Resource Type

Privacy: An Overview of Federal Statues Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping (open access)

Privacy: An Overview of Federal Statues Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping

This report provides an overview of federal law governing wiretapping and electronic eavesdropping. It also appends citations to state law in the area and contains a bibliography of legal commentary as well as the text of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). This report also includes a brief summary of the recently expired Protect America Act, P.L. 110-55 and of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008, P.L. 110-261 (H.R. 6304).
Date: January 13, 2003
Creator: Stevens, Gina & Doyle, Charles
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Senate's Calendar of Business (open access)

The Senate's Calendar of Business

This report provides a summary of the contents of the Senate's Calendar of Business, which lists bills, resolutions, and other items of legislative business that are eligible for floor consideration.
Date: January 4, 2005
Creator: Palmer, Betsy & Bach, Stanley
System: The UNT Digital Library
Federal Estate, Gift, and Generation-Skipping Taxes: A Description of Current Law (open access)

Federal Estate, Gift, and Generation-Skipping Taxes: A Description of Current Law

This report contains an explanation of the major provisions of the federal estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer taxes. The discussion divides the federal estate tax into three components: the gross estate, deductions from the gross estate, and computation of the tax, including allowable tax credits. The federal estate tax is computed through a series of adjustments and modifications of a tax base known as the "gross estate." Certain allowable deductions reduce the gross estate to the "taxable estate," to which is then added the total of all lifetime taxable gifts made by the decedent. The tax rates are applied and, after reduction for certain allowable credits, the amount of tax owed by the estate is reached.
Date: January 5, 2008
Creator: Luckey, John R.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Brief Facts and Statistics (open access)

Brief Facts and Statistics

This report provides facts and statistics about Social Security that are frequently requested by Members of Congress and their staffs. It includes information about Social Security taxes and benefits, the program's impact on its recipients' incomes, federal tax receipts, federal spending and the economy, administrative information, and selected facts about Medicare.
Date: January 26, 2006
Creator: Sidor, Gary
System: The UNT Digital Library
U.S. Global Climate Change Policy: Evolving Views on Cost, Competitiveness, and Comprehensiveness (open access)

U.S. Global Climate Change Policy: Evolving Views on Cost, Competitiveness, and Comprehensiveness

This report discusses the evolving views on cost, competitiveness, and comprehensiveness regarding the U.S. global climate change policy. The report starts out with the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It discusses the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EPACT), and negotiations on the Kyoto Protocol, which established mandatory limits on emissions for developed countries.
Date: January 28, 2008
Creator: Parker, Larry B. & Blodgett, John E.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and Federal Water Rights (open access)

The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and Federal Water Rights

This report discusses federal authority over water, and federal “reserved” and non-reserved water rights. It discusses water rights under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and water rights provisions within specific designations.
Date: January 14, 2008
Creator: Brougher, Cynthia
System: The UNT Digital Library
Nuclear Arms Control: The Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (open access)

Nuclear Arms Control: The Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty

This report provides background information regarding the Nuclear Arms Control negotiations between U.S. and Russia. In addition it discusses treaties, the content and form of the agreements.
Date: January 18, 2008
Creator: Woolf, Amy F.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Endangered Species Act and Claims of Property Rights “Takings (open access)

The Endangered Species Act and Claims of Property Rights “Takings

This report discusses Endangered Species Act (ESA) that has long been one of the major flash points in the “property rights” debate. This report first outlines the ESA provisions most relevant to the act's impacts on private property, then surveys the major ESA-relevant principles of Fifth Amendment takings law, and finally discusses the court decisions adjudicating whether government measures based on the ESA effect a taking of property under the Fifth Amendment.
Date: January 14, 2008
Creator: Meltz, Robert
System: The UNT Digital Library
Wind Energy: Offshore Permitting (open access)

Wind Energy: Offshore Permitting

This report discusses the disputes over Corps jurisdiction prior to enactment of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 as well as the current law applicable to siting offshore wind facilities.
Date: January 29, 2008
Creator: Vann, Adam
System: The UNT Digital Library
Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Perspectives on the Top 20 Emitters and Developed Versus Developing Nations (open access)

Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Perspectives on the Top 20 Emitters and Developed Versus Developing Nations

This report uses the data compiled by World Resources Institute (WRI) to examine a pivotal and long-running issue surrounding U.S. climate change policy: the appropriate roles of developed and developing countries in addressing climate change.
Date: January 31, 2008
Creator: Parker, Larry & Blodgett, John
System: The UNT Digital Library
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR): Legislative Actions Through the 110th Congress, First Session (open access)

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR): Legislative Actions Through the 110th Congress, First Session

This report is intended to provide a summary of legislative attempts to address issues of energy development and preservation in the Refuge from the 95th Congress through the 110th Congress, with emphasis on the 107th through 110th Congresses.
Date: January 10, 2008
Creator: Gillis, Anne; Corn, M. L. & Roberts, Beth A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Air Quality Issues and Animal Agriculture: A Primer (open access)

Air Quality Issues and Animal Agriculture: A Primer

This report reviews the types of air emissions from livestock and poultry operations and their human health and environmental impacts. It then discusses provisions of several federal laws concerned with environmental impacts, beginning with the Clean Water Act, because protecting water resources has been the primary regulatory focus regarding livestock and animal operations.
Date: January 28, 2008
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
System: The UNT Digital Library
Biotechnology in Animal Agriculture: Status and Current Issues (open access)

Biotechnology in Animal Agriculture: Status and Current Issues

This report describes several scientifically emerging animal biotechnologies that are raising a variety of questions concerning risks to humans, animals, and the environment, as well as ethical concerns. The report examines applications of the technologies and discusses major issues that may arise.
Date: January 17, 2008
Creator: Becker, Geoffrey S. & Cowan, Tadlock
System: The UNT Digital Library
Offshore Oil and Gas Development: Legal Framework (open access)

Offshore Oil and Gas Development: Legal Framework

This report explains the nature of U.S. authority over offshore areas pursuant to international and domestic law. It also describes the laws, at both the state and federal levels, governing the development of offshore oil and gas and the litigation that has flowed from development under the current legal regimes. Also included is an outline of the recent changes to the authorities regulating offshore development wrought by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and subsequent legislation enacted by the 109th Congress prior to adjournment. Finally, this report discusses legislation under consideration by the 110th Congress that might also amend existing law in this area.
Date: January 30, 2008
Creator: Vann, Adam
System: The UNT Digital Library
Ecosystem Restoration in the Great Lakes: The Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Strategy (open access)

Ecosystem Restoration in the Great Lakes: The Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Strategy

This report summarizes The Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Strategy, analyzes issues related to the Strategy and its implementation, and discusses federal legislation related to restoration in the Great Lakes. The Strategy is a series of recommendations for actions and activities aimed at starting the restoration of the Great Lakes ecosystem. The Strategy encompasses eight issue areas: aquatic invasive species, fish and wildlife habitat (habitat/species), coastal health, contaminated sediments, nonpoint source pollution, toxic pollutants, indicators and information, and sustainable development.
Date: January 30, 2008
Creator: Sheikh, Pervaze A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Agricultural Export and Food Aid Programs (open access)

Agricultural Export and Food Aid Programs

This report discusses the recent development in different programs administered by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) with the goal to promote agricultural exports and to provide food aid. These programs include direct export subsidies, export market development, export credit guarantees, and foreign food aid.
Date: January 17, 2008
Creator: Hanrahan, Charles E.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Soil and Water Conservation: An Overview (open access)

Soil and Water Conservation: An Overview

The report offers the most recent development regarding the soil and water conservation topics and current major conservation activities. The report discusses the farm bill, which the 110th Congress is considering. The House passed its version of the farm bill on July 27, 2007 (H.R. 2419) by a vote of 231 to 191. Numerous options for conservation provisions were offered as the legislation moved through the House, but the conservation title was passed largely as reported by the Agriculture Committee and modified by a chairman's mark.
Date: January 2, 2008
Creator: Zinn, Jeffrey A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Nuclear Energy Policy (open access)

Nuclear Energy Policy

This report discusses the nuclear energy policy issues facing Congress that include the implementation of federal incentives for new commercial reactors, radioactive waste management policy, research and development priorities, power plant safety and regulation, nuclear weapons proliferation, and security against terrorist attacks.
Date: January 28, 2008
Creator: Holt, Mark
System: The UNT Digital Library
The European Union's Energy Security Challenges (open access)

The European Union's Energy Security Challenges

This report examines some of Europe's critical energy security challenges and EU efforts to coordinate a common European energy strategy. It also includes an overview of broader transatlantic energy security cooperation and will be updated as needed.
Date: January 30, 2008
Creator: Belkin, Paul
System: The UNT Digital Library
Animal Waste and Hazardous Substances: Current Laws and Legislative Issues (open access)

Animal Waste and Hazardous Substances: Current Laws and Legislative Issues

This report describes the provisions of Superfund and Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), and enforcement actions under these laws that have increasingly been receiving attention. Congressional scrutiny in the form of legislative proposals and a House hearing in the 109th Congress are discussed.
Date: January 25, 2008
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
System: The UNT Digital Library
Climate Change: Design Approaches for a Greenhouse Gas Reduction Program (open access)

Climate Change: Design Approaches for a Greenhouse Gas Reduction Program

This report explores strategies to control greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and options to address the cost issue in four parts. First, the basic economic tradeoff between controlling the quantity of GHG emissions and the program's compliance costs is introduced and explained. Second, the five dimensions of the cost issue that have arisen so far in the climate change debate are identified and discussed. Third, a representative sample of proposed approaches to address cost concerns is compared and analyzed according to the five cost dimensions identified previously. Finally, the proposed options are summarized and opportunities to combine or merge different approaches are analyzed.
Date: January 4, 2008
Creator: Parker, Larry
System: The UNT Digital Library
Greenhouse Gas Reduction: Cap-and-Trade Bills in the 110th Congress (open access)

Greenhouse Gas Reduction: Cap-and-Trade Bills in the 110th Congress

This report discusses the Cap-and-Trade Bills in the 110th Congress which are meant to advance market-based greenhouse gas reduction programs, similar to the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. The report presents a side-by-side comparison of the major provision in each of the bills and includes a glossary of common terms.
Date: January 31, 2008
Creator: Parker, Larry & Yacobucci, Brent D.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Earthquakes: Risk, Monitoring, Notification, and Research (open access)

Earthquakes: Risk, Monitoring, Notification, and Research

This report describes estimates of earthquake hazards and risk in the United States; the current federal programs that support earthquake monitoring and that provide notification after a seismic event; and the programs that support mitigation and research aimed at reducing U.S. vulnerability to earthquakes.
Date: January 16, 2008
Creator: Folger, Peter
System: The UNT Digital Library
Forestry in the 2007 Farm Bill (open access)

Forestry in the 2007 Farm Bill

This report briefly describes the Agriculture Committees' jurisdiction over forestry, with examples of legislation addressed by the committees. It discusses forestry issues likely to be debated in the upcoming farm bill. It then presents information on the forestry provisions in the Administration's proposal for the 2007 farm bill, followed by the forestry provisions in the House-passed 2007 farm bill (the Farm, Nutrition, and Bioenergy Act of 2007, H.R. 2419) and in the Senate Committee draft bill (the Food and Energy Security Act of 2007).
Date: January 25, 2008
Creator: Gorte, Ross W.
System: The UNT Digital Library