United States
In the United States, the term may generally refers to legislation creating a program or agency. For example, the Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act is the enabling act for the US Food and Drug Administration.
Formerly, the term was used in relation to the formation of a new U.S. state; i.e., legislation passed by Congress authorizing the people of a territory to frame a constitution; this act also lays down the requirements that must be met as a prerequisite to statehood. These acts were usually titled "An Enabling Act for a State of (Name)". These include the following:
- Enabling Act of 1802, for the formation of Ohio from the Northwest Territory
- Enabling Act of 1889, for the formation of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington
- Enabling Act of 1906 for the formation of Oklahoma from Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory
- Enabling Act of 1910, for the admission of Arizona and New Mexico
Read more about this topic: Enabling Act
Famous quotes related to united states:
“The United States is the only great nation whose government is operated without a budget. The fact is to be the more striking when it is considered that budgets and budget procedures are the outgrowth of democratic doctrines and have an important part in developing the modern constitutional rights.... The constitutional purpose of a budget is to make government responsive to public opinion and responsible for its acts.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“I have ever deemed it fundamental for the United States never to take active part in the quarrels of Europe. Their political interests are entirely distinct from ours. Their mutual jealousies, their balance of power, their complicated alliances, their forms and principles of government, are all foreign to us. They are nations of eternal war.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“In the United States there’s a Puritan ethic and a mythology of success. He who is successful is good. In Latin countries, in Catholic countries, a successful person is a sinner.”
—Umberto Eco (b. 1932)
“The city of Washington is in some respects self-contained, and it is easy there to forget what the rest of the United States is thinking about. I count it a fortunate circumstance that almost all the windows of the White House and its offices open upon unoccupied spaces that stretch to the banks of the Potomac ... and that as I sit there I can constantly forget Washington and remember the United States.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“It is a curious thing to be a woman in the Caribbean after you have been a woman in these United States.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)