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On June 26, 2000, in a special ceremony at the White House, the completion of the "rough draft" of the human genome was announced. This milestone, which has been compared to the discoveries of Galileo, and other advances in genetics have created novel legal issues relating to genetic information. This report discusses current federal law, state statutes, and legislation related to these issues.

This report includes conceptual definitions for “border management” and “border security;” descriptions of the missions of the principal border management agencies; brief discussion of seaport and transportation security, since both are integral to border security; and a brief exploration of issues raised by transferring the Federal Protective Service, the Office for Domestic Preparedness, and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center to this new directorate. The report concludes with an analysis of issues concerning the consolidation of various border and transportation security agencies in the new Department of Homeland Security. This report is intended as an analysis of border and transportation security issues attached to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security.

Restrictions on travel to Cuba have been a key and often contentious component in U.S. efforts to isolate the communist government of Fidel Castro for much of the past 40 years. Over time, there have been numerous changes to the restrictions, and for 5 years, from 1977 until 1982, there were no restrictions on travel to Cuba. In March 2003, the Administration eased restrictions on those visiting close family members in Cuba, while at the same time it eliminated travel for people-to-people educational exchanges unrelated to academic coursework.

Cuba under Fidel Castro remains a hard-line communist state with a poor record on human rights that has deteriorated significantly since 2003. With the cutoff of assistance from the former Soviet Union, Cuba experienced severe economic deterioration from 1989 to 1993. While there has been some improvement since 1994, as Cuba has implemented limited reforms, the economy remains in poor shape. This report discusses the most recent development in Cuba, including political and economic conditions and the U.S. policy towards Cuba. It also considers the issues in U.S.-Cuban Relations.

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In March, CBO released its report analyzing the President’s policies. CBO’s estimates of the President’s budget, a recasting of the policies using CBO assumptions and budget estimating methods, raise the expected deficit for FY2004 to $338 billion from the OMB estimated $307 billion. The report also included an update to CBO’s January baseline that pushed the deficit for FY2004 to $200 billion from $145 billion. The revisions delay the return-to-a-surplus from FY2007 to FY2008 and reduce the cumulative FY2004-FY2013 surplus from $1,336 billion (January) to $891 billion (March).

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This report provides the information related to the fishery, aquaculture, and marine mammal issues in the 108th Congress

The Superfund program for cleaning up the nation’s worst hazardous waste sites was created by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, or CERCLA (P.L. 96-510, as amended). This report discusses recent development and background issues, superfund issues, revenue issues, comprehensive reauthorization, and legislation regarding superfund program.

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This report begins with a comprehensive presentation of current economic conditions focusing on income growth, unemployment, and inflation. The posture of monetary and fiscal policy is surveyed as are the forecasts of economic activity. It concludes with data on the factors important for economic growth.