Congressional Research Service Reports - 74 Matching Results

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Financial Institution Insolvency: Federal Authority over Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Depository Institutions
This report provides an overview of the U.S. credit crunch and its effect on Fannie, Freddie, Banks, and Thrifts. The report discusses the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and insolvent banks and thrifts.
Iraq Reconstruction Resources: Fact Sheet
No Description Available.
Accounting Reform After Enron: Issues in the 108th Congress
This report discusses the anxieties within Congress in the wake of the Enron scandal. Moreover, the report notes that the 108th Congress is not likely to pass legislative reform as extreme as the 107th Congress, but will still confront issues of accounting reform. The report also highlights what the 108th Congress plans to reform.
Auditing and Its Regulators: Reforms After Enron
Auditors are regulated by both governmental agencies and professional organizations, though many now question whether this oversight is adequate. Enron’s auditor, Arthur Andersen, has been investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), several congressional committees, and other agencies, and it is facing numerous law suits. A federal jury convicted the firm on obstruction of justice charges on June 15, 2002. Other corporations and their auditors are also under scrutiny. Numerous accounting and audit reforms have been proposed, including some by the accounting industry. The House passed an audit reform bill (H.R. 3763) on April 24, 2002. The Senate passed an amended version of its bill (S. 2673) on July 15th. The SEC published proposed reform rules June 26th; on the 28th it required top executives in companies with revenues exceeding $1.2 billion to personally certify that filed reports are complete and accurate
The Enron Collapse: An Overview of Financial Issues
This report briefly examines the accounting system that failed to provide a clear picture of the firm’s true condition, the independent auditors and board members who were unwilling to challenge Enron’s management, the Wall Street stock analysts and bond raters who missed the trouble ahead, the rules governing employer stock in company pension plans, and the unregulated energy derivatives trading that was the core of Enron’s business. The report also describes related legislation that has received floor or committee action and will be updated regularly.
Credit Rating Agency Regulatory Reform: A Side-by-Side Comparison of H.R. 2990 and S. 3850
This report provides a side-by-side comparison of the H.R. 2990 and S. 3850 bills’ major provisions.
Agricultural Marketing Assistance Loans and Loan Deficiency Payments
This report discusses marketing assistance loans for major crops. The debate surrounds enlarging the program to create further farm income support.
U.S. Housing Prices: Is There a Bubble?
No Description Available.
Economic Analysis of a Mortgage Foreclosure Moratorium
This report discusses the legislation that creates a voluntary program to enable troubled mortgage borrowers and lenders to refinance their loans through the Federal Housing Administration (FHA)
Income and Poverty Among Older Americans in 2006
This report provides an overview of the income and poverty among older Americans in 2006.
Social Security Reform
No Description Available.
Multilateral Development Banks: Issues for the 107th Congress
No Description Available.
Consumer Bankruptcy and Household Debt
Financial distress is most common among lower-income families, but its incidence has grown in all income brackets. This trend suggests that explanations for the rise in consumer bankruptcy filings are more likely to be found in micro-analysis of individuals and groups of debtors than in macroeconomic indicators. This report presents statistics on bankruptcy filings, household debt, and households in financial distress.
Two Key Provisions in the Bankruptcy Reform Act Conference Report: The Homestead Exemption and Dischargeability of Liability for Violations of Laws Relating to the Provision of "Lawful Goods and Services"
No Description Available.
Social Security Reform
No Description Available.
Social Security Reform
President Bush has highlighted Social Security reform as a top priority during his second term. The President has not presented a detailed plan for reform. Rather, he has put forth guidelines for Congress to consider in the development of legislation to create personal accounts within a program in need of “wise and effective reform.” The President has acknowledged that other changes would be needed to address the system’s projected long-range funding shortfall. In recent years, reform ideas have ranged from relatively minor changes to the current pay-as-you-go social insurance system to a redesigned program based on personal savings and investments modeled after IRAs and 401(k)s.
Social Security Reform
No Description Available.
Social Security: Taxation of Benefits
No Description Available.
Bankruptcy Relief and Natural Disaster Victims
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, many have questioned whether implementing the new procedures of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA), P.L. 109-8, scheduled to go into effect on October 17, 2005, should be delayed. This report considers whether bankruptcy law in general, and the BAPCPA in particular, may present unique challenges to financial recovery for those whose life, livelihood, and/or home have been damaged or destroyed.
The Fall and Rise of Household Saving
This report begins by showing how the household saving rate has varied in recent years. Next, it explains how household saving is measured, and it provides some detail on how saving varies across the income distribution. Finally, it discusses factors that may account for the long decline in household saving, as well as prospects for its recovery.
Campaign Financing
This is one report in the series of reports that discuss the campaign finance practices and related issues. Concerns over financing federal elections have become a seemingly perennial aspect of our political system, centered on the enduring issues of high campaign costs and reliance on interest groups for needed campaign funds. The report talks about the today’s paramount issues such as perceived loopholes in current law and the longstanding issues: overall costs, funding sources, and competition.
China and the CNOOC Bid for Unocal: Issues for Congress
The bid by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) to acquire the U.S. energy company Unocal for $18.5 billion raised many issues with U.S. policymakers. This report provides an overview and analysis of the CNOOC bid, U.S. interests, implications for U.S. energy security, U.S. investment in the PRC’s (People’s Republic of China’s) oil industry, the process for reviewing the security and other implications of foreign investment in the United States, Congressional activity, and a listing of unresolved issues.
Campaign Financing
This is one report in the series of reports that discuss the campaign finance practices and related issues. Concerns over financing federal elections have become a seemingly perennial aspect of our political system, centered on the enduring issues of high campaign costs and reliance on interest groups for needed campaign funds. The report talks about the today’s paramount issues such as perceived loopholes in current law and the longstanding issues: overall costs, funding sources, and competition.
Campaign Financing
This is one report in the series of reports that discuss the campaign finance practices and related issues. Concerns over financing federal elections have become a seemingly perennial aspect of our political system, centered on the enduring issues of high campaign costs and reliance on interest groups for needed campaign funds. The report talks about the today’s paramount issues such as perceived loopholes in current law and the longstanding issues: overall costs, funding sources, and competition.
The First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit
No Description Available.
Payment Card Interchange Fees: An Economic Assessment
This report focuses on the Visa and MasterCard card associations, which account for three-fourths of the payment card market in the United States in 2008. The report begins with a discussion of the nontraditional structure of the payment card market. The next section is an analysis of the problem of the optimum level of payment cards to achieve the highest social welfare benefit for cardholders and merchants. The third section discusses the provisions of the Credit Card Fair Free Act of 2008. The last section discusses some implications of the analysis.
Industrial Competitiveness and Technological Advancement: Debate Over Government Policy
This report provides an overview of the debate over government policy of industrial competitiveness and technology advancement.
National Flood Insurance Program: Treasury Borrowing in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
In 2008, Hurricanes Ike, Gustav, and Dolly made landfall in the United States, causing widespread flood damage. Exactly three years earlier, claims and expenses related to the massive flooding caused by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma had financially overwhelmed the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) estimates that the NFIP will need about $3 billion in additional borrowing authority to cover the claims currently outstanding and a yet to be determined amount for the 2008 Hurricanes. Congress is currently working to reform the NFIP while retaining its original intent to keep rates affordable for people to buy the insurance.
Hurricane Katrina: Insurance Losses and National Capacities for Financing Disaster Risk
This report discusses losses and national disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina that made landfall on the Gulf of Mexico coast with high velocity winds, storm surge, heavy rain, flooding, coastal erosion, hail, and tornadoes.
Legal Issues Related to Prescription Drug Sales on the Internet
This report provides a legal analysis of issues related to prescription drug sales on the Internet, including issues involving online pharmacies and physicians who prescribe medications over the Internet. This report also provides an overview of the various federal and state laws that regulate this field, including laws and regulations covering prescription drugs, controlled substances, doctors, and pharmacies.
Statutory Offices of Inspector General: Past and Present
Statutory offices of inspector general (OIG) consolidate responsibility for audits and investigations within a federal agency. Established by public law as permanent, nonpartisan, independent offices, they now exist in more than 60 establishments and entities, including all departments and largest agencies, along with numerous boards and commissions. Various initiatives and proposals in the 110th Congress are designed to strengthen the IGs' independence, add to their reports, and create new posts in the Intelligence Community.
Highway and Transit Program Reauthorization Legislation in the 2nd Session, 108th Congress
This is a report on the significant legislative provisions in the two principal bills that are the subject of congressional discussion to reauthorize federal highway.
Insurance Regulation: Background and Issues
No Description Available.
Social Security Reform: Growing Real Ownerships for Workers (GROW) Act of 2005, H.R. 3304
No Description Available.
Campaign Finance Reform: Regulating Political Communications on the Internet
In October 2002, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) promulgated regulations exempting from the definition of “public communication” those communications that are made over the Internet. In response to the FEC’s final rules, the two primary House sponsors of BCRA filed suit in U.S. district court against the FEC seeking to invalidate the regulations as opening a new avenue for circumvention of federal campaign finance law. In September 2004, in Shays v. FEC, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia overturned some of the FEC’s new regulations. In response to the district court’s decision, in April 2005, the FEC published proposed new rules in order to conform to the Shays ruling. The proposed regulations reflect an attempt by the FEC to leave web logs, or “blogs,” created and wholly maintained by individuals, free of regulations under FECA, while extending limited regulation only to uses of the Internet involving substantial monetary transactions.
Tax Deductions for Catastrophic Risk Insurance Reserves: Explanation and Economic Analysis
No Description Available.
Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's Financial Problems: Frequently Asked Questions
This report discusses the decision to place Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in conservatorship and to a certain extent, the housing, mortgage, and even general financial markets.
The U.S. Financial Crisis: Lessons from Japan
Japan's five bank bailout packages in the late 1990s may hold some lessons for the United States. Overcoming the crisis in Japan's banks took a combination of capital injections, new laws and regulations, stronger oversight, a reorganization of the banking sector, moderate economic recovery, and several years of banks working off their non-performing loans.
The U.S. Financial Crisis: Lessons from Chile
From 1981-1984, Chile experienced a banking crisis that in relative terms had a cost comparable in size to that perhaps facing the United States today. The Chilean Central Bank acted quickly and decisively in three ways to restore faith in the credit markets. It restructured firm and household loans, purchased nonperforming loans temporarily, and facilitated the sale or liquidation of insolvent financial institutions. These three measures increased liquidity in the credit markets and restored the balance sheets of the viable financial institutions. This report explores this incident in detail and in relation to the current financial situation in the U.S.
The U.S. Financial Crisis: Lessons from Sweden
In the early 1990s, Sweden faced a large banking and exchange rate crisis which it eventually resolved. Four lessons that emerged from Sweden's experience are: 1) the resolution process must be transparent; 2) the resolution agency must be politically and financially independent; 3) market discipline must be maintained; and 4) there must be a plan to jump-start credit flows in the financial system. This report provides an overview of the Swedish banking crisis and an explanation of the measures Sweden used to restore its banking system to health.
Insurance Coverage of the World Trade Center: Interpretation of "War Risk" Exclusion Causes Under New York Contract Law
This report addresses the interpretation of war risk exclusion clauses under New York contract and insurance law. The purpose of excluding “war risks” from insurance policies is to prevent the insurer from being bankrupted by shouldering countrywide losses from war. The widespread characterization of the events of September 11th as an “act of war” raises the possibility that insurable risks to life and property in the World Trade Center may not receive coverage due to the enforcement of these clauses. This report suggests that any such enforcement might not be successful under New York law, as the insured enjoys favorable state rules of procedure and norms of contract construction.
Proposed Bankruptcy Legislation to Address Natural Disaster Victims
No Description Available.
The First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit
No Description Available.
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.
The Administration of the Federal Family Education Loan and William D. Ford Direct Loan Programs: Background and Provisions
This report discusses the history and current status of federal student loan programs. Specifically, the report focuses on the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) and the William D. Ford Direct Loan (DL). Moreover, the report highlights differences in the two programs such as that the FFEL is financed by private lenders, while the DL is financed by the federal government.
Credit Default Swaps: Frequently Asked Questions
Credit default swaps are contracts that provide protection against default by third parties, similar to insurance. These financial derivatives are used by banks and other financial institutions to manage risk. This report defines credit default swaps, explains their use by banks for risk management, and discusses the potential for systemic risk.
Financial Regulatory Reform: Analysis of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) as Proposed by the Obama Administration and H.R. 3126
This report provides a brief summary of the President's Consumer Financial Protection Agency Act of 2009 and delineates some of the substantive differences between it and H.R. 3126, as introduced. It then analyzes some of the policy implications of the proposal, focusing on the separation of safety and soundness regulation from consumer protection, financial innovation, and the scope of regulation.
Agricultural Disaster Assistance
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) offers several permanently authorized programs to help farmers recover financially from a natural disaster, including federal crop insurance, the non-insured assistance program and emergency disaster loans. In recent years, Congress frequently has made supplemental financial assistance available to farmers and ranchers on an ad-hoc basis, most notably in the form of direct crop disaster payments and emergency livestock assistance. Congress provided an estimated $3.1 billion of such assistance in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-7) for 2001 and 2002 crop and livestock losses. Some farm groups would like to see similar assistance provided for 2003 losses, particularly in regions of the Midwest and West that have experienced prolonged drought conditions. To date, no ad-hoc assistance has been made available for 2003 losses.
Risk Management and Critical Infrastructure Protection: Assessing, Integrating, and Managing Threats, Vulnerabilities and Consequences
No Description Available.
Campaign Financing
This report discusses the concerns related to financing Federal election campaigning. The contents include information of the current system, campaign finance practices, and related issues, policy options.
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