Congressional Research Service Reports - 1,190 Matching Results
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- 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.
- Immigration: The Effects on Low-Skilled and High-Skilled Native-Born Workers
- This report opens with a discussion of how to analyze the impact of immigrants on the pay and job opportunities of native-born workers. It then uses this framework to examine and interpret the empirical literature on the subject. The report concludes with a discussion of policy implications.
- Offshore Oil and Gas Development: Legal Framework
- This report explains the nature of U.S. authority over offshore areas pursuant to international and domestic law. It also describes the laws, at both the state and federal levels, governing the development of offshore oil and gas and the litigation that has flowed from development under the current legal regimes.
- Influenza Antiviral Drugs and Patent Law Issues
- This report identifies and analyzes the patent law aspects of the avian influenza drug situation.
- Oil and Gas Tax Subsidies: Current Status and Analysis
- This report discusses these tax provisions. The first section discusses the origin and evolution of the oil and gas tax subsidies that were incorporated into the 2005 act. The second section summarizes each of the oil and gas tax subsidy provisions in the 2005 energy act and reports its corresponding revenue loss estimate. Section three describes other oil and gas tax subsidies and the final section describes several tax provisions that benefit the oil and gas industry.
- Accounting Problems at Fannie Mae
- This report summarizes the critiques the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Supervision (OFHEO) made of accounting practices at Fannie Mae. The OFHEO's two main issues are under the domains of: amortization of discounts, premiums, fees involved in the purchase of home mortgages, and the other being accounting for financial derivatives contracts. The report emphasizes that these discrepancies created a false image of the company's earnings and in one case was the cause of the company's executives to receive bonuses.
- 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.
- Alaska Natural Gas Pipelines: Interaction of the Natural Gas and Steel Markets
- In 1976, Congress approved legislation to establish the regulatory framework for building a pipeline to bring natural gas from the Alaska North Slope to the lower 48 states. This report focuses on two major issues or uncertainties that may serve as economic constraints on a capital investment undertaking of this major scale.
- Latin America: Energy Supply, Political Developments, and U.S. Policy Approaches
- This report examines Latin America's current political environment and its apparent effect on energy production in the region. It also examines regional integration efforts, including Venezuela's oil programs offering oil to many Latin American and Caribbean countries on a preferential basis, the Mexico-led Meso-American Energy Integration Program, and the proposed South American natural gas pipeline. The report also examines policy approaches that have been proposed for increased hemispheric energy cooperation, congressional interest: in the topic of hemispheric energy security, and related legislative initiatives in the 109th Congress.
- Hedge Funds: Should They Be Regulated?
- This report discusses various causes and effects in regards to the economy if hedge funds were regulated.
- Chemical Facility Security
- Facilities handling large amounts of potentially hazardous chemical (i.e., chemical facilities) might be of interest to terrorists, either as targets for direct attacks meant to release chemicals into the community or as a source of chemicals for use elsewhere. For any individual facility, the risk is very small, but the risks may be increasing -- with potentially severe consequences for human health and the environment. Congress might choose to rely on existing efforts in the public and private sectors to improve chemical site security over time. Alternatively, Congress could expand existing environmental planning requirements for chemical facilities to require consideration of terrorism. Congress might also enact legislation to reduce risks, either by "hardening" defenses against terrorists or by requiring industries to consider use of safer chemicals, procedures, or processes.
- Chemical Facility Security
- Facilities handling large amounts of potentially hazardous chemical (i.e., chemical facilities) might be of interest to terrorists, either as targets for direct attacks meant to release chemicals into the community or as a source of chemicals for use elsewhere. For any individual facility, the risk is very small, but the risks may be increasing -- with potentially severe consequences for human health and the environment. Congress might choose to rely on existing efforts in the public and private sectors to improve chemical site security over time. Alternatively, Congress could expand existing environmental planning requirements for chemical facilities to require consideration of terrorism. Congress might also enact legislation to reduce risks, either by "hardening" defenses against terrorists or by requiring industries to consider use of safer chemicals, procedures, or processes.
- Gasoline Prices: New Legislation and Proposals
- This report reviews the major legislative initiatives to deal with the gasoline price issue. To put these proposals in perspective, it first describes some of the factors that have led to the high prices of both crude oil and gasoline.
- Electric Reliability: Options for Electric Transmission Infrastructure Improvements
- The electric utility industry is inherently capital intensive. At the same time, the industry must operate under a changing and sometimes unpredictable regulatory system at both the federal and state level. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 has set in place government activities intended to relieve congestion on the transmission system. Several factors have contributed to the lack of new transmission capacity; these are outlined within this report. This report also discusses earlier pieces of energy legislation.
- Running Deficits: Positives and Pitfalls
- This report discusses how deficit finance can help governments manage their economies and how large and persistent deficits can lead to severe economic problems.
- Estate Taxes and Family Businesses: Economic Issues
- The report discusses an uncapped exemption and an uncapped exemption targeted at liquidity issues.
- Military Service Records and Unit Histories: A Guide to Locating Sources
- This report is a guide to locating individual service records and military unit histories from the American Revolution to the present.
- Steel: Price and Policy Issues
- Steel prices remain at historically elevated levels. The rapid growth of steel production and demand in China is widely considered as a major cause of the increases in both steel prices and the prices of steelmaking inputs. Steel companies have achieved much greater pricing power, in part through an ongoing consolidation of the industry
- Authorized Generic Pharmaceuticals: Effects on Innovation
- The practice of “authorized generics” has recently been the subject of considerable attention by the pharmaceutical industry, regulators, and members of Congress alike. An “authorized generic”–sometimes termed a “branded,” “flanking,” or “pseudo” generic–is a pharmaceutical that is marketed by or on behalf of a brand name drug company, but is sold under a generic name. Although the availability of an additional competitor in the generic drug market would appear to be favorable to consumers, authorized generics have nonetheless proven controversial. Some observers believe that authorized generics potentially discourage independent generic firms both from challenging drug patents and from selling their own products.
- Cooperative R&D: Federal Efforts to Promote Industrial Competitiveness
- In response to the foreign challenge in the global marketplace, the United States Congress has explored ways to stimulate technological advancement in the private sector. The government has supported various efforts to promote cooperative research and development activities among industry, universities, and the federal R&D establishment designed to increase the competitiveness of American industry and to encourage the generation of new products, processes, and services.
- Industrial Competitiveness and Technological Advancement: Debate Over Government Policy
- There is ongoing interest in the pace of U.S. technological advancement due to its influence on U.S. economic growth, productivity, and international competitiveness. Because technology can contribute to economic growth and productivity increases, congressional attention has focused on how to augment private-sector technological development. This report outlines federal efforts to fund technological research and innovations, as well as congressional efforts to eliminate or significantly curtail said efforts.
- Industrial Competitiveness and Technological Advancement: Debate Over Government Policy
- This report summarizes the debate on the government policy regarding industrial competitiveness and technological advancement and its influence on the U.S. economy. It also discusses the steps congress has taken on this topic.
- Industrial Competitiveness and Technological Advancement: Debate Over Government Policy, August 3, 2006
- This report discusses congressional interest in the pace of U.S. technological advancement due to its influence on U.S. economic growth, productivity, and international competitiveness. The proper role of the federal government in technology development and the competitiveness of U.S. industry continues to be a topic of congressional debate.
- Campus-Based Student Financial Aid Programs Under the Higher Education Act
- This is a report on Computer-based Student Financial Aid Programs under the Higher Education Act.
- Chemical Facility Security
- Facilities handling large amounts of potentially hazardous chemical (i.e., chemical facilities) might be of interest to terrorists, either as targets for direct attacks meant to release chemicals into the community or as a source of chemicals for use elsewhere. For any individual facility, the risk is very small, but the risks may be increasing -- with potentially severe consequences for human health and the environment. Congress might choose to rely on existing efforts in the public and private sectors to improve chemical site security over time. Alternatively, Congress could expand existing environmental planning requirements for chemical facilities to require consideration of terrorism. Congress might also enact legislation to reduce risks, either by "hardening" defenses against terrorists or by requiring industries to consider use of safer chemicals, procedures, or processes.
- Chemical Facility Security
- Facilities handling large amounts of potentially hazardous chemical (i.e., chemical facilities) might be of interest to terrorists, either as targets for direct attacks meant to release chemicals into the community or as a source of chemicals for use elsewhere. For any individual facility, the risk is very small, but the risks may be increasing -- with potentially severe consequences for human health and the environment. Congress might choose to rely on existing efforts in the public and private sectors to improve chemical site security over time. Alternatively, Congress could expand existing environmental planning requirements for chemical facilities to require consideration of terrorism. Congress might also enact legislation to reduce risks, either by "hardening" defenses against terrorists or by requiring industries to consider use of safer chemicals, procedures, or processes.
- Chemical Facility Security
- Facilities handling large amounts of potentially hazardous chemical (i.e., chemical facilities) might be of interest to terrorists, either as targets for direct attacks meant to release chemicals into the community or as a source of chemicals for use elsewhere. For any individual facility, the risk is very small, but the risks may be increasing -- with potentially severe consequences for human health and the environment. Congress might choose to rely on existing efforts in the public and private sectors to improve chemical site security over time. Alternatively, Congress could expand existing environmental planning requirements for chemical facilities to require consideration of terrorism. Congress might also enact legislation to reduce risks, either by "hardening" defenses against terrorists or by requiring industries to consider use of safer chemicals, procedures, or processes.
- Legislative Approaches to Chemical Facility Security
- This report discusses current chemical facility security efforts, issues in defining chemical facilities, policy challenges in developing chemical facility security legislation, and the various policy approaches.
- Cooperative R&D: Federal Efforts to Promote Industrial Competitiveness
- In response to the foreign challenge in the global marketplace, the United States Congress has explored ways to stimulate technological advancement in the private sector. The government has supported various efforts to promote cooperative research and development activities among industry, universities, and the federal R&D establishment designed to increase the competitiveness of American industry and to encourage the generation of new products, processes, and services.
- Industrial Competitiveness and Technological Advancement: Debate Over Government Policy
- There is ongoing interest in the pace of U.S. technological advancement due to its influence on U.S. economic growth, productivity, and international competitiveness. Because technology can contribute to economic growth and productivity increases, congressional attention has focused on how to augment private-sector technological development. This report outlines federal efforts to fund technological research and innovations, as well as congressional efforts to eliminate or significantly curtail said efforts.
- Industrial Competitiveness and Technological Advancement: Debate Over Government Policy
- This report summarizes the debate on the government policy regarding industrial competitiveness and technological advancement and its influence on the U.S. economy. It discusses the most recent developments, dives into the background and analysis of the topic, and talks about congress' plans and approach.
- Industrial Competitiveness and Technological Advancement: Debate Over Government Policy, July 7, 2006
- This report discusses congressional interest in the pace of U.S. technological advancement due to its influence on U.S. economic growth, productivity, and international competitiveness. The proper role of the federal government in technology development and the competitiveness of U.S. industry continues to be a topic of congressional debate.
- The Capitol Visitor Center: An Overview
- This report presents the cost of the center, the most extensive addition to the Capitol since the Civil War, and the largest in the structure’s more than 200-year history, is now estimated to be at least $555 million. The project is being financed with appropriated funds, and a total of $65 million from private donations and revenue generated by the sale of commemorative coins.
- State Corporate Income Taxes: A Description and Analysis
- No Description Available.
- Access to Broadband Networks
- The purpose of this report is to provide a more concrete discussion of access to wireline broadband networks. To that end, this report provides a discussion of what broadband networks look like; how both consumers and independent applications providers gain access to these networks; and the parameters available to network providers (such as their choices about network architecture, overall bandwidth capacity, bandwidth reserved for their own use, traffic prioritization, the terms and rates for access to their networks and for their retail services) that can affect end users’ and independent applications providers’ access to those networks.
- Coal Mine Safety
- This report reviews the safety and health record of the mining industry, describes the regulatory regime, and analyzes current legislative and regulatory initiatives.
- The Iran-Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA)
- This report outlines the background and original passage of the ILSA (Iran-Libya Sanctions Act), its key provisions which excluded Libya from the act, its implementation and effectiveness and the proposed modifications and extensions to the ILSA.
- Alternative Minimum Taxpayers By State: 2003, 2004, and Projections for 2007
- This report
- Foreign Investment in U.S. Securities
- This report relies on a comprehensive set of data on capital flows, represented by purchase and sales of U.S government securities and U.S and foeign corporate stocks, bonds, into and out of the United States, that is reported by the Treasury Department on a monthly basis.
- U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement
- This report examines the U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement which was originally intended to be part of a broader U.S.-Andean free trade agreement (FTA), but after negotiators failed to reach agreement, Peru and the U.S. decided to move forward on a bilateral basis. The PTPA is a comprehensive trade agreement that, if ratified, would eliminate tariffs and other barriers in goods and services trade between two countries. The labor provisions may be among the more controversial of the agreement.
- Gasoline Prices: New Legislation and Proposals
- This report discusses legislation and proposals regarding prices of gasoline. Policy options, oil-related legislation, and crude oil prices are among topics covered in this report.
- Senate Proposals to Enhance Chemical Facility Security
- No Description Available.
- Industrial Competitiveness and Technological Advancement: Debate Over Government Policy
- There is ongoing interest in the pace of U.S. technological advancement due to its influence on U.S. economic growth, productivity, and international competitiveness. Because technology can contribute to economic growth and productivity increases, congressional interest has focused on how to augment private-sector technological development. Congressional action has mandated specific technology development programs and obligations in federal agencies that did not initially support such efforts. Some legislative activity, beginning in the 104th Congress, has been directed at eliminating or significantly curtailing many of these federal efforts. Questions have been raised concerning the proper role of the federal government in technology development and the competitiveness of U.S. industry. As the 109th congress continues to develop its budget priorities, how the government encourages technological process in the private sector again may be explored and/or redefined.
- Renewable Energy: Tax Credit, Budget, and Electricity Production Issues
- This report details information such as history and analyses of renewable energy tax credit, budget, and electricity production issues.
- Dairy Policy Issues
- This report discusses several dairy issues that have been or are being considered by the 109th Congress, some of which affect the three major federal dairy policy tools -- the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program, federal milk marketing orders, and the dairy price support program.
- Insurance Regulation in the United States and Abroad
- This report will first give a statistical overview of various countries and then present a summary of U.S. insurance regulatory structure. This report also provides summaries of the systems in Canada, Australia, and Japan.
- Chemical Facility Security
- The potential for United States hazardous chemical facilities to become the targets of terrorist attacks is a concern which Congress has begun to address in earnest. While the likelihood of such attacks is low at present, Congress enacted legislation that requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to analyze such facilities and suggest enhancements in security and infrastructure. Such legislation--and future like legislation--could include requiring certain environmental and security standards in the future construction of new hazardous chemical facilities. Congress is focusing on educating the public and holding facility owners accountable to increase security, rather than simply restricting terrorists' access to information about the United States' chemical facility infrastructure.
- Gasoline Prices: New Legislation and Proposals
- This report discusses legislation and proposals regarding prices of gasoline. Policy options, oil-related legislation, and crude oil prices are among topics covered in this report.
- Government Access to Phone Calling Activity and Related Records: Legal Authorities
- This report summarizes statutory authorities regarding access by the Government, for either foreign intelligence or law enforcement purposes, to information related to telephone calling patterns or practices.
- Gasoline Prices: New Legislation and Proposals
- This report discusses legislation and proposals regarding prices of gasoline. Policy options, oil-related legislation, and crude oil prices are among topics covered in this report.