This report assesses the current state of U.S.-UK relations. It examines the pressures confronting London as it attempts to balance its interests between the United States and the EU, and the prospects for the future of the U.S.-UK partnership. It also describes UK views on political, security, and economic issues of particular importance to the United States, and their implications for U.S. policy.

Report on livestock price "to provide buyers and sellers with accurate and objective market information" (p. 1).

This report gives information related to Gasoline prices and also discusses Policies and Proposals.

President George W. Bush has stated that tax reform is one of his top priorities in the 109th Congress. On January 7, 2005, he appointed a nine-member bipartisan panel to study the “complicated mess” posed by the federal tax code and to propose options to reform the code.

Credit unions are financial cooperatives organized by people with a common bond; they are the only depository institutions that are exempt from the federal corporate income tax. As financial cooperatives, credit unions only accept deposits of members and make loans only to members, other credit unions, or credit union organizations. Many Members of Congress advocate a reliance on market forces rather than tax policy to allocate resources. Furthermore, some Members of Congress are interested in additional sources of revenue in order to either reduce the deficit, offset the cost of higher federal outlays, or make up for tax cuts elsewhere. Consequently, the exemption of credit unions from federal income taxes has been questioned.

This report considers the future of the U.S. tanker fleet for aerial refueling.

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Department of Defense (DoD) benefits for survivors of deceased members of the armed forces vary significantly in purpose and structure. Benefits such as the death gratuity provide immediate cash payments to assist these survivors in meeting their financial needs during the period immediately following a member’s death. Similarly, the Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (SGLI) provides the life insurance policy value in a lump sum payment following the service member’s death. Other benefits such as the Veteran’s Administration Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) and the Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP), are designed to provide long-term monthly income. Additional death benefits provided by the DOD for survivors and dependents include housing assistance, health care, commissary and exchange benefits, educational assistance, and burial, funeral, and related benefits. Survivors may also receive death benefits from Social Security.

This report contains information on the general structure of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate committee structure, types of committees, and subcommittees.

This report provides a summary estimate of military forces reported to have been deployed to and subsequently withdrawn from the U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) Area of Responsibility (AOR), popularly called the Persian Gulf region, to support Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The passage of the Department of Defense authorization and appropriations bills through Congress often does not follow the course laid out in textbooks on legislative procedure. This report is a research aid, which lists the DOD authorization bills ad appropriation bills. This includes all the pertinent information on the passage of these bills through the legislative process: bill numbers, report numbers, dates reported and passed, recorded vote numbers and vote tallies, dates of the passage of the conference reports with their numbers and votes, vetos, substitutions, dates of final passage, and public law numbers.

The passage of the Department of Defense authorization and appropriations bills through Congress often does not follow the course laid out in textbooks on legislative procedure. This report is a research aid, which lists the DOD authorization bills ad appropriation bills. This includes all the pertinent information on the passage of these bills through the legislative process: bill numbers, report numbers, dates reported and passed, recorded vote numbers and vote tallies, dates of the passage of the conference reports with their numbers and votes, vetos, substitutions, dates of final passage, and public law numbers.

This report is a research aid, which lists the DOD authorization bills (Table 1) and appropriations bills (Table 2). This report includes all the pertinent information on the passage of these bills through the legislative process: bill numbers, report numbers, dates reported and passed, recorded vote numbers and vote tallies, dates of passage of the conference reports with their numbers and votes, vetoes, substitutions, dates of final passage, and public law numbers. Table 3 shows real growth or decline in national defense funding for FY1940-FY2009. Table 4 gives a more detailed picture of both regular and supplemental defense appropriations from the 103rd Congress to the present (FY1993-FY2005). Table 5 shows the President’s DOD appropriations budget requests for FY1950-FY2005 vs. final amount enacted.

During the week of December 18, 2005, both the House and Senate approved the conference agreement on the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (H.Rept. 109-362, S. 1932), which includes net reductions of $2.7 billion over five years for USDA mandatory programs. Included in the agreement is a $1.7 billion reduction in farm commodity support programs, a $934 million reduction in conservation spending, a $620 million reduction in a mandatory research program, and $419 million cut in rural development programs, as scored by CBO over a five-year period (FY2006-2010). The measure also includes a two-year extension of a dairy income support program, at an estimated cost of $998 million. No reductions to food stamp spending were included in the conference agreement.

From FY1989 through FY2005 (to date), 31 appropriations, authorization, or farm disaster acts added approximately $53.2 billion in supplemental funding for U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs (excluding the Forest Service, which is funded annually under the Interior appropriations bill). Nearly $41 billion, or 77% of the total amount, was for FY1999-FY2005 alone. Two FY2005 supplementals have been enacted to date, the largest of which was a disaster relief package in response to the 2004 hurricanes and other natural disasters, which included $3.5 billion for agricultural losses (attached to the FY2005 Military Construction Appropriations Act (P.L. 108-324)).

This report examines the provisions in the Homeland Security Act of 2002.

This report provides information on the Hospital Survey and Construction Act of 1946, commonly known as the Hill-Burton Act, which was enacted to provide federal financial assistance for the planning, construction, and improvement of health care facilities through grants, loans, and guaranteed loans under Title VI and later Title XVI of the Public Health Service Act. The report also covers the obligations and eligibility requirements for free care, and sources for further information

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On February 7th, 2005, the Bush Administration requested $3.16 billion for international HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria program in FY2006, a 9% increase over the estimated amount to be provided in FY2005. The request included $2.564 billion to be appropriated through the Foreign Operations appropriations and $596 million through appropriations for the Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services.

A 1996 amendment to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) enables American victims of international terrorist acts supported by certain States designated by the State Department as supporters of terrorism — Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, and until recently, Iraq — to bring suit in federal court to seek monetary damages. Holders of judgments against these States, however, have encountered difficulties in their efforts to collect, despite congressional efforts to make blocked (or “frozen”) assets of such States available for attachment by judgment creditors. A recent court decision invalidating plaintiffs’ cause of action under the 1996 law raises uncertainties about the future of lawsuits against terrorist States. This report provides an overview of these issues, including a summary of a lawsuit against Iran by former hostages, Roeder v. the Islamic Republic of Iran, and a lawsuit against Iraq by former prisoners of war (POWs), Acree v. the Republic of Iraq, as well as a brief synopsis of relevant legislative proposals (S. 1257, H.R. 1321, H.R. 865, H.Con.Res. 93). These issues are covered in greater depth in CRS Report RL31258, Suits Against Terrorist States By Victims of Terrorism.

The recent controversy regarding the use of consular identification cards (IDs) by aliens within the United States, in particular Mexico’s particular consular, has led to calls for legislation to regulate the issuance of the cards by foreign missions or their acceptance by U.S. government and private entities. This report identifies possible implications that U.S. regulation or monitoring of the issuance of these cards by foreign missions might have upon U.S. obligations under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR), which protects foreign missions in the exercise of their legitimate consular functions and codifies customary international law with respect to the inviolability of consular premises and documents.

The 109th Congress is considering legislation to extend funding and possibly amend the block grant of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), which was created in the 1996 welfare reform law. The original funding authority provided in the 1996 law expired at the end of FY2002. Since then, Congress has inconclusively debated legislation to reauthorize TANF (and some related programs) but has kept the program alive through temporary extensions. The latest such extension is scheduled to expire on September 30, 2005. Reauthorization bills introduced for the 109th Congress (H.R. 240, S. 667) have policies that mirror those of bills considered during the previous three years.

This report monitors actions taken by the 109th Congress for the House’s Science, State, Justice, Commerce, and Related Agencies (SSJC) and the Senate’s Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) FY2006 appropriations legislation.