This report addresses Subtitle II, which includes 92 congressionally chartered corporations. Patriotic and National Organizations: Subtitle II

The chartering by Congress of organizations with a patriotic, charitable, historical, educational, or other eleemosynary purpose is essentially a 20 th century practice. Title 36 of the U.S. Code, where such corporate organizations are listed with their charters, was revised in 1998 ( P.L. The attraction of Title 36 status for national organizations is that it tends to provide an "official" imprimatur to their activities and, to that extent, it may provide them prestige and indirect financial benefit. These organization generally do not receive direct appropriations, they exercise no federal powers, their debts are not covered by the full faith and credit of the United States, and they do not enjoy original jurisdiction in the federal courts. A corporate body created by Congress, however, may be designated as a citizen of the United states for judicial purposes. Traditionally, the Senate Judiciary Committee has deferred to the House committee on these matters. Indeed, this has been the case in several instances in recent years. Although the charter does not award any material governmental status to the nonprofit corporation (e.g., right of eminent domain) there is an understandable assumption on the part of the public that somehow the charter signifies U.S. government approval of the corporation's activities and that the corporation is being supervised. The House Judiciary Committee's subcommittee of jurisdiction concluded that the chartering process served no useful public purpose and issued a moratorium on bills to issue new charters in 1989.
The chartering by Congress of organizations with a patriotic, charitable, historical, or educational purpose is essentially a 20th century practice. There are currently some 92 nonprofit corporations listed in Title 36, Subtitle II, of the U.S. Code. These so-called "Title 36 corporations," such as the Girl Scouts of America and the National Academy of Public Administration, are typically incorporated first under state law, then request that Congress grant them a congressional or federal charter.
Chartered corporations listed in Title 36 are not agencies of the United States, and their charters only rarely assign the corporate bodies any governmental attributes. For instance, the corporation's debt is not guaranteed, explicitly or implicitly, by the full faith and credit of the United States. The attraction of Title 36 status for national organizations is that it tends to provide an "official" imprimatur to their activities, and to that extent it may provide them prestige and indirect financial benefit.
In recent years, some in Congress have expressed concern that the public may be misled by its chartering process into believing that somehow the U.S. government approves and supervises the corporations, when in fact this is not the case. As a consequence, the House Judiciary Committee's subcommittee of jurisdiction instituted a moratorium on granting new charters in 1989. (The Senate generally defers to the House on chartering matters.) On several recent occasions, however, Congress has established Title 36 corporations despite the moratorium.
This report will be updated in the event of a significant development.