Congressional Research Service Reports - 34 Matching Results
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- Small Business Management and Technical Assistance Training Programs
- This report examines small business startups' experiences with the Small Business Administration's (SBA's) management and technical assistance training programs -- focusing on Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs), Women Business Centers (WBCs), and SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) -- the 7(a), 504/CDC, and Microloan lending programs; and the Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) venture capital program.
- Small Business Management and Technical Assistance Training Programs
- This report examines the historical development of federal small business management and technical assistance training programs; describes their current structures, operations, and budgets; and assesses their administration and oversight and the measures used to determine their effectiveness. It also discusses several bills introduced during the 111th and 112th Congresses that would have authorized changes to the SBA's management and technical assistance training programs in an effort to improve their performance and oversight.
- SEC Climate Change Disclosure Guidance: An Overview and Congressional Concerns
- Issues regarding the Congressional appeal of the January 27, 2010 SEC-published 'Commission Guidance Regarding Disclosure Related to Climate Change', which clarifies how publicly traded corporations should apply existing SEC disclosure rules to certain mandatory financial filings with the SEC regarding the risk that climate change developments may have on their businesses.
- Minority Contracting and Affirmative Action for Disadvantaged Small Businesses: Legal Issues
- This report discusses the minority participation “goals” that have been an integral part of federal policies to promote racial and gender equality in contracting on federally financed construction projects and in connection with other large federal contracts.
- Federal Contracting and Subcontracting with Small Businesses: Issues in the 112th Congress
- This report describes and analyzes measures that Members of the 112th Congress have enacted or proposed in response to particular issues pertaining to small business contracting and subcontracting.
- ANWR Development: Economic Impacts
- This report includes Economic impacts of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Development.
- Dairy Policy Issues
- This report discusses several dairy issues that have been or are being considered by the 109th Congress, some of which affect the three major federal dairy policy tools -- the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program, federal milk marketing orders, and the dairy price support program.
- 1099 Information Reporting Requirements and Penalties as Modified by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010
- This report discuses the 2010 expansion of reporting requirements listed in IRC (Internal Revenue Code) 6041. The controversy in these expansions lies in the burden the expansion imposes on small businesses. The report also describes the pieces of legislation that have amended IRC 6041, and the implications of that legislation along with the consequences of IRC 6041.
- The Role of Local Food Systems in U.S. Farm Policy
- This report looks at the growing popularity of locally produced foods, and how that popularity and regional/local food systems are affected by the reauthorization of the 2008 farm bill.
- Income and Poverty Among Older Americans in 2006
- This report provides an overview of the income and poverty among older Americans in 2006.
- The Quasi Government: Hybrid Organizations with Both Government and Private Sector Legal Characteristics
- No Description Available.
- Independence of Federal Financial Regulators
- This report discusses institutional features that make federal financial regulators (as well as other independent agencies) relatively independent from the President and Congress.
- Slow Growth in the Current U.S. Economic Expansion
- This report summarizes the U.S. economic growth record and reviews a number of explanations forwarded by economists for why this expansion has featured slow growth. Some explanations focus on short-term factors that would not be expected to persist, while others focus on long-term changes to the economy. The report does not discuss labor market conditions, except in the context of how they contribute to the pace of GDP growth.
- Who Earns Pass-Through Business Income? An Analysis of Individual Tax Return Data
- This report analyzes individual tax return data to determine who earns pass-through business income which is from sole proprietorships, partnerships, and S corporations. The analysis finds that in 2011 over 82% of net pass-through income was earned by individuals with an adjusted gross income (AGI) over $100,000, although these taxpayers accounted for just 23% of individual returns with pass-through income. Who earns pass-through income may have important implications for tax reform.
- Estate Taxes and Family Businesses: Economic Issues
- The report discusses an uncapped exemption and an uncapped exemption targeted at liquidity issues.
- The U.S. Wine Industry and Selected Trade Issues with the European Union
- This report provides an overview of issues pertaining to the U.S. wine industry within ongoing U.S. trade negotiations in the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
- Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program: An Overview
- This report provides a brief overview of The Hollings Manufacturing Partnership (MEP), which is a program of regional centers set up to assist small and medium-sized manufacturing companies use knowledge and technologies developed under the auspices of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
- Industrial Competitiveness and Technological Advancement: Debate Over Government Policy, September 24, 2003
- This report discusses congressional interest in the pace of U.S. technological advancement due to its influence on U.S. economic growth, productivity, and international competitiveness. The proper role of the federal government in technology development and the competitiveness of U.S. industry continues to be a topic of congressional debate.
- The 100 largest industrial corporations in the U.S ranked by sales in 1970
- This report ranks the 100 largest industrial corporations in the U.S by sales in 1970.
- National health planning and resources development act of 1974, P.L. 93-641
- This report presents new resources development program targeted toward meeting urgent health facilities needs.
- The Electric Utility Sector: Concepts, Practices and Problems
- This report is on The Electric Utility Sector: Concepts, Practices, and Problems.
- Internet and E-Commerce Statistics: What They Mean and Where to Find Them on the Web
- Statistics indicating Internet usage are imprecise. It is difficult to measure the scale of the Internet (or the World Wide Web), calculate the number and types of users (age, sex, race, gender, location, etc.), or forecast future growth. This report discusses the inherent complexities of estimating Internet and electronic commerce growth and describes various types of Internet statistics, discussing how to evaluate them and providing Web addresses for locating them. In addressing these topics, it is important to understand how the statistics are compiled, how they are used, and what their limitations are.
- Electricity Restructuring: Comparison of Comprehensive Bills
- Once considered the nation's most regulated industry, the electric utility industry is evolving into a more competitive environment. Currently, the focus of this development is the generating sector, where the advent of new generating technologies has lowered both entry barriers to competitors of traditional utilities and the marginal costs of those competitors below those of some traditional utilities. This technological advance has combined with legislative initiatives, such as the Energy Policy Act (EPACT), to encourage the introduction of competitive forces into the electric generating sector.
- Settling Transportation Labor Disputes: Present Procedures, and Changes proposed by the Nixon Administration
- This report addresses settling transport labor disputes, present procedures, and changes proposed by the Nixon administration.
- Renewable Energy: Tax Credit, Budget, and Electricity Production Issues
- This report details information such as history and analyses of renewable energy tax credit, budget, and electricity production issues.
- U.S Energy policy: A perspective on major Immediate issues
- This report discuss the control of the significant portion of the U.S energy supply by the members of the OPEC.
- Contract Types: An Overview of the Legal Requirements and Issues
- This report provides an overview of the various contract types (e.g., fixed-price, cost-reimbursement) used in federal procurement and the legal requirements and issues pertaining to each. Current congressional and public interest in contract types is, in part, an outgrowth of the reported increase in the use of cost-reimbursement contracts during the George W. Bush Administration and the Obama Administration's proposal to reduce by at least 10% the funds obligated by "high risk-contracting authorities," such as cost-reimbursement, time-and-materials, and labor-hour contracts, in FY2010.
- Chemical Facility Security
- Facilities handling large amounts of potentially hazardous chemical (i.e., chemical facilities) might be of interest to terrorists, either as targets for direct attacks meant to release chemicals into the community or as a source of chemicals for use elsewhere. For any individual facility, the risk is very small, but the risks may be increasing -- with potentially severe consequences for human health and the environment. Congress might choose to rely on existing efforts in the public and private sectors to improve chemical site security over time. Alternatively, Congress could expand existing environmental planning requirements for chemical facilities to require consideration of terrorism. Congress might also enact legislation to reduce risks, either by "hardening" defenses against terrorists or by requiring industries to consider use of safer chemicals, procedures, or processes.
- Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT)
- This report is about Electronic Fund Transfers. A discussion and analysis of the national commision on electronic funds transfer's final report.
- Gasoline Prices: Policies and Proposals
- This report gives information related to Gasoline prices and also discusses Policies and Proposals.
- Lumber Imports from Canada: Issues and Events
- This report provides a concise historical account of the dispute, summarizes the subsidy and injury evidence, and discusses the current issues and events regarding lumber imports from Canada.
- Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator Budget Request and Plan, FY2005-FY2009
- No Description Available.
- Federal Railroad Safety Program and Reauthorization Issues
- The Federal Railroad Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation is the primary federal agency that promotes and regulates railroad safety. To implement its safety responsibilities, the Federal Railroad Administration uses numerous strategies including the Safety Assurance and Compliance Program, field inspections; and to help improve its regulations, the administration uses the Railroad Safety Advisory Committee. This report contains information on the Federal Railroad Administration's Safety Program, railroad safety statistics, key reauthorization issues, and related information.
- The Financial Crisis: Impact on and Response by the European Union
- According to the most recent National Threat Assessment, the global financial crisis and its geopolitical implications pose the primary near-term security concern of the United States. Over the short run, both the EU and the United States are attempting to resolve the financial crisis while stimulating domestic demand to stem the economic downturn. These efforts have born little progress so far as the economic recession and the financial crisis have become reinforcing events, causing EU governments to forge policy responses to both crises. This report discusses this situation in detail and also discusses individual efforts by both the U.S. and EU to combat the effects of the crisis.