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Small Business Size Standards: A Historical Analysis of Contemporary Issues

Description: This report provides a historical examination of the SBA's size standards and assesses competing views concerning how to define a small business. It also discusses P.L. 112-239, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013, which requires the SBA to make available a justification when establishing or approving a size standard that the size standard is appropriate for each individual industry classification. It addresses the SBA's recent practice of combining size standards within… more
Date: September 28, 2017
Creator: Dilger, Robert Jay
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Small Business Administration HUBZone Program

Description: This report discusses the Historically Underutilized Business Zone Empowerment Contracting (HUBZone), program and examines arguments both for and against targeting assistance to geographic areas with specified characteristics as opposed to providing assistance to people or businesses with specified characteristics. It then assesses the arguments both for and against the continuation of the HUBZone program. The report also discusses the HUBZone program's structure and operation, focusing on the … more
Date: August 10, 2017
Creator: Dilger, Robert Jay
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Small Business Administration Microloan Program

Description: This report opens with a discussion of the rationale provided for having a Microloan program, describes the program's eligibility standards and operating requirements for lenders and borrowers, and examines the arguments presented by the program's critics and advocates. It then discusses P.L. 111-240, the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, which increased the Microloan program's loan limit for borrowers from $35,000 to $50,000, and the aggregate loan limit for intermediaries after their first yea… more
Date: August 9, 2017
Creator: Dilger, Robert Jay
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Reform of U.S. International Taxation: Alternatives

Description: This report describes and assesses the principal prescriptions that have been offered for broad reform of the international system. It begins with an overview of current law and possible revisions. It then sets the framework for considering economic efficiency as well as tax shelter activities. Finally, it reviews alternative approaches to revision in light of those issues.
Date: July 21, 2017
Creator: Gravelle, Jane G.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Digital Trade and U.S. Trade Policy

Description: This report discusses the role of digital trade in the U.S. economy, barriers to digital trade, digital trade agreement provisions, and other selected policy issues.
Date: January 13, 2017
Creator: Fefer, Rachel F.; Akhtar, Shayerah Ilias & Morrison, Wayne M.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

The Internet Tax Freedom Act: In Brief

Description: This report discusses the Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA; P.L. 105-277) enacted in 1998, which implemented a three-year moratorium preventing state and local governments from taxing Internet access, or imposing multiple or discriminatory taxes on electronic commerce.
Date: April 13, 2016
Creator: Stupak, Jeffrey M.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Stealing Trade Secrets and Economic Espionage: An Overview of the Economic Espionage Act

Description: This report discusses the theft of trade secrets, which is considered a federal crime when the information relates to a product in interstate or foreign commerce. Offenders face lengthy prison terms as well as heavy fines, and they must pay restitution.
Date: August 19, 2016
Creator: Doyle, Charles
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Privileged Business on the House Floor

Description: This report discusses privileged business, which relates to the order or priority of business before the House and is defined in House rules and precedents as business that has precedence over the regular order of business.
Date: January 23, 2017
Creator: Saturno, James V.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Commodity Futures Trading Commission: Proposed Reauthorization in the 114th Congress

Description: This report provides information about the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which regulates futures, most options, and swaps markets. It includes background information, a description of the CFTC reauthorization process, and more extensive explanations of selected provisions in H.R. 2289 and S. 2917 that were recently reauthorized or changed.
Date: August 3, 2016
Creator: Miller, Rena S.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Brazil in Crisis

Description: This report briefly examines the political situation and discusses public opinion regarding the Rousseff Administration.
Date: September 14, 2016
Creator: Meyer, Peter J.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The European Union's Small Business Act: A Different Approach

Description: This report provides information and analysis useful to Congress as it crafts small business policy for the United States. The Small Business Act for Europe (2008) is not an act, per se, as understood in the United States.
Date: September 1, 2016
Creator: Dilger, Robert Jay
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Brazil in Crisis

Description: This report examines the current political and economic climate in Brazil, which is in the midst of severe economic and political crises that are closely intertwined and unlikely to be resolved quickly.
Date: July 6, 2016
Creator: Meyer, Peter J.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Corporate Inversions: Frequently Asked Legal Questions

Description: This report answers frequently-asked legal questions about corporate inversions. It answers questions relating to the scope and operation of Section 7874, including how key statutory terms have been interpreted by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). It discusses important Department of Treasury regulations that were finalized in 2015 and 2016, and answers questions about the IRS's authority to issue these regulations. Other questions that are answered relate to legislation introduced in the 114… more
Date: September 7, 2016
Creator: Lunder, Erika K.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Slow Growth in the Current U.S. Economic Expansion

Description: 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.
Date: June 24, 2016
Creator: Keightley, Mark P.; Labonte, Marc & Stupak, Jeffrey M.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Buy American Act--Preferences for "Domestic" Supplies: In Brief

Description: This report discusses the Buy American Act of 1933, which is the earliest and arguably the best known of various statutes regarding federal procurement of domestic products. The act attempts to protect U.S. businesses and labor by restricting the acquisition and use of end products or construction materials that are not "domestic."
Date: April 26, 2016
Creator: Manuel, Kate M.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Job Creation in the Manufacturing Revival

Description: This report examines the current status of the manufacturing sector in the U.S., which is a subject of ongoing interest in Congress. After rebounding from the 2007-09 recession, U.S. manufacturing output has grown little since the second half of 2014. Over the same period, employment in the U.S. manufacturing sector has been flat. These trends defy expectations that forces such as higher labor costs in the emerging economies of Asia, heightened concern about the risk of disruptions to long, com… more
Date: June 28, 2016
Creator: Levinson, Marc
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Athletic Footwear for the Military: The Berry Amendment Controversy

Description: This report briefly examines issues regarding the Berry Amendment, which is a 1941 federal law (10 U.S.C. §2533a) requiring the Department of Defense (DOD) to purchase only wholly American-made clothing, textiles, and other essential items for the military.
Date: June 10, 2016
Creator: Platzer, Michaela D.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA): Congressional Interest and Executive Enforcement, In Brief

Description: This report briefly discusses the Foreign Corrupt Practice Act of 1977 (FCPA), which was intended to prevent corporate bribery of foreign officials. Criticisms of the act's operation and scope began almost immediately after its passage and have continued. This report addresses these criticisms.
Date: March 15, 2016
Creator: Seitzinger, Michael V.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Protection of Trade Secrets: Overview of Current Law and Legislation

Description: This report provides an overview of existing federal, state, and international laws governing trade secret protection, describes the limitations of these legal regimes, and reviews pending legislation, the Defend Trade Secrets Act (S. 1890), that is intended to address such deficiencies.
Date: April 22, 2016
Creator: Yeh, Brian T.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Brazil in Crisis

Description: Brazil is in the midst of deepening economic and political crises that are closely intertwined and unlikely to be resolved quickly. This report briefly examines the political situation and discusses public opinion regarding the Rousseff Administration.
Date: April 6, 2016
Creator: Meyer, Peter J.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Bankruptcy for Marijuana Businesses?

Description: This legal sidebar discusses recent bankruptcy court cases that suggest that one such risk may be the ultimate unavailability to both debtors and creditors of the protections, benefits, and predictability of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code when state-regulated marijuana businesses fail.
Date: October 29, 2014
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Local Food Systems: Selected Farm Bill and Other Federal Programs

Description: This report examines the federal support of local food systems, such as sales of locally-produced foods which comprise a small but growing part of U.S. agricultural sales.
Date: February 5, 2016
Creator: Johnson, Renée & Cowan, Tadlock
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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What Does the Gig Economy Mean for Workers?

Description: This report provides an overview of the gig economy -- i.e., the collection of markets that match providers to consumers on a gig (or job) basis in support of on-demand commerce (e.g., Uber, TaskRabbit) -- and identifies legal and policy questions relevant to its workforce.
Date: February 5, 2016
Creator: Donovan, Sarah A.; Bradley, David H. & Shimabukuro, Jon O.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Methods of Estimating the Total Cost of Federal Regulations

Description: This report analyzes these two approaches for estimating the total cost of federal regulations. In discussing each approach, the report provides an overview of the advantages, a brief case study, and an analysis of the potential issues or inherent problems using the case study to illustrate the concepts.
Date: January 21, 2016
Creator: Carey, Maeve P.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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