The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA): Mediation Provisions (open access)

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA): Mediation Provisions

This report discusses the statutory and regulatory requirements of IDEA, judicial decisions, and the concept of mediation as it applies to special education.
Date: September 26, 2006
Creator: Jones, Nancy Lee
System: The UNT Digital Library
Executive Lobbying: Statutory Controls (open access)

Executive Lobbying: Statutory Controls

None
Date: September 27, 2006
Creator: Oleszek, Walter J.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Wetlands Coverage of the Clean Water Act is Revisited by the Supreme Court: Rapanos v. United States (open access)

The Wetlands Coverage of the Clean Water Act is Revisited by the Supreme Court: Rapanos v. United States

This report discusses the Supreme Court decision in Rapanos v. United States, which addressed the asserted jurisdiction of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over wetlands adjacent to "waters of the United States," the problematic phrase used by the Clean Water Act (CWA) to define the geographic scope of the act's wetlands permitting program.
Date: September 12, 2006
Creator: Meltz, Robert & Copeland, Claudia
System: The UNT Digital Library
Methyl Bromide and Stratospheric Ozone Depletion (open access)

Methyl Bromide and Stratospheric Ozone Depletion

This report discusses Methyl Bromide (MeBr), a widely used pesticide in agriculture, is regulated for its potential ozone-depleting effects in the Earth’s stratosphere.
Date: September 26, 2006
Creator: Morrissey, Wayne A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Anti-Terrorism Authority Under the Laws of the United Kingdom and the United States (open access)

Anti-Terrorism Authority Under the Laws of the United Kingdom and the United States

This report is a comparison of the laws of the United Kingdom and of the United States that govern criminal and intelligence investigations of terrorist activities. Both systems rely upon a series of statutory authorizations: in the case of the United States primarily the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act; in the case of the United Kingdom, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, the Police Act, the Intelligence Services Act. Among other differences, the U.S. procedures rely more heavily upon judicial involvement and supervision, while those of the UK employ other safeguards. The UK procedures afford greater latitude to arrest, detain and supervise suspected terrorists than those available in the United States.
Date: September 7, 2006
Creator: Feikert, Clare & Doyle, Charles
System: The UNT Digital Library
Federal Enterprise Architecture and E-Government: Issues for Information Technology Management (open access)

Federal Enterprise Architecture and E-Government: Issues for Information Technology Management

None
Date: September 21, 2006
Creator: Seifert, Jeffrey W.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Organic Agriculture in the United States: Program and Policy Issues (open access)

Organic Agriculture in the United States: Program and Policy Issues

This report discusses the law governing U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs whose purpose is to give consumers confidence in the legitimacy of products sold as organic, and permit legal action against those who use the term fraudulently.
Date: September 15, 2006
Creator: Rawson, Jean M.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Horse Slaughter Prevention Bills and Issues (open access)

Horse Slaughter Prevention Bills and Issues

This report examines more than 90,000 U.S. horses which were slaughtered for human food in 2005, mainly for European and Asian consumers. Congress voted to limit the use of FY2006 appropriated funds for such slaughter, but the practice continues, funded by industry user fees. Debate continues on the acceptability of horse slaughter, and how to care for and/or humanely dispose of horses if they no longer went for human food. On September 7, 2006, the full House approved a bill (H.R. 503) to ban horse slaughter.
Date: September 8, 2006
Creator: Becker, Geoffrey S.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Points of Order, Rulings, and Appeals in the Senate (open access)

Points of Order, Rulings, and Appeals in the Senate

The Senate’s presiding officer typically does not have responsibility for pro-actively ensuring that matters under consideration comply with the rules. Instead, Senators may enforce the Senate’s legislative rules and precedents by making points of order whenever they believe that one of those rules or precedents is, or is about to be, violated. This report briefly discusses the process by which a point of order is raised and ruled upon.
Date: September 29, 2006
Creator: Heitshusen, Valerie
System: The UNT Digital Library
Immigration Consequences of Criminal Activity (open access)

Immigration Consequences of Criminal Activity

This report discusses the potential immigration consequences of Criminal Activity.
Date: September 20, 2006
Creator: Garcia, Michael J. & Eig, Larry M.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Immigration-Related Document Fraud: Overview of Civil, Criminal, and Immigration Consequences (open access)

Immigration-Related Document Fraud: Overview of Civil, Criminal, and Immigration Consequences

This report discusses the primary civil, criminal, and immigration related penalties associated with immigration related document fraud.
Date: September 5, 2006
Creator: Garcia, Michael J.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Animal Waste and Water Quality: EPA’s Response to the Waterkeeper Alliance Court Decision on Regulation of CAFOs (open access)

Animal Waste and Water Quality: EPA’s Response to the Waterkeeper Alliance Court Decision on Regulation of CAFOs

This report is on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed regulations that would revise a 2003 Clean Water Act rule governing waste discharges.
Date: September 20, 2006
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
System: The UNT Digital Library
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE, or “Mad Cow Disease”): Current and Proposed Safeguards (open access)

Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE, or “Mad Cow Disease”): Current and Proposed Safeguards

This report presents an overview of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or “mad cow disease”) in the United States. Shortly after the first case of BSE was announced, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and other officials announced measures to improve existing safeguards against the introduction and spread of BSE. This report discusses trade restrictions, the live-stock “feed ban”, as well as the BSE surveillance and testing in cattle.
Date: September 20, 2006
Creator: Lister, Sarah A. & Becker, Geoffrey S.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Direct Recording Electronic Voting Machine (DRE) Controversy: FAQs and Misperceptions (open access)

The Direct Recording Electronic Voting Machine (DRE) Controversy: FAQs and Misperceptions

This report addresses various questions regarding Direct Recording Electronic Voting Machines (DREs). Questions that arise frequently with respect to the controversy surrounding DREs and possible misperceptions in the debate can be classified into three categories: those relating to DREs themselves, those that relate to paper audit trails, and those that relate to recounts and audits.
Date: September 26, 2006
Creator: Fischer, Eric A. & Coleman, Kevin J.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Clean Air Act Issues in the 109th Congress (open access)

Clean Air Act Issues in the 109th Congress

This report provides an overview of seven prominent air issues of interest in the 109th Congress: revision of the particulate standards; multi-pollutant (or Clear Skies) legislation for electric power plants; mercury from power plants; New Source Review; the gasoline additives MTBE and ethanol; ozone nonattainment area deadlines; and the “conformity” of transportation and clean air planning.
Date: September 26, 2006
Creator: McCarthy, James E.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Adult Education and Literacy: Overview and Reauthorization Proposals of the 109th Congress (open access)

Adult Education and Literacy: Overview and Reauthorization Proposals of the 109th Congress

This report discusses the reauthorization of federal adult education and literacy programs being considered by the 109th Congress. The Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA) authorized these programs through FY2003. The General Education Provisions Act (GEPA) provided a one-year extension of authorization through FY2004, and annual appropriations have continued AEFLA programs since.
Date: September 18, 2006
Creator: Irwin, Paul M.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Credit Rating Agency Regulatory Reform: A Side-by-Side Comparison of H.R. 2990 and S. 3850 (open access)

Credit Rating Agency Regulatory Reform: A Side-by-Side Comparison of H.R. 2990 and S. 3850

This report provides a side-by-side comparison of the H.R. 2990 and S. 3850 bills’ major provisions.
Date: September 19, 2006
Creator: Shorter, Gary
System: The UNT Digital Library
H.R. 4: The Pension Protection Act (open access)

H.R. 4: The Pension Protection Act

This report discusses the Pension Protection Act (PPA) reforms and the funding rules for defined benefit pensions; requires employers to disclose more information about pension funding; restricts benefit payments and accruals in underfunded plans; and clarifies, prospectively, that cash balance pension plans do not violate legal prohibitions on age discrimination in employee benefits.
Date: September 27, 2006
Creator: Purcell, Patrick
System: The UNT Digital Library
Average Effective Corporate Tax Rates: 1959 to 2005 (open access)

Average Effective Corporate Tax Rates: 1959 to 2005

This report examines average effective corporate tax rates of domestic nonfinancial corporations. Generally, the average effective corporate tax rate is total corporate tax receipts divided by corporate profits.
Date: September 6, 2006
Creator: Maguire, Steven
System: The UNT Digital Library
Federal Aid to Libraries in the Museum and Library Services Act of 2003 (open access)

Federal Aid to Libraries in the Museum and Library Services Act of 2003

None
Date: September 26, 2006
Creator: McCallion, Gail
System: The UNT Digital Library
Crime Victims’ Rights Act: A Sketch of 18 U.S.C. 3771 (open access)

Crime Victims’ Rights Act: A Sketch of 18 U.S.C. 3771

This is an abridgement of a report, which with quotation marks, citations, and footnotes, appears as CRS Report RL33679, Crime victims' Right Act: A summary and Legal Analysis of 18 U.S.C. 3771.
Date: September 29, 2006
Creator: Doyle, Charles
System: The UNT Digital Library
Even Start Family Literacy Programs: An Overview (open access)

Even Start Family Literacy Programs: An Overview

None
Date: September 25, 2006
Creator: McCallion, Gail
System: The UNT Digital Library
D-Day: The French Jubilee of Liberty Medal (open access)

D-Day: The French Jubilee of Liberty Medal

This report details the Jubilee of Liberty Medal awarded to U.S. veterans by the French government to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy by the Allied forces on June 6, 1994 (D-Day).
Date: September 29, 2006
Creator: Torreon, Barbara Salazar
System: The UNT Digital Library
FEMA Reorganization Legislation in the 109th Congress (open access)

FEMA Reorganization Legislation in the 109th Congress

None
Date: September 1, 2006
Creator: Bea, Keith & Hogue, Henry B.
System: The UNT Digital Library