Articles by Steven Gilchrist

Originally established in 1980, the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) was created to reduce the amount of paperwork that individuals, businesses, nonprofit institutions, schools and local & state governments would be responsible for pertaining to information disseminated from the federal government. Section 3504 of the PRA authorizes the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to develop and implement policies related to paperwork reduction, records management, and maintaining the privacy of consumer information. Updates were made to the PRA when the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub.L.104-13) was enacted. The Act was established on October 1, 1995 by the 104th United States Congress. For more information about the Paperwork Reduction Act visit:  Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) | Bureau of Justice Assistance (ojp.gov)

H.R. 7207, also known as the Raker Bill and the Hetch Hetchy Bill, was introduced into the U.S. Congress by Congressman John E. Raker (D-CA). Also referred to as the Raker Act, this legislative act granted the city of San Francisco, California the right to dam the Hetch Hetchy Valley within Yosemite National Park. More specifically, the Raker Act allowed for the building of the O'Shaughnessy Dam and flood the Hetch Hetchy Valley. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signed the bill into law on December 19, 1913. Construction of the O'Shaughnessy Dam was completed in 1923.

On July 14, 1870, U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant signed into law the Naturalization Act of 1870. Prior to the signing of the law, the act was passed by the 41st United States Congress. This federal law established a system of controls for the citizenship process and penalties if this process were to be violated. Furthermore, the Naturalization Act of 1870 extended naturalization rights to "aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent." Consequently, this process denied access to U.S. citizenship for other nonwhite immigrant groups. For more information about the Naturalization Act of 1870 visit:  Naturalization Act of 1870 - Immigration History

Named after U.S. Senator Edward William Brooke III (October 26, 1919 - January 3, 2015); the "Brooke Amendment" refers to section 213 (a) of the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Act of 1969 (Public Law 91-152). The Brooke Amendment capped the amount for rent in public housing areas at 25% of a tenant's income. In addition to placing a cap on the amount that public housing residents had to pay for rent; the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1969 also allowed HUD to offer funding to local public housing authorities (PHAs) for maintenance repairs.