The Office of Interparliamentary Affairs is an office of the United States House of Representatives that is responsible for working with "parliamentarians, officers, or employees of foreign legislative bodies" to organize official visits to the House of Representatives.
Created in 2003 by the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2004, the Office is headed by the a Director, appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The serves for as long as they are sanctioned by the Speaker, and, with the approval of the Speaker, the may appoint other employees necessary to carry out the functions of the Office. Appointed by the Speaker of the House the head of Interparliamentary affairs is Kay King.
Specific duties of the Office include:
- To receive and respond to inquiries from foreign parliamentarians or foreign legislative bodies regarding official visits to the House of Representatives.
- To coordinate official visits to the House of Representatives by parliamentarians, officers, or employees of foreign legislative bodies.
- To coordinate with the House Sergeant-at-Arms, the Clerk, and other officers of the House of Representatives in providing services for delegations of Members on official visits to foreign nations.
- To carry out other activities to—
- discharge and coordinate the activities and responsibilities of the House of Representatives in connection with participation in various interparliamentary exchanges and organizations;
- facilitate the interchange and reception in the United States of members of foreign legislative bodies and permanent officials of foreign governments; and
- enable the House to host meetings with senior government officials and other dignitaries in order to discuss matters relevant to United States relations with other nations.
Famous quotes containing the words united states, united, states, house, office and/or affairs:
“The white American man makes the white American woman maybe not superfluous but just a little kind of decoration. Not really important to turning around the wheels of the state. Well the black American woman has never been able to feel that way. No black American man at any time in our history in the United States has been able to feel that he didn’t need that black woman right against him, shoulder to shoulder—in that cotton field, on the auction block, in the ghetto, wherever.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)
“Why doesn’t the United States take over the monarchy and unite with England? England does have important assets. Naturally the longer you wait, the more they will dwindle. At least you could use it for a summer resort instead of Maine.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)
“It may be said that the elegant Swann’s simplicity was but another, more refined form of vanity and that, like other Israelites, my parents’ old friend could present, one by one, the succession of states through which had passed his race, from the most naive snobbishness to the worst coarseness to the finest politeness.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“The house one story high in front, three stories
On the end it presented to the road.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“The office ... make[s] its incumbent a repair man behind a dyke. No sooner is one leak plugged than it is necessary to dash over and stop another that has broken out. There is no end to it.”
—Herbert Hoover (1874–1964)
“As an example of just how useless these philosophers are for any practice in life there is Socrates himself, the one and only wise man, according to the Delphic Oracle. Whenever he tried to do anything in public he had to break off amid general laughter. While he was philosophizing about clouds and ideas, measuring a flea’s foot and marveling at a midge’s humming, he learned nothing about the affairs of ordinary life.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)