This report discusses the Obama Administration's recent request for over $1 billion in foreign assistance during FY2016 to support a whole-of-government "U.S. Strategy for Engagement in Central America."

This report examines (1) the extent to which the Department of Defense (DOD) effectively uses data to inform decisionmaking, (2) some of the critical elements needed for DOD to use data more effectively, (3) recent efforts to improve DOD's use of data, and (4) potential questions for Congress. This report focuses primarily (but not exclusively) on defense acquisitions as a case study.

This report summarizes the language related to the Affordable Care (ACA) that was added to annual appropriations legislation by congressional appropriators since the ACA was signed into law. The information is presented in a table. While a detailed examination of the ACA itself is beyond the scope of this report, a brief overview of the ACA's core provisions and its impact on federal spending is provided as context for the material in the table. Congress remains deeply divided over implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which President Obama signed into law in March 2010.

This report briefly discusses the foreign operations appropriations legislation generally and then provides a short description of the various funding accounts as they appear in Division K, "Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2016," of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016 (P.L. 114-113). The State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs appropriations legislation provides annual funding for almost all of the international affairs programs.

This report discusses the legislative and oversight issues regarding water quality, as well as wastewater treatment funding issues.

This report briefly discusses authorization legislation for the water resources activities of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) in 2016, which the 114th Congress is anticipated to consider. These issues span the agency's role in new and existing navigation improvements, coastal and riverine flood risk reduction, and environmental restoration and protection efforts.

This report provides a brief overview of the history of the negotiations between Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders, a review of the negotiations since 2008, and a description of some of the issues involved in the talks.

This report begins with a brief discussion of security challenges in Mexico and Mexico's security strategy. It then provides information on congressional funding and oversight of the Mérida Initiative, with details about each of the program's four pillars. The report concludes by raising policy issues that Congress may wish to consider.

This report provides background information and issues for Congress on the Navy's Littoral Combat Ship (LCS)/Frigate program, a program to procure a large number of LCSs and modified LCSs (frigates). The Navy's execution of the program has been a matter of congressional oversight attention for several years.