This report begins with an inventory of basic information: definitions and guides to histories of the growth of open access publishing and citation archives and descriptions of selected major open access activities. It moves on to summarize major points of difference between proponents and opponents of nongovernmental open access publishing and databases, and then highlights federal, including National Institutes of Health (NIH), open access activities and contentious issues surrounding these developments. The report also briefly describes open access developments in the United Kingdom (where a number of governmental and nongovernmental initiatives have occurred) and in the international arena. Finally, controversial issues which could receive attention in the 109th Congress are summarized.

This report presents a list of federal government agencies that offer fax-on-demand services and provides brief description of their offerings.

Intellectual property legislation that came close to enactment during the 108th Congress has been enacted. The Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005 was signed into law on April 27, 2005. Among the issues addressed are unauthorized distribution of pre-release commercial works, the marketing of devices for home use to edit objectionable content from DVDs, the preservation of the nation's film heritage, and use by libraries and archives of "orphan works."

This report discusses issues surrounding the transition of Presidential power, including the variety of events, decisions, and activities.

This report discusses the Presidential Records Act (PRA) and examines policy options related to the capture, maintenance, and use of presidential records.

The U.S. Constitution--Article 1, Section 2, clause 3, as modified by Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment--requires a population census every 10 years, to serve as the basis for reapportioning seats in the House of Representatives. Decennial census data also are used for within-state redistricting and in certain formulas that determine the annual distribution of more than $400 billion dollars in federal and state funds. This report discusses the major innovations that were planned for the 2010 census, problems encountered with the attempt to automate certain census field operations, the persistent differential census undercount of less advantaged groups in the population, and efforts to ensure an equitable census.

This report summarizes the information and background of the 2010 census. The report outlines what the census is and why it is necessary. Moreover, it describes the new methods used and the issues encountered by using those methods.

This CRS report discusses policy issues regarding military-to-mliitary contacts with the People's Republic of China (PRC) and provides a record of contacts since 1993. The United States suspended military contacts with China and imposed sanctions on arms sales in response to the Tiananmen Crackdown in 1989. In 1993, the Clinton Administration began to re-engage the PRC leadership up to the highest level and including China's military, the People's Liberation Army (PLA). Renewed military exchanges with the PLA have not regained the closeness reached in the 1980s, when U.S.-PRC strategic cooperation against the Soviet Union included U.S. arms sales to China. Issues for Congress include whether the current Administration under President Bush has complied with legislation overseeing dealings with the PLA and has determined a program of contacts with the PLA that advances a prioritized list of U.S. security interests.

This is a directory of telephone numbers and addresses that congressional offices may use to obtain publications from the Executive Office of the President, the executive departments, and the independent agencies and commissions of the federal government. Electronic sources are included for locating copies of government publications on the Internet. The information for each agency was provided by the agency itself.

The recent controversy regarding the use of consular identification cards (IDs) by aliens within the United States, in particular Mexico’s particular consular, has led to calls for legislation to regulate the issuance of the cards by foreign missions or their acceptance by U.S. government and private entities. This report identifies possible implications that U.S. regulation or monitoring of the issuance of these cards by foreign missions might have upon U.S. obligations under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR), which protects foreign missions in the exercise of their legitimate consular functions and codifies customary international law with respect to the inviolability of consular premises and documents.

This report is written in response to numerous requests for war casualty statistics and lists of war dead. It provides tables, compiled by sources at the Department of Defense, indicating the number of casualties among American military personnel serving in principal wars and combat actions. For the more recent conflicts, starting with the Korean War, more detailed information on types of casualties, and when available, demographics have been included. This report also cites sources of published lists of military personnel killed in principal wars and combat actions.

This report discusses Fishery, Aquaculture, and Marine Mammal online news and information sources.

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This report focuses on the institutions and procedures associated with the contemporary electoral college system. It opens by noting four rarely occurring electoral college eventualities that took place in connection with the 2016 presidential election. These included the election of a President and Vice President who received fewer popular votes than their major opponents; the actions of seven "faithless electors," who voted for candidates other than those to whom they were pledged; the split allocation of electoral votes in Maine, which uses the district system to choose its electors; and challenges to electoral votes in the joint session of Congress at which they are counted. The report also examines the constitutional origins of the electoral college system and identifies the additional components and processes that are the product of federal and state law, party requirements, and political tradition, explaining their role in presidential elections. It provides a timeline for operation of the electoral college system for the 2020 presidential election, a brief examination of alternative reform measures, including constitutional amendment proposals and non-governmental initiatives, such as the National Popular Vote initiative1 (NPV), and closes with concluding observations on the state of the electoral college system and prospects for change.

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This report briefly discusses the proposed construction of President Barack Obama's presidential library in the South Side of Chicago.

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This report highlights the issue of one-fifth of medicare patients in 2005 being readmitted to a hospital within thirty days time. These readmissions put a strain on the budget, the majority of which it is estimated may be avoidable. The report notes that Medicare as a program is working on moving around those difficulties, without reducing the quality of care.

This report describes security classification policy and procedure, largely prescribed in a series of successive presidential executive orders issued over the past 50 years. This policy provides the rationale and arrangements for designating information officially secret for reasons of national security, and for its declassification as well.

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This report provides information about the Congressional Liaison Offices of Selected Federal Agencies. This list of about 150 congressional Liaison is intended to help congressional offices in placing telephone calls and addressing correspondence to government agencies.

This report provides an overview of the relationship between executive and legislative authority over national security information, and summarizes the current laws that form the legal framework protecting classified information -- including current executive orders and some agency regulations pertaining to the handling of unauthorized disclosures of classified information by government officers and employees. The report also summarizes criminal laws that pertain specifically to the unauthorized disclosure of classified information, as well as civil and administrative penalties, and some recent developments.

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