Policy Library

6,587 documents

Executive Order on Elections: Legal Background and Court Challenges
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-16 · Posts · 3,030 words · PDF available
On March 25, 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order (EO) 14248, “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections.” The EO addresses the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and the...
Presidential 2025 Tariff Actions: Timeline and Status
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-16 · Reports · 9,129 words · PDF available
Since the beginning of his second term on January 20, 2025, President Donald J. Trump has increased tariffs on U.S. imports from all global partners. To implement these tariffs, the President has cite...
Naturalization: Policy Overview and Selected Trends
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-16 · Resources · 1,397 words · PDF available
Naturalization is the voluntary process by which a foreign national becomes a U.S. citizen. In 2024, approximately 26 million naturalized U.S. citizens were residing in the United States, representing...
Turkey (Türkiye): Major Issues and U.S. Relations
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-15 · Reports · 12,541 words · PDF available
U.S. relations with Turkey (Türkiye), a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ally, have alternated between close cooperation and notable division. Turkey and other “global swing states” such as S...
Supreme Court Review: Criminal Law Cases from the October 2024 Term
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-15 · Reports · 6,741 words · PDF available
In its October 2024 term, the Supreme Court issued several significant decisions in cases involving federal criminal law and constitutional criminal procedure. These cases ranged from familiar topics ...
“Sanctuary” Jurisdictions: Legal Overview
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-15 · Posts · 3,646 words · PDF available
Several state and local jurisdictions have adopted policies that limit their cooperation with federal agencies charged with immigration enforcement. Some observers and policymakers describe these stat...
Court Decisions Regarding Tariffs Imposed Under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA)
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-15 · Posts · 3,701 words · PDF available
In 2025, President Donald Trump issued a series of executive orders imposing tariffs on most U.S. imports under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). On September 9, 2025, the U.S. ...
Artificial Intelligence in Capital Markets: Policy Issues
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-15 · Resources · 1,643 words · PDF available
Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform operations and regulation of capital markets. This In Focus lays out some background and policy implications relevant to congressional overs...
Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs): An Overview
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-15 · Resources · 1,582 words · PDF available
Introduction An Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) is a defined contribution (DC) pension plan that invests primarily in shares of stock issued by one employer, called qualifying employer securities...
Congressional Court Watcher: Circuit Splits from August 2025
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-15 · Posts · 3,974 words · PDF available
The U.S. Courts of Appeals for the thirteen “circuits” issue thousands of precedential decisions each year. Because relatively few of these decisions are ultimately reviewed by the Supreme Court, the ...
National Security Exclusions from the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statutes
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-15 · Posts · 3,069 words · PDF available
On March 27, 2025, President Donald J. Trump issued an executive order that excluded 40 agencies and subdivisions from coverage under the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute and the For...
The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) System
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-15 · Resources · 1,418 words · PDF available
Background According to the Department of Defense (DOD), the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system (Figure 1) is a key element of U.S. ballistic missile defense (BMD). THAAD employs inter...
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-15 · Resources · 1,629 words · PDF available
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is a committee of experts who make recommendations to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) regarding the use of vaccines and relate...
Nonlegislative Debate in the House: OneMinute, Morning-Hour, and SpecialOrder Speeches
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-15 · Reports · 5,396 words · PDF available
Three types of speeches have evolved in the House of Representatives to allow Members to address a variety of topics when legislation is not pending before the body: one-minute, morning-hour, and spec...
Community Services Block Grants (CSBG): Background and Funding
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-12 · Reports · 10,688 words · PDF available
Community Services Block Grants (CSBG) provide federal funds to states, territories, and tribes for distribution to local agencies to support a wide range of community-based activities to reduce pover...
The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act’s Requirements for Personal Jurisdiction over Foreign States
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-12 · Posts · 1,582 words · PDF available
The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) (codified as amended at 28 U.S.C. § 1330 & §§ 160211) addresses the immunity of foreign states from U.S. courts’ jurisdiction, generally providing such stat...
Are State Tort Claims Against Military Contractors Preempted? High Court Weighs Combatant-Activities Exception
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-12 · Posts · 3,097 words · PDF available
On November 3, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case Hencely v. Fluor Corp. This case concerns a former servicemember bringing state tort claims against military...
V-22 Osprey Aircraft: Background and Issues for Congress
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-12 · Reports · 10,724 words · PDF available
The V-22 Osprey is a joint-service, multi-mission, medium-lift rotorcraft. The V-22 is a type of aircraft known as a tilt-rotor, which is a unique design for a crewed military aircraft. A tilt-rotor t...
The United States Preventive Services Task Force
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-12 · Resources · 1,622 words · PDF available
The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF, or Task Force) is an independent, volunteer panel of experts in preventive health services, evidence-based medicine, and primary care that mak...
Navy John Lewis (TAO-205) Class Oiler Shipbuilding Program: Background and Issues for Congress
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-12 · Reports · 6,719 words · PDF available
The John Lewis (TAO-205) class oiler shipbuilding program is a program to build a new class of 20 fleet oilers for the Navy. The Navy procured the first TAO-205 in FY2016, and a total of 10 TAO-205s h...
Forest Service: FY2025 Appropriations
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-12 · Resources · 1,382 words · PDF available
The Forest Service (FS) is responsible for managing 193 million acres of land in the National Forest System (NFS), conducting forestry research, and providing assistance to nonfederal forest owners. T...
Older Americans Month Speech Resources: Fact Sheet
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-12 · Reports · 1,602 words · PDF available
May is Older Americans Month—a time some celebrate and pay tribute to older people across the country. Since 1992, the Administration on Aging has selected an annual theme for Older Americans Month. T...
Navy Light Replenishment Oiler (TAOL) Program: Background and Issues for Congress
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-12 · Resources · 1,506 words · PDF available
Introduction The Navy’s Light Replenishment Oiler (TAOL) program, previously called the Next-Generation Logistics Ship (NGLS) program, envisages procuring a new class of 13 at-sea resupply ships for t...
Navy DDG(X) Next-Generation Destroyer Program: Background and Issues for Congress
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-12 · Resources · 1,538 words · PDF available
Introduction The Navy’s DDG(X) program envisages procuring a class of next-generation guided-missile destroyers (DDGs) to replace the Navy’s Ticonderoga (CG-47) class Aegis cruisers and older Arleigh ...
Funding for Wildfire Management: FY2025 Appropriations for Forest Service and Department of the Interior
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-12 · Resources · 1,386 words · PDF available
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service (FS) and the Department of the Interior (DOI) are responsible for wildfire management and response across federal lands within their respective juri...
Poverty in 2024
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-12 · Posts · 907 words · PDF available
The official poverty rate in the United States, or percentage of people who live in poverty, fell to 10.6% in 2024, down from 11.1% the previous year. In 2024, 35.9 million people lived in poverty. T...
Navy Ford (CVN-78) Class Aircraft Carrier Program: Background and Issues for Congress
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-12 · Reports · 14,215 words · PDF available
The aircraft carriers CVN-78, CVN-79, CVN-80, CVN-81, CVN-82, and CVN-83 are the first six ships in the Navy’s new Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) class of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers (CVNs). The Navy’s...
Defense Primer: U.S. Space Command (SPACECOM)
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-12 · Resources · 1,365 words · PDF available
U.S. Space Command (USSPACECOM or SPACECOM) is one of 11 unified combatant commands (CCMDs) within the Department of Defense (DOD) and is responsible for U.S. military operations in space. The term un...
U.S. Strategic Bombers
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-12 · Resources · 1,850 words · PDF available
The U.S. Air Force deploys three strategic (or heavy) bombers—the B-52, B-1B, and B-2—to carry bombs or air-to-surface missiles for conventional and nuclear missions. Bombers carry heavy ordnance load...
Current Federal Civilian Employment by State and Congressional District
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-12 · Reports · 4,052 words · PDF available
The federal government employs more than 2 million civilians who live and work in every state and U.S. territory. This report provides a snapshot of recent statistics for U.S. government civilian empl...
South Korea: Background and U.S. Relations
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-12 · Resources · 1,774 words · PDF available
Overview South Korea (officially the Republic of Korea, or ROK) is one of the United States’ most important strategic and economic partners in Asia. Under the U.S.-ROK Mutual Defense Treaty, signed in...
U.S. Gun Policy: Framework and Major Issues
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-12 · Resources · 1,716 words · PDF available
Recent Congresses have enacted legislation modifying certain aspects of the existing federal regulatory regime on firearms and have considered a range of other proposals. The 2022 Bipartisan Safer Com...
Multiyear Procurement (MYP) and Block Buy Contracting in Defense Acquisition: Background and Issues for Congress
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-12 · Reports · 16,155 words · PDF available
Multiyear procurement (MYP) and block buy contracting (BBC) are special contracting mechanisms that Congress permits the Department of Defense (DOD) to use for a limited number of defense acquisition ...
An Introduction to Judicial Review of Federal Agency Action
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-12 · Reports · 19,575 words · PDF available
Congress has created numerous federal agencies charged with carrying out a broad array of delegated statutory responsibilities. These agencies administer their delegated authority in a variety of ways...
Navy Ship Names: Background for Congress
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-11 · Reports · 36,321 words · PDF available
Names for Navy ships traditionally have been chosen and announced by the Secretary of the Navy, under the direction of the President and in accordance with rules prescribed by Congress. Rules for givi...
Critical Minerals on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf: The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s Role and Issues for Congress
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-11 · Reports · 14,724 words · PDF available
The first and second Trump Administrations and the Biden Administration have issued executive orders announcing U.S. policies to build and strengthen the resiliency of domestic critical mineral supply...
The Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) List
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-11 · Resources · 1,296 words · PDF available
Congress has shown recurring interest in the administration of the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs)—one of several terrorism-related lists that the U.S. government mai...
Current Issues for Syria’s Chemical Weapons and Nuclear Weapons Programs
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-11 · Posts · 1,178 words · PDF available
On December 8, 2024, the government of Syria’s Bashar Al Asad collapsed following armed offensives led by the Hay’at Tahrir al Sham (HTS) coalition. A successor government inherited unresolved interna...
Defense Primer: LGM-35A Sentinel Intercontinental Ballistic Missile
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-11 · Resources · 1,583 words · PDF available
The LGM-35A Sentinel is an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) system that is expected to replace the Minuteman III (MMIII) ICBM in the U.S. nuclear force structure. MMIII has served as the grou...
The Army’s M-1E3 Abrams Tank Modernization Program
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-11 · Resources · 1,190 words · PDF available
Background The M-1 Abrams Tank (Figure 1) is designed to maneuver under fire and destroy enemy armored forces on the battlefield. The M-1 is named for General Creighton Abrams, a noted World War II ar...
The Void-for-Vagueness Doctrine in Criminal Law
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-11 · Resources · 1,761 words · PDF available
Vagueness as Constitutional Violation Defendants in federal criminal cases often challenge their prosecutions by arguing that the laws they allegedly violated are unconstitutionally vague. The Fifth A...
Defense Primer: Naval Forces
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-11 · Resources · 1,675 words · PDF available
“Naval Forces” Refers to Both the Navy and Marine Corps Although the term naval forces is often used to refer specifically to Navy forces, it more properly refers to both Navy and Marine Corps forces,...
U.S.–Papua New Guinea Relations: Issues for Congress
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-11 · Resources · 1,503 words · PDF available
Overview The Independent State of Papua New Guinea (PNG) lies in a region of the southwest Pacific known as Melanesia on the eastern side of the island of New Guinea. It is the most populous Pacific I...
Debt Limit Suspensions
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-11 · Posts · 1,267 words · PDF available
A debt limit suspension defines a minimum interval before Congress is compelled to address the debt limit again. Once the suspension ends, the debt limit is reset to accommodate the increase in federa...
Tonga: Background and Issues for Congress
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-11 · Resources · 1,529 words · PDF available
Overview The Kingdom of Tonga is one of the United States’ oldest diplomatic partners in the Pacific Islands region. U.S. policymakers, including some Members of Congress, have identified U.S. nationa...
Army’s Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS): Background and Issues for Congress
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-11 · Resources · 1,372 words · PDF available
The U.S. Army is developing the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) as part of an effort to improve the combat effectiveness and training of soldiers. IVAS includes a “ruggedized” (i.e., stre...
Defense Primer: Geography, Strategy, and U.S. Force Design
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-11 · Resources · 1,783 words · PDF available
World Geography and U.S. Strategy World geography is an influence on U.S. strategy, which in turn helps shape the design of U.S. military forces. Most of the world’s people, resources, and economic ac...
Connecting Older Adults and Individuals with Disabilities to Health Services: Resources for Congressional Offices
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-11 · Resources · 1,337 words · PDF available
Overview Navigating the U.S. health and long-term care systems can be confusing and complex for some constituents. Older adults and individuals with disabilities may face additional challenges in iden...
Congress Repeals CFPB’s Overdraft Rule
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-10 · Posts · 975 words · PDF available
Overdraft refers to when the money in a consumer account cannot cover a given transaction, but a financial institution pays the transaction. While some financial institutions do not offer overdraft co...
Mexico’s Migration Control Efforts
Congressional Research Service · 2025-09-10 · Resources · 1,387 words · PDF available
For more than a decade, consecutive U.S. Administrations have sought to coordinate with Mexico to reduce unauthorized migration to the United States. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported ...