Congressional Research Service Reports - 30 Matching Results
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- The Debt Limit: History and Recent Increases
- This report discusses how the total debt of the federal government can increase, an historical overview of debt limits, and how the current economic slowdown has led to higher deficits and thereby a series of debt limit increases, as well as legislation related to these increases.
- Noise Abatement and Control: An Overview of Federal Standards and Regulations
- No Description Available.
- The Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) Loan Program: Status and Issues
- This report discusses the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) Loan Program by the Department of Energy (DOE). Furthermore, the report establishes the program as giving loans to businesses in the automotive industry to make new factories or redesign old ones to produce vehicles that achieve at least 25% higher fuel economy than vehicles from 2005. The report also covers the spending on the program and the requirements to receive a loan.
- Tracking Current Federal Legislation and Regulations: A Guide to Basic Sources
- This report introduces selected basic sources that are useful in obtaining background information or specific facts on the status of federal legislative or regulatory initiatives. It includes telephone, online, and media sources are included, as well as pertinent directories, such as those of organizations that track areas of interest. Annotations describing each source's contents and organization are included so that researchers can select those that most closely fit their needs. Internet addresses usually provide information about the items, rather than access to them.
- Tracking Current Federal Legislation and Regulations: A Guide to Basic Sources
- This report introduces selected basic sources that are useful in obtaining background information or specific facts on the status of federal legislative or regulatory initiatives. It includes telephone, online, and media sources are included, as well as pertinent directories, such as those of organizations that track areas of interest. Annotations describing each source's contents and organization are included so that researchers can select those that most closely fit their needs. Internet addresses usually provide information about the items, rather than access to them.
- China's Prospects After Tiananmen Square: Current Conditions, Future Scenarios, and a Survey of Expert Opinion
- Since the violent military crackdown around Tiananmen Square, most Western observers have struggled to understand and explain three major questions concerning the Chinese situation: first, why a forward-looking and reform-minded Chinese leadership chose such violent force over a more accommodating approach toward the peaceful public protests of June 1989; second, how to assess current political and economic conditions in China in light of Tiananmen Square; and third, what the events of the last two years mean for China's future prospects.
- Are High Interest Rates a Threat to Sustained Economic Recovery?
- A major question that arises in Congress during its considerations of what policies promote and what inhibit the restoration of a healthy economy is the influence that interest rates exert. In particular, are high interest rates a threat to sustained economic recovery?
- U.S. Terms of Trade: Significance, Trends, and Policy
- No Description Available.
- Budget Deficits: Causes, Effects and Some Remedial Options
- In 1981 Congress enacted extensive changes in taxing and spending policies that supporters of these changes expected to generate sufficient revenues, despite a series of tax rate cuts, to balance the budget by FY84. After the onset of recession in early 1982, however, the Reagan Administration's projections showed widening budget deficits, which culminated in an actual FY83 deficit of $195.4 billion. Despite enactment of the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982, and, more recently, the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984, large deficits are expected to persist, even under continued favorable economic conditions, unless Federal taxing and spending policies are altered dramatically.
- Trade, Competitiveness, and International Economic Policy: A Bibliography of CRS Products
- Trade-related issues promise to play a major role in legislative actions of the 103nd Congress. This bibliography lists the currently available products issued since 1991 by CRS researchers on trade-related topics, including U.S. trade policy, NAFTA and the Uruguay Round, industry and technology issues, foreign investment concerns, and relations with major trading partners.
- Outsourcing and Insourcing Jobs in the U.S. Economy: An Overview of Evidence Based on Foreign Investment Data
- This report provides an overview of evidence based on roreign investment data that analyzes the extent of direct investment into and out of the economy, as well as the relationship between direct investment and the broader economic changes that are occurring in the U.S. economy.
- Outsourcing and Insourcing Jobs in the U.S. Economy: Evidence Based on Foreign Investment Data
- This report addresses the issue of jobs outsourcing by analyzing the extent of direct investment into and out of the economy, the role such investment plays in U.S. trade, jobs, and production, and the relationship between direct investment and the broader economic changes that are occurring in the U.S. economy.
- Iran Sanctions
- This report analyzes U.S. and international sanctions against Iran and provides some examples, based on open sources, of companies and countries that conduct business with Iran. CRS has no way to independently corroborate any of the reporting on which these examples are based and no mandate to assess whether any firm or other entity is complying with U.S. or international sanctions against Iran. The sections are grouped by function, in the chronological order in which the themes have emerged
- The United Arab Emirates (UAE): Issues for U.S. Policy
- This report describes the open economy and society of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as well as U.S. concern over proliferation of advanced technology due to said open economy and the UAE's lax export controls. This report describes these issues in relation to a recently-signed U.S.-UAE civilian nuclear agreement. It also provides a general description of the UAE's government and political structure, as well as the effects of the recent global economic downturn on the UAE in general and on the city of Dubai in particular.
- Federal Reserve: Oversight and Disclosure Issues
- The report discusses recently-enacted legislation and legislation introduced in the 113th Congress related to the Federal Reserve (Fed). It also provides information about the potential impact of greater oversight and disclosure on the Fed's independence and its ability to achieve its macroeconomic and financial stability goals.
- Financial Turmoil: Federal Reserve Policy Responses
- The Federal Reserve (Fed) has been central in the policy response to the financial turmoil that began in August 2007. It has sharply increased reserves to the banking system through open market operations and lowered the federal funds rate and discount rate on several occasions. This report reviews the Fed's actions since August 2007 and analyzes the policy issues raised by those actions.
- Has the Economy Reached Full Employment? If So, Will It Stay There?
- This report considers the question of whether the U.S. has reached full employment (defined as the lowest level of unemployment that is sustainable for the economy without over-inflating wages) and provides statistical charts of the unemployment rate and labor force participation rates along with analysis of the data.
- Countercyclical Job Creation Programs
- To counter the effect of recessions on workers, Congress has passed legislation to spur job creation through increased spending on public works (infrastructure) and public service programs, revenue sharing with state governments, and employment tax credits. Although the economic stimulus measure enacted during the 110th Congress did not include these direct job creation approaches, additional spending on infrastructure in particular was considered before Congress recessed. (See CRS Report RL34349, Economic Slowdown: Issues and Policies, coordinated by Jane G. Gravelle et al.) Infrastructure spending continues to be mentioned in the context of a second stimulus package, as do state and local government revenue sharing and a jobs tax credit. The focus of this report is on the four countercyclical job creation approaches and related legislation enacted since the Great Depression's end.
- Current Economic Conditions and Selected Forecasts
- This report contains information regarding the Current Economic Conditions, Recent Macroeconomic Developments, Posture of Monetary and Fiscal Policy, Summary of Current Developments, Sources of GDP Growth, Economic Forecasts 2001, and Promotion of Economic Growth. The report also presents statistics regarding the Growth Rate of Real GDP v. Final Sales, Civilian Unemployment Rate, Rate of Change in the Consumer Price Index, Rate of Change in the GDP Deflators, Rate of Change in Labor Costs, U.S. Foreign Trade Deficit, Alternative Measures of Fiscal Policy, The Growth Rates of the Monetary Aggregates, etc.
- East Asian Regional Architecture: New Economic and Security Arrangements and U.S. Policy
- The purpose of this report is to examine the developing regional architecture--the growing trade, financial, and political arrangements among countries of East Asia--and what that implies for U.S. interests and policy. The focus is on China, South Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia with some mention of links with Australia and New Zealand. The types of arrangements include bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs), regional trade pacts, currency and monetary arrangements, and political and security arrangements.
- South Korea's Economy and Trade
- South Korea has become a mid-level economy with a growing consumer market and industrial base. It now is in transition. It can no longer compete easily in low-wage, low-technology manufacturing with other countries of Asia, yet it does not have the technology and expertise to compete fully with industries from Japan, the United States, and Europe.
- U.S. International Trade: Trends and Forecasts
- This report discusses the U.S. trade deficit in light of the 2008 global financial crisis, with emphasis on international trade and U.S. trade policy, most recent developments in trade of goods and service, trade forecasts for the future, and how issues such as the U.S. trade deficit and international trade, particularly with China, are commonly perceived.
- Europe's Energy Security: Options and Challenges to Natural Gas Supply Diversification
- This report focuses on potential approaches that Europe might employ to diversify its sources of natural gas supply, Russia's role in Europe's natural gas policies, and key factors that could hinder efforts to develop alternative suppliers of natural gas. The report assesses the potential suppliers of natural gas to Europe and the short- to medium-term hurdles needed to be overcome for those suppliers to be credible, long-term providers of natural gas to Europe. The report looks at North Africa, potentially the most realistic supply alternative in the near-term, but notes that the region will have to resolve its current political, economic, and security instability as well as the internal structural changes to the natural gas industry. Central Asia, which may have the greatest amounts of natural gas, would need to construct lengthy pipelines through multiple countries to move its natural gas to Europe.
- The Broader Middle East and North Africa Initiative: An Overview
- The Broader Middle East and North Africa Initiative (BMENA) is a multilateral development and reform plan aimed at fostering economic and political liberalization in a wide geographic area of Arab and non-Arab Muslim countries. In December 2004, the first BMENA meeting took place in Rabat, Morocco and was called the “Forum for the Future.”At the forum, foreign ministers and finance ministers of the countries in the region stretching from Morocco to Pakistan as well as from the countries of the G8 pledged to create several new development programs and committed $60 million to a regional fund for business development. Critics of BMENA contend that the initiative focuses too heavily on economic issues instead of political reform and does little to strengthen non-governmental organizations and civil society groups in Arab and non- Arab Muslim countries.
- Structure and Functions of the Federal Reserve System
- No Description Available.
- Panama: Political and Economic Conditions and U.S. Relations
- This report discusses the current political and economic conditions in the country of Panama, which has made notable political and economic progress since the 1989 U.S. military intervention that ousted the regime of General Manuel Noriega from power. The United States has close relations with Panama, stemming in large part from the extensive linkages developed when the canal was under U.S. control. This report describes the U.S.-Panama relationship at length, including trade relations.
- Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP): Implementation and Status
- This report provides a brief outline of the programs created under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), changes made by Congress, and a summary of the current status and estimated costs of the program. It also provides an Appendix that contains detailed discussions of the individual TARP programs.
- U.S. Foreign Aid to the Palestinians
- In response to ongoing financial turmoil that began in the subprime mortgage-backed securities market, the federal government has intervened with private corporations on a large scale and in an ad hoc manner three times from the beginning of 2008 through September 19, 2008. These interventions have prompted questions regarding the taxpayer costs and the sources of funding. The federal government may or may not end up seeing a positive fiscal contribution from the recent interventions. The results of previous government financial interventions are summarized in this report.
- Price Increases in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina: Authority to Limit Price Gouging
- No Description Available.
- Belarus: Background and U.S. Policy Concerns
- This report provides an overview of the history of U.S.-Belarus relations. Current issues include U.S. and international attempts to influence Aleksandr Lukashenko -- the Belarusian President -- toward making the Belarusian government more democratic and open.