Policy Library

6,587 documents

Pairing in Congressional Voting: The House
Congressional Research Service · 2015-08-25 · Reports · 776 words
Under House Rule XX, clause 3, the practice of “pairing” involves—under certain procedural circumstances—a Member who is absent during a vote on the House floor arranging with a Member on the opposite...
House Committee Hearings: Preparation
Congressional Research Service · 2015-08-25 · Reports · 582 words
Committee hearings provide Representatives an opportunity to gather information on, and draw attention to, legislation and issues within a committee’s purview; conduct oversight of programs or agencie...
House Committee Hearings: Arranging Witnesses
Congressional Research Service · 2015-08-25 · Reports · 929 words
Selecting witnesses is often one of the most important tasks in planning a hearing. House committees and subcommittees pay careful attention to which viewpoints will be represented, who should testify...
House Committee Hearings: Scheduling and Notification
Congressional Research Service · 2015-08-25 · Reports · 863 words
Each House committee has the authority to hold hearings whether the House is in session, has recessed, or has adjourned (Rule XI, clause 2(m)(1)(A)). Regardless of the type of hearing, or whether a he...
Amendments in the Senate: Types and Forms
Congressional Research Service · 2015-08-25 · Reports · 953 words
The amending process is central to the consideration of legislation by the Senate, and the rules, practices, and precedents that underlie this process frequently depend on distinguishing among amendme...
Farm Safety Net Programs: Background and Issues
Congressional Research Service · 2015-08-21 · Reports · 9,983 words · PDF available
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) operates several programs that supplement the income of farmers and ranchers in times of low farm prices and natural disasters. Federal crop insurance, farm p...
Amendments in the House: Types and Forms
Congressional Research Service · 2015-08-21 · Reports · 945 words
The amending process is central to the consideration of legislation by the House of Representatives, and the rules, practices, and precedents that underlie this process frequently depend on distinguis...
Medal of Honor: History and Issues
Congressional Research Service · 2015-08-18 · Reports · 13,372 words
The Medal of Honor is the nation’s highest military award for bravery. It is awarded by the President in the name of Congress. For this reason, it is often referred to as the Congressional Medal of Ho...
The Demand for Municipal Bonds: Issues for Congress
Congressional Research Service · 2015-08-14 · Reports · 11,257 words
Municipal bonds are debt securities issued by states, cities, counties, and other government-created agencies to finance capital projects, such as highways, airports, sewers, bridges, schools, hospita...
House Committee Hearings: The “Minority Witness Rule”
Congressional Research Service · 2015-08-14 · Reports · 1,252 words
House Rule XI gives the minority party members of committees the right to have witnesses of their choosing called to testify on at least one day of any hearing scheduled by the majority. The rule has ...
House Committee Hearings: Witness Testimony
Congressional Research Service · 2015-08-14 · Reports · 859 words
Witnesses before House committees must generally file advance copies of their written testimony with the committees and then limit their oral testimony to brief summaries (Rule XI, clause 2(g)(5)). A ...
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA): Background, Legislation, and Policy Issues
Congressional Research Service · 2015-08-14 · Reports · 9,317 words
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA; 5 U.S.C. §552) allows any person—individual or corporate, citizen or not—to request and obtain existing, identifiable, and unpublished agency records on any topic...
Overview and Issues for Implementation of the Federal Cloud Computing Initiative: Implications for Federal Information Technology Reform Management
Congressional Research Service · 2015-08-14 · Reports · 10,982 words
Cloud computing is a new name for an old concept: the delivery of computing services from a remote location, analogous to the way electricity, water, and other utilities are provided to most customers...
Filling the Amendment Tree in the Senate
Congressional Research Service · 2015-08-14 · Reports · 1,874 words
“Amendment trees” are charts that illustrate certain principles of precedence that guide the Senate amendment process. When all of the amendments permitted simultaneously by these principles have been...
Overview of Management and Restoration Activities in the Lake Tahoe Basin
Congressional Research Service · 2015-08-06 · Reports · 15,004 words
The Lake Tahoe Basin (Tahoe Basin) straddles the California-Nevada border and includes Lake Tahoe. The basin is regarded for its beauty, wildlife diversity, clear waters, and recreation. Logging and m...
The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA)
Congressional Research Service · 2015-08-06 · Reports · 11,365 words · PDF available
On May 21, 2008, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA), referred to by its sponsors as the first civil rights act of the 21st century, was enacted. GINA, P.L. 110-233, prohibits...
Questions of the Privileges of the House: An Analysis
Congressional Research Service · 2015-08-05 · Reports · 14,990 words · PDF available
A question of the privileges of the House is a formal declaration by a Member of the House asserting that a situation has arisen affecting “the rights of the House collectively, its safety, dignity an...
“Fast Track” Legislative Procedures Governing Congressional Consideration of a Defense Base Closure and Realignment (BRAC) Commission Report
Congressional Research Service · 2015-08-05 · Reports · 3,639 words
In 1988, 1991, 1993, 1995, and 2005, an independent Defense Base Closure and Realignment (BRAC) Commission was authorized by law to recommend the disposal of unneeded defense facilities throughout the...
Specialty Drugs: Background and Policy Concerns
Congressional Research Service · 2015-08-03 · Reports · 13,496 words
Specialty drugs are one of the fastest-growing areas of health care spending. There is no one set definition of specialty drugs, although insurers and other health care payers often characterize them ...
National Security Letters in Foreign Intelligence Investigations: A Glimpse at the Legal Background
Congressional Research Service · 2015-07-31 · Reports · 3,818 words
Five federal statutes authorize intelligence officials to request certain business record information in connection with national security investigations. The authority to issue these national securit...
National Security Letters in Foreign Intelligence Investigations: Legal Background
Congressional Research Service · 2015-07-30 · Reports · 23,499 words
Five federal statutes authorize intelligence officials to request certain business record information in connection with national security investigations. The authority to issue these national securit...
Charter-Time Warner Cable-Bright House Networks Mergers: Overview and Issues
Congressional Research Service · 2015-07-24 · Reports · 12,245 words
In May 2015, Charter Communications, Inc. announced that it reached agreements with Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC) to merge the two companies in a deal valued at $78.7 billion, including the assumption ...
Update on the Highly-Pathogenic Avian Influenza Outbreak of 2014-2015
Congressional Research Service · 2015-07-20 · Reports · 6,861 words
The U.S. poultry industry is experiencing a severe outbreak of highly-pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS...
Presidential Appointments to Full-Time Positions in Independent and Other Agencies During the 113th Congress
Congressional Research Service · 2015-07-16 · Reports · 12,294 words
The President makes appointments to positions within the federal government, either using the authorities granted by law to the President alone or with the advice and consent of the Senate. This repor...
Presidential Appointments to Full-Time Positions in Executive Departments During the 113th Congress
Congressional Research Service · 2015-07-15 · Reports · 16,076 words
The President makes appointments to positions within the federal government, either using the authorities granted by law to the President alone, or with the advice and consent of the Senate. There are...
Hydraulic Fracturing and Safe Drinking Water Act Regulatory Issues
Congressional Research Service · 2015-07-13 · Reports · 17,072 words
Hydraulic fracturing is a technique developed initially to stimulate oil production from wells in declining oil reservoirs. With technological advances, hydraulic fracturing is now widely used to init...
Hydropower: Federal and Nonfederal Investment
Congressional Research Service · 2015-07-07 · Reports · 14,292 words
Congress continues to look at various fuel contributions to the electricity market and federal involvement with these fuel sources. Hydropower, the use of flowing water to produce electricity, is one ...
How the Federal Sentencing Guidelines Work: An Abridged Overview
Congressional Research Service · 2015-07-02 · Reports · 4,045 words
Sentencing for all serious federal noncapital crimes begins with the federal Sentencing Guidelines. Congress establishes the maximum penalty and sometimes the minimum penalty for every federal crime b...
Physical Security of the U.S. Power Grid: High-Voltage Transformer Substations
Congressional Research Service · 2015-07-02 · Reports · 17,643 words
The U.S. electric power grid consists of over 200,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines and hundreds of large transformer substations. High voltage (HV) transformer units make up less than 3% o...
How the Federal Sentencing Guidelines Work: An Overview
Congressional Research Service · 2015-07-02 · Reports · 25,155 words
Sentencing for all serious federal noncapital crimes begins with the federal Sentencing Guidelines. Congress establishes the maximum penalty and sometimes the minimum penalty for every federal crime b...
U.S. Capital Markets and International Accounting Standards: GAAP Versus IFRS
Congressional Research Service · 2015-06-25 · Reports · 11,526 words
Capital markets function most efficiently when investors and creditors have a high degree of trust in the quality of information communicated by firms. Financial reports and disclosures are the primar...
Sex Trafficking: An Abbreviated Overview of Federal Criminal Law
Congressional Research Service · 2015-06-25 · Reports · 6,241 words
Sex trafficking is a state crime. Federal law, however, makes it a federal crime to conduct the activities of a sex trafficking enterprise in a way that affects interstate or foreign commerce or that ...
Sex Trafficking: An Overview of Federal Criminal Law
Congressional Research Service · 2015-06-25 · Reports · 19,573 words
Sex trafficking is a state crime. Federal law, however, makes it a federal crime to conduct the activities of a sex trafficking enterprise in a way that affects interstate or foreign commerce or that ...
Social Networking and Committee Communications: Use of Twitter and Facebook in the 113th Congress
Congressional Research Service · 2015-06-19 · Reports · 8,612 words
Communications between congressional committees and constituents and stakeholder groups have changed with the development of social networking services. Many committees now use email, official website...
The Medical Device Excise Tax: Economic Analysis
Congressional Research Service · 2015-06-18 · Reports · 14,733 words
The 2.3% medical device tax imposed by the Affordable Care Act (ACA; P.L. 111-148) in 2010 was one of a number of additional revenue-raising provisions to finance health reform. This tax, which took e...
Civilian Federal Retirement: Current Law, Recent Changes, and Reform Proposals
Congressional Research Service · 2015-06-18 · Resources · 1,644 words
Current Law Most civilian federal workers hired before 1984 are covered by the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS). Most civilian federal workers hired in 1984 or later are covered by the Federal ...
Conference Reports and Joint Explanatory Statements
Congressional Research Service · 2015-06-11 · Reports · 884 words · PDF available
When a conference committee completes its work successfully, the committee presents and explains its agreements in two documents: first, a conference report; and second, a joint explanatory statement,...
Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act: A Legal Analysis of the Criminal Provisions of P.L. 114-22
Congressional Research Service · 2015-06-09 · Reports · 8,170 words
The Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act, P.L. 114-22 (S. 178), establishes and enhances a host of federal programs designed to prevent human trafficking and assist its victims. It also adjusts fede...
Sex Trafficking: Proposals in the 114th Congress to Amend Federal Criminal Law
Congressional Research Service · 2015-06-09 · Reports · 10,482 words
Existing federal law outlaws sex trafficking and provides a variety of mechanisms to prevent it and to assist its victims. Members have offered a number of proposals during the 114th Congress to bolst...
Campaign Finance: Constitutionality of Limits on Contributions and Expenditures
Congressional Research Service · 2015-06-08 · Reports · 9,517 words
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides that “Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.” This provision limits the government’s power to restrict s...
Congressional Power to Create Federal Courts: A Legal Overview
Congressional Research Service · 2015-06-01 · Reports · 18,295 words
The U.S. Constitution established only one federal court—the U.S. Supreme Court. Beyond this, Article III of the Constitution left it to the discretion of Congress to “ordain and establish” lower fede...
An Overview of the Employment-Population Ratio
Congressional Research Service · 2015-05-27 · Reports · 4,725 words
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) defines the employment-population ratio as the ratio of total civilian employment to the civilian noninstitutional population. Simply put, it is the portion of the...
Presidential Appointments to Full-Time Positions on Regulatory and Other Collegial Boards and Commissions, 113th Congress
Congressional Research Service · 2015-05-20 · Reports · 15,079 words
The President makes appointments to certain positions within the federal government, either using authorities granted to the President alone or with the advice and consent of the Senate. There are som...
Federal Grand Juries: The Law in a Nutshell
Congressional Research Service · 2015-05-07 · Reports · 2,785 words
The federal grand jury exists to investigate crimes against the United States and to secure the constitutional right of grand jury indictment. Its responsibilities require broad powers. As an arm of t...
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy: Issues for the 114th Congress
Congressional Research Service · 2015-05-05 · Reports · 10,362 words
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...
International Air Service Controversies: Frequently Asked Questions
Congressional Research Service · 2015-05-04 · Reports · 5,834 words
“Open skies” agreements are a form of international civil air service agreement that facilitates international aviation in a deregulated environment. They eliminate government involvement in airline d...
Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Legislation in the 114th Congress
Congressional Research Service · 2015-04-29 · Reports · 8,885 words
A surprising number of federal crimes carry mandatory minimum terms of imprisonment; that is, they are punishably by imprisonment for a term of not less than some number of years. During the 114th Con...
Cash Versus Accrual Accounting: Tax Policy Considerations
Congressional Research Service · 2015-04-24 · Reports · 6,049 words
Two methods of accounting are generally available to businesses: cash basis and accrual basis accounting. Under cash basis accounting, revenue and expenses are recognized and recorded when cash is act...
An Analysis of the Regulatory Burden on Small Banks
Congressional Research Service · 2015-04-22 · Reports · 22,447 words
Since the financial crisis, policymakers have focused on addressing the failures that led to turmoil and ensuring that the financial system and the economy are better positioned to withstand future ma...
An Overview of Unconventional Oil and Natural Gas: Resources and Federal Actions
Congressional Research Service · 2015-04-22 · Reports · 14,111 words
The United States has seen resurgence in petroleum production, mainly driven by technology improvements—especially hydraulic fracturing and directional drilling—developed for natural gas production fr...