Congressional Research Service Reports - 462 Matching Results
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- Senate Committee Party Ratios: 98th-115th Congresses
- This report provides, in tabular form, Senate committee party ratios for 18 Congresses, covering the period of the 98th Congress (1983-1985) through April 2017, the first part of the 115th Congress (2017-2019).
- House Committee Party Ratios: 98th-115th Congresses
- This report documents, in tabular form, House committee party ratios for 18 Congresses -- covering the period from the 98th Congress (1983-1985) through February 2017, the first part of the 115th Congress (2017-2019).
- Speakers of the House: Elections, 1913-2017
- This report provides data on elections of the Speaker in each Congress since 1913, when the House first reached its present size of 435 Members. During that period (63rd through 115th Congresses), a Speaker was elected five times with the votes of less than a majority of the full membership.
- Unemployment Benefits: Legislative Issues in the 108th Congress
- This report discusses the federal-state unemployment compensation (UC) system, which pays benefits to covered workers who become involuntarily unemployed for economic reasons and meet state-established eligibility rules.
- Energy Policy: The Continuing Debate and Omnibus Energy Legislation
- This report discusses a variety of issues pertaining to energy policy. It includes information about most recent developments, background and analysis broken down into major categories, and relevant legislation.
- Trade Negotiations During the 109th Congress
- This report discusses trade issues in the 109th Congress. For over 50 years, U.S. trade officials have negotiated multilateral trade agreements to achieve lower trade barriers and rules to cover international trade. During the 108th Congress, U.S. officials negotiated and Congress approved four bilateral free-trade agreements with Australia, Chile, Morocco, and Singapore.
- Social Security Reform
- This report examines the debate over the future of the Social Security system. It includes discussion of recent developments; background and analysis with information about the basic debate, specific area of contention, reform initiatives; and relevant legislation.
- Safe Drinking Water Act: Implementation and Issues
- This report discusses key drinking water issues in the 108th Congress involving water infrastructure funding and problems caused by specific contaminants, such as the gasoline additive methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), perchlorate, and lead in drinking water. Congress last reauthorized the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) in 1996, and although funding authority for most SDWA programs expired in FY2003, broad reauthorization efforts were not pursued as EPA, states, and water utilities continued implementing the 1996 amendments.
- Clean Water Act Issues in the 108th Congress
- This report discusses issues regarding the Clean Water Act. Prospects for legislative initiatives to comprehensively amend the Clean Water Act (CWA) have stalled for some time over whether and exactly how to change the law, and Congress has recently focused legislative attention on narrow bills to extend or modify selected CWA programs, rather than taking up comprehensive proposals. For example, the 108th Congress enacted one bill amending the CWA, legislation to reauthorize the National Estuary Program (H.R. 4731, P.L. 108-399).
- Brownfields and Superfund Issues in the 108th Congress
- This report discusses the Superfund program for cleaning up the nation's worst hazardous waste sites, created by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, or CERCLA (P.L. 96-510, as amended). It includes recent development and background issues, superfund issues, revenue issues, comprehensive reauthorization, and legislation regarding superfund program.
- Federal Research and Development: Budgeting and Priority-Setting Issues, 108th Congress
- This report discusses federal funding for research and development. National R&D funding continues to grow, but the federal R&D share has declined to less than 30% of the total. Debates focus on which fields of federal R&D should be increased and how to set priorities and to "balance" health and nonhealth fields.
- The Davis-Bacon Act: Issues and Legislation During the 108th Congress
- This report discusses the debate surrounding the Davis-Bacon Act (1931, as amended), which requires, among other things, that not less than the locally-prevailing wage be paid to workers employed in federal contract construction. Through recent decades, the Act has become a continuing source of contention, particularly regarding its impacts, whether it should be modified, strengthened, or repealed, and if it is being administered effectively.
- Major Tax Issues in the 108th Congress
- This report provides an overview of major tax issues. It begins by describing three aspects of the economic context in which the tax policy debate during 2004 is likely to occur: the general state of the U.S. economy; the position of the federal budget; and the level of taxes in the United States.
- Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR): Controversies for the 108th Congress
- This report discusses one major element of the energy debate in the 108th Congress, which has been whether to approve energy development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in northeastern Alaska, and if so, under what conditions, or whether to continue to prohibit development to protect the area's biological resources. The Refuge is an area rich in fauna, flora, and commercial oil potential. Current law forbids energy leasing in the Refuge.
- Fishery, Aquaculture, and Marine Mammal Legislation in the 108th Congress
- This report discusses policy and legislation regarding fish and marine mammals. These animals are important resources in open ocean and nearshore coastal areas. Commercial and sport fishing are jointly managed by the federal government and individual states. Many laws and regulations guide the management of these resources by federal agencies.
- Soil and Water Conservation Issues
- This report discusses soil and water conservation, which were prominent farm policy topics in the 108th Congress as the Administration implemented provisions in the 2002 farm bill (P.L. 107-171). This farm bill increased spending and expanded the scope of the conservation effort by reauthorizing and amending most existing conservation programs and enacting new ones through FY2007.
- Amtrak Issues in the 108th Congress
- This report discusses a number of issues connected with Amtrak that Congress may consider. Amtrak does not earn enough revenue, or receive enough assistance, to cover its operating costs and capital needs. As a result, Amtrak is regularly on the verge of insolvency.
- Medicare Prescription Drug Proposals: Estimates of Aged Beneficiaries Who Fall Below Income Criteria, by State
- This report discusses bills related to Medicare benefits, which include additional assistance for low-income beneficiaries. The assistance would have been in the form of reduced, subsidized or eliminated premiums, deductibles and other cost-sharing. Proposals in the 108th Congress will probably also include some of these features for low-income beneficiaries.
- Energy Tax Policy
- This report discusses the history, current posture, and outlook for federal energy tax policy. It also discusses recent energy tax proposals, focusing on the major energy tax provisions that were debated as part of omnibus energy legislation in the 108th Congress (e.g., H.R. 6), which may be reintroduced in the 109th Congress.
- Renewable Energy: Tax Credit, Budget, and Electricity Production Issues
- This report discusses budget issues regarding renewable energy programs. In the 108th Congress, debate over renewable energy programs has focused on tax credits, incentives, budget, and provisions of the omnibus energy policy bill H.R. 6.
- Free Trade Agreements: Impact on U.S. Trade and Implications for U.S. Trade Policy
- This report provides background on Free Trade Areas (FTAs) including: definitions of Free Trade Areas, why countries form FTAs, FTAs in the context of U.S. trade policy, Bush Administration policies and recent developments, the economic impact of FTAs, whether FTAs create trade or divert it, FTAs the the WTO, debate points related to FTAs, relevant legislation, and final conclusions and implications for Congress.
- Estate and Gift Taxes: Economic Issues
- This report discusses how the estate and gift tax works and examines various policy options. The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA, P.L. 107-16) repeals the estate tax after 2009. In the 108th Congress, some policymakers have proposed eliminating the sunset provision in the EGTRRA, thus making repeal of the estate tax permanent.
- Endangered Species: Difficult Choices
- This report discusses various measures being considered by Congress that propose to amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA). Major issues in recent years have focused on whether to incorporate further protection for property owners and reduce regulatory impacts, whether to increase the protection afforded listed species, or whether to modify various aspects of the ESA, such as the role of science in decision-making.
- Congressional Roll Call and Other Record Votes: First Congress Through 108th Congress, 1789 Through 2004
- This report is a compilation of information on roll call and other record votes taken in the House of Representatives and Senate from the first Congress through the 108th Congress, 1789 through 2004.
- War On Drugs: Legislation in the 108th Congress and Related Developments
- This report covers significant legislative and oversight activities of the 108th Congress that concern domestic law enforcement aspects of federal anti-drug policy. It also includes an overview of significant executive branch actions and other current developments of likely interest to the congressional audience that follows this issue.
- Naming Post Offices Through Legislation
- This report describes how the practice of naming post offices through public law originated and how it is commonly done today. House and Senate practices for approving legislation and procedures followed by the U.S. Postal Service in organizing a dedication ceremony, are also described. An increasingly common form of legislation is the naming of post offices for former Members of Congress or other figures of local or national renown. About one in six public laws passed by the 108th Congress was a post office naming bill approved under suspension of the rules. Unanimity of a state's congressional delegation is required for the movement of naming bills to the floor of the House or Senate. The costs of dedicating a post office in the name of an individual are modest, and this action results in no change in public identification of the facility by its geographic location.
- Budget Reconciliation Process: Timing of Committee Responses to Reconciliation Directives
- This report examines the timing of certain stages of the budget reconciliation process and the extent to which the submission due date included in a reconciliation instruction is a predictor for the timing of committee response. Specifically, it provides information on the dates by which committees have been directed to respond to reconciliation directives and the timing of House and Senate committees in responding to such directives in the past 14 Congresses (101st-114th Congresses).
- Trade Negotiations During the 109th Congress
- This report discusses trade issues in the 109th Congress. For over 50 years, U.S. trade officials have negotiated multilateral trade agreements to achieve lower trade barriers and rules to cover international trade. During the 108th Congress, U.S. officials negotiated and Congress approved four bilateral free-trade agreements with Australia, Chile, Morocco, and Singapore.
- Endangered Species: Difficult Choices
- This report discusses various measures being considered by Congress that propose to amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA). Major issues in recent years have focused on whether to incorporate further protection for property owners and reduce regulatory impacts, whether to increase the protection afforded listed species, or whether to modify various aspects of the ESA, such as the role of science in decision-making.
- Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act of 2004 (S. 2290, 108th Congress)
- This report provides an overview of S. 2290, 108th Congress, the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act of 2004 (or FAIR Act of 2004). The bill is a revised version of S. 1125, 108th Congress, and would create the Office of Asbestos Disease Compensation to award damages to asbestos claimants on a no-fault basis. Asbestos claims could no longer be filed or pursued under state law, except for the enforcement of judgments no longer subject to any appeal or judicial review before the date of enactment of the bill.
- Small Business Tax Relief: Proposals in the 108th Congress and Their Economic Justification
- This report examines the economic arguments for and against small business tax subsidies in the context of current congressional proposals to expand them. It begins with a brief description of current federal tax subsidies for small firms, moves on to consider the principal economic arguments for and against these subsidies, and concludes with a discussion of proposals in the 108th Congress to expand small business tax subsidies and their likely economic effects.
- Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR): Legislative Actions Through the 108th Congress
- This report provides a summary of legislative attempts from the 95th through the 108th Congresses, with emphasis on the 107th and 108th Congress, to address the issues of energy development and preservation in the Refuge.
- Vacancies and Special Elections: 108th Congress
- No Description Available.
- Wildfire Protection in the 108th Congress
- No Description Available.
- Presidential Appointments to Full-time Positions in Executive Departments During the 108th Congress, 2003-2004
- No Description Available.
- China-U.S. Relations: Current Issues for the 108th Congress
- This report summarizes the current developments in U.S-PRC relations, including current and pending congressional actions involving the PRC. It also points out U.S. Policy Trends and Key Issues in U.S- PRC Relations.
- The DHL Airways / Astar Air Cargo Controversy and Legislation in the 108th Congress
- No Description Available.
- Clean Air Act Issues in the 108th Congress
- This report provides information about the Clean Air Act Issues in the 106th Congress. Congress last enacted major amendments to the clear air act in 1990 and EPA is in the midst of implementing numerous provisions of those amendments.
- Environmental Protection Issues in the 108th Congress
- No Description Available.
- Vacancies and Special Elections: 108th Congress
- No Description Available.
- Taxes, Exports, and International Investment: Proposals in the 108th Congress
- No Description Available.
- Senate Committee Party Ratios: 98th-114th Congresses
- No Description Available.
- Child Nutrition and WIC Legislation in the 108th and 109th Congresses
- Child nutrition programs and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children are typically subject to periodic comprehensive reviews, when several appropriations and other authorities expire and have to be reauthorized.
- Reauthorization of Title III and Title V of the Higher Education Act: Issues for the 108th Congress
- This report provides an overview of the various programs established by Titles III and V of the Higher Education Act (HEA). The report primarily focuses upon the structure of the programs, and includes data on participation and annual funding. It concludes with an analysis of possible issues related to Title III and Title V that may be considered during the HEA reauthorization.
- Clean Air Act Issues in the 108th Congress
- This report discusses the conference report on the energy bill which came to the House and Senate floor for action the week of November 17, 2003, that contained several clean air act provisions. It also contains the most recent developments on clean air act issues.
- Internet Gambling: A Sketch of Legislative Proposals in the 108th and 109th Congresses
- This report examines two bills that have been introduced in the 109th Congress to address issues regarding Internet gambling.
- Presidential Appointments to Full-Time Positions in Independent and Other Agencies During the 108th Congress
- No Description Available.
- Lame Duck Sessions of Congress, 1935-2004 (74th-108th Congresses)
- No Description Available.
- Major Tax Issues in the 108th Congress
- Tax policy is frequently considered by policymakers as a tool for boosting economic performance in various ways, and the likely economic effects of tax policy are often hotly debated. A brief overview of the current economic context is thus a good starting point for looking at tax issues facing the current Congress. This report provides an overview of major tax issues. The report begins by describing three aspects of the economic context in which the tax policy debate during 2004 is likely to occur: the general state of the U.S. economy; the position of the federal budget; and the level of taxes in the United States.
- Membership of the 108th Congress: A Profile
- This report presents a profile of the membership of the 108th Congress. Included is information on numbers of Members, party affiliation, average age and length of service, occupations, religious affiliation, military service, female and minority Members, and foreign-born Members.