Congressional Research Service Reports - 1,690 Matching Results
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- The Government's Long-Term Fiscal Shortfall: How Much is Attributable to Social Security?
- One reason that Social Security reform is on the congressional agenda is the large projected long-term fiscal shortfall facing Social Security, estimated at an average of 0.9% of gross domestic product (GDP) between now and 2080. But relatively little attention has been given to the potential long-term shortfall faced by the rest of the government, which is estimated to be more than 6.5 times larger than Social Security’s shortfall
- Strategic Petroleum Reserve
- This report includes information regarding strategic petroleum reserve. Background and analysis, purchases of crude oil, and drawdown of the reserve are among topics discussed in this report.
- Gasoline Prices: Policies and Proposals
- This report details the information related to gasoline prices and discusses policies and proposals.
- The United States as a Net Debtor Nation: Overview of the International Investment Position
- This report discusses the international investment position of the United States is an annual measure of the assets Americans own abroad and the assets foreigners own in the United States. The net position, or the difference between the two, sometimes is referred to as a measure of U.S. international indebtedness. Although this designation is not strictly correct, the net international investment position does reveal the difference between the total assets Americans own abroad and total amount of assets foreigners own in the United States.
- Gasoline Prices: Policies and Proposals
- This report details the information related to gasoline prices and discusses policies and proposals.
- Strategic Petroleum Reserve
- This report includes information regarding strategic petroleum reserve. Background and analysis, purchases of crude oil, and drawdown of the reserve are among topics discussed in this report.
- Tax Deductions for Catastrophic Risk Insurance Reserves: Explanation and Economic Analysis
- No Description Available.
- Trade in Services: The Doha Development Agenda Negotiations and U.S. Goals
- This report is designed to assist Congress to understand and monitor progress of the negotiations and the major issues that the negotiators are addressing. The report provides a brief background section on the significance of services to the U.S. economy. It then explains briefly the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the structure and agenda of the services negotiations in the DDA round, including U.S. objectives in the negotiations. The report concludes with a status report on the negotiations and an examination of potential results.
- Bankruptcy Relief and Natural Disaster Victims
- In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, many have questioned whether implementing the new procedures of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA), P.L. 109-8, scheduled to go into effect on October 17, 2005, should be delayed. This report considers whether bankruptcy law in general, and the BAPCPA in particular, may present unique challenges to financial recovery for those whose life, livelihood, and/or home have been damaged or destroyed.
- China and the CNOOC Bid for Unocal: Issues for Congress
- The bid by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) to acquire the U.S. energy company Unocal for $18.5 billion raised many issues with U.S. policymakers. This report provides an overview and analysis of the CNOOC bid, U.S. interests, implications for U.S. energy security, U.S. investment in the PRC’s (People’s Republic of China’s) oil industry, the process for reviewing the security and other implications of foreign investment in the United States, Congressional activity, and a listing of unresolved issues.
- Gasoline Prices: Policies and Proposals
- This report gives information related to Gasoline prices and also discusses Policies and Proposals.
- Hurricane Katrina: Insurance Losses and National Capacities for Financing Disaster Risk
- This report discusses losses and national disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina that made landfall on the Gulf of Mexico coast with high velocity winds, storm surge, heavy rain, flooding, coastal erosion, hail, and tornadoes.
- Industrial Competitiveness and Technological Advancement: Debate Over Government Policy
- This report provides an overview of the debate over government policy of industrial competitiveness and technology advancement.
- Campaign Finance Reform: Regulating Political Communications on the Internet
- In October 2002, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) promulgated regulations exempting from the definition of “public communication” those communications that are made over the Internet. In response to the FEC’s final rules, the two primary House sponsors of BCRA filed suit in U.S. district court against the FEC seeking to invalidate the regulations as opening a new avenue for circumvention of federal campaign finance law. In September 2004, in Shays v. FEC, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia overturned some of the FEC’s new regulations. In response to the district court’s decision, in April 2005, the FEC published proposed new rules in order to conform to the Shays ruling. The proposed regulations reflect an attempt by the FEC to leave web logs, or “blogs,” created and wholly maintained by individuals, free of regulations under FECA, while extending limited regulation only to uses of the Internet involving substantial monetary transactions.
- Social Security Reform
- President Bush has highlighted Social Security reform as a top priority during his second term. The President has not presented a detailed plan for reform. Rather, he has put forth guidelines for Congress to consider in the development of legislation to create personal accounts within a program in need of “wise and effective reform.” The President has acknowledged that other changes would be needed to address the system’s projected long-range funding shortfall. In recent years, reform ideas have ranged from relatively minor changes to the current pay-as-you-go social insurance system to a redesigned program based on personal savings and investments modeled after IRAs and 401(k)s.
- Proposed Bankruptcy Legislation to Address Natural Disaster Victims
- No Description Available.
- Social Security Reform: Growing Real Ownerships for Workers (GROW) Act of 2005, H.R. 3304
- No Description Available.
- Gasoline Prices: Policies and Proposals
- This report gives information related to Gasoline prices and also discusses Policies and Proposals.
- General Services Administration Prospectus Thresholds for Owned and Leased Federal Facilities
- This report provides information about the General Services Administration Prospectus Thresholds for Owned and Leased Federal Facilities which is a federal government primary federal real property and assets management agency.
- The Economic Effects of Raising National Saving
- Raising the share of income we save is a frequent aim of public policy. That may be particularly apparent in debates about the size of the federal budget deficit, but concerns about the low household saving rate have also prompted policymakers to consider ways to encourage individuals to save more. How much individuals save will directly affect their future economic well-being, but from a macroeconomic perspective, the source of saving — be it households, business, or government — makes no difference. This report presents standard economic analysis of the macroeconomic effects of raising saving.
- Federal Advertising Law: An Overview
- This report provides a brief overview of federal law with respect to six selected advertising issues: alcohol advertising, tobacco advertising, the federal trade commission act, advertising by mail, advertising by telephone, and commercial e-mail.
- Trade Remedies: "New Shipper" Reviews
- No Description Available.
- Inequality in the Distribution of Income: Trends and International Comparisons
- This report examines the distribution of income in the United States, including factors that may help explain it, how it has changed over time, and how it compares with those of other countries.
- Gasoline Prices: New Legislation and Proposals
- This report discusses legislation and proposals regarding prices of gasoline. Policy options, ANWR, and price gouging are among topics covered in this report.
- War Bonds in the Second World War: A Model for Hurricane Recovery Bonds?
- Severe damage and dislocations resulting from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have rekindled congressional interest in the concept of the sale of a Treasury security to finance recovery and relief operations. The question has been raised whether or not the issuance of war bonds during the Second World War serves as a good model for new “hurricane recovery bonds.” Two bills have been introduced that would permit the issuance of some form of hurricane relief bond: H.R. 3892 and H.R. 3935.
- Limiting Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's Portfolio Size
- Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and Treasury Secretary John W. Snow recently have urged the 109th Congress to pass legislation to limit the size of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s portfolio to reduce the risk to the federal government and the economy. In 2003, these government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) combined retained portfolio had risen to $1.6 trillion from $136 billion in 1990.
- Gasoline Prices: New Legislation and Proposals
- This report discusses the information related to new legislation and proposals of Gasoline Prices.
- Budget Reconciliation: Projections of Funding in the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)
- In FY2005, six states faced the prospect of running out of federal funds in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). This was the first time since the program’s creation in 1997 that multiple states faced such a shortfall. The shortfalls were avoided by the redistribution of funds from other states’ original SCHIP allotments that had not been spent by the end of the three-year period of availability. To address this, the reconciliation proposal approved by the Senate Finance Committee would reduce the period of availability for original allotments from three years to two.
- Employment-Related Issues in Bankruptcy
- This report provides an overview of the status of employee wages and benefits, including retiree benefits, when an employer files in bankruptcy, and the amendments made to the U.S. Bankruptcy Code by the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act. This report examines those provisions in the U.S. Bankruptcy Code which govern the priority of employee wage and benefit claims, including severance payments; procedures for a chapter 1 1 debtor to modify benefits under a collective bargaining agreement; and procedures for a chapter 11 debtor to modify retiree life and health insurance benefits. It examines the role of employees on creditor committees and procedures in bankruptcy that facilitate lawsuits that may be directed at an employer/debtor. Finally, it considers the treatment accorded some aspects of managerial compensation, such as retention bonuses.
- State Securities Class Action Suits: Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner
- No Description Available.
- Is the U.S. Trade Deficit Caused by a Global Saving Glut?
- This report discusses the concern about the size of the current U.S. account deficit, popularly known as the trade deficit. Also compares and analyzes the conventional view with the global saving glut view.
- The Berne Union: An Overview
- The Berne Union, or the International Union of Credit and Investment Insurers, is an international organization comprised of 54 public and private sector members that represent various segments of the export credit and investment insurance industry. Within the Berne Union, the United States is represented by the U.S. Export-Import Bank (Eximbank) and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and four private-sector firms and by one observer. Congress, through its oversight of Eximbank and OPIC, as well as international trade and finance, has interests in the functioning of the Berne Union.
- Federal Deposit Insurance Reform Legislation (Including Budgetary Implications)
- This report discusses two major deposit insurance reform bills that are currently before Congress, the Federal Deposit Insurance Reform Act of 2005 and the Safe and Fair Deposit Insurance Act of 2005. Both bills, if passed, would effectively raise assessments paid by banks and savings associations to the deposit insurance fund.
- Accounting and Management Problems at Freddie Mac
- This report summarizes the extent of accounting and management problems at Freddie Mac. The report highlights the issues of selecting policies to report constant earnings, and undertaking certain transactions for the sake of creating a facade of reported earnings. Finally, the report discusses the consequences of these problems by stating that many of the Freddie Mac's executives have been replaced, fines were issued, and a lawsuit occurred.
- Accounting Problems at Fannie Mae
- On September 22, 2004, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Supervision (OFHEO) made public a report that was highly critical of accounting methods at Fannie Mae, the government-sponsored enterprise that plays a leading role in the secondary mortgage market. OFHEO charged Fannie Mae with not following generally accepted accounting practices in two critical areas: (1) amortization of discounts, premiums, and fees involved in the purchase of home mortgages and (2) accounting for financial derivatives contracts. According to OFHEO, these deviations from standard accounting rules allowed Fannie Mae to reduce volatility in reported earnings, present investors with an artificial picture of steadily growing profits, and, in at least one case, to meet financial performance targets that triggered the payment of bonuses to company executives. On November 15, 2004, Fannie Mae reported that it was unable to file a third-quarter earnings statement because its auditor, KPMG, refused to sign off on the accounting results. On December 15, 2004, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), after finding inadequacies in Fannie’s accounting policies and methodologies, directed Fannie Mae to restate its accounting results since 2001. Shortly thereafter, the company’s CEO and CFO resigned. It is estimated that earnings since 2001 will be revised downwards by as much as $12 billion, but the formal restatement of earnings is not expected before late 2006.
- Stock Options: The Accounting Issue and Its Consequences
- The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has issued a long-anticipated rule that stock options must be recognized as an expense on corporation income statements. The previous accounting rule permitted but did not require recognition; corporations that elected to omit the cost of options, as most did, have been able to report higher earnings. This report examines the debate surrounding the issue and discusses the potential consequences.
- Agricultural Credit: Institutions and Issues
- The federal government has a long history of providing credit assistance to farmers by issuing direct loans and guarantees, and creating rural lending institutions. These institutions include the Farm Credit System (FCS), which is a network of borrower-owned lending institutions operating as a government-sponsored enterprise, and the Farm Service Agency (FSA) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which makes or guarantees loans to farmers who cannot qualify at other lenders. When loans cannot be repaid, special bankruptcy provisions help family farmers reorganize debts and continue farming (P.L. 109-8 made Chapter 12 permanent and expanded eligibility). S. 238 and H.R. 399 (the Rural Economic Investment Act) would exempt commercial banks from paying taxes on profits from farm real estate loans, thus providing similar benefits as to the Farm Credit System.
- Costs and Benefits of Clear Skies: EPA's Analysis of Multi-Pollutant Clean Air Bills
- This report examines EPA's analysis and adjusts some of its assumptions to reflect current regulations. The most important adjustment is the choice of baseline. The agency’s analysis assumes as a baseline that, in the absence of new federal legislation, EPA and the states will take no additional action to control SO2, NOx, Hg, or CO2 emissions beyond those actions finalized by mid-2004. This baseline is put forth despite three rules recently promulgated by EPA that limit SO2, NOx, and Hg emissions on a timeframe similar to that proposed by the Clear Skies legislation.
- Farm Credit System
- This report discusses the Farm Credit System (FCS) is a nationwide financial cooperative that lends to agricultural producers, rural homeowners, certain agriculture-related businesses, and agricultural, aquatic, and public utility cooperatives. Established by the Federal Farm Loan Act in 1916 as a government-sponsored enterprise (GSE), it has a statutory mandate to serve agriculture and related enterprises.
- Foreign Holdings of Federal Debt
- This report presents current data on estimated ownership of United States Treasury securities and major holders of federal debt by country.
- Strategic Petroleum Reserve
- This report includes information regarding strategic petroleum reserve. Background and analysis, purchases of crude oil, and drawdown of the reserve are among topics discussed in this report.
- China's Currency: Brief Overview of U.S. Opinions
- Many are concerned that China’s currency is undervalued and that this injures the U.S. economy. The Chinese authorities say they are not manipulating their currency and they want to move as soon as possible to a market-based yuan. A new exchange rate procedure was announced in July 2005 but has not resulted in meaningful changes in the yuan’s international value. This report reviews the issues and discusses alternative approaches the United States might take to encourage more rapid reform.
- Credit Card Minimum Payments
- Recently, credit card issuers began adjusting their minimum payment formulas, raising the amount of the required monthly payment. Congress has focused on the need to increase consumer awareness of the financial jeopardy that can result from paying only the required minimum. This report provides an overview of the issues and congressional action. It will be updated as events warrant.
- Interest Payments on the Federal Debt: A Primer
- No Description Available.
- Tobacco Quota Buyout
- Report on the termination of U.S. tobacco farm price supports and the ripple effects of this decision, including payments to quota holders, producers, lump sum payments, imports, and more.
- Plan Colombia: A Progress Report
- Report on Plan Colombia, a plan "to end Colombia's long armed conflict, eliminate drug trafficking, and promote economic and social development" (p. i).
- Banking and Securities Regulation and Agency Enforcement Authorities
- The federal bank regulatory agencies — the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and the Office of Thrift Supervision — have extensive authority to enforce various legal and regulatory standards with respect to the banking institutions that they supervise. Similarly, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has a wide range of tools to enforce the securities laws. This report provides a brief sketch of these authorities and identifies the organizational entities within each agency that Congress assigns enforcement responsibilities. It includes a table comparing the formal enforcement tools that the banking agencies may use with those of the SEC.
- Health Insurance: A Primer
- This report provides information related to health insurance. The content includes what it is, why is it needed, health insurance regulation, and how are private health benefits delivered and financed.
- Automobile and Light Truck Fuel Economy: The CAFE Standards
- This report discusses the CAFE Standards of Automobile and Light Truck Fuel Economy.
- Energy Efficiency: Budget, Oil Conservation, and Electricity Conservation Issues
- This report includes information related to energy efficiency, including history, various bills and budgets, and conservation. Climate change and energy security related to energy efficiency are also discussed in this report.