This report provides an overview of U.S. policy toward Latin America and the Caribbean, including the Obama Administration's priorities; examines changes in the region's economic and political environment that affect U.S. relations with the region; and analyzes U.S. policy toward the region and various recommendations made by policy analysts and think tanks. The report then examines the role of Congress and congressional interests in Latin America, looking at selected regional and country issues, including key issues that the 113th Congress is facing. Appendices provide U.S.-Latin America trade statistics and a listing of hearings focused on Latin America.

Each major party in the House has a leadership hierarchy. This report summarizes the election, duties, and responsibilities of the Speaker of the House, the majority and minority leaders, and the whips and whip system.

This report discusses how Morocco and the independence-seeking Popular Front for the Liberation of Saqiat al Hamra and Rio de Oro (Polisario) have been vying for control of the Western Sahara, a former Spanish territory, since the 1970s. The report discusses recent settlement attempts, as well as how the Western Sahara issue has affected Algerian-Moroccan bilaterial relations, Moroccan relations with the African Union, and regional cooperation on economic and security issues. The report also discusses the United States' involvement in and stance on the issue.

This report describes the constituent parts of the intelligence budget, past practice in handling intelligence authorizations and appropriations, the arguments that have been advanced for and against making intelligence spending totals public, a legal analysis of these issues, and a review of the implications of post-Cold War developments on the question. It also describes past congressional interest in keeping intelligence spending totals secret.

This report looks at the purpose and background of Community Services Block Grants (CSBG), which provide federal funds to states, territories, and tribes for distribution to local agencies to support a wide range of community-based activities to reduce poverty. CSBG was last reauthorized in 1998, although and related programs have been funded by Congressional approval since then.

This report discusses the polar bear status and they are affected by climate change, contaminants, and subsistence and sport hunting.

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This report discusses the application of American criminal law outside the United States.

This report describes the FY2008 appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security.. The Administration requested a net appropriation of $35.5 billion in net budget authority for FY2008. This report is a guide to one of the regular appropriations bills that Congress considers each year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Homeland Security.

This report describes the proposal and provides an estimate of the cost or savings based on publicly available information. The report provides a brief background for the proposal and provides a listing of current Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports related to the proposal.

Leaders and Members of the Senate and the House of Representatives, the Vice President, individuals in positions on the Executive Schedule (EX), and federal justices and judges receive an annual pay adjustment under the Ethics Reform Act of 1989, P.L. 101-194. This report includes five tables which provide the January 2004, January 2005, January 2006, and January 2007 salaries for federal officials, members of the Senior Executive Service (SES), and employees in senior-level (SL), scientific and professional (ST), and GS-15 positions in the Washington, DC, and the “Rest of the United States” locality pay areas.

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Although the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (enacted February 8, 2006) included significant changes to the Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program, it did not include many of the child support provisions that had been considered during the preceding four-year debate within the context of welfare reauthorization. This report discusses 12 such provisions that were passed by either the House or the Senate Finance Committee (or both). The Administration has included several of these provisions in its FY2008 budget.

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This report first describes the current select committees on intelligence and then covers the former Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, often cited as a model for a counterpart on intelligence. The study also sets forth proposed characteristics for a joint committee on intelligence, differences among these, and their pros and cons.

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This report provides statistics on fatalities during Operation Iraqi Freedom, which began on March 19, 2003.

This report discusses the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001, and other related amendments that were included in the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002.

This report provides a discussion of the types of information that may be included in the activity reports, variations across reports and time, and the filing process. A table provides a comparison of the committee activity reports and other congressional publications, including the types of information found in each as well as their timeframe for coverage and publication.

This report discusses commemorative commissions created by Congress to oversee a special event for a commemoration of an event or person. Using a dataset of all commemorative commissions created by statute since the 96th Congress (1979-1980), this report examines the content of typical legislative language used to create commemorative commissions and how commemorative commissions are funded. This report does not address noncommemorative congressional commissions, nor does it address commemorative entities created by the President or statutory commissions tasked with designing and building monuments and memorials in Washington, DC.