Congressional Research Service Reports - 123 Matching Results
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- Clean Air Act Issues in the 107th Congress
- Revisions to the air quality standards for ozone and particulates, promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1997, may also command renewed attention in the 107th Congress. The standards were challenged in the courts, and implementation is currently in limbo, pending resolution of appeals to the Supreme Court. The Court heard oral arguments November 7, 2000, and a decision is expected in spring 2001. The decision is likely to stimulate congressional oversight, and perhaps legislation.
- Congressional Oversight
- Congressional oversight of policy implementation and administration, which has occurred throughout the U.S. government experience under the Constitution, takes a variety of forms and utilizes various techniques. These range from specialized investigations by select committees to annual appropriations hearings, and from informal communications between Members or congressional staff and executive personnel to the use of extra congressional mechanisms, such as offices of inspector general and study commissions. Oversight, moreover, is supported by a variety of authorities—the Constitution, public law, and chamber and committee rules—and is an integral part of the system of checks and balances between the legislature and the executive
- Environmental Protection Issues in the 107th Congress
- This report discuss issues that received congressional attention in the 107th Congress, such as The impact of air quality regulations, key water quality issues, superfund, solid/hazardous wastes, multibillion dollar cleanup and compliance programs, climate change, pesticides, EPA budget, and Science and Technology.
- Committee System Rules Changes in the House, 107th Congress
- This fact sheet details changes in the committee system contained in H. Res. 5, the rules of the House for the 107th Congress, adopted by the House January 3, 2001. This contains information on changes in the committee structure, committee procedure, and committee staff.
- IMF Reform and the International Financial Institutions Advisory Commission
- No Description Available.
- Legislative Research in Congressional Offices: A Primer
- 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.
- Marine Mammal Protection Act: Reauthorization Issues for the 107th Congress
- This report discusses the issues likely to be raised during any reauthorization debate, the reasons behind them, and possible proposals that could be offered to address these concerns.
- Clean Water Act Issues in the 107th Congress
- Key water quality issues that may face the 107th Congress include: actions to implement existing provisions of the Clean Water Act (CWA), whether additional steps are necessary to achieve overall goals of the Act, and the appropriate federal role in guiding and paying for clean water activities. Legislative prospects for comprehensively amending the Act have for some time stalled over whether and exactly how to change the law. If clean water issues receive attention in the 107th Congress, consideration of specific issues will depend in part on the CWA policy agenda of the new Bush Administration and on priorities of the key committees that have major jurisdiction over the Act.
- Congressional Use of Funding Cutoffs Since 1970 Involving U.S. Military Forces and Overseas Deployments
- This report provides background information on major instances, since 1970, when Congress has utilized funding cutoffs to compel the withdrawal of United States military forces from overseas military deployments. It also highlights key efforts by Congress to utilize the War Powers Resolution, since its enactment in 1973, to compel the withdrawal of U.S. military forces from foreign deployments. In this review, legislation expressing the “sense of the Congress” regarding U.S. military deployments is not addressed.
- Head Start: Background and Funding
- Head Start is a federal program that has provided comprehensive early childhood development services to low-income children since 1965. Services provided to preschool-aged children include child development, educational, health, nutritional, social and other activities, intended to prepare low-income children for entering kindergarten. This report contains information on the background and funding of the program.
- Kosovo and U.S. Policy
- No Description Available.
- Membership of the 107th Congress: A Profile
- No Description Available.
- Internet Gambling: A Sketch of Legislative Proposals in the 106th Congress
- No Description Available.
- Senate Floor Procedure: A Summary
- No Description Available.
- Conservation and Reinvestment Act (CARA) (H.R. 701) and a Related Initiative in the 106th Congress
- This report compares existing law with H.R. 701, as passed by the House(HP) and H.R. 701, as reported by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee (SCR). Both versions, also known as the Conservation and Reinvestment Act (CARA), would have created a new fund, the CARA Fund. Both bills would have created and funded a new coastal energy impact assistance program, amended and funded the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), funded the Urban Park and Recreation Recovery Program and the Historic Preservation Fund, increased funding for wildlife conservation, funded land restoration and easement programs, and funded the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) Program.1 The SCR version would also have funded additional programs to protect natural and cultural resources.
- Election of the President and Vice President by Congress: Contingent Election
- The 12th Amendment to the Constitution requires that candidates for President and Vice President receive a majority of electoral votes (currently 270 or more of a total of 538) to be elected. If no candidate receives a majority, the President is elected by the House of Representatives, and the Vice President is elected by the Senate. This process is referred to as contingent election and is the topic of discussion in this report.
- "Fast-Track" or Expedited Procedures: Their Purposes, Elements, and Implications
- This report discusses certain provisions of law that commonly are known as “fast-track” or expedited procedures. They are so labeled because these statutory provisions contain special legislative procedures that apply to one or both houses of Congress and that expedite, or put on a fast track, congressional consideration of a certain measure or a narrowly defined class of measures. This report first presents the nature, purpose, and elements of fast-track procedures. Then the report discusses some of the most important ways in which these procedures differ from the normal procedures of the House and Senate and, therefore, how the use of expedited procedures can affect the legislative process in Congress.
- Shutdown of the Federal Government: Causes, Effects, and Process
- No Description Available.
- Conference Reports and Joint Explanatory Statements
- The conference report presents the formal legislative language on which the conference committee has agreed. The joint explanatory statement explains the various elements of the conferees’ agreement in relation to the positions that the House and Senate had committed to the conference committee.
- Firestone Tire Recall: NHTSA, Industry, and Congressional Responses
- This report discusses the scope and nature of the safety challenge associated with the Firestone tire recall, and summarizes NHTSA’s defect investigations process (as of the end of the 106th Congress) and several relevant actions that NHTSA has taken to date. Second, some of the key efforts of Ford Motor Company (Ford) and Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. (Firestone) to deal with this challenge and associated economic impacts of the reported tire failures, and the recall are summarized
- Floor Procedure in the House of Representatives: A Brief Overview
- 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 rules, precedents, and practices of the House generally are designed to permit the majority to work its will in a timely manner. This report provides a brief overview of this procedure.
- Congressional Overrides of Presidential Vetoes
- The President’s veto is effective not only in preventing the passage of legislation undesirable to the President, but also as a threat, sometimes forcing Congress to modify legislation before it is presented to the President. However, as a veto threat is carried out, Congress is faced with choices: letting the veto stand, the difficult task of overriding the veto, meeting the President’s objections and sending a new bill forward, or resubmitting the same provisions under a new bill number.
- Expedited Procedures in the House: Variations Enacted Into Law
- Congress enacts expedited, or fast-track, procedures into law when it wants to increase the likelihood that one or both houses of Congress will vote in a timely way on a certain measure or kind of measure. These procedures are enacted as rulemaking provisions of law pursuant to the constitutional power of each house to adopt its own rules. The house to which a set of expedited procedures applies may act unilaterally to waive, suspend, amend, or repeal them.
- The Presidential Veto and Congressional Procedure
- No Description Available.
- The Amending Process in the House of Representatives
- The amending process on the floor of the House of Representatives gives Members an opportunity to change the provisions of the bills and resolutions on which they are going to vote. This report summarizes many of the procedures and practices affecting this process, which can be among the most complex as well as the most important stages of legislative consideration.
- House Schedule: Recent Practices and Proposed Options
- Many Members have in recent years expressed dissatisfaction with the way the House arranges its work schedule. The chief complaints appear to be that existing practices make inefficient use of time and do not allow predictability, generating persistent scheduling conflicts and other time pressures. This report discusses how four types of House schedule that have been practiced or proposed during the past decade address these areas of dissatisfaction.
- Sponsorship and Cosponsorship of Bills
- No Description Available.
- Balkan Conflicts: U.S. Humanitarian Assistance and Issues for Congress
- This report is on Balkan Conflicts: U.S. Humanitarian Assistance and Issues for Congress.
- Congressional Record: Its Production, Distribution, and Accessibility
- This report provides information about the Production, Distribution, and Accessibility of Congressional Record. The Congressional Record is the most widely published account of the debates and activities in congress.
- A User’s Guide to the Congressional Record
- This report provides a user's guide to the proceedings of the House and Senate, the proceedings of the House and Senate.
- Special Order Speeches: Current House Practices
- No Description Available.
- Appropriations for FY2001: Legislative Branch
- 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 Legislative Branch Appropriations.
- The House Amendment Tree
- This report discusses the House amendment tree, a chart that depicts the maximum number and types of amendments that may be offered to a measure before any amendment is voted upon.
- House Voting Procedures: Forms and Requirements
- This report discusses the procedural considerations suffuse voting and the methods of voting in both the House and in the Committee of the Whole.
- Senate Amendment Process: General Conditions and Principles
- No Description Available.
- Senate Executive Business and the Executive Calendar
- No Description Available.
- Senate Rules for Committee Markups
- This report discusses the committee rules for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee which stipulates that, insofar as practicable, “proceedings of the Committee will be conducted without resort to the formalities of parliamentary procedure.”
- Senate Rules for Committee Markups
- No Description Available.
- Super-Majority Votes in the Senate
- No Description Available.
- Unanimous Consent Agreements in the Senate
- This report discusses the idea of "unanimous consent" in the Senate. Without its tradition of unanimous consent, the Senate would find it harder to process its complex workload.
- Unanimous Consent Agreements in the Senate
- This report discusses the idea of "unanimous consent" in the Senate. Without its tradition of unanimous consent, the Senate would find it harder to process its complex workload.
- Voting in the Senate: Forms and Requirements
- No Description Available.
- Clean Water Act Issues in the 106th Congress
- In the 106th Congress, no comprehensive activity on reauthorizing the Clean Water Act occurred, although a number of individual clean water bills were enacted. Other issues have been debated recently, such as reforming the law to provide regulatory relief for industry, states and cities, and individual landowners. The debate over many of these issues highlights differing views of the Act and its implementation by some who seek to strengthen existing requirements and others who believe that costs and benefits should be more carefully weighed before additional control programs are mandated.
- Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Policy: Key Issues in the 107th Congress
- Among the 107th Congress' first orders of business will be dealing with the initiatives-both domestic and foreign policy-proposed by President Bush throughout his presidential campaign. This report contains information on those orders of business including U.S. foreign and security policy, global issues, defense policy, and more.
- Allocations and Subdivisions in the Congressional Budget Process
- This report briefly explains how the annual budget resolution sets forth total spending and revenue levels, which are then allocated to the appropriate House and Senate committees, which in turn help Congress determine how best to enforce spending once a budget resolution is adopted.
- Congressional Budget Act Points of Order
- This report provides information about the Congressional Budget Act Points of Order. Budget Act Points of Order are not self-enforcing. In order to enforce a congressional budget rule, a member must raise a point of order against the legislation violating it.
- Congressional Budget Act Points of Order
- Title III of the Congressional Budget Act (CBA) of 1974 (P.L. 93-344), as amended, establishes the points of order that are used to enforce congressional budget procedures and substantive provisions of a budget resolution. These points of order prohibit certain congressional actions and consideration of certain legislation.
- Overview of the Authorization-Appropriation Process
- No Description Available.
- Congressional Review of Agency Rulemaking: A Brief Overview and Assessment After Five Years
- This report will provide a brief explanation of how the review scheme was expected to operate and describe how it has in fact been utilized. The possible reasons for the limited use of the formal review mechanism thus far are assessed and congressional remedial proposals and other options are discussed.
- "Sense of" Resolutions and Provisions
- One or both houses of Congress may formally express opinions about subjects of current national interest through freestanding simple or concurrent resolutions (called generically "sense of the House," "sense of the Senate," or "sense of the Congress" resolutions). These opinions may also be added to pending legislative measures by amendments expressing the views of one or both chambers. This fact sheet identifies the various forms such expressions may take and the procedures governing such actions.