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

• Advice and consent: Under the Constitution, presidential nominations for executive and judicial posts take effect only when confirmed by the Senate, and international treaties become effective only when the Senate approves them by a two-thirds vote.
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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.
• 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.
• 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
• Director: means the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. See 44 USC 3502
• 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}
• 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
• individual: shall include every infant member of the species homo sapiens who is born alive at any stage of development. See 1 USC 8
• 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 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
• 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
• officer: includes any person authorized by law to perform the duties of the office. See 1 USC 1
• 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
• 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
• 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
• State: means a State, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or any other territory or possession of the United States. See 1 USC 7
• 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.
• 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.
• writing: includes printing and typewriting and reproductions of visual symbols by photographing, multigraphing, mimeographing, manifolding, or otherwise. See 1 USC 1