Congressionally Chartered Nonprofit Organizations (Title 36 Corporations): What They Are and How Congress Treats Them
Abstract
The chartering by Congress of organizations with a patriotic, charitable, historical, or educational purpose is essentially a 20th century practice. There are currently some 91 nonprofit corporations listed in Title 36, Subtitle II, of the U.S. Code. These so-called "Title 36 corporations," such as the Girl Scouts of America and the National Academy of Public Administration, are typically incorporated first under state law, later requesting that Congress grant them a charter. Chartered corporations listed in Title 36 are not agencies of the United States, and the charter does not assign the corporate bodies any governmental attributes. For instance, the corporation's debt is not guaranteed, explicitly or implicitly, by the full faith and credit of the United States. The attraction of Title 36 status for national organizations is that it tends to provide an "official" imprimatur to their activities, and to that extent it may provide them prestige and indirect financial benefit. In recent years, some in Congress have expressed concern that the public may be misled by its chartering process into believing that somehow the U.S. government approves and supervises the corporations, when in fact this is not the ease. As a consequence, in 1989 the House Judiciary Committee decided upon a moratorium on granting new charters. (The Senate generally defers to the House on chartering matters.) This moratorium has been reaffirmed by the Committee at the beginning of each Congress since. On several recent occasions, however, the full Congress has established Title 36 corporations on its own plenary authority. In 1998, Congress approved, and the President signed, legislation recodifing Title 36 of the Code (P.L. 105-225). This revision did not substantively alter any of the provisions in Title 36; rather, the objective was to reorder and revise where necessary the wording of the provisions to better ensure consistency and readability.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 08, 2004
- Accession Number
- ADA435389
Entities
People
- Ronald C. Moe
Organizations
- Defense Acquisition University