Policy Library

7,020 documents

The Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund: Reauthorization Issues in the 116th Congress
Congressional Research Service · 2020-03-12 · Reports · 11,179 words · PDF available
Coal mining and production in the United States during the 20th century contributed to the nation meeting its energy requirements and left a legacy of unreclaimed lands. Title IV of the Surface Mining...
The First Amendment and “Encouraging” or “Inducing” Unlawful Immigration
Congressional Research Service · 2020-03-12 · Posts · 2,108 words · PDF available
In United States v. Sineneng-Smith, the Supreme Court is considering the constitutionality of a federal criminal prohibition against encouraging or inducing illegal immigration. The U.S. Court of Appe...
Staffing Trends in the USDA Farm Production and Conservation (FPAC) Mission Area
Congressional Research Service · 2020-03-11 · Resources · 1,174 words · PDF available
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) administers federal farm and conservation programs primarily through three agencies: the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the Farm Service Agenc...
FY2019 State Grants Under Title I-A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)
Congressional Research Service · 2020-03-11 · Reports · 2,169 words
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), most recently comprehensively amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA; P.L. 114-95), is the primary source of federal aid to K-12 education. ...
Red Army Equifax Hackers Indicted
Congressional Research Service · 2020-03-10 · Posts · 1,129 words · PDF available
A federal grand jury has indicted four members of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) for hacking into the Equifax computer system and stealing the personal identifying information of “nearly 1...
The Election Infrastructure Subsector: Development and Challenges
Congressional Research Service · 2020-03-05 · Resources · 1,588 words · PDF available
In January 2017, in accordance with Presidential Policy Directive 21 (PPD-21), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) designated the systems and assets used in elections as the Election Infrastruct...
Senate Floor Privileges: History and Current Practice
Congressional Research Service · 2020-03-05 · Reports · 9,103 words · PDF available
Senate Standing Rule XXIII, Privilege of the Floor, designates those afforded access to the Senate floor while the Senate is in session. In addition to sitting Senators, the rule lists several eligibl...
Health Care for Veterans: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
Congressional Research Service · 2020-03-04 · Reports · 21,613 words · PDF available
The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), operates one of the nation’s largest integrated health care delivery systems. The VHA estimates that in FY2020 it w...
Committee Jurisdiction and Referral in the House
Congressional Research Service · 2020-03-04 · Reports · 3,534 words · PDF available
When legislation is introduced in the House or received from the Senate, it is referred to one or more committees primarily on the basis of the jurisdictional statements contained in clause 1 of House...
International Trade: Rules of Origin
Congressional Research Service · 2020-03-03 · Reports · 9,138 words · PDF available
Rules of origin (ROO) are laws, regulations, and procedures used to determine the country of origin of an imported product. They are a significant part of international trade policy because ROO are ne...
Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP): History and Overview
Congressional Research Service · 2020-03-03 · Reports · 16,344 words · PDF available
Congress established the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) through the National Science and Technology Policy, Organization, and Priorities Act of 1976 (P.L. 94-282). The act states, “The...
Fifth Circuit Holds the Individual Mandate Unconstitutional: Implications for Congress
Congressional Research Service · 2020-03-03 · Posts · 2,709 words · PDF available
Update 3/2/20: On March 2, 2020, the Supreme Court granted review in the Texas litigation. The questions at issue before the Court are: (1) whether the individual and state plaintiffs have standing to...
The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS): Frequently Asked Questions About Small Refinery Exemptions (SREs)
Congressional Research Service · 2020-03-02 · Reports · 11,214 words · PDF available
In the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-58; EPAct05), Congress required the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to implement the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS)—a mandate that requires U.S. tr...
Mathena v. Malvo—A Challenge to Life Without Parole for the Juvenile D.C. Sniper
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-27 · Posts · 2,998 words · PDF available
UPDATE: On February 24, 2020, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam signed into law HB 35, which provides that any person previously sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for offenses committed as a...
U.S.-EU Trade Agreement Negotiations: Trade in Food and Agricultural Products
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-27 · Reports · 13,444 words · PDF available
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) officially notified the Congress of the Trump Administration’s plans to enter into formal trade negotiations with the European Union (EU) in October ...
Major Agricultural Trade Issues in 2020
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-27 · Reports · 31,316 words · PDF available
Sales of U.S. agricultural products to foreign markets absorb about one-fifth of U.S. agricultural production, thus contributing significantly to the health of the farm economy. Farm product exports, ...
ESEA: Title I-A Standards, Assessments, Accountability, Report Cards, and Frequently Asked Questions
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-27 · Reports · 21,016 words · PDF available
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA; P.L. 114-95), provides federal aid for elementary and secondary education. The largest ESEA progr...
Wells Fargo—A Timeline of Recent Consumer Protection and Corporate Governance Scandals
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-27 · Resources · 1,505 words · PDF available
Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., is a large federally chartered depository bank. It is a subsidiary of Wells Fargo and Company, a bank holding company (hereinafter, Wells Fargo or the bank). Wells Fargo is the...
Is There Liability for Cross-Border Shooting?
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-26 · Posts · 1,285 words · PDF available
Update: On February 25, 2020, the Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the Fifth Circuit, holding that the Bivens theory cannot be extended to encompass an implied-cause-of-action for cross-border s...
U.S. Foreign-Trade Zone (FTZ) Program
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-26 · Resources · 1,518 words · PDF available
Congress passed the U.S. Foreign-Trade Zone Act (P.L. 73-397, 19 U.S.C. §§81[a-u]) in 1934, which authorized the creation of the FTZ Program. The intent of the program was to encourage international t...
District Court Rejects DOI’s Ban on Tribes’ Re-petitioning for Federal Recognition
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-26 · Posts · 1,415 words · PDF available
On January 10, 2020, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington held that the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) 2015 Final Rule revising 25 C.F.R. Part 83 to ban Indian groups fro...
Federal Freight Policy: In Brief
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-26 · Reports · 5,806 words · PDF available
This report provides an overview of federal planning and funding for freight transportation infrastructure, namely for trucks, railroads, and vessels. The report also discusses the relative performanc...
Federal Land Ownership: Overview and Data
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-21 · Reports · 11,492 words
The federal government owns roughly 640 million acres, about 28% of the 2.27 billion acres of land in the United States. Four major federal land management agencies administer 606.5 million acres of t...
Carbon Sequestration Legislation in the 116th Congress
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-21 · Resources · 1,377 words · PDF available
Utilizing permanent underground storage of carbon dioxide (CO2), also known as geological sequestration, as a potential strategy to reduce net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is receiving increasing co...
Amazon’s Protest of DoD’s JEDI Cloud Computing Contract: A Legal Analysis
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-19 · Posts · 2,209 words · PDF available
In October 2019, after an approximately two-year competitive bidding procurement process, the Department of Defense (DoD) announced that it had awarded a Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI)...
Workers’ Compensation: Overview and Issues
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-18 · Reports · 13,246 words · PDF available
Workers’ compensation provides cash and medical benefits to workers who are injured or become ill in the course of their employment and provides cash benefits to the survivors of workers killed on the...
Federal Aid for Individuals Pursuing Non-degree Education and Training Programs
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-18 · Resources · 1,016 words · PDF available
Introduction The Trump Administration and Congress have demonstrated bipartisan support for increasing federal assistance to individuals pursuing postsecondary non-degree programs, sometimes referred ...
Workers’ Compensation: Overview and Issues
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-18 · Resources · 1,485 words · PDF available
Introduction Nearly all workers and employers in the United States are covered by workers’ compensation. When a covered worker is injured, becomes sick, or dies as a result of his or her employment, t...
Accomplices, Aiding and Abetting, and the Like: An Abbreviated Overview of 18 U.S.C. § 2
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-14 · Reports · 2,595 words
Virtually every federal criminal statute has a hidden feature; primary offenders and even their most casual accomplices face equal punishment. This is the work of 18 U.S.C. § 2, which visits the same ...
Electric Vehicles: A Primer on Technology and Selected Policy Issues
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-14 · Reports · 8,190 words · PDF available
The market for electrified light-duty vehicles (also called passenger vehicles; including passenger cars, pickup trucks, SUVs, and minivans) has grown since the 1990s. During this decade, the first co...
Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-14 · Resources · 1,339 words · PDF available
State and federal governments have long regulated safety practices at facilities that store large amounts of hazardous chemicals to reduce the risk of harm from an accidental release. In 2006, the Dep...
Accomplices, Aiding and Abetting, and the Like: An Overview of 18 U.S.C. § 2
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-14 · Reports · 8,905 words · PDF available
Virtually every federal criminal statute has a hidden feature; primary offenders and even their most casual accomplices face equal punishment. This is the work of 18 U.S.C. § 2, which visits the same ...
FY2020 NDAA Analysis: Elimination of Benefits Offset for Surviving Spouses and Related Legal Issues
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-13 · Posts · 2,262 words · PDF available
Efforts to eliminate a “benefits offset” that affects surviving spouses—widows and widowers of deceased military servicemembers—gained momentum in the 116th Congress. Bills to accomplish this had been...
Economic and Fiscal Conditions in the U.S. Virgin Islands
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-13 · Reports · 9,618 words · PDF available
Fiscal and economic challenges facing the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) government raise several issues for Congress. Congress may choose to maintain oversight of federal policies that could affect the U...
What Is An Autodialer? A Lingering Robocall Enforcement Question
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-13 · Posts · 1,636 words · PDF available
On December 30, 2019, President Trump signed the Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act (TRACED Act) into law. The TRACED Act is Congress’s latest effort to con...
The Internet of Things (IoT): An Overview
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-12 · Resources · 1,395 words · PDF available
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a system of interrelated devices connected to a network and/or to one another, exchanging data without necessarily requiring human-to-machine interaction. In other word...
Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and Medicare
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-11 · Resources · 1,741 words · PDF available
Medicare enrollment impacts an otherwise eligible individual’s ability to establish and contribute to a health savings account (HSA). Although Medicare enrollees cannot establish HSAs or make or recei...
Court Tosses Convictions for Killing ICE Agent Abroad
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-10 · Posts · 1,309 words · PDF available
In United States v. Garcia Sota, two defendants were each convicted on four counts under three different statutes—18 U.S.C. §§ 924(c), 1114, and 1116—for attacking a pair of U.S. Immigration and Custo...
FDA Regulation of Cannabidiol (CBD) Consumer Products
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-10 · Resources · 1,728 words · PDF available
Cannabidiol (CBD) is promoted as treatment for a range of conditions, including anxiety, pain, inflammation, and post-traumatic stress disorder—despite limited scientific evidence to substantiate or d...
The National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard: Overview and Selected Considerations
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-07 · Reports · 12,405 words · PDF available
/ In July 2016, Congress enacted P.L. 114-216 (2016 Act), comprehensive legislation to govern the labeling of bioengineered foods. The 2016 Act required the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to e...
Illicit Drug Smuggling Between Ports of Entry and Border Barriers
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-07 · Reports · 4,332 words · PDF available
Policy discussions around border security often involve questions about how illicit drugs flow into the United States. These include questions about the smugglers, types and quantities of illicit drug...
Role of Online Services in Entertainment Industry Diversity
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-07 · Resources · 1,659 words · PDF available
Government Interest in Media Diversity The representation of diverse points of view and diverse ownership of businesses within the television industry has long been of interest to Congress. Among othe...
Monetary Policy and the Federal Reserve: Current Policy and Conditions
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-06 · Reports · 14,269 words · PDF available
Congress has delegated responsibility for monetary policy to the Federal Reserve (the Fed), the nation’s central bank, but retains oversight responsibilities for ensuring that the Fed is adhering to i...
Inherited or “Stretch” Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) and the SECURE Act
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-06 · Resources · 1,483 words · PDF available
Background Traditional and Roth Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) provide tax-advantaged ways for individuals to save for retirement. Traditional IRA contributions can be tax deductible, but withd...
Wage Inequality and the Stagnation of Earnings of Low-Wage Workers: Contributing Factors and Policy Options
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-05 · Reports · 19,118 words · PDF available
Over the 1979-2018 period, real wages at the 10th percentile of the hourly wage distribution grew by 1.6%, whereas wages at the 50th percentile grew by 6.1% and wages at the 90th percentile grew by 37...
Oil Market Effects from U.S. Economic Sanctions: Iran, Russia, Venezuela
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-05 · Reports · 17,150 words · PDF available
Economic sanctions imposed by the United States—through enacted legislation and executive action—on Iran, Russia, and Venezuela aim to pressure the ruling governments to change their behavior and poli...
Federal Securities Laws: An Overview
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-05 · Resources · 1,664 words · PDF available
Securities Act of 1933 The Securities Act of 1933 (Securities Act) governs the process by which companies issue securities. The Act prohibits any person from offering or selling a security to the publ...
DHS Final Rule on Public Charge: Overview and Considerations for Congress
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-03 · Posts · 3,252 words · PDF available
On August 14, 2019, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a final rule that contains new regulations interpreting the public charge ground of inadmissibility in the Immigration and Nati...
Introduction to Financial Services: Corporate Governance
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-03 · Resources · 1,661 words · PDF available
Introduction Broadly speaking, corporate governance is the system through which a public company’s objectives and the means for obtaining them are established and monitored by the company’s board of d...
The Current State of Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform and Management
Congressional Research Service · 2020-02-03 · Reports · 3,119 words · PDF available
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has reported that the federal government budgets more than $90 billion each year on information technology (IT) investments. Historically, the projects suppo...