Top 10 Acts

Question 1

Civil Rights Act (1964)

Answer 1

• Enforced the Fourteenth Amendment.
• Ended Jim Crow segregation in hotels, motels, restaurants, and other places of public accommodation.
• Prohibited discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, or gender.
• Created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to monitor and enforce protections against job discrimination.
• Prohibited discrimination in employment on grounds of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex.
• Upheld by the Supreme Court on the grounds that segregation affected interstate commerce.

Question 2

Clean Air Act (1970)

Answer 2

• Increased the power of the federal government relative to the power of state governments.
• Established national air quality standards
• Required states to administer the new standards and appropriate funds for their implementation.
• Inciuded a provision allowing private citizens to bring lowsuits against individuals and corporations that violated the act.

Question 3

Voting Rights Act (1965)

Answer 3

• Outlawed literacy tests and other discriminatory practices that had been responsible for disenfranchising
African American voters.
• Provided for federal oversight of voter registration in areas with a history of discriminatory voting practices.
• Improved the voter registration disparity between whites and African Americans.

Question 4

War powers resolution (1973)

Answer 4

• Enacted to give Congress a greater voice in presidential decisions committing military forces to hostile situations overseas.
• Requires that the president notify Congress within 48 hours of deploying troops.
• Requires the president to bring troops home from. hostilities within 60 to 90 days unless Congress extends the time.

Question 5

The Budget and impoundment control act (1974)

Answer 5

• Enacted to help Congress regain powers previously lost to the executive branch.
• Created the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to evaluate the president’s budget.
• Established a budget process that includes setting overall levels of revenues and expenditures.

Question 6

federal election campaign act (1974)

Answer 6

• Created the Federal Election Commission.
• Tightened reporting requirements for campaign contributions.
• Provided full public financing for major party candidates in the general election.

Question 7

Americans with disabilities act (1990)

Answer 7

• Increased the power of the federal government relative to the power of the states.
• Requires employers and public facilities to make
’reasonable accommodations” for people with disabilities.
• Prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in employrnent.
• Extends the protections of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to people with physical or mental disabilities.

Question 8

Welfare Reform Act (1996)

Answer 8

• Increased the power of the states relative to the federal government.
• Replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program with block grants to the states.
• Illustrated the process of devolution by giving states greater discretion to determine how to implement the federal goal of transferring people from welfare to work.

Question 9

No child left behind act (2001)

Answer 9

• Requires the states to set standards and measurable goals that can improve individual outcomes in education.
• Requires the states to develop assessments in basic skills to be given to all students in certain grades.
• Represents a dramatic expansion of the federal role in education.

Question 10

USA patriot act (2001)

Answer 10

• Expands the definition of terrorism to include domestic terrorism.
• Authorized searches of a home or business without the owner’s or the occupant’s permission or knowledge.
• Increases the ability of law enforcement agencies to search telephone, e-mail communications, medical, financial, and other records.