Congressional Research Service Reports - 563 Matching Results
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- NATO Burdensharing and Kosovo: A Preliminary Report
- No Description Available.
- Twenty-five Largest Mergers and Acquisitions by Corporations: 1998
- No Description Available.
- Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP): Provisions in the Consolidated Appropriations Act for FY2000
- No Description Available.
- Private Elementary and Secondary Schools and Students: Numbers and Characteristics
- No Description Available.
- Social Security: Fact Sheet on Changes in the Retirement Age
- No Description Available.
- Federal Regulatory Reform: An Overview
- This report provides an overview federal regulatory reform.
- Excess Defense Articles: Grants and Sales to Allies and Friendly Countries
- No Description Available.
- Appropriations for FY2000: Legislative Branch
- Appropriations are one part of a complex federal budget process that includes budget resolutions, appropriations (regular, supplemental, and continuing) bills, rescissions, and budget reconciliation bills. This report is a guide to one of the 13 regular appropriations bills that Congress passes each year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Legislative Branch Appropriations.
- Campaign Finance Bills in the 106th Congress: Comparison of Shays-Meehan, as passed, with McCain-Feingold, as considered
- On September 14, 1999, the House passed the Shays-Meehan bill--H.R. 417, the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 1999, as amended, by a vote of 252-177. Senate sponsors of the companion measure, S. 26 (McCain-Feingold), revised their proposal and, on September 16, introduced S. 1593, containing just four sections of H.R. 417 and S. 26. The Senate debated S. 1593 from October 13-20, culminating in unsuccessful cloture votes October 19 on two amendments: Daschle amendment 2298, substituting text nearly identical to the House-passed H.R. 417; and Reid amendment 2229 (a perfecting amendment to no. 2298), substituting text of S. 1593 as offered, plus McCain amendment 2294 (adopted October 14), which added certain disclosure requirements. This report compares provisions of the House-passed bill with the one considered by the Senate in October 1999. No further updates are planned.
- Campaign Finance Debate in the 106th Congress: Comparison of Measures Under House Consideration
- On September 14, the House passed H.R. 417 on a vote of 252-177, as amended by three perfecting amendments: Bereuter/Wicker #6; Faleomavaega #1; and Sweeney #21. This report features two tables. Table 1 summarizes and compares the ten perfecting amendments, current law, and the Shays-Meehan proposal. Table 2 summarizes and compares current law, the Shays-Meehan bill, and the three substitute amendments.
- Campaign Financing
- This is one report in the series of reports that discuss the campaign finance practices and related issues. Concerns over financing federal elections have become a seemingly perennial aspect of our political system, centered on the enduring issues of high campaign costs and reliance on interest groups for needed campaign funds. The report talks about the today’s paramount issues such as perceived loopholes in current law and the longstanding issues: overall costs, funding sources, and competition.
- Energy Tax Policy: An Economic Analysis
- The report provides background on the theory and application of tax policy as it relates to the energy sector, particularly with respect to the theory of market failure in the energy sector and the suggested policy remedies. This background provides a context for understanding how current or proposed energy tax policy may affect other policy objectives or be affected by such objectives.
- State-by-State Comparison of Selected Electricity Restructuring Provisions
- Since 1996, twenty-one states have restructured their electricity markets. While the extent of this restructuring varies by state, four issues have generally been considered by all state legislatures: stranded costs, aggregation, universal service, and public benefits. This report compares the treatment of these issues in the restructuring legislation of the twenty-one states. Using information collected directly from the relevant state laws and the rules promulgated by state public utility commissions, this report provides a state-by-state comparison of the restructuring provisions relating to the four issues.
- Agricultural Export and Food Aid Programs
- This report discusses projected agricultural imports and exports for FY2002, as well as legislation that deals with federal programs in support of agricultural exports and federal aid dedicated to farms and agricultural reform.
- Federal Crop Insurance: Issues in the 106th Congress
- No Description Available.
- The Glass Ceiling: A Fact Sheet
- No Description Available.
- Iran: U.S. Policy and Options
- This report analyzes developments in U.S. policy toward Iran, including existing U.S. sanctions in force against that country. The report discusses changes in Iranian policy and in U.S. policy toward Iran since the May 1997 election of a relative moderate, Mohammad Khatemi, as Iran's President. The report analyzes the outstanding issues that divide the two countries, and conditions under which Iran might agree to U.S. overtures to improve relations with Iran's government.
- Iran: U.S. Policy and Options
- No Description Available.
- The Natural Resources and Environment Function in the FY2000 Federal Budget: A Description of Programs and Funding
- No Description Available.
- Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East
- No Description Available.
- Agriculture: A List of Websites
- This list provides a sampling of the rapidly proliferating number of agricultural resources available on the Internet. It is not intended to be exhaustive. It is divided into 27 categories.
- The Consumer Price Index: Recent Improvements and Prospective Changes
- As part of a long running effort to make the Consumer Price Index (CPI) a better measure of price change, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the Department of Labor has made a number of changes in recent years which have affected actual measures of inflation and hence both federal outlays and receipts. This report summarizes those changes, presents estimates of their effect on measured inflation, and expands what other changes are expected for the CPI.
- Supplemental Security Income (SSI): Fraud Reduction Provisions in the Foster Care Independence Act of 1999 (P.L. 106-169)
- No Description Available.
- Budget FY2000: A Chronology with Internet Access
- This report consists of a chronology with internet access with budget FY 2000.
- User Fees: Applicable Budget Enforcement Procedures
- No Description Available.
- Electricity Restructuring and Tax-Exempt Bonds: Economic Analysis of Legislative Proposals
- Tax-exempt bonds reduce public power's interest cost on debt and enable it to lower the price of electricity. This subsidy makes taxpayers better off only if the private market fails to provide the correct amount of electricity. In general, the private market can provide the correct amount of electricity; in those cases when it can not, the tax-exempt bond subsidy is unlikely to correct the problem. Tax-exempt bond legislation has been consistent with this perspective that an interest subsidy for electricity production does not correct a market failure; its focus has been to prohibit the spread of subsidized public power beyond its traditional service areas.
- Appropriations for FY2000: Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies
- Appropriations are one part of a complex federal budget process that includes budget resolutions, appropriations (regular, supplemental, and continuing) bills, rescissions, and budget reconciliation bills. This report is a guide to one of the 13 regular appropriations bills that Congress passes each year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary and Related Agencies.
- Child Labor and the International Labor Organization (ILO)
- This short report discusses the International Labor Organization (ILO) against the exploitation of children in the labor market and the rapidly growing ILO technical program that is geared toward reducing child labor around the world.
- S. 625, The Bankruptcy Reform Act, in the Senate: Selected Amendments
- From Summary: "This report surveys selected amendments to the bill which were passed prior to adjournment. On November 4, 1999, before adjournment of the first session of the 106th Congress, S. 625, 106th Cong., 1st Sess. (1999), the Bankruptcy Reform Act, was brought to the floor of the Senate for consideration. More than 300 germane and nongermane amendments were offered."
- Appropriations for FY2004: Energy and Water Development
- This report is a guide to one of the 13 regular appropriations bills that Congress considers each year. It summarizes the status of the bill, its scope, major issues, funding levels, and related congressional activity, and is updated as events warrant.
- Air Quality and Electricity: Enforcing New source Review
- This report discusses seven law suits that the Justice Department filed against electric utilities in the Midwest and South in violation of the New Source Review (NSR) and Clean Air Act (CAA). The EPA is attempting to use the NSR and CAA to reduce emissions, even thought they believe that some sources are evading NSR requirements.
- Congress and the Fusion Energy Sciences Program: A Historical Analysis
- The U.S. government has been funding research into controlled thermonuclear fusion since 1951. Since 1957, when the program was declassified, a public record is available in the form of appropriations and authorization reports presenting congressional decisions about fusion research. This report analyzes that record in order to assess how the program may fare in the future. The program recently underwent a major restructuring at the direction of Congress, and is currently establishing plans about how to proceed toward the goal of developing a practical fusion powerplant. These plans are likely to be the subject of close congressional scrutiny during review of the FY2001 budget request from the Department of Energy
- Food and Drug Administration: Selected Funding and Policy Issues for FY2000
- This report discusses funding and policy issues regarding the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is responsible for ensuring the safety of foods, drugs, medical devices, cosmetics, and other products.
- Debt Reduction: Initiatives for the Most Heavily Indebted Poor Countries
- This report offers a broad overview of the debate concerning debt reduction for poor developing countries. It profiles the scope and structure of debt and reviews previous debt relief strategies and the current HIPC Initiative. It analyzes and compares competing alternatives endorsed by the Administration, congressional activists, NGOs, and other G-7 governments. Several key issues, such as costs, impact, and conditionality, of pending proposals are also assessed.
- Ecuador’s Brady Bond Default: Background and Implications
- No Description Available.
- Federal Grazing Regulations: Public Lands Council v. Babbitt
- This report discusses new regulations on livestock grazing on lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management became effective August 21, 1995. Many aspects of the new regulations were challenged in Public Lands Council v. Babbitt. A federal district court upheld many of the regulations, but struck down four of them and enjoined their implementation. At the appellate level, only the new regulation allowing conservation use to the exclusion of livestock grazing for the full term of a permit was held invalid. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case and argument has been set for March 1, 2000.
- Going to Conference in the Senate
- This report discusses the steps that the Senate must take, and one more step that it may take, as it arranges to send a bill to conference committee.
- Trade Adjustment Assistance for Firms: Economic, Program, and Policy Issues
- While many policymakers believe that free trade provides benefits to all trading partners, reducing barriers to trade forces firms and industries to adjust to stiffer global competition. For some, the adjustment process can be difficult and Congress, in recognizing this problem, has authorized programs to assist trade-impacted firms, industries, and workers.
- Medicare Beneficiary Access to Care: The Effects of New Prospective Payment Systems on Outpatient Hospital Care, Home Health Care, and Skilled Nursing Facility Care
- This report discusses the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (BBA 97), which required that prospective payment systems replace retrospective cost-based reimbursement systems for Medicare beneficiaries receiving care in hospital outpatient departments, from home health care agencies, and in skilled nursing facilities.
- NAFTA: Estimated U.S. Job “Gains” and “Losses” by State Over 5½ Years
- No Description Available.
- Senate Committees: Categories and Rules for Committee Assignments
- No Description Available.
- Senate Committees: Categories and Rules for Committee Assignments
- No Description Available.
- EPA's Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) Program: Highlights of Proposed Changes and Impacts on Agriculture
- In August 1999 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed regulations to clarify and strengthen the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program under section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act. Section 303(d) requires states to identify surface waters for which wastewater discharge limits are not stringent enough to achieve water quality standards and to allocate further required pollutant reductions among sources in order to attain those standards. This report discusses the major changes in EPA's proposals, compared with existing regulatory program requirements, and potential impacts on agriculture and forestry sources, which have been controversial.
- Global Climate Change: The Role for Energy Efficiency
- This report reviews the role of energy efficiency in federal policies to curb CO2 emissions. In particular, it discusses targets for CO2 reductions, projected energy efficiency impacts, strategies for measuring impacts, and legislative proposals that would affect support for energy efficiency programs.
- Appropriations for FY2000: Department of Transportation and Related Agencies
- Appropriations are one part of a complex federal budget process that includes budget resolutions, appropriations (regular, supplemental, and continuing) bills, rescissions, and budget reconciliation bills. This report is a guide to one of the 13 regular appropriations bills that Congress passes each year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the Subcommittees on Transportation of the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations.
- Campaign Finance: Constitutional and Legal Issues of Soft Money
- Soft money is a major issue in the campaign finance reform debate because these generally unregulated funds are perceived as resulting from a loophole in the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA). Generally, soft money is funds that are raised and spent according to applicable state laws, which FECA prohibits from being spent directly on federal elections, but that may have an indirect influence on federal elections. This Issue Brief discusses three major types of soft money: political party soft money, corporate and labor union soft money, and soft money used for issue advocacy communications.
- State Department and Related Agencies FY2000 Appropriations
- No Description Available.
- NATO Applicant States: A Status Report
- On March 12, 1999, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary formally became members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization; nine additional central and eastern European nations have applied to join the alliance: Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. There arc several general guidelines for evaluating nations seeking NATO membership; however, these guidelines are not a checklist that, when completed, would automatically guarantee membership. NATO members decide on the basis of consensus whether the admission of a state will serve the interests of the Alliance and promote European security and stability. This report, which was compiled from memoranda prepared in January 1999 at the request of Senator William Roth, contains brief assessments of the NATO applicants' qualifications, compared to those of the three new members, The report was updated in February 2000. The report will be updated as necessary.
- Madrid Protocol Implementation Act: Overview of H.R. 769
- No Description Available.
- Trade Legislation in the 106th Congress: An Overview
- No Description Available.