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This report briefly examines selected public opinion indicators in key European countries that currently contribute to the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. Overall, polls over the past year show that Spain was no anomaly in terms of strong public opposition to military involvement in Iraq. Some European governments appeared to support U.S. policy in Iraq in defiance of, rather than as a result of, public sentiment at home.

State governments rely on sales and use taxes for approximately one-third (33.6%) of their total tax revenue - or approximately $179 billion in FY2002 .' Local governments derived 12.4% of their tax revenue or $44 .1 billion from local sales and use taxes in FY20012 Both state and local sales taxes are collected by vendors at the time of transaction and are levied at a percentage of a product's retail price. Alternatively, use taxes are not collected by the vendor if the vendor does not have nexus (loosely defined as a physical presence) in the consumer's state . Consumers are required to remit use taxes to their taxing jurisdiction . However, compliance with this requirement is quite low. Because of the low compliance, many observers suggest that the expansion of the internet as a means of transacting business across state lines, both from business to consumer (B to C) and from business to business (B to B), threatens to diminish the ability of state and local governments to collect sales and use taxes . Congress has a role in this issue because commerce between parties in different states conducted over the Internet falls under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution.' …

This report discusses the background of Continuity of Operations (COOP) in planning, discusses elements of an effective COOP plan, and reviews the current policies governing COOP planning in the executive branch. The final two sections address issues and policy questions, including, among other matters, the status of agency preparedness, maintaining COOP preparedness, congressional committee oversight of COOP activity, and funding for contingency planning.

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This report is designed to help congressional offices obtain information about major awards given by Congress and the President.It lists details about the major presidential and congressional awards.

The term "soft money" generally refers to unregulated funds for election related activities that are not subject to the Federal Election Campaign Act's (FECA) source restrictions, contribution limits, and disclosure requirements. The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, which amended FECA and became effective on November 6, 2002, restricts the raising and spending of soft money. This report contains information on a summary of campaign financing, recent developments, background and analysis, definitions of Hard and Soft money in federal elections, political party soft money, soft money spent on issue advocacy, corporate and labor union soft money, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, and additional related materials.

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