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H.R. 1977, passed by the House July 18, 1995, appropriated $87 million for FY1996 for the "orderly closure" of the Bureau of Mines within the Department of Interior. However, when the Senate passed H.R. 1977 on August 9, it approved continuation of the Bureau and appropriated $128 million for FY1996.

On November 2, 1995, U.S. banking authorities ordered the Daiwa Bank to close its banking operations in the United States, and a 24-count criminal indictment was issued against it. These actions stem from the bank's admission that Toshihide Iguchi, a rogue trader at its New York branch office, had incurred $1.1 billion in losses over eleven years from trading U.S. Treasury securities and that Daiwa managers had "directed that those losses be concealed" from U.S. regulators.

The Forest Service currently sells timber by (a) planning and preparing the sale, (b) offering the sale, usually at an oral auction, and (c) administering the timber harvest. Many of the concerns about the timber program have focused on harvest administration, because purchasers have incentives to minimize their costs and to remove only those logs whose value for products exceeds the price paid to the Forest Service. Some critics suggest that this, together with an alleged "timber bias" and other inappropriate incentives, has contributed to environmental damages (e.g., deteriorating forest health), poor fiscal performance (e.g., below-cost timber sales), and a lack of accountability (e.g., timber theft). Possible legislative changes to the timber sale system are being considered by various interest groups and Members of Congress.

Mongolia is undergoing a fragile political and economic transition from Communist rule to a post-1990 parliamentary democracy under new constitutional rules adopted in 1992. After decades of heavy dependency on the former Soviet Union, Mongolia is seeking to broaden its foreign contact and trade.

The United States and Japan are closely tied economically. Japan ranks second only to Canada as the largest U.S. export market. Japan is the leading market for American agricultural exports, such as corn and meat; for U.S. crude materials such as wood; and for U.S.-produced aircraft. Japan is also the second largest supplier of U.S. imports. These include cars, consumer electronics, telecommunications equipment, and computers. The United States ranks as Japan's number one export market and import supplier.

On Oct. 7, 1992, Hong Kong's new Governor Christopher Patten unveiled proposals to expand the voting franchise in Hong Kong and broaden the scope of democratic institutions. Patten's proposals reflected a growing desire on the part of the colonial government and the people of Hong Kong that, in the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, Hong Kong should erect safeguards against capricious Chinese government action after 1997. The proposals were seen by the British authorities as consistent with the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration -- the agreement governing Hong Kong's transfer to Chinese rule, but Beijing disagreed.

The Clean Water Act, which was last amended in 1987, consists of two major parts: regulatory provisions that impose progressively more stringent requirements on industries and cities to abate pollution and meet the statutory goal of zero discharge of pollutants, and provisions that authorize Federal financial assistance for municipal wastewater treatment construction.