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The Federal Protective Service and Contract Security Guards: A Statutory History and Current Status

Description: The Federal Protective Service (FPS) -- within U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) -- is responsible for protecting federal government property, personnel, visitors, and customers, including property leased by the General Services Administration (GSA). FPS currently employs over 15,000 contract security guards to protect federal property. DHS intends, according to its FY2009 budget justification, to continue the use of contract security guards… more
Date: May 29, 2008
Creator: Reese, Shawn
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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National Guard Personnel and Deployments: Fact Sheet

Description: The National Guard plays a major role in the defense and security of the United States under the federal component of its mission. A January 2008 report by the congressionally chartered independent Commission on the National Guard and Reserves has found that the U.S. military's lack of "sufficiently trained, ready forces available" to respond to possible domestic attacks "is an appalling gap that places the nation and its citizens at greater risk." The report estimated that fewer than 88% of Ar… more
Date: May 1, 2008
Creator: Waterhouse, Michael & O'Bryant, JoAnne
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Border Security: Key Agencies and Their Missions

Description: After the massive reorganization of federal agencies precipitated by the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), there are now four main federal agencies charged with securing the United States' borders: the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Bureau of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the United States Coast Guard, and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). This report briefly describes each agency's role in securing our nation's borders.
Date: May 13, 2008
Creator: Nuñez-Neto, Blas
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Homeland Security: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Border Surveillance

Description: Congress has expressed a great deal of interest in using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to surveil the United States' international land border. This report examines the strengths and limitations of deploying UAVs along the borders and related issues for Congress.
Date: May 13, 2008
Creator: Bolkcom, Christopher & Nuñez-Neto, Blas
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Government-Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs): An Institutional Overview

Description: Congress chartered government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) to improve the workings of credit markets. This report briefly describes the nature of GSEs, their mixed governmental-private nature, the differences between GSEs and government agencies, and the arguments for and against GSEs.
Date: September 9, 2008
Creator: Kosar, Kevin R.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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United States Fire Administration: An Overview

Description: The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) - which includes the National Fire Academy (NFA) - is currently an entity within the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The objective of the USFA is to significantly reduce the nation's loss of life from fire, while also achieving a reduction in property loss and non-fatal injury due to fire. This report describes and analyzes the Administration's FY2009 budget proposal, as well as related information and … more
Date: October 10, 2008
Creator: Kruger, Lennard G.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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United States Fire Administration: An Overview

Description: The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) - which includes the National Fire Academy (NFA) - is currently an entity within the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The objective of the USFA is to significantly reduce the nation's loss of life from fire, while also achieving a reduction in property loss and non-fatal injury due to fire. This report describes and analyzes the Administration's FY2009 budget proposal, as well as related information and … more
Date: June 26, 2008
Creator: Kruger, Lennard G.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Statutory Offices of Inspector General: Past and Present

Description: 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 pos… more
Date: September 25, 2008
Creator: Kaiser, Frederick M.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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A Sunset Commission for the Federal Government: Recent Developments

Description: The sunset concept provides for programs and agencies to terminate automatically on a periodic basis unless explicitly renewed by law. In the last ten years, bills to create a federal sunset commission, modeled on the sunset review process in Texas, have been introduced in each Congress. President Bush called for creation of a federal sunset commission in his FY2006 budget submission. This report discusses this issue and relevant pieces of legislation.
Date: July 21, 2006
Creator: McMurtry, Virginia A.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Homeland Security: Establishment and Implementation of the United States Northern Command

Description: The Department of Defense (DOD) established U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) to fight terrorism at home. Significant organizational and procedural progress has been made in setting up this organization. However, questions remain concerning interagency relationships and information sharing.
Date: August 18, 2006
Creator: Bowman, Steve
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Peace Corps: Current Issues

Description: As it prepares authorization and Foreign Operations appropriations legislation in 2006, Congress will consider the FY2007 level of funding for the Peace Corps and related issues.
Date: June 2, 2006
Creator: Tarnoff, Curt
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Homeland Security: Coast Guard Operations -- Background and Issues for Congress

Description: The Coast Guard is the lead federal agency for maritime homeland security. For FY2007, the Coast Guard is requesting a total of about $4.5 billion for missions defined in the Homeland Security Act of 2002 as the Coast Guard's homeland security missions. This equates to about 54% of the Coast Guard's total requested FY2007 budget. The Coast Guard's homeland security operations pose several potential issues for Congress, including adequacy of Coast Guard resources for performing both homeland sec… more
Date: September 12, 2006
Creator: O'Rourke, Ronald
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Homeland Security: Coast Guard Operations -- Background and Issues for Congress

Description: The Coast Guard is the lead federal agency for maritime homeland security. For FY2007, the Coast Guard is requesting a total of about $4.5 billion for missions defined in The Homeland Security Act of 2002 as the Coast Guard's homeland security missions. This equates to about 54% of the Coast Guard's total requested FY2007 budget. The Coast Guard's homeland security operations pose several potential issues for Congress, including adequacy of Coast Guard resources for performing both homeland sec… more
Date: June 1, 2006
Creator: O'Rourke, Ronald
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Homeland Security: Coast Guard Operations -- Background and Issues for Congress

Description: The Coast Guard is the lead federal agency for maritime homeland security. For FY2007, the Coast Guard is requesting a total of about $4.5 billion for missions defined in The Homeland Security Act of 2002 as the Coast Guard's homeland security missions. This equates to about 54% of the Coast Guard's total requested FY2007 budget. The Coast Guard's homeland security operations pose several potential issues for Congress, including adequacy of Coast Guard resources for performing both homeland sec… more
Date: August 14, 2006
Creator: O'Rourke, Ronald
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA): Origin, Characteristics, and Institutional Authorities

Description: Responsibility for overseeing reconstruction in post-conflict Iraq initially fell to the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA). Established in early 2003, ORHA had been replaced by June of that year by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). On June 28, 2004, CPA ceased operations. Whether CPA was a federal agency is unclear. Some executive branch documents supported the notion that it was created by the President. Another possibility is that the authority was created b… more
Date: September 21, 2006
Creator: Halchin, L. Elaine
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Defense Transformation: Background and Oversight Issues for Congress

Description: The Bush Administration identified transformation as a major goal for the Department of Defense (DOD) soon after taking office, and has justified many of its initiatives for DOD in connection with the concept. Defense transformations can be defined as large-scale, discontinuous, and possibly disruptive changes in military weapons, concepts of operations (i.e., approaches to warfighting), and organization. The issue for Congress is how to take the concept of defense transformation into account i… more
Date: August 30, 2006
Creator: O'Rourke, Ronald
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Defense Authorization and Appropriations Bills: FY1970-FY2006

Description: This report is a research aid, which lists the DOD authorization bills (Table 1) and appropriations bills (Table 2). This report includes all the pertinent information on the passage of these bills through the legislative process: bill numbers, report numbers, dates reported and passed, recorded vote numbers and vote tallies, dates of passage of the conference reports with their numbers and votes, vetoes, substitutions, dates of final passage, and public law numbers. Table 3 shows real growth o… more
Date: June 13, 2006
Creator: Coipuram, Thomas, Jr.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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U.S. National Science Foundation: An Overview

Description: The National Science Foundation (NSF) was created by the National Science Foundation Act of 1950, as amended. The NSF has the broad mission of supporting science and engineering in general and funding basic research across many disciplines. The agency provides support for investigator-initiated, merit-reviewed, competitively selected awards, state-of-the-art tools, and instrumentation and facilities. The majority of the research supported by NSF is conducted at U.S. colleges and universities. N… more
Date: July 5, 2006
Creator: Matthews, Christine M.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Homeland Security: Coast Guard Operations -- Background and Issues for Congress

Description: The Coast Guard is the lead federal agency for maritime homeland security. The Coast Guard's homeland security operations pose several potential issues for Congress, including adequacy of Coast Guard resources for performing both homeland security and non-homeland security missions, and Coast Guard coordination with other agencies involved in maritime homeland security.
Date: June 30, 2005
Creator: O'Rourke, Ronald
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Homeland Security: Coast Guard Operations--Background and Issues for Congress

Description: In response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Coast Guard significantly increased homeland-security operations to protect U.S. ports and waterways from potential maritime terrorist threats. The Coast Guard accomplished this in part by diverting resources from other missions. Increased requirements for homeland-security operations after September 11 appear to have added to a pre-existing tension between Coast Guard mission responsibilities and available resources. The Coast Gua… more
Date: February 19, 2002
Creator: O'Rourke, Ronald
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Appropriations for FY2005: U.S. Department of Agriculture and Related Agencies

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 Agriculture.
Date: July 15, 2004
Creator: Chite, Ralph M.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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