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The 2003 Tax Cut: Proposals and Issues

Description: This report provides a brief description of each tax cut proposal, including major proposals offered by the Democrats in both the House and the Senate during 2003. It discusses the distributional affects of the proposals and potential effects on short and long term economic growth.
Date: July 16, 2004
Creator: Brumbaugh, David L. & Richards, Don C.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Safe Drinking Water Act: Implementation and Issues

Description: 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 … more
Date: December 8, 2004
Creator: Tiemann, Mary
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Clean Water Act Issues in the 108th Congress

Description: 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 Estuar… more
Date: December 6, 2004
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Brownfields and Superfund Issues in the 108th Congress

Description: 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.
Date: October 27, 2004
Creator: Reisch, Mark
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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School Choice: Current Legislation

Description: This report provides an overview of current local, state, and federal policies and programs that support school choice and identifies and summarizes recent federal school choice legislation.
Date: November 24, 2004
Creator: Smole, David P.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Child Welfare: Reauthorization of the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program in the 107th Congress

Description: This report discusses the reauthorization of the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Amendments of 2001. The new law maintains the FY2001 mandatory funding level, authorizes additional discretionary funding, and grants new program authority to provide mentoring services for children of prisoners. In addition, the enacted legislation allows states to use Promoting Safe and Stable Families funds for infant "safe haven" programs, provides for reallocation of unused program funds, clarifies language… more
Date: January 24, 2002
Creator: Stoltzfus, Emilie & Spar, Karen
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR): Controversies for the 108th Congress

Description: 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.
Date: November 1, 2004
Creator: Corn, M. L.; Gelb, Bernard A. & Baldwin, Pamela
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Soil and Water Conservation Issues

Description: 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.
Date: November 24, 2004
Creator: Zinn, Jeffrey A.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Forestry in the 2007 Farm Bill

Description: This report briefly describes the Agriculture Committees' jurisdiction over forestry, with examples of legislation addressed by the committees. It discusses forestry issues likely to be debated in the upcoming farm bill and presents information on the forestry provisions in the Administration's proposal for the 2007 farm bill, followed by the forestry provisions in the Farm, Nutrition, and Bioenergy Act of 2007 (H.R. 2419).
Date: August 20, 2007
Creator: Gorte, Ross W.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Exemptions from Environmental Law for the Department of Defense: Background and Issues for Congress

Description: Over time, Congress has included exemptions in several environmental statutes to ensure that requirements of those statutes would not restrict military training needs to the extent that national security would be compromised. This report discusses these exemptions and congressional disagreement over the need for broader exemptions in the absence of data on the overall impact of environmental requirements on training and readiness.
Date: January 3, 2007
Creator: Bearden, David M.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Perchlorate Contamination of Drinking Water: Regulatory Issues and Legislative Actions

Description: This report reviews perchlorate water contamination issues and developments. Concern over the potential health risks of perchlorate exposure has increased, and some states and members of Congress have urged the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set a drinking water standard for perchlorate.
Date: February 3, 2006
Creator: Tiemann, Mary
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Brief Summaries of Federal Animal Protection Statutes

Description: This report contains brief summaries of federal animal protection statutes, listed alphabetically. It includes statutes enacted to implement treaties, those that protect certain groups of animals (e.g., protection of "game" animals rather than predators), statutes to conserve fish, statutes that allow the disabled to use service animals, and statutes aimed at acts of animal rights advocates (the Animal Enterprise Protection Act of 1992, and the Recreational Hunting Safety and Preservation Act o… more
Date: October 16, 2006
Creator: Cohen, Henry
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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USA PATRIOT Act Sunset: Provisions That Were to Expire on December 31, 2005

Description: This report examines various provisions of the Patriot Act that were set to expire on December 31, 2005. Their expiration date has been postponed until March 10, 2006. The expiring sections deal with the power of federal authorities to conduct searches and seizures, generally searches and seizures relating to communications.
Date: February 6, 2006
Creator: Doyle, Charles
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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U.S. National Science Foundation: An Overview

Description: This report discusses the National Science Foundation (NSF), which was created by the National Science Foundation Act of 1950, as amended (P.L. 81-507). The NSF has the broad mission of supporting science and engineering in general and funding basic research across many disciplines. The agency provides support for investigator-initiated, merit-reviewed, competitively selected awards, state-of-the-art tools, and instrumentation and facilities.
Date: November 6, 2006
Creator: Matthews, Christine M.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Air Quality Issues and Animal Agriculture: EPA's Air Compliance Agreement

Description: This report discusses a plan announced by EPA in January 2005, called the Air Compliance Agreement, intended to produce air quality monitoring data on animal agriculture emissions from a small number of farms, while at the same time protecting all participants (including farms where no monitoring takes place) through a "safe harbor" from liability under certain provisions of federal environmental laws.
Date: August 26, 2008
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Endangered Species Act (ESA) in the 109th Congress: Conflicting Values and Difficult Choices

Description: This report discusses various proposals to amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA; P.L. 93-205, 16 U.S.C. §§1531-1543). Major issues include changing the role of science in decision-making, modifying critical habitat (CH) procedures, reducing conflicts with Department of Defense activities, incorporating further protection and incentives for property owners, and increasing protection of listed species, among others.
Date: April 12, 2006
Creator: Buck, Eugene H.; Corn, M. Lynne; Sheikh, Pervaze A.; Baldwin, Pamela & Meltz, Robert
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Ocean Dumping Act: A Summary of the Law

Description: This report presents a summary of the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act of 1972 (MPRSA, P.L. 92-532), describing the essence of the statute. The law has two basic aims: to regulate intentional ocean disposal of materials, and to authorize related research.
Date: December 13, 2006
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Clean Air Act Issues in the 109th Congress

Description: This report discusses major decisions on clean air issues facing the courts and the executive branch in 2006. One focus will be EPA's recent proposal to strengthen air quality standards for fine particles. Other issues of continuing interest are EPA's 2005 decisions limiting interstate transport of air pollution and establishing cap-and-trade systems for emissions from coal fired power plants, and the agency's proposed changes to New Source Review.
Date: March 21, 2006
Creator: McCarthy, James E.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Water Quality Issues in the 110th Congress: Oversight and Implementation

Description: This report discusses issues surrounding the Clean Water Act (CWA) of 1972 and programs set up to meet the water quality standards that it outlined. The report focuses specifically on the legislative issues for the 110th Congress in relation to the CWA. It also includes a brief comparison of the expected appropriations for FY2007 and FY2008.
Date: March 15, 2007
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Exemptions from Environmental Law for the Department of Defense: An Overview of Congressional Action

Description: This report discusses the difficulty of assessing the impact of environmental requirements on military readiness, broader exemptions for military activities that Congress has enacted, and DOD's request for additional exemptions.
Date: January 9, 2006
Creator: Bearden, David M.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Country-of-Origin Labeling for Foods

Description: This report discusses the 2002 farm bill (P.L. 107-171) as amended by the 2008 farm bill (P.L. 110-246), which states that many U.S. retailers must begin providing country-of-origin labeling (COOL) for fresh produce, red meats, peanuts, chicken, ginseng, pecans, and macadamia nuts.
Date: September 16, 2008
Creator: Becker, Geoffrey S.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The National Environmental Policy Act: Streamlining NEPA

Description: This report discusses elements of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA; 42 U.S.C. §§ 4321, et seq.) relevant to streamlining, issues associated with determining project delays attributed to NEPA, common streamlining methods, and recently proposed and enacted legislative and administrative streamlining activities.
Date: February 13, 2006
Creator: Luther, Linda
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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