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- Social Security Administration: Administrative Budget Issues
- The Social Security Administration (SSA) administers the Social Security program (Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance, or OASDI) and the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, and provides administrative support to Medicare and several other federal programs. Total SSA spending in FY2008 was about $658 billion, about 99% of which was mandatory spending on benefit payments. This report focuses on SSA’s administrative spending, which is discretionary and amounts to about 1% of SSA’s total spending. This funding is provided in the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies appropriations bill.
- Appropriations for FY1996 : Interior
- This report is about the appropriations for the fiscal Year 1996.
- Energy Tax Policy
- This report discusses about energy tax policy. U.S energy tax policy promoted the supply of oil and gas but witnessed significant cutback, imposition of new excise taxes on oil and introduction of numerous tax preferences for energy conservation.
- Campaign Finance: Legislative Developments and Policy Issues in the 110th Congress
- This report provides an overview of major legislative and policy developments related to campaign finance during the 110th Congress.
- The State of Campaign Finance Policy: Recent Developments and Issues for Congress
- As Congress decides whether to revisit law surrounding political campaigns, it may be appropriate to take stock of the current landscape and to examine what has changed, what has not, and what policy options might be relevant. This report provides a starting point for doing so. It also provides comments on how those events might affect future policy considerations.
- The Administration’s FY2005 Request for $25 Billion for Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan: Precedents, Options, and Congressional Action
- This report discusses the military's request for 25 billion dollars as a "contingent reserve emergency fund" for FY2005. The report covers previous decisions made by Congress to lend insight on whether the total amount will be distributed or not. Moreover, the report discusses a variety of options that may be undertaken to acquire the funding such as using the Department of Defense's ability to transfer funds (DOD).
- The State of Campaign Finance Policy: Recent Developments and Issues for Congress
- This report is intended to provide an accessible overview of major policy issues facing Congress. Citations to other CRS products, which provide additional information, appear where relevant. The report discusses selected litigation to demonstrate how those events have changed the campaign finance landscape and affected the policy issues that may confront Congress, but it is not a constitutional or legal analysis. Finally, campaign finance data appear throughout the report.
- Social Security Administration: Administrative Budget Issues
- The Social Security Administration (SSA) administers the Social Security program (Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance, or OASDI) and the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, and provides administrative support to Medicare and several other federal programs. Total SSA spending in FY2006 was about $597 billion, 98% of which was mandatory spending on benefit payments. This report focuses on SSA’s spending for administrative expenses, which is discretionary and amounts to 2% of SSA’s total spending. This funding is provided in the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies appropriations bill.
- Fiscal Year 2005 Homeland Security Grant Program: State Allocations and Issues for Congressional Oversight
- No Description Available.
- Indian Health Service: Health Care Delivery, Status, Funding, and Legislative Issues
- This report provides an overview of the Indian Health Service and how it provides for the health care problems and needs of AI/AN.
- Federal Securities Law: Insider Trading
- This report discusses various regulations regarding insider trading violations. Insider trading in securities may occur when a person in possession of material nonpublic information about a company trades in the company's securities and makes a profit or avoids a loss.
- The issue of fair trade
- This report presents various issues on fair trade like goods, prices etc.
- An Overview Of the General Revenue Sharing Program Including Pro and Con Arguments
- This report is an overview of the general revenue sharing program including pro and con arguments.
- Real Estate Investment Trusts: A Report on Their Activities and Performance, Including Selected References
- This report discusses the role and activities of real estate investment trusts and provides a brief bibliography of related resources.
- Puerto Rico's Current Fiscal Challenges
- This report discusses multiple challenges the government of Puerto Rico faces in the fall of 2015. Concerns regarding the sustainability of Puerto Rico's public finances have intensified over the past year, despite several measures taken by the island's government to reduce spending, increase revenues, and restructure its obligations. The Puerto Rican government outlined a medium-term strategy to address those challenges in a fiscal plan put forth in mid-September 2015.
- The Question of School Finance: Recent Selected References
- This report provides a bibliography of resources related to school finance methods and the debate regarding the best way to finance schools that were published from 1970 to 1971.
- Tax Aspects of Campaign Financing and Related Matters Affected by Public Law 93-625
- This report concerns tax aspects of campaign financing and related matters affected by the enactment of public law 93-625.
- The Independent Payment Advisory Board
- This report which provides an overview of the Board, begins with a discussion of the rationale behind the creation of an independent Medicare board and briefly reviews prior proposals for similar boards and commissions.
- Medicaid and Outpatient Hospital Services
- This report provides an overview of the medicaid and outpatient hospital services.
- Globalization, Worker Insecurity, and Policy Approaches
- This report discusses the trends driving global economic integration, sources of worker insecurity and policy approaches. There appears to be a range of views on the merits of each of these policy approaches and the extent to which they can be designed and implemented in a way that would reduce worker insecurity without undermining the benefits of globalization.
- Multilateral Development Banks: U.S. Contributions FY2000-FY2011
- This report shows in tabular form how much the Administration has requested and how much Congress has appropriated for U.S. payments to the multilateral development banks (MDBs) since 2000. It also provides a brief description of the MDBs and the ways they fund their operations. It will be updated periodically as annual appropriation figures are known.
- Puerto Rico's Current Fiscal Challenges
- This report discusses multiple challenges the government of Puerto Rico faces in the fall of 2015. Concerns regarding the sustainability of Puerto Rico's public finances have intensified over the past year, despite several measures taken by the island's government to reduce spending, increase revenues, and restructure its obligations. The Puerto Rican government outlined a medium-term strategy to address those challenges in a fiscal plan put forth in mid-September 2015.
- Troubled Asset Relief Program and Foreclosures
- Increasing foreclosure rates and problems in financial markets are some of the issues addressed in the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (P.L. 110 343), which created the Troubled Asset Relief Plan (TARP). This report is concerned with Title II of the bill, which would require the Treasury to spend a minimum of $40 billion of the second $350 billion on foreclosure mitigation.
- The Federal Election Commission: Overview and Selected Issues for Congress
- The report provides background information about key areas of controversy and context that might be relevant for Congress as the House and Senate approach their oversight duties, appropriate funds, consider nominations, and explore options for restructuring the FEC or maintaining the status quo.
- Social Security Administration: Workloads, Resources, and Service Delivery
- This report provides an overview of SSA's workloads, resources, and service delivery since FY1996, the first full fiscal year in which SSA became an independent agency. It also covers issues for Congress, focusing on recommendations made by the independent SSAB, Government Accountability Office, SSA's Office of the Inspector General, and the National Research Council.
- Federal Securities Law: Insider Trading
- This report discusses various regulations regarding insider trading violations. Insider trading in securities may occur when a person in possession of material nonpublic information about a company trades in the company's securities and makes a profit or avoids a loss.
- Evaluating the Current Stance of Monetary Policy Using a Taylor Rule
- Oversight of the Federal Reserve's (Fed's) monetary policy decisions rests with Congress. But oversight is encumbered by the absence of a straightforward relationship between interest rates and economic performance. Further, the Fed's policy decisions are discretionary, meaning there is no objective, transparent “yardstick” for evaluating their decisions. A simple rule of thumb guide to monetary policy decisions called a “Taylor rule” is an intuitive way to judge actual policy against some objective, albeit simplistic, ideal. Taylor rules prescribe a federal funds target based on inflation and the output gap (i.e., the difference between actual gross domestic product [GDP] and potential GDP) and can be adjusted to reflect a variety of policy goals.
- Globalization, Worker Insecurity, and Policy Approaches
- Today's global economy, or what many call globalization, has a growing impact on the economic futures of American companies, workers, and families. The current wave of globalization is supported by three broad trends: technology, increase in world supply of labor, and reduced government policies to international trade and investment.
- The International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Proposed Quota Increase: Issues for Congress
- No Description Available.
- 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.
- ISTEA Reauthorization: Highway Related Legislative Proposals in the 105th Congress
- Authorizing legislation for federal surface transportation programs highway, highway safety, and transit expired at the end of FY1997. The federal framework for these programs was created by the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (P.L. 102-240), better known as ISTEA. ISTEA was the first major highway act of the post interstate highway construction era. As such, it is regarded as landmark legislation.
- Insurance Regulation: International Developments
- This report provides an overview of the international developments of the insurance regulation.
- The Vietnam-U.S. Textile Agreement
- This report analyzes the bilateral textile agreement, U.S.-Vietnam trade in textiles and apparel, the arguments that have been raised for and against a textile agreement, and the debate surrounding a proposed labor provision.
- U.S. Public Diplomacy: Background and Current Issues
- This report provides background on U.S. public diplomacy, and discusses the United States information agency, current structure of public diplomacy within the Department of State, and the public diplomacy budget.
- The State of Campaign Finance Policy: Recent Developments and Issues for Congress
- This report includes updated material that emphasizes the issues most prominently before the 113th Congress. It also discusses foundational information about major elements of campaign finance policy.
- Structure and Functions of the Federal Reserve System
- This report examines the structure and operations of the major components of the Federal Reserve System and provides an overview of congressional oversight activities. In addition, the report discusses the provisions of one of the pending pieces of legislation (S. 3217, the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010) that would affect the structure and operations of the System.
- Export-Import Bank Reauthorization: Frequently Asked Questions
- This report addresses frequently asked questions about Ex-Im Bank, grouped in the following categories: congressional interest and the Ex-Im Bank reauthorization debate; market context; international context; organizational structure and management; programs; statutory requirements and policies; risk management; budget and appropriations; implications of a sunset in authority; and historical and current approaches to reauthorization.
- Federal Securities Law: Insider Trading
- Insider trading in securities may occur when a person in possession of material nonpublic information about a company trades in the company's securities and makes a profit or avoids a loss. This report discusses various regulations regarding insider trading violations.
- 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.
- Economic Crisis in Greece
- This report briefly discusses the current economic situation in Greece. Questions about whether Greece will stay in the Eurozone have resurfaced, as the government's stalemate with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Eurozone creditors has reached a critical point.
- International Financial Institutions and Population Programs: A Survey of Current Activity
- This report examines the population or family planning activities financed by the international financial institutions (IFIs), based on a survey of their activities.
- 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).
- International Monetary Fund: Organization, Functions, and Role in the International Economy
- This report supports congressional oversight of the IMF by providing an understanding of its organization, functions, and role in the world economy.
- International Financing of Responses to Climate Change
- This report describes many of the questions that are debate n international climate change fora. It aims to inform Congressional decision-making on the magnitude and mechanisms of financial assistance that the United States may provide to low-income countries to address climate change.
- United States’ Trade Remedy Laws and Non-market Economies: A Legal Overview
- This report contains an overview of the United States' trade remedy laws and non-market economies.
- Industrial Competitiveness and Technological Advancement: Debate Over Government Policy
- This report provides an overview of the debate over government policy on the industrial competitiveness and technological advancement.
- Immigration: Foreign Physicians and the J-1 Visa Waiver Program
- Report on the Educational and Cultural Exchange Visitor program and how it has been used for foreign medical graduates to enter the United States.
- Insurance Exclusion Clauses: Excluding War Risks and Terror Risks from Insurance Contracts
- No Description Available.
- Terrorism Insurance in the Post September 11 Marketplace
- No Description Available.
- 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.