A Snapshot of Federal Student Loan Debt
After years of increasing, growth in the number of federal student loan borrowers, average annual amounts borrowed, and average cumulative debt owed appears to be moderating, and among some measures, ...
President Reagan’s Six Assurances to Taiwan
Introduction
Under the U.S. “one-China” policy, the U.S. government has, since 1979, maintained official relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC, or China) and unofficial relations with sel...
TikTok: Frequently Asked Questions and Issues for Congress
Since 2018, the social media application TikTok, developed and owned by ByteDance Ltd. (ByteDance), has become one of the most popular social media platforms in the United States, and has raised overs...
Electricity: Overview and Issues for Congress
Electricity is of perennial interest to Congress, especially the policy issues of reliability, security, affordability, and greenhouse gas emissions.
The electricity sector is made of up three distinc...
U.S. Department of Education: Background and Statutorily Established Officers, Positions, and Offices
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) was established by the Department of Education Organization Act (DEOA, P.L. 96-88) on October 17, 1979, to “ensure that education issues receive proper treatment ...
Organ Procurement and Transplantation: Administration, Oversight, and Policy Issues
In 2022, while there were over 42,000 organ transplants being done in the United States, there were still 103,327 people on the organ transplant wait list. The U.S. organ transplant system comprises m...
Trump Administration Executive Order on California Water Resources
On January 24, 2025, the Trump Administration issued Executive Order 14181 (E.O.), “Emergency Measures to Provide Water Resources in California and Improve Disaster Response in Certain Areas,” which i...
Elder Financial Exploitation
Elder financial exploitation (EFE), as defined by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), is “the illegal or improper use of an older adult’s funds, property, or assets.” EFE can deprive se...
Rescission of Executive Order 11246, “Equal Employment Opportunity”: Legal Implications
On January 21, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14173, entitled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.” The executive order (EO) states as one of its purpose...
Section 301 and China: The U.S.-China Phase One Trade Deal
On January 15, 2020, then-President Donald J. Trump signed a trade agreement with then-Vice Premier Liu He of the People’s Republic of China (PRC, or China). The agreement sought to resolve some long-...
Access to Agency Data and Information Technology: Frequently Asked Questions
Congressional interest in the information technology (IT) that generates, stores, manipulates, transmits, and disposes of data used by federal agencies has increased since the beginning of the 119th C...
Social Media: Regulatory, Legal, and Policy Considerations for the 119th Congress
Social media platforms enable users to create and share content and interact with other users’ content. A diverse set of platforms disseminate information to billions of people, and are used by most A...
Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
A health savings account (HSA) is a tax-advantaged account that individuals can use to save and pay for unreimbursed medical expenses (e.g., deductibles, co-payments, coinsurance, and services not cov...
Federal Assessments and Warnings of Potential Post-Fire Debris Flows: Examples from the January 2025 Los Angeles County Wildfires
Starting on January 7, 2025, a series of damaging wildfires impacted Los Angeles (LA) County, CA. As the fires are extinguished and weather conditions change, state and local officials are increasingl...