Policy Library

7,020 documents

Entitlements and Appropriated Entitlements in the Federal Budget Process
Congressional Research Service · 2012-11-26 · Reports · 1,575 words
Entitlements are programs that require payments to persons, state or local governments, or other entities if specific eligibility criteria established in the authorizing law are met. Entitlement payme...
Overview of the Authorization-Appropriations Process
Congressional Research Service · 2012-11-26 · Reports · 1,048 words
A primary avenue for exercising Congress’s power of the purse is the authorization and appropriation of federal spending to carry out government activities. While the power over appropriations is gran...
Basic Federal Budgeting Terminology
Congressional Research Service · 2012-11-26 · Reports · 989 words
In its most elemental form, the federal budget is a comprehensive accounting of the government’s spending, revenues, and borrowing. This report provides a brief overview of the basic terminology and c...
Baselines and Scorekeeping in the Federal Budget Process
Congressional Research Service · 2012-11-26 · Reports · 1,157 words
Baselines and scorekeeping are an integral part of the federal budget process, providing lawmakers with a framework for making and enforcing budgetary decisions. The existing-law baseline, currently u...
House Legislative Procedures: Published Sources of Information
Congressional Research Service · 2012-11-21 · Reports · 656 words
The House of Representatives has published information about its current procedures in three primary sources: a House manual, a book on House procedure written for everyday use, and a set of House pre...
Congressional Redistricting: An Overview
Congressional Research Service · 2012-11-21 · Reports · 13,335 words
The decennial apportionment process determines the number of seats in the House of Representatives for which each state qualifies, based on population counts (for more on the apportionment process, se...
Pesticide Law: A Summary of the Statutes
Congressional Research Service · 2012-11-14 · Reports · 7,584 words
This report summarizes the major statutory authorities governing pesticide regulation: the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), and Section 408 of the Federal Food, Drug, and C...
U.S. Renewable Electricity: How Does Wind Generation Impact Competitive Power Markets?
Congressional Research Service · 2012-11-07 · Reports · 10,237 words
U.S. wind power generation has experienced rapid growth in the last 20 years as total installed capacity has increased from 1,500 megawatts (MW) in 1992 to more than 50,000 MW in August of 2012. Accor...
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act: Title VII, Derivatives
Congressional Research Service · 2012-11-06 · Reports · 11,338 words · PDF available
The financial crisis implicated the over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives market as a major source of systemic risk. A number of firms used derivatives to construct highly leveraged speculative positions...
Reallocation of Water Storage at Federal Water Projects for Municipal and Industrial Water Supply
Congressional Research Service · 2012-10-31 · Reports · 12,173 words · PDF available
Pursuant to congressional authorization, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), the agencies with primary responsibility for federal water resources...
U.S. Renewable Electricity: How Does the Production Tax Credit (PTC) Impact Wind Markets?
Congressional Research Service · 2012-10-10 · Reports · 7,493 words
U.S. wind projects that use large turbines—greater than 100 kilowatts (kW)—are eligible to receive federal tax incentives in the form of production tax credits (PTC) and accelerated depreciation. Orig...
Privacy: An Abridged Overview of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act
Congressional Research Service · 2012-10-09 · Reports · 4,966 words
This report provides an overview of federal law governing wiretapping and electronic eavesdropping under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). It is a federal crime to wiretap or to use a...
Privacy: An Overview of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act
Congressional Research Service · 2012-10-09 · Reports · 56,978 words
This report provides an overview of federal law governing wiretapping and electronic eavesdropping under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). It also appends citations to state law in the...
Federal Grants-in-Aid Administration: A Primer
Congressional Research Service · 2012-10-03 · Reports · 5,227 words · PDF available
Congressional authorization of federal assistance to state and local governments can be traced back to the Continental Congress and its approval of the granting of nationally owned land to states form...
U.S. Initial Public Stock Offerings and the JOBS Act
Congressional Research Service · 2012-09-27 · Reports · 18,430 words
Over the past decade, many sources have reported a precipitous decline in the number of initial public offerings (IPOs) in the United States. These statistics raise several questions: what has caused ...
Airport Body Scanners: The Role of Advanced Imaging Technology in Airline Passenger Screening
Congressional Research Service · 2012-09-20 · Reports · 5,687 words
Responding to the need to reliably detect explosives, bomb-making components, and other potential security threats concealed by airline passengers, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has...
Family Law: Congress’s Authority to Legislate on Domestic Relations Questions
Congressional Research Service · 2012-09-13 · Reports · 15,019 words
Under the United States Constitution, Congress has little direct authority to legislate in the field of domestic relations. The primary authority and responsibility to legislate in the domestic relati...
The National Labor Relations Act: Background and Selected Topics
Congressional Research Service · 2012-09-07 · Reports · 4,770 words · PDF available
The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA or “the Act”) recognizes the right of employees to engage in collective bargaining through representatives of their own choosing. By “encouraging the practice an...
Child Custody and Support: Frequently Asked Questions
Congressional Research Service · 2012-08-17 · Reports · 2,701 words
Under the U.S. Constitution, Congress has little direct authority to legislate in the field of domestic relations. Generally, state policy guides these decisions. Despite the lack of direct authority ...
Wiretapping, Tape Recorders, and Legal Ethics: An Overview of Questions Posed by Attorney Involvement in Secretly Recording Conversation
Congressional Research Service · 2012-08-09 · Reports · 13,453 words
In some jurisdictions, it is unethical for an attorney to secretly record a conversation even though it is not illegal to do so. A few states require the consent of all parties to a conversation befor...
Wiretapping, Tape Recorders, and Legal Ethics: An Abridged Overview of Questions Posed by Attorney Involvement in Secretly Recording Conversation
Congressional Research Service · 2012-08-09 · Reports · 1,733 words · PDF available
In some jurisdictions, it is unethical for an attorney to secretly record a conversation even though it is not illegal to do so. A few states require the consent of all parties to a conversation befor...
Interim Continuing Resolutions (CRs): Potential Impacts on Agency Operations
Congressional Research Service · 2012-07-25 · Reports · 8,844 words
Continuing appropriations acts, often known as continuing resolutions (CRs), have been a component of the annual appropriations process for decades. When Congress and the President do not reach final ...
An Analysis of Charitable Giving and Donor Advised Funds
Congressional Research Service · 2012-07-11 · Reports · 12,908 words
Congress has long been concerned with ensuring that contributions for which tax deductions are claimed directly benefit charitable activities. Private foundations, a traditional arrangement that allow...
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act: A Summary of Superfund Cleanup Authorities and Related Provisions of the Act
Congressional Research Service · 2012-06-14 · Reports · 21,835 words
Congress enacted the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA; P.L. 96-510) in response to a growing desire for the federal government to ensure the cleanu...
The 3.8% Medicare Contribution Tax on Unearned Income, Including Real Estate Transactions
Congressional Research Service · 2012-05-18 · Reports · 1,769 words
The Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (HCERA, P.L. 111-152) contains a provision that will subject certain individuals to a 3.8% “unearned income Medicare contribution” tax beginnin...
Clean Energy Standard: Summary and Analysis of S. 2146
Congressional Research Service · 2012-05-09 · Reports · 6,220 words
U.S. policymakers have considered and deliberated on several policy designs that could potentially reduce energy-related carbon emissions. In his 2011 State of the Union address, President Obama propo...
Reconciliation Directives: Components and Enforcement
Congressional Research Service · 2012-05-03 · Reports · 5,219 words
The purpose of the reconciliation process is to enhance Congress’s ability to bring existing spending, revenue, and debt-limit laws into compliance with current fiscal priorities established in the an...
Sufficiency of Signatures on Conference Reports
Congressional Research Service · 2012-05-02 · Reports · 2,362 words
The House and Senate both require that a conference report be signed by a majority of House conferees and a majority of Senate conferees. When some conferees are appointed only for limited purposes, t...
Prosecution of Public Corruption: An Abridged Overview of Amendments Under H.R. 2572 and S. 2038
Congressional Research Service · 2012-04-11 · Reports · 4,912 words
The House Judiciary Committee has approved an amended version of the Clean Up Government Act (H.R. 2572). The Senate has passed nearly identical provisions as Title II of the Stop Trading on Congressi...
Prosecution of Public Corruption: An Overview of Amendments Under H.R. 2572 and S. 2038
Congressional Research Service · 2012-04-11 · Reports · 14,176 words
The House Judiciary Committee has approved an amended version of the Clean Up Government Act (H.R. 2572). The Senate has passed nearly identical provisions as Title II of the Stop Trading on Congressi...
The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA): A Summary
Congressional Research Service · 2012-04-05 · Reports · 2,727 words
This report summarizes the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) and the major regulatory programs that mandate reporting by industrial facilities of releases of potentially hazar...
Energy Storage for Power Grids and Electric Transportation: A Technology Assessment
Congressional Research Service · 2012-03-27 · Reports · 59,242 words
Energy storage technology has great potential to improve electric power grids, to enable growth in renewable electricity generation, and to provide alternatives to oil-derived fuels in the nation’s tr...
Compensating State and Local Governments for the Tax-Exempt Status of Federal Lands: What Is Fair and Consistent?
Congressional Research Service · 2012-03-22 · Reports · 15,440 words · PDF available
The federal government owns significant amounts of land and resources that are exempt from state and local taxation. State and local governments provide a wide variety of services—education, social se...
Mandatory Minimum Sentencing for Federal Sex Offenses: An Overview
Congressional Research Service · 2012-03-02 · Reports · 26,876 words
Sex offenses are usually state crimes. Federal law, however, outlaws sex offenses when they occur on federal lands or in federal prisons, when they involve interstate or foreign travel, or when they i...
Mandatory Minimum Sentencing for Federal Sex Offenses: An Abridged Overview
Congressional Research Service · 2012-03-02 · Reports · 9,030 words
Sex offenses are usually state crimes. Federal law, however, outlaws sex offenses when they occur on federal lands or in federal prisons, when they involve interstate or foreign travel, or when they i...
Budget Process Reform: Proposals and Legislative Actions in 2012
Congressional Research Service · 2012-03-02 · Reports · 4,340 words
An array of budget process reform proposals are put forth each year seeking to refine or modify the existing constitutional requirements, laws, and rules that make up the federal budget process. This ...
Changes to the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA): Overview of the New Framework of Products and Processes
Congressional Research Service · 2012-02-29 · Reports · 19,180 words
On January 4, 2011, the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010 (GPRAMA) became law. The acronym “GPRA” in the act’s short title refers to the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA 1993), a law ...
Homeland Security Department: FY2012 Appropriations
Congressional Research Service · 2012-02-21 · Reports · 41,910 words
This report describes the FY2012 appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The Administration requested a total appropriation (mandatory and discretionary) of $45,015 million in bu...
Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization: P.L. 111-296
Congressional Research Service · 2012-02-06 · Reports · 7,815 words
The most recent WIC and child nutrition reauthorization, P.L. 111-296, “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010,” was signed into law at the end of the 111th Congress on December 13, 2010. Subsequently,...
Internet Gambling: An Overview of Federal Criminal Law
Congressional Research Service · 2012-01-24 · Reports · 38,719 words
This is a summary of the federal criminal statutes implicated by conducting illegal gambling using the Internet. Gambling is primarily a matter of state law, reinforced by federal law in instances whe...
Internet Gambling: An Abridged Overview of Federal Criminal Law
Congressional Research Service · 2012-01-24 · Reports · 6,229 words
This is a summary of the federal criminal statutes implicated by conducting illegal gambling using the Internet. Gambling is primarily a matter of state law, reinforced by federal law in instances whe...
Loan Guarantees for Clean Energy Technologies: Goals, Concerns, and Policy Options
Congressional Research Service · 2012-01-17 · Reports · 9,114 words
Government guaranteed debt is a financial tool that has been used to support a number of federal policy objectives: home ownership, higher education, and small business development, among others. Loan...
Natural Gas Passenger Vehicles: Availability, Cost, and Performance
Congressional Research Service · 2012-01-11 · Reports · 3,126 words
Higher gasoline prices in recent years and concerns over U.S. oil dependence have raised interest in natural gas vehicles (NGVs). Use of NGVs for personal transportation has focused on compressed natu...
Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies: FY2012 Appropriations
Congressional Research Service · 2012-01-11 · Reports · 9,681 words
The Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) appropriations subcommittee is charged with providing annual appropriations for the Department of Transportation (DOT), D...
Warrantless Seizures in Forfeiture Cases: Due Process and Alvarez v. Smith in the Supreme Court
Congressional Research Service · 2012-01-03 · Reports · 2,815 words
Alvarez v. Smith became moot while pending before the United States Supreme Court. At the time, the Court had agreed to decide whether a six-month delay between a state’s seizure of property and its f...
United States v. Comstock: Legislative Authority Under the Necessary and Proper Clause
Congressional Research Service · 2012-01-03 · Reports · 4,181 words
The Adam Walsh Act created 18 U.S.C. 4248, which authorizes civil commitment as sexually dangerous those otherwise about to be released from federal custody. In United States v. Comstock, the United S...
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD): FY2012 Appropriations
Congressional Research Service · 2011-12-09 · Reports · 15,853 words
The President’s FY2012 budget was released on February 14, 2011. It included a request for nearly $47.9 billion in gross new appropriations for HUD in FY2012. After accounting for rescissions of prior...
Solar Projects: DOE Section 1705 Loan Guarantees
Congressional Research Service · 2011-10-25 · Reports · 2,766 words
Solyndra Photovoltaics PV CPV Solar Loan guarantee Section 1705 Department of Energy DOE CPV bankruptcy
Market Dynamics That May Have Contributed to Solyndra’s Bankruptcy
Congressional Research Service · 2011-10-25 · Reports · 3,088 words
Solyndra Solar Loan guarantee Section 1705 solar modules polysilicon photovoltaics PV DOE subsidies bankruptcy
Deprivation of Honest Services as a Basis for Federal Mail and Wire Fraud Convictions
Congressional Research Service · 2011-09-16 · Reports · 13,633 words
The United States Supreme Court in Skilling v. United States construed the honest services branch of the federal mail and wire fraud statutes to reach no more than cases involving bribery or kickbacks...