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U.S. Farm Income: Recent National and Regional Changes and the Federal Response

Description: Major segments of U.S. agriculture are experiencing declining farm income and financial difficulty. The degree of decline, however, differs among regions and commodities. In 1996, the overall farm sector experienced record high income that declined 6.7% in 1997, and is forecast to decline by another 3.6% in 1998. Several factors are responsible for the recent drop in farm income. Reduced export demand and large global supplies have reduced crop prices
Date: December 15, 1998
Creator: Heykoop, Jerry & Jones, Jean Yavis
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Agriculture: A List of Websites

Description: 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 24 main categories and 16 subcategories.
Date: August 15, 2002
Creator: Canada, Carol
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Hog Prices: Questions and Answers

Description: This report discusses price changes in the pork industry. In late 1998, the lowest hog prices in decades created a crisis in the pork industry and prompted the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Congress to take a series of actions to assist producers, including direct cash payments, and the purchase of extra pork products to reduce market supplies. The industry sought additional aid as low prices persisted into 1999.
Date: December 15, 1999
Creator: Becker, Geoffrey S.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Livestock Mandatory Price Reporting

Description: This report summarizes the steps taken by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to execute the Livestock Mandatory Price Reporting (LMPR) law which was enforced to provide more information and disclosure on pricing. Updated August 15, 2001.
Date: August 15, 2001
Creator: Heykoop, Jerry
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Agriculture and the 106th Congress: A Summary of Major Issues

Description: Most congressional interest in agriculture in the 106th Congress was focused on persistent low prices for major commodities and proposals to redress declining farm income. Six emergency farm aid bills were approved, increasing agricultural spending by nearly $27 billion for fiscal years 1999-2001. These bills provided disaster relief along with short term “market loss payments”to farmers to shore up farm income. Some longer term changes also were enacted as part of emergency farm legislation, w… more
Date: December 15, 2000
Creator: Jones, Jean Yavis
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Global Climate Change: U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions - Status, Trends, and Projections

Description: This report reviews U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases in the contexts both of domestic policy and of international obligations and proposals. On October 15, 1992, the United States ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which entered into force on March 21, 1994. This committed the United States to “national policies” to limit “its anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases,” with a voluntary goal of returning “emissions of carbon dioxide [CO2] and other … more
Date: August 15, 2003
Creator: Blodgett, John E. & Parker, Larry
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Global Climate Change

Description: This report briefly reviews the status of climate science, international negotiations, and congressional activity focused specifically on climate change.
Date: May 15, 2002
Creator: Justus, John R. & Fletcher, Susan R.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Implementing Acid Rain Legislation

Description: This report discusses the broad-ranging provisions in Title IV of The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (P.L. 101-549), which raise myriad implementation issues, particularly with respect to the system of tradable "allowances."
Date: November 15, 1994
Creator: Parker, Larry
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Global Climate Change: The Kyoto Protocol

Description: This report discusses the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that was completed December 11, 1997, committing the industrialized nations to specified, legally binding reductions in emissions of six “greenhouse gases.”
Date: January 15, 2003
Creator: Fletcher, Susan R.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Listing of a Species: Legal Definition and Biological Realities

Description: The 103d Congress will debate the reauthorization of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) 2 which expired on October 1, 1992. The Act has recently generated controversy, even though it passed in 1973 with virtually no opposition. Much of the debate concerns specific actions that would jeopardize particular species or populations. However, the controversy has been fueled by the discrepancies between two sets of legal definitions and the subtle biological realities that they approximate
Date: December 15, 1992
Creator: Corn, M. Lynne
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Endangered Species Act: Consideration of Economic Factors

Description: The Endangered Species Act (ESA) provides for the listing and protection of species that are found to be “endangered” or “threatened” – species that might become extinct. The listing of a species as endangered triggers the prohibitions in the Act against “taking” (killing or harming) individuals of the protected species, unless a permit is obtained to take individuals incidental to an otherwise lawful proposed action, or an exemption for the proposed action is obtained. Unauthorized taking of a… more
Date: April 15, 2003
Creator: Baldwin, Pamela
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Background and Issues

Description: This report discusses the ongoing debate about whether or not to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) for energy development. The report discusses arguments for and against such development and related pieces of legislation. It does not analyze specific proposals to develop or protect the Refuge. Rather, it provides basic material for analyzing possibilities and implications of the major issues that have been the focus of the legislative debate over its fate.
Date: May 15, 2003
Creator: Corn, M. Lynne
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Agricultural Marketing Assistance Loans and Loan Deficiency Payments

Description: Marketing assistance loans for the major crops were designed to facilitate orderly marketing by providing short-term financing so that farmers could pay their bills right after harvest and spread their sales over the entire marketing year. However, the persistence of very low commodity prices transformed the loan program into a major vehicle of farm income support. Marketing loan program benefits (primarily loan deficiency payments, LDPs) to farmers amounted to about $5.9 billion in 1999, and w… more
Date: September 15, 2000
Creator: Womach, Jasper
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Higher Education Act: Reauthorization Status and Issues

Description: This report provides the following: an overview of postsecondary education (institutions and students), an overview of the Higher Education Act (HEA) with a focus on its most significant programs and provisions, and a discussion of major issues likely to be of interest to the Congress during the HEA reauthorization process.
Date: November 15, 2002
Creator: Stedman, James B.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Item Veto and Expanded Impoundment Proposals

Description: In recent years conflicting budget priorities and divided political control have accentuated the institutional tensions between the executive and legislative branches inherent in the federal budget process. President Clinton, like his two predecessors, called for an item veto, or possibly expanded impoundment authority, to provide him with greater control over federal spending. This report provides a brief history of impoundment and discusses the debate surrounding the line item veto.
Date: August 15, 2002
Creator: McMurtry, Virginia A.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Federal Aid to Libraries: The Library Services and Technology Act

Description: This report discusses the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), which consolidated and replaced the former Library Services and Construction Act (LSCA) and other federal library assistance legislation. LSTA grants to the states are allocated to state library administrative agencies (SLAAs), and may be used for two basic purposes: developing and improving electronic or other linkages and networks connecting providers and consumers of library services and resources; and/or targeting library… more
Date: May 15, 2003
Creator: McCallion, Gail
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Pay-As-You-Go Rules in the Federal Budget Process

Description: The pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) rules in the federal budget process require that new direct spending and revenue legislation be deficit neutral. The net effect of all such legislation enacted during a session must not cause a net increase in the budget deficit (or a net decrease in the budget surplus). If direct spending or revenue legislation causes an increase in the deficit, it must be offset by an equivalent amount of direct spending reductions, revenue increases, or a combination of both.
Date: February 15, 1999
Creator: Heniff, Bill, Jr.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Congressional Budget Resolutions: Motions to Instruct Conferees

Description: Both the House and the Senate have procedures whereby the full bodies may issue instructions to conferees on budget resolutions, usually in the form of a motion. The practices of the House and Senate regarding such motions differ markedly in key respects. First, the House resorts to such motions regularly (having considered 10 such motions in the past 12 years), while the Senate seldom uses them. Second, the House has considered only one motion per budget resolution, while the Senate considered… more
Date: August 15, 2001
Creator: Keith, Robert
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Japanese Companies and Technology: Lessons to Learn?

Description: American companies are facing increased competitive pressures from foreign firms. Many observers feel that U.S. firms lag behind their foreign competitors in the development, application, and marketing of new technologies and techniques. The Japanese industrial enterprise is characterized by a large proportion of private sector financing and many other factors, which this report analyzes at length. The question being debated by Congress is whether or not U.S. government programs and policies ar… more
Date: April 15, 1991
Creator: Schacht, Wendy H.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Lumber Imports from Canada: Issues and Events

Description: This report discuses lumber imports from Canada and provides a concise historical account of the dispute, summarizes the subsidy and injury evidence, and discusses the current issues and events.
Date: September 15, 2003
Creator: Gorte, Ross W. & Grimmett, Jeanne J.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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