This report examines how the composition of saving might change with the introduction of a consumption tax. Specifically, the report analyzes the possible impact of a consumption based tax system on various forms and levels of saving.

Numerous measures were introduced in the 106th Congress that reflected the range of views on U.S. policy toward Cuba. Legislative initiatives proposed both easing and increasing sanctions against Cuba. In the end, legislation passed reflected both approaches: it allowed the export of food and medicine to Cuba, but prohibited any U.S. financing, both public and private, of such exports. Travel to Cuba for tourism was also prohibited.

This report discusses encryption export controls, beginning with background on the development and use of encryption, and continuing with a description of export controls imposed under the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) and the Export Administration Act (EAA); a discussion of recent federal court rulings in First Amendment challenges to AECA and EAA regulations; and a summary of 106th Congress legislation aimed at liberalizing law and policy affecting encryption exports.

Exposure to certain chemicals in the environment could disrupt the hormone systems of animals and humans, according to some scientists who are concerned about potential risks to public health and ecosystems. Congress has mandated chemical screening to assess the potential of pesticides and drinking water contaminants to influence the normal functions of female, male and thyroid hormones. As conflicting scientific evidence accumluates on the hormone disruption hypothesis, legislators may consider proposals to increase or decrease funding for the endocrine disruption screening program, or to expand its requirements to include additional chemicals or hormone functions.

This report discusses federal mandatory minimum sentencing statutes, which demand that execution or incarceration follow criminal conviction. They cover drug dealing, murdering federal officials, and using a gun to commit a federal crime. They circumscribe judicial sentencing discretion. They have been criticized as unthinkingly harsh and incompatible with a rational sentencing guideline system; yet they have also been embraced as hallmarks of truth in sentence and a certain means of incapacitating the criminally dangerous.

This report discusses the information related to gun control legislation. The contents include Gun-related statistics, federal regulation of firearms, possible issues in the 107th Congress

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comprehensive test ban treaty, or CTBT, is the oldest item on the nuclear arms control agenda. Three treaties currently limit testing to underground only, with a maximum force equal to 150,000 tons of TNT. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, the United States conducted 1,030 nuclear tests, the Soviet Union 715, the United Kingdom 45, France 210, and China 45. Since 1997, the United States has held 13 "subcritical experiments" at the Nevada Test Site to study the behavior of plutonium under pressures generated by explosives. The most recent was held December 14, 2000. Russia has reportedly conducted several such tests since 1998, including several in fall 2000. It claims it has not done other nuclear tests since 1991, though some suspect it may have conducted a low-yield nuclear test in August 1997 and September 1999. The last U.S. test was held in 1992; the last U.K. test, in 1991. In May 1998, India and Pakistan each announced several nuclear tests and declared themselves nuclear weapons states. Each declared a moratorium on further tests, but separately stated, in the summer of 2000, that the time was not right to sign the CTBT.

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CRS Report for Congress entailing information about performance based pay for teachers. Topics include, federal interest, an explanation of what performance based pay is, pay plans for teacher, etc..

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This report focuses on globalization which is seen as a force that enhances the power of the market and gives greater scope for realizing the gains from trade. This is an enriching process, with improved economic well-being growing out of increased specialization of world production and elevated economic efficiency. To others, however, globalization is seen as a clear threat to their economic well-being, perceived to be retarding the growth of worker wages, increasing wage inequality, undermining domestic social relations, and raising the exposure of the American economy to foreign economic contagion.

For over 45 years, the United States has been trying to tame the energy source of the hydrogen bomb to produce electricity. Harnessing fusion, the nuclear reaction that powers the sun, requires confining and heating deuterium and tritium nuclei so that they will produce sustained, controlled nuclear energy. One path, called magnetic fusion energy (MFE), is to use very strong magnetic fields to confine a deuterium and tritium plasma while heating it to fusion temperatures.

The proposed U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) follows current U.S. free trade agreement (FTA) practice in containing two types of formal dispute settlement: (1) State- State, applicable to disputes between the KORUS FTA Parties, and (2) investor-State, applicable to claims by an investor of one KORUS FTA Party against the other Party for breach of an agreement investment obligation.

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