This report discusses the release of Burma's political prisoners and the role that plays in U.S. policy and Burma's political future.

This report looks at the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (NWPA), Yucca Mountain, and the Obama Administration's de-funding of Yucca Mountain. Federal policy is based on the premise that nuclear waste can be disposed of safely, but proposed storage and disposal facilities have frequently been challenged on safety, health, and environmental grounds. Most of the current debate surrounding civilian radioactive waste focuses on highly radioactive spent fuel from nuclear power plants.

This report provides an introduction to the Federal Public Transportation Program (FPTP). Includes a brief background of public transportation as well as FPTP's funding, expenses, and structure.

This report describes the Keystone XL pipeline proposal and the process required for federal approval. It summarizes key arguments for and against the pipeline put forth by the pipeline's developers, federal agencies, environmental groups, and other stakeholders. The report discusses potential consistency challenges faced by the State Department in reviewing the pipeline application given its recent prior approvals of similar pipeline projects. Finally, the report reviews the constitutional basis for the State Department's authority to issue a Presidential Permit, and opponents' possible challenges to this authority.

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This report provides background on regulatory requirements, controversies and legal challenges to mountaintop mining, and recent Administration actions. Congressional interest in these issues also is discussed, including legislation in the 111th Congress seeking to restrict the practice of mountaintop mining and other legislation intended to block the Obama Administration’s regulatory actions.

This report provides background information on the Affordable Care Act (ACA). It discusses the ACA and the annual appropriations process and the potential impact of a shutdown on ACA implementation.

This report begins by providing background on the historic frequency of federal funding gaps. Next, four major features of automatic continuing resolution(ACR) proposals since the 1980s -- time frame, funding level, activities, and duration -- are explained. This is followed by a summary of the major arguments for and against the enactment of an ACR. Finally, the last three sections of the report review congressional action that has taken place on ACR proposals, describe ACR proposals that have been introduced but not enacted during the 112th and 113th Congresses, and provide brief analysis of H.R. 3210.

This report provides responses to frequently asked questions about the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant.

This report seeks to inform the discussion on the potential reauthorization of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), through analysis of the components of the AGOA legislation; U.S. import trends associated with AGOA; the impact of AGOA on African economies and U.S.-Africa trade; and the issues surrounding the reauthorization process.

This report provides links to cybersecurity hearings and legislation under consideration in the 113th Congress and those considered in the 112th Congress, as well as executive orders and presidential directives, data and statistics, glossaries, and authoritative reports.

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This report provides brief answers to some frequently asked questions regarding sequestration and unemployment insurance benefits.

Report that provides background information and potential issues for Congress on the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS).

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This report describes the current CSE incentive payment system, provides information on financial penalties imposed on states if incentive payment data are unreliable or if performance standards are not met, explains how state incentive payments are derived, discusses some state trends and presents some policy issues concerning incentive payments.

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This report describes the history of temporary federal extensions to unemployment benefits from 1980 to the present. It has five sections which discuss: [1] background information on unemployment compensation (UC) benefits, [2] a definition of a recession and the process of declaring a recession, [3] a summary of the legislative history of federal extensions of unemployment benefits, [4] figures examining the statistics of recessions, and [5] previous methods for financing temporary recession programs.

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This report provides a brief overview of the FY2014 State Department, Foreign Operations and Related Programs funding request.

This report discusses the legislative branch appropriations bill that provides funding for the Senate; House of Representatives; Joint Items; Capitol Police; Office of Compliance; Congressional Budget Office (CBO); Architect of the Capitol (AOC); Library of Congress, including the Congressional Research Service (CRS); Government Printing Office (GPO); Government Accountability Office (GAO); and Open World Leadership Center.

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This report seeks to inform the current debate in three ways: first, by providing a statistical analysis of President Barack Obama's nominees, during his first term, to U.S. circuit court of appeals and U.S. district court judgeships, and of any actions taken on their nominations by the Senate Judiciary Committee and the full Senate; second, by using various statistical measures to compare the success of President Obama's judicial nominees, during his first term, in advancing through the Senate confirmation process with the success of the judicial nominees during the first terms of the four most recent preceding Presidents (Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush); and third, by identifying various factors which might help explain differences or variations found in judicial nomination statistics across the first terms of the five Presidents.