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Appropriations Bills: What are "General Provisions"?

Description: An annual appropriations act generally consists of two parts – paragraphs providing funding, and general provisions focusing on non-funding as well as funding issues. Discussed on this brief fact sheet are what is found in general provisions of appropriations bills.
Date: February 11, 1999
Creator: Streeter, Sandy
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Appropriations for FY1999: Legislative Branch

Description: Appropriations are one part of a complex federal budget process that includes budget resolutions, appropriations (regular, supplemental, and continuing) bills, rescissions, and budget reconciliation bills. This report is a guide to one of the 13 regular appropriations bills that Congress passes each year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Legislative Branch Appropriations.
Date: March 11, 1999
Creator: Dwyer, Paul E.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Budget Enforcement Act: Its Operation Under a Budget Surplus

Description: The Budget Enforcement Act was enacted in 1990 in an effort to control future budgetary actions. It did this through two separate, but related, mechanisms: limits on discretionary spending, and the pay-as-you-go process to require that any legislative action on direct spending or revenues which would increase the deficit be offset. These procedures currently would apply through FY2002 (for legislation enacted before October 1, 2002, for measures affecting direct spending or revenues), regardles… more
Date: February 11, 1998
Creator: Saturno, James V.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Budget Reconciliation in the 105th Congress: Achieving a Balanced Budget by 2002

Description: Achievement of a balanced federal budget by 2002 was a high priority for the 105th Congress and the President. After months of negotiations and debate, starting in February 1997 and ending in July 1997, congressional leaders and the White House forged a consensus on legislation to accomplish this goal. The legislation, signed into law by President Clinton on August 5, 1997, sets “caps” on discretionary spending, constrains entitlement programs, and on balance reduces federal taxes.
Date: September 11, 1997
Creator: Koitz, David Stuart & Nuschler, Dawn
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Child Abuse and Child Welfare Legislation in the 104th Congress

Description: This report describes the freestanding Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) re-authorization and the child welfare-related provisions in welfare reform. This report also briefly discusses the child welfare block grants that were considered but not enacted.
Date: October 11, 1996
Creator: Spar, Karen
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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China-U.S.-Taiwan Economic Relations

Description: Recent political and military tensions between China and Taiwan have focused new attention on U.S. economic interests in the region. The volume of trade and investment between the United States and Taiwan and China has soared during the last 10 years. This trend has helped forge closer ties between the United States and the two economies, but has also been the source of friction. U.S. economic relations with China and Taiwan are likely to be of concern to Congress during the annual debate over … more
Date: June 11, 1996
Creator: Morrison, Wayne M.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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China's Changing Conditions

Description: Congressional interest in the leadership change and economic transformation underway in China has grown substantially over the past few years. Leading congressional concerns focus on how economic conditions in China pose opportunities for U.S. enterprise and how the evolution of conditions in China fosters U.S. security, economic, and political interests. Congressional concern with China grew in 1995 and 1996 as a result of reports of the serious decline in the health of senior Chinese leader D… more
Date: December 11, 1996
Creator: Sutter, Robert G.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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China's Changing Conditions

Description: This report discusses congressional interest in the leadership change and economic transformation underway in China, which has grown substantially over the past two years. Leading congressional concerns focus on how economic conditions in China pose opportunities for U.S. enterprise and how the evolution of conditions in China foster U.S. security, economic, and political interests. Congressional concern with China grew in 1995 as a result of reports of the serious decline in the health of seni… more
Date: May 11, 1995
Creator: Sutter, Robert G.; Kan, Shirley A. & Dumbaugh, Kerry
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Clean Water Act and TMDLs

Description: Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act requires states to identify waters that are impaired by pollution, even after application of pollution controls. For those waters, states must establish a total maximum daily load (TMDL) of pollutants to ensure that water quality standards can be attained. Implementation of this provision has been dormant until recently, when states and EPA were prodded by numerous lawsuits. The TMDL issue has become controversial, in part because of requirements and costs … more
Date: September 11, 1997
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Program: Status and Legislative Issues

Description: In 1990, Congress enacted legislation requiring coastal states and territories to develop programs to help address the problem of nonpoint source pollution in coastal waters, which are especially threatened by pressures of population growth, development, and pollution. The coastal nonpoint pollution program is unique because it expressly links federal and state coastal zone management and water quality programs. Coastal states are now implementing these requirements. Congress has not changed th… more
Date: June 11, 1999
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Colombia: The Problem of Illegal Narcotics and U.S. - Colombian Relations

Description: The United States has long been concerned with Colombia as a major producer and trafficker of the illegal narcotics entering this country: first marijuana, then cocaine, and now also heroin. Colombia's drug trafficking business has been dominated by two cartels during the two decades in which cocaine trafficking became a major activity: first the Medellin cartel, which dominated during the 1980s and then the Cali cartel, which dominated during the early 1990s. With the arrests of the major Cali… more
Date: May 11, 1998
Creator: Serafino, Nina M.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Copyright Term Extension: Estimating the Economic Values

Description: This report considers proposals to extend the duration of copyrights by 20 years (as in H.R. 2589 and other bills) and related proposals to charge a fee to the owners in order to receive the extension. The method of analysis is economic rather than legal. The report reviews the basic economic principals involved in copyright law and gives rough estimates of the value of copyrights on books, music, and movies produced in the 1920s and 1930s — those that would be most immediately affected by an e… more
Date: May 11, 1998
Creator: Rappaport, Edward
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Copyright Term Extension: Estimating the Economic Values

Description: This report considers proposals to extend the duration of copyrights by 20 years (as in H.R. 2589 and other bills) and related proposals to charge a fee to the owners in order to receive the extension. The method of analysis is economic rather than legal. The report reviews the basic economic principals involved in copyright law and gives rough estimates of the value of copyrights on books, music, and movies produced in the 1920s and 1930s — those that would be most immediately affected by an e… more
Date: May 11, 1998
Creator: Rappaport, Edward B.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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DOE Environmental Technology Department - A Fact Sheet

Description: The Department of Energy (DOE) established the Office of Technology Development in 1989 to develop faster and less expensive technical solutions to the Department's widespread environmental problems, primarily the legacy of decades of nuclear weapons production. Without new environmental technologies, DOE contends, some types of contamination may prove impossible to clean up. The Office of Technology Development, which is part of DOE's Environmental Management Program (EM), manages all stages o… more
Date: March 11, 1994
Creator: Holt, Mark
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Earmarks and Limitations in Appropriations Bills

Description: An annual appropriations act is generally made up of separate paragraphs, each of which provides funding for specific agencies and programs. Generally, each paragraph corresponds to a unique account and provides appropriations for multiple projects and purposes as a single lump sum. Earmarks and limitations are two devices regularly used in annual appropriations acts to restrict, or more precisely direct, the availability of funds for specific projects or purposes of an account. Sometimes an ea… more
Date: February 11, 1999
Creator: Streeter, Sandy
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Education Vouchers: The Constitutional Standards

Description: The Court’s decisions permit a limited degree of public aid to be provided directly and a broader range of assistance indirectly. This report sketches the constitutional standards that apply to public aid to sectarian schools and especially to programs of indirect assistance such as education vouchers. It also summarizes recent significant state court decisions involving vouchers.
Date: June 11, 1998
Creator: Ackerman, David M.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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