Terms Used In U.S. Code > Title 44 > Chapter 35 - Coordination of Federal Information Policy

• agency: includes any department, independent establishment, commission, administration, authority, board or bureau of the United States or any corporation in which the United States has a proprietary interest, unless the context shows that such term was intended to be used in a more limited sense. See 28 USC 451
• agency: means any executive department, military department, Government corporation, Government controlled corporation, or other establishment in the executive branch of the Government (including the Executive Office of the President), or any independent regulatory agency, but does not include&mdash. See 44 USC 3502
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• association: when used in reference to a corporation, shall be deemed to embrace the words "successors and assigns of such company or association" in like manner as if these last-named words, or words of similar import, were expressed. See 1 USC 5
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• binding operational directive: means a compulsory direction to an agency that&mdash. See 44 USC 3552
• burden: means time, effort, or financial resources expended by persons to generate, maintain, or provide information to or for a Federal agency, including the resources expended for&mdash. See 44 USC 3502
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• comprehensive data inventory: means the inventory created under section 3511(a), but does not include any underlying data asset listed on the inventory. See 44 USC 3502
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Counterclaim: A claim that a defendant makes against a plaintiff.
• court of the United States: includes the Supreme Court of the United States, courts of appeals, district courts constituted by chapter 5 of this title, including the Court of International Trade and any court created by Act of Congress the judges of which are entitled to hold office during good behavior. See 28 USC 451
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• data: means recorded information, regardless of form or the media on which the data is recorded. See 44 USC 3502
• data asset: means a collection of data elements or data sets that may be grouped together. See 44 USC 3502
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Director: means the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. See 44 USC 3502
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Federal Reserve System: The central bank of the United States. The Fed, as it is commonly called, regulates the U.S. monetary and financial system. The Federal Reserve System is composed of a central governmental agency in Washington, D.C. (the Board of Governors) and twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks in major cities throughout the United States. ^{Source: OCC}
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• incident: means an occurrence that&mdash. See 44 USC 3552
• independent regulatory agency: means the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the Federal Maritime Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Mine Enforcement Safety and Health Review Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, the Postal Regulatory Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, the Office of Financial Research, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and any other similar agency designated by statute as a Federal independent regulatory agency or commission. See 44 USC 3502
• information resources: means information and related resources, such as personnel, equipment, funds, and information technology. See 44 USC 3502
• information resources management: means the process of managing information resources to accomplish agency missions and to improve agency performance, including through the reduction of information collection burdens on the public. See 44 USC 3502
• information security: means protecting information and information systems from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction in order to provide&mdash. See 44 USC 3552
• information system: means a discrete set of information resources organized for the collection, processing, maintenance, use, sharing, dissemination, or disposition of information. See 44 USC 3502
• information technology: has the meaning given that term in section 11101 of title 40 but does not include national security systems as defined in section 11103 of title 40. See 44 USC 3502
• intelligence community: has the meaning given that term in section 3(4) of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U. See 44 USC 3552
• judicial district: means the districts enumerated in Chapter 5 of this title. See 28 USC 451
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Legacy: A gift of property made by will.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• machine-readable: when used with respect to data, means data in a format that can be easily processed by a computer without human intervention while ensuring no semantic meaning is lost. See 44 USC 3502
• metadata: means structural or descriptive information about data such as content, format, source, rights, accuracy, provenance, frequency, periodicity, granularity, publisher or responsible party, contact information, method of collection, and other descriptions. See 44 USC 3502
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• national security system: means any information system (including any telecommunications system) used or operated by an agency or by a contractor of an agency, or other organization on behalf of an agency&mdash. See 44 USC 3552
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• open Government data asset: means a public data asset that is&mdash. See 44 USC 3502
• open license: means a legal guarantee that a data asset is made available&mdash. See 44 USC 3502
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• penalty: includes the imposition by an agency or court of a fine or other punishment. See 44 USC 3502
• person: means an individual, partnership, association, corporation, business trust, or legal representative, an organized group of individuals, a State, territorial, tribal, or local government or branch thereof, or a political subdivision of a State, territory, tribal, or local government or a branch of a political subdivision. See 44 USC 3502
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• practical utility: means the ability of an agency to use information, particularly the capability to process such information in a timely and useful fashion. See 44 USC 3502
• public data asset: means a data asset, or part thereof, maintained by the Federal Government that has been, or may be, released to the public, including any data asset, or part thereof, subject to disclosure under section 552 of title 5. See 44 USC 3502
• public information: means any information, regardless of form or format, that an agency discloses, disseminates, or makes available to the public. See 44 USC 3502
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• recordkeeping requirement: means a requirement imposed by or for an agency on persons to maintain specified records, including a requirement to&mdash. See 44 USC 3502
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• Secretary: means the Secretary of Homeland Security. See 44 USC 3552
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• statistical laws: means subchapter III of this chapter and other laws pertaining to the protection of information collected for statistical purposes as designated by the Director. See 44 USC 3502
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• User fees: Fees charged to users of goods or services provided by the government. In levying or authorizing these fees, the legislature determines whether the revenue should go into the treasury or should be available to the agency providing the goods or services.
• vessel: includes every description of watercraft or other artificial contrivance used, or capable of being used, as a means of transportation on water. See 1 USC 3