This report discusses the Army's Infantry Brigade Combat Teams (IBCTs) and three programs meant to address identified needs for improved transport, reconnaissance, and firepower. The three new initiatives are all concerned with developing and acquiring new vehicles of three types known as the Ground Mobility Vehicle (GMV), the Light Reconnaissance vehicle (LRV), and the Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) vehicle. Issues of Congressional interest include affordability and funding sources, deployability, and sustainability.

This report highlights a series of Supreme Court rulings that have examined separation-of-powers-based limitations on the Exceptions Clause, congressional jurisdiction stripping, and the ability of Congress to amend laws with the purpose of directly impacting litigation. The Court's jurisprudence largely begins with the Reconstruction-era case "United States v. Klein", and leads to "Patchak v. Zinke", which is scheduled for oral argument before the Supreme Court in November 2017.