Congressional Research Service Reports - 24 Matching Results
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- The Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) and the Army's Future Combat System (FCS): Issues for Congress
- No Description Available.
- Legal Challenge to the FCC’s Media Ownership Rules: An Overview of Prometheus Radio v. FCC
- This report provides an overview of the Commission's 2002 Biennial Review from which the 2003 rules originated and the Prometheus case, and addresses the status of the Commission's regulations.
- The Federal Communications Commission: Current Structure and its Role in the Changing Telecommunications Landscape
- This report provides information about The Current Structure and Its Role in the Changing Telecommunications Landscape on the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC is an independent agency with its five members appointed by the president.
- FCC Media Ownership Rules: Current Status and Issues for Congress
- This report provides information about the Issues for Congress on FCC Media Ownership Rules. The media ownership rules strongly influences both the structure of the media sector and the relative negotiating power of individual companies and entire sector.
- Communications Act Revisions: Selected Issues for Consideration
- This report provides an overview of selected topics which the 109th Congress may address in its examination of telecommunications issues. The issues included in this report cover: broadband Internet regulation and access; broadcast indecency; digital television transition; Federal Communications Commission structure and reform; intercarrier compensation; media ownership rules; municipal deployment of broadband; public safety communications, the “savings clause” and monopoly issues; spectrum auctions; and universal service fund reform.
- Naming Post Offices Through Legislation
- This report describes how the practice of naming post offices through public law originated and how it is commonly done today. House and Senate practices for approving legislation and procedures followed by the U.S. Postal Service in organizing a dedication ceremony, are also described. An increasingly common form of legislation is the naming of post offices for former Members of Congress or other figures of local or national renown. About one in six public laws passed by the 108th Congress was a post office naming bill approved under suspension of the rules. Unanimity of a state's congressional delegation is required for the movement of naming bills to the floor of the House or Senate. The costs of dedicating a post office in the name of an individual are modest, and this action results in no change in public identification of the facility by its geographic location.
- Digital Surveillance: The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act
- This report provides information about The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act on Digital Surveillance. CALEA is intended to preserve the ability of law enforcement officials to conduct electronic surveillance effectively and efficiently.
- Postal Service for Katrina Survivors
- This report discusses the affected areas served by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
- Open Access Publishing and Citation Archives: Background and Controversy
- This report begins with an inventory of basic information: definitions and guides to histories of the growth of open access publishing and citation archives and descriptions of selected major open access activities. It moves on to summarize major points of difference between proponents and opponents of nongovernmental open access publishing and databases, and then highlights federal, including National Institutes of Health (NIH), open access activities and contentious issues surrounding these developments. The report also briefly describes open access developments in the United Kingdom (where a number of governmental and nongovernmental initiatives have occurred) and in the international arena. Finally, controversial issues which could receive attention in the 109th Congress are summarized.
- Open Access Publishing and Citation Archives: Background and Controversy
- This report begins with an inventory of basic information: definitions and guides to histories of the growth of open access publishing and citation archives and descriptions of selected major open access activities. It moves on to summarize major points of difference between proponents and opponents of nongovernmental open access publishing and databases, and then highlights federal, including National Institutes of Health (NIH), open access activities and contentious issues surrounding these developments. The report also briefly describes open access developments in the United Kingdom (where a number of governmental and nongovernmental initiatives have occurred) and in the international arena. Finally, controversial issues which could receive attention in the 109th Congress are summarized.
- Journalists' Privilege to Withhold Information in Judicial and Other Proceedings: State Shield Statutes
- This report briefly provides an overview of general trends among the states individual statutes.
- Federal Affirmative Action Law: A Brief History
- This report provides a brief history about the Federal Affirmative Action Law which remains a focal point of public debate as a result of legal and political developments at the federal,state and local levels.
- Pension Issues Cloud Postal Reform Debate
- Reform of the business model of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) was given new momentum by the July 2003 report of a blue-ribbon presidential commission. The commission concluded that USPS faces a long-term decline in mail volume and revenues, and unless its finances are shored up, a taxpayer bailout or loss of universal service is threatened. The 108th Congress held a dozen hearings on the commission’s report
- FCC Media Ownership Rules: Current Status and Issues for Congress
- On June 2, 2003, the Federal Communications Commission modified five of its media ownership rules, easing restrictions on the ownership of multiple television stations and on local media cross-ownership, and tightening restrictions on the ownership of multiple radio stations in local markets.
- Public Relations and Propaganda: Restrictions on Executive Agency Activities
- No Description Available.
- Public Relations and Propaganda: Restrictions on Executive Agency Activities
- No Description Available.
- Public Relations and Propaganda: Restrictions on Executive Agency Activities
- No Description Available.
- Information Sharing for Homeland Security: A Brief Overview
- No Description Available.
- Public Relations and Propaganda: Restrictions on Executive Agency Activities
- Controversies recently have arisen over certain executive branch agencies’ expenditures of appropriated funds on public relations activities, some of which have been characterized as propagandistic. Generally speaking, there are two legal restrictions on agency public relations activities and propaganda. 5 U.S.C. 3107 prohibits the use of appropriated funds to hire publicity experts. Appropriations law “publicity and propaganda” clauses restrict the use of funds for puffery of an agency, purely partisan communications, and covert propaganda. No federal agency monitors federal public relations activities, but a Member or Committee of Congress may ask the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to examine an agency’s expenditures on public relations activities with a view to their legality.
- Military Space Programs: Issues Concerning DOD's SBIRS and STSS Programs
- No Description Available.
- Military Space Programs: Issues Concerning DOD's SBIRS and STSS Programs
- No Description Available.
- Military Space Programs: Issues Concerning DOD's SBIRS and STSS Programs
- No Description Available.
- Military Space Programs: Issues Concerning DOD's SBIRS and STSS Programs
- This report discusses the Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS, formerly SBIRS-Low), managed by the Missile Defense Agency, which performs missile tracking and target discrimination for missile defense objectives.
- Farm Product "Check-Off" Programs: A Constitutional Analysis
- This report begins with a brief introduction to check-off programs and then describes many of the First Amendment principles that have been discussed in checkoff cases. Next is an analysis of the first two challenges that reached the Supreme Court, as well as a brief discussion of subsequent lower court decisions. This report concludes with a discussion of Johanns v. Livestock Marketing Association and its possible implications for check-off programs.