Continuing Appropriations Acts: Brief Overview of Recent Practices
This report provides information on the history of continuing resolutions; the nature, scope, and duration of CRs during the last 30 years; the various types of CRs that have been enacted; and an overview of those instances when budget authority has lapsed and a funding gap has resulted.
Gridlocked: Public Pressures and Bargaining Outcomes in Two Government Shutdowns
Previous models of sequential veto bargaining in the United States do not include public opinion as a significant predictor of policy outcomes, yet work on presidential agenda setting (Kernell 1993; Canes-Wrone 2001a) suggests that public opinion can be an important factor in determining policy outcomes when the president and Congress have opposing preferences. In this paper, I argue that some instances of veto bargaining occur, in part, because the actors are uncertain about how the public will respond to an extended period of gridlock. When the public finds gridlock unacceptable, the actor(s) who receive most of the blame will be forced to make concessions in subsequent rounds of bargaining. After presenting a theory of public opinion and sequential veto bargaining, I present two case studies of conflicts in which gridlock was unacceptable and highly visible: Budget disputes that included partial shutdowns of the federal government. I argue that public opinion played an important role in the outcome of both of these cases.
The role of early lithification in development of chalky porosity in calcitic micrites: Upper Cretaceous chalks, Egypt
Abstract Petrological and geochemical examination of Upper Cretaceous chalks from the Abu Roash area and Bahariya Oasis (Egypt) provide insights into factors which control porosity development in fine-grained calcitic carbonates. Petrological studies indicate that primary skeletal fabrics of coccoliths and foraminifera in micrites of Abu Roash are well preserved. In contrast, primary skeletal fabrics of the Bahariya Oasis chalks are pervasively altered. Geochemical analysis of these chalks reveals a striking contrast in composition. The high porosity chalks at Bahariya Oasis have depleted isotopic values ( δ 13 C = −5.0‰, δ 18 O = −8.9‰ PDB ) and low concentrations of trace elements (Sr and Na). In contrast, the low porosity chalks at Abu Roash are less depleted in terms of their isotopic values ( δ 13 C = 1.0‰, δ 18 O = −4.0‰ ) and possess elevated concentrations of Sr, Na, Fe and Zn. Importantly, fracture and collapse veins, present only at Abu Roash, are filled with calcite whose δ18O value is coincident with that of altered micrites at Bahariya Oasis. The lithic fragments cemented by this calcite, however, retain compositions identical to other lithified limestones at Abu Roash. Differences in fabric and chemistry of the pelagic marine micrites observed between Abu Roash and Bahariya Oasis reflect the degree of early lithification and compaction prior to exposure and meteoric diagenetic alteration associated with regional Late Cretaceous/pre-Eocene subaerial unconformity.