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Electricity Restructuring: The Implications for Air Quality

Description: This paper reviews the changed now underway in the utility industry from the perspective of their environmental implications specifically, the potential for electric utility restructuring to increase emissions of air pollutants regulated by the Clean Air Act(CAA) and of greenhouse gases that could be affected by the Kyoto agreement to address climate change.
Date: January 4, 2001
Creator: Parker, Larry B. & Blodgett, John E.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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How Budget Surpluses Change Federal Debt

Description: This report discusses how budget surpluses change federal debt. The answer involves understanding what drives changes in the two components of total federal debt, debt held by the public (which includes debt held by individuals, pension funds, banks, and insurance companies, among other entities) and debt held by government accounts (almost all in federal trust funds, such as Social Security).
Date: January 4, 2001
Creator: Winters, Philip D.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Medicaid, SCHIP, and Other Health Provisions in H.R. 5661: Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Benefits Improvement and Protection Act of 2000

Description: This report discusses Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The report also discusses other major health provisions provisions of H.R. 5661 are incorporated, by reference into H.R. 4577, the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2001.
Date: January 4, 2001
Creator: Hearne, Jean P.; Herz, Elicia J. & Baumrucker, Evelyne P.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Legislative Research in Congressional Offices: A Primer

Description: This report discusses the process of conducting legislative research: deciding the scope, collecting the information and evaluating sources. Members of Congress need many kinds of information and analysis to support their legislative, oversight, and representational work, including both quick facts, or information to improve their understanding of a complex set of issues.
Date: January 9, 2001
Creator: Wellborn, Clay H. & Kolakowski, Michael
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Global Climate Change: Selected Legal Questions About the Kyoto Protocol

Description: This report addresses legal issues after the United States signed the Kyoto Protocol to the UnitedNations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The protocol is not yet in effect internationally and cannot be legally binding on the U.S. unless and until the Senate gives its advice and consent.
Date: January 10, 2001
Creator: Ackerman, David M.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Federal Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Statutes: An Overview of Legislation in the 106th Congress

Description: This report discusses federal mandatory minimum sentencing statutes, which demand that execution or incarceration follow criminal conviction. They cover drug dealing, murdering federal officials, and using a gun to commit a federal crime. They circumscribe judicial sentencing discretion. They have been criticized as unthinkingly harsh and incompatible with a rational sentencing guideline system; yet they have also been embraced as hallmarks of truth in sentence and a certain means of incapacita… more
Date: January 11, 2001
Creator: Doyle, Charles
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Appropriations for FY2001: Defense

Description: This report is a guide to one of the thirteen regular appropriations bills that Congress passes each year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the House and Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittees.
Date: January 12, 2001
Creator: Daggett, Stephen
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Global Climate Change

Description: This report discusses different perspectives used to consider issues related to the global climate change and issues related to the 1992 U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and the 1997 Kyoto Agreement.
Date: January 12, 2001
Creator: Morrissey, Wayne A. & Justus, John R.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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National Estuary Program: A Collaborative Approach to Protecting Coastal Water Quality

Description: This report discusses National Estuary Program and is based on 11 of the 28 estuaries that are currently in the National Estuary Program which represent common environmental problems along the nation’s coastline: on the Pacific Coast, the Columbia River, Puget Sound, San Francisco Bay, and Santa Monica Bay; on the Atlantic Coast, Albemarle-Pamlico Sound, Long Island Sound, Narragansett Bay, and Maryland’s coastal bays (excluding Chesapeake Bay); and on the Gulf of Mexico, Charlotte Harbor, Corp… more
Date: January 12, 2001
Creator: Bearden, David M.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Internet Privacy - Protecting Personal Information: Overview and Pending Legislation

Description: The privacy of information collected by operators of World Wide Web sites is a growing issue of concern. Many in Congress and the Clinton Administration prefer to rely on industry self regulation to protect consumer privacy, but frustration at industry's slow pace led to the 1998 passage of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act in 1998 (P.L. 105-277). This report provides a very abbreviated overview of Internet privacy issues and tracks pending legislation.
Date: January 16, 2001
Creator: Smith, Marcia S.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Food Biotechnology in the United States: Science, Regulation, and Issues

Description: This report discusses the science of food biotechnology, and the federal structure by which it is regulated. Because U.S. farmers are adopting this technology at a rapid rate, some observers advocate a more active role for the federal government to ensure that farmers have equal access to this technology. Others believe that federal officials should play a more active role in protecting the environment, funding more research, and participating in international trade negotiations to ensure that … more
Date: January 19, 2001
Creator: Vogt, Donna U. & Parish, Mickey
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Flag Protection: A Brief History and Summary of Recent Supreme Court Decisions and Proposed Constitutional Amendment

Description: This report is divided into two parts. The first gives a brief history of the protection of the flag issue from the enactment of the Flag Protection Act in 1968 until the present consideration of an amendment to the Constitution in the 106th Congress. The second part briefly summarizes the two decisions of the United States Supreme Court, Texas v. Johnson and United States v. Eichmann, which struck down the state and federal flag protection statutes as applied in the context punishing expressiv… more
Date: January 22, 2001
Creator: Luckey, John R.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Multilateral Development Banks: Procedures for U.S. Participation

Description: This report discusses the process for U.S. involvement in each of the seven multilateral development institutions which the U.S. is a part of. The U.S. Treasury Department manages U.S. participation, in consultation with other agencies. Congress has a major role in the formulation of U.S. policy, though this differs in several important respects from the role it exercises over U.S. agencies.
Date: January 22, 2001
Creator: Sanford, Jonathan E.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Floor Procedure in the House of Representatives: A Brief Overview

Description: The House considers bills and resolutions on the floor under several different sets of procedures governing the time for debate and the opportunities for amendment. Some procedures allow 40 or 60 minutes for debate; others permit debate to continue until a majority of Members vote to end it. Some procedures prohibit most or all floor amendments; others allow Members to offer any amendments that meet the requirements of the House’s rules and precedents. Notwithstanding these differences, the rul… more
Date: January 24, 2001
Creator: Bach, Stanley
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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