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Medicare: Prescription Drug Proposals

Description: This report provides an overview of the President’s plan and the legislation introduced to date in the 106th Congress. It
Date: June 8, 2000
Creator: O'Sullivan, Jennifer
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Federal R&D, Drug Discovery, and Pricing: Insights from the NIH-University-Industry Relationship

Description: Interest in methods to provide drugs at lower cost, particularly for the elderly, has rekindled discussion over the role the federal government plays in facilitating the creation of new pharmaceuticals for the marketplace. This report explores the issue of whether or not the substantial federal investment in health-related research and development (R&D) entitles the public to commensurate consideration in prices charged for any resulting drugs. It is intended to provide the reader with an under… more
Date: June 19, 2000
Creator: Schacht, Wendy H.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Electronic Commerce: An Introduction

Description: Electronic commercial transactions over the Internet, or “e-commerce,” have grown so fast over the last five years that many experts continue to underestimate its growth and development. Whether retail business-to-customer or business-to-business transactions, e-commerce shows no signs of slowing down. In turn, policymakers both in the United States and abroad are likely to face increasingly complex issues of security, privacy, taxation, infrastructure development and other issues in 2000 a… more
Date: June 27, 2000
Creator: McLoughlin, Glenn J.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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527 Organizations: How the Differences in Tax and Election Laws Permit Certain Organizations to Engage in Issue Advocacy without Public Disclosure and Proposals for Change

Description: This report compares the tax and election laws relating to political organizations and political committees in an attempt to highlight the differences between them, and discusses some of the proposals in the 106th Congress to require additional reporting by organizations engaging in political activities. This report does not address the taxation of other tax-exempt organizations making political expenditures taxable under IRC § 527. The report will be updated as new proposals are reported.
Date: June 26, 2000
Creator: Morris, Marie B.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Midwest Gasoline Prices: A Review of Recent Market Developments

Description: This report provides background information regarding the especially high gasoline prices in the upper Midwest during the late spring and early summer of 2000. While the Federal Trade Commission is investigating the possibility of collusion, several identifiable factors have contributed to this localized situation. Contributors to the higher prices appear to be problems at two pipelines supplying the area with gasoline, the use of ethanol-only reformulated gasoline in Chicago and Milwaukee, and… more
Date: June 28, 2000
Creator: Kumins, Lawrence C.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Immigration and Naturalization Service Reorganization and Related Legislative Proposals

Description: The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), with a current annual budget of $4.3 billion, is the primary agency charged with enforcing the nation's immigration law. Regulating immigration can be viewed as having two basic components: stemming illegal immigration (enforcement) and facilitating legal immigration (service). The Administration is moving forward to restructure the agency internally by separating the agency's enforcement and service functions, but maintains that the immigration… more
Date: June 19, 2000
Creator: Krouse, William J.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Brazil's Economic Reform and the Global Financial Crisis

Description: Despite backing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), capital flight from Brazil in 1998 prompted the government to jettison its pegged currency stabilization program and float the real on January 15, 1999, becoming another casualty of the volatile international capital markets. Brazil adjusted to its financial crisis faster than expected, which is considered over. This report provides a final summary of Brazil's financial crisis and related IMF assistance in support of Congressional inte… more
Date: June 9, 2000
Creator: Hornbeck, J. F.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Civil Service Retirement Bills in the 106th Congress

Description: Among the civil service retirement issues addressed in bills introduced thus far in the 106th Congress are the correction of retirement coverage errors for federal employees assigned to the wrong retirement system; immediate eligibility for federal employees to participate in the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP); improved portability of pension benefits; and repeal of the temporary increase in employee retirement contributions that was mandated by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. Other bills would exp… more
Date: June 28, 2000
Creator: Purcell, Patrick J.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Albania: Country Background Report

Description: This report discusses the economic and political status of Albania in the year 2000, notably focusing on certain important events throughout the 1990s, such as the Kosovo Crisis and the rise to power of the Socialist Party in 1997.
Date: June 29, 2000
Creator: Kim, Julie
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Presidential Authority to Create a National Monument on the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Description: In the Antiquities Act, Congress authorized the President to create National Monuments. Recently, there has been discussion of a possible monument designation involving the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Several issues surround that possibility, including the potential size of such a monument and whether provisions of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act might preclude the designation. In addition, that Act provides for the termination of certain … more
Date: June 19, 2000
Creator: Baldwin, Pamela
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Social Security: Raising the Retirement Age Background and Issues

Description: The Social Security “full retirement age” — the age at which retired workers, aged spouses, or surviving aged spouses receive benefits that are not reduced for “early” retirement — will gradually rise from 65 to 67 beginning with people who attain age 62 in 2000 (i.e., those born in 1938). Early retirement benefits will still be available beginning at age 62 (age 60 for aged widows and widowers), but at lower levels. This report discusses bills introduced in the last four Congresses that would,… more
Date: June 7, 2000
Creator: Kollmann, Geoffrey
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Most-Favored-Nation (Normal-Trade-Relations) Policy of the United States

Description: Legislation was enacted in 1998 to replace in U.S. statutes the misleading term "most-favored-nation" with "normal trade relations" or another appropriate term. The United States accords general most- favored-nation (nondiscriminatory) treatment as a matter of statutory policy to all trading partners except those whose MFN tariff status has been suspended by specific legislation. Virtually all such suspensions have been carried out under the mandate of the Trade Agreements Extension Act of 1951. more
Date: June 7, 2000
Creator: Pregelj, Vladimir N.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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China's Accession to the World Trade Organization: Legal Issues

Description: The People's Republic of China (PRC) applied to resume membership in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1986 and continues to negotiate its accession to GATT's successor, the World Trade Organization (WTO). A country may join the WTO on terms agreed by the applicant and WTO Members if two-thirds of Members approve the country's accession agreement. A Member may "opt out" of WTO relations with another country by invoking Article XIII of the WTO Agreement, its "non-application" … more
Date: June 2, 2000
Creator: Grimmett, Jeanne J.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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United States' Withdrawal from the World Trade Organization: Legislative Procedure

Description: The Uruguay Round Agreements Act, which legislatively approved the United States' membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO), also contains provisions setting out the legislative procedure for revoking such approval, potentially leading to the withdrawal of the United States from the WTO. This report sets out the functional timetable and requirements for taking legislative action for United States withdrawal from the WTO.
Date: June 16, 2000
Creator: Pregelj, Vladimir N.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Posse Comitatus Act and Related Matters: The Use of the Military to Execute Civilian Law

Description: The Posse Comitatus Act outlaws willful use of any part of the Army or Air Force to execute the law unless expressly authorized by the Constitution or an Act of Congress. History supplies the grist for an argument that the Constitution prohibits military involvement in civilian affairs subject to only limited alterations by Congress or the President, but the courts do not appear to have ever accepted the argument unless a violation of more explicit constitutional command could also be shown. Th… more
Date: June 1, 2000
Creator: Doyle, Charles
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Medicare Quality of Care: Oversight of Kidney Dialysis Facilities Needs Improvement

Description: A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) processes to ensure that dialysis facilities meet quality-of-care standards, focusing on: (1) the extent to which on-site inspections of dialysis facilities are performed and problems are identified; (2) whether an effective process exists to ensure that dialysis facilities correct problems; and (3) what steps a… more
Date: June 23, 2000
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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U.S. Postal Service: Diversity in District Management-Level Positions

Description: A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the representation of women and minorities in the Postal Service's (USPS) Executive and Administrative Schedule (EAS) management-level positions, focusing on: (1) statistical information on the representation of women and minorities in EAS levels 16 through 26 in USPS nationwide for fiscal year (FY) 1999; (2) the Chicago, IL, and Akron, OH, posta… more
Date: June 30, 2000
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Contract Management: DOD's Use of Recovery Auditing

Description: A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Department of Defense's (DOD) use of recovery auditing, a process that identifies and collects overpayments made to vendors, focusing on DOD's: (1) progress in recovering overpayments and the reasons for any delays; and (2) use of recovery auditing."
Date: June 5, 2000
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Defense Inventory: Process for Canceling Inventory Orders Needs Improvement

Description: A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Department of Defense's (DOD) inventory management, focusing on the: (1) extent to which orders exceeded requirements when the orders were placed; and (2) processes for cancelling orders that exceeded requirements."
Date: June 30, 2000
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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BLM and the Forest Service: Land Exchanges Need to Reflect Appropriate Value and Serve the Public Interest

Description: A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) and the Forest Service's land exchange programs, focusing on the: (1) agencies' use of land exchanges since 1989; (2) extent to which the agencies ensure that their land exchanges meet exchange requirements; (3) effect of the agencies' recent efforts to improve the management of their exchange programs; and (4) extent to which … more
Date: June 22, 2000
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Department of Labor: Administering the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act

Description: A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) of 1959, focusing on: (1) the Department of Labor's organizational structure and use of fiscal year (FY) 1999 resources to implement LMRDA; and (2) how the Department of Labor administers and enforces each title of the act for which it is responsible."
Date: June 30, 2000
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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