 1278 21 November 1997. United States Congress: Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act of 1997, Pub. L. 105-115, Title I, Subtitle A (first PDUFA reauthorization)
  • Exhibit 1279 12 June 2002. United States Congress: Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002, Pub. L. 107-188, Title V, Subtitle A (Prescription Drug User Fee Amendments of 2002)
  • Exhibit 1280 9 July 2012. United States Congress: Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act, Pub. L. 112-144, Title I (Prescription Drug User Fee Amendments of 2012)
  • Exhibit 1281 18 August 2017. United States Congress: FDA Reauthorization Act of 2017, Pub. L. 115-52, Title I (Prescription Drug User Fee Amendments of 2017)
  • Exhibit 1282 30 September 2022. United States Congress: Continuing Appropriations and Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2023, Pub. L. 117-180, Division F, Title I (Prescription Drug User Fee Amendments of 2022)