@HowGovWorksUSA
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This page is for how American government and history actually work.
Not a party.
Not a candidate.
Not a dunk account.
If a post only works when you’ve already picked a side, I won’t publish it.
If I get a fact wrong, quote it and I’ll fix it.
Ask a civics question. I’ll try to answer it straight.
1/ On this day in 1789, Washington asked Edmund Randolph to become the first Attorney General—the government’s top lawyer.
That job isn’t in the Constitution. Congress created it a few days earlier when it set up the federal courts.
2/ Timeline: On Sept. 24, Congress passed the Judiciary Act—the law that built the federal court system. Section 35 of that law created the Attorney General.
Washington nominated Randolph on Sept. 25. The Senate confirmed him on Sept. 26. The Sept. 28 letter asks him to accept the job—it doesn’t invent it.
Early on, the Attorney General was one person, part-time, paid $1,500 a year. There was no Department of Justice until 1870.
3/
Washington’s pitch: “the due administration of justice is the firmest pillar of good government”—and that his “private wishes wd be highly gratified by yr accepte of the Office.”
Why this still matters: many powerful federal jobs weren’t written into the Constitution. Congress invents them by statute—and that choice still shapes who advises the President and who argues for the United States in court.
Did you know the Attorney General isn’t named in the Constitution—or did you assume it was?
1/Federal New Year is Thursday—Oct. 1, not Jan. 1.
The 1974 Budget Act moved the fiscal year start from July 1 to Oct. 1 so Congress had more time after summer to finish appropriations.
2/
FY2027 begins Thursday under a continuing resolution already law. H.R. 6500 / P.L. 119-103, signed Sept. 2, funds continuing operations Oct. 1–Dec. 11 (72 days). No Oct. 1 shutdown cliff this week.
3/
What that CR does: keeps agencies open for continuing projects and activities—generally at last year’s footing.
What it doesn’t: §104 bars initiating or resuming projects that weren’t available in FY2026. A CR is a bridge, not full-year funding.
Did you know the government’s year starts in October—or were you still thinking January 1?
1/
On this day in 1787, Congress “Resolved Unanimously” on the Constitution.
That did not mean they approved it.
2/
Sept 28: the Confederation Congress voted only to transmit the Convention’s report to the state legislatures—for popular conventions to decide.
1/ Gridlock isn’t a bug in American government.
It’s the feature that keeps 342 million people free.
Here’s the simple version. No left. No right. Just the machine.
9/ That’s the balancing act.
It feels broken when your side wants something now.
It is also why no one group gets to lock the country into one vision overnight.
Freedom at this scale is supposed to be inconvenient.