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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.
Recovery from Terrorist Attacks: A Catalog of Selected Federal Assistance Programs
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The Federal Grand Jury
This report is a brief general description of the federal grand jury, with particular emphasis on its more controversial aspects—relationship of the prosecutor and the grand jury, the rights of grand jury witnesses, grand jury secrecy, and rights of targets of a grand jury investigation.
State and Local Preparedness for Terrorism: Policy Issues and Options
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The U.S. Postal Service Response to the Threat of Bioterrorism Through the Mail
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Terrorism, the Future, and U.S. Foreign Policy
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Defense Cleanup and Environmental Programs: Authorization and Appropriations for FY2003
The Department of Defense (DOD) administers five environmental programs in response to various requirements under federal environmental laws. These programs include environmental cleanup, environmental compliance, pollution prevention, environmental technology, and conservation. Additionally, the Department of Energy (DOE) is responsible for managing defense nuclear waste and cleaning up contaminated nuclear weapons sites. The Administration requested a total of $11.17 billion for these programs in FY2003, about $390 million more than the FY2002 funding level of $10.78 billion. Some of the ongoing issues associated with these programs are the adequacy, cost, and pace of cleanup, whether DOD and DOE adequately comply with environmental laws and regulations, and the extent to which environmental requirements encroach upon military readiness.
NASA's Space Shuttle
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Environmental Streamlining Provisions in the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century: Status of Implementation
This report describes the environmental documents required for highway projects, discusses the average amount of time to complete this documentation, summarizes the environmental streamlining provisions under TEA-21, and examines administrative and legislative actions taken to implement these requirements.
War on Drugs: Legislation in the 108th Congress and Related Developments
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Remedies Available to Victims of Identity Theft
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Homeland Security: Protecting Airliners from Terrorist Missiles
This report discusses about the Homeland Security on Protecting Airliners from Terrorist Missiles where Recent events have focused attention on the threat that terrorists with shoulder fired surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) pose to commercial airliners. Most believe that no single solution exists to effectively mitigate this threat.
Clean Water Act and Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) of Pollutants
Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act requires states to identify waters that are impaired by pollution, even after application of pollution controls. For those waters, states must establish a total maximum daily load (TMDL) of pollutants to ensure that water quality standards can be attained. Implementation was dormant until recently, when states and EPA were prodded by numerous lawsuits.
NASA's Space Shuttle
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Critical Infrastructure: Control Systems and the Terrorist Threat
This report addresses the cyber-vulnerability of critical infrastructure industries which regularly use industrial control systems. Industrial control systems may be vulnerable to infiltration by different routes, including wireless transmission, direct access to control system computers, exploitation of dial-up modems used for maintenance, or through the Internet. This report will specifically discuss the potential for access to industrial control systems through the Internet.
NASA's Space Shuttle
No Description Available.
Child Pornography Produced Without an Actual Child: Constitutionality of 108th Congress Legislation
This report analyzes S. 151, 108th Congress, as reported by the Senate Committee on the Judiciary (S.Rept. 108-2) and passed by the Senate, and considers whether it would violate freedom of speech.
Water Quality: Implementing the Clean Water Act
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Remedies Available to Victims of Identity Theft
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Ricin: Technical Background and Potential Role in Terrorism
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Terrorism: Some Legal Restrictions on Military Assistance to Domestic Authorities Following a Terrorist Attack
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Obscenity, Child Pornography, and Indecency: Recent Developments and Pending Issues
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Polygraph Use by the Department of Energy: Issues for Congress
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Terrorism in Southeast Asia
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Nuclear Terrorism: A Brief Review of Threats and Responses
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Removing Terrorist Sanctuaries: The 9/11 Commission Recommendations and U.S. Policy
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Homeland Security: Protecting Airliners from Terrorist Missiles
Recent events have focused attention on the threat that terrorists with shoulder fired surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), referred to as Man-Portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS), pose to commercial airliners. This report discusses SAMs and examines options for mitigating missile threats.
Terrorism and National Security: Issues and Trends
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Detention of American Citizens as Enemy Combatants
This report provides background information regarding the cases of two U.S. citizens deemed “enemy combatants,” Yaser Esam Hamdi, who has been returned to Saudi Arabia, and Jose Padilla, who remains in military custody. A brief introduction to the law of war pertinent to the detention of different categories of individuals is offered, followed by brief analyses of the main legal precedents invoked to support the President’s actions, as well as Ex parte Milligan, which some argue supports the opposite conclusion. The report concludes that historically, even during declared wars, additional statutory authority has been seen as necessary to validate the detention of citizens not members of any armed forces, casting in some doubt the argument that the power to detain persons arrested in a context other than actual hostilities is necessarily implied by an authorization to use force.
Federal Habeas Corpus Relief: Background, Legislation, and Issues
This report examines the issues surrounding the debate on whether to further restrict state prisoners’ access to federal habeas corpus filings. This report does not discuss issues related to federalism and the proper role of the federal court system in overseeing the actions of state courts pertaining to prisoners’ constitutional rights. The report opens with a discussion of a commission that was established in 1988 to study and make recommendations of the then-current federal habeas corpus system and the 1996 law that restricted prisoners’ access to federal habeas corpus relief. It then provides an analysis of federal habeas corpus petition data since 1990. The report examines whether the number of federal habeas corpus petitions and the time it takes for the federal court system to process these claims have increased since the enactment of the the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA). It then discusses legislation introduced in the 109th Congress that would further restrict state prisoners’ access to federal habeas corpus relief. The report concludes with an analysis of two dominant issues that are at the center of this debate: delays caused by habeas corpus petitions and post-conviction representation.
Drug Control: International Policy and Approaches
Over the past decade, worldwide production of illicit drugs has risen dramatically: opium and marijuana production has roughly doubled and coca production tripled. Street prices of cocaine and heroin have fallen significantly in the past 20 years, reflecting increased availability. Despite apparent national political resolve to deal with the drug problem, inherent contradictions regularly appear between U.S. anti-drug policy and other national policy goals and concerns. The mix of competing domestic and international pressures and priorities has produced an ongoing series of disputes within and between the legislative and executive branches concerning U.S. international drug policy. One contentious issue has been the Congressionally-mandated certification process, an instrument designed to induce specified drug-exporting countries to prioritize or pay more attention to the fight against narcotics businesses.
Terrorism and National Security: Issues and Trends
No Description Available.
Navy Role in Global War on Terrorism (GWOT): Background and Issues for Congress
No Description Available.
Homeland Security: Protecting Airliners from Terrorist Missiles
Recent events have focused attention on the threat that terrorists with shoulder fired surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), referred to as Man-Portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS), pose to commercial airliners. This report discusses SAMs and examines options for mitigating missile threats.
USA PATRIOT Act Additional Reauthorizing Amendments Act of 2006 (S. 2271)
No Description Available.
Terrorism and National Security: Issues and Trends
Report on the threats to national security posed by terrorism, including recent developments, background issues, policy responses, and more.
USA PATRIOT Act Additional Reauthorizing Amendments Act of 2006 (S. 2271)
No Description Available.
Amber Alert Program Technology
This report discusses Amber Alerts (also referred to as AMBER plans), which use technology to disseminate information about child abductions in a timely manner.
North Korea: Terrorism List Removal?
This report discusses the issue of North Korea's inclusion on the U.S. list of terrorism-supporting countries, which has been a major issue in U.S.-North Korean diplomacy since 2000, particularly in connection with negotiations over North Korea's nuclear program.
Department of Homeland Security Assistance to States and Localities: A Summary and Issues for the 111th Congress
This report summarizes several emergency management and homeland security programs, and identifies and analyzes potential issues for the 111th Congress. These issues include the purpose and number of assistance programs; the evaluation of the use of grant funding; the determination of eligible grant recipients; the programs' funding amounts; and the programs' funding distribution methodologies.
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