This report provides biographical sketches of the present Supreme Court Justices.

This report outlines United States policy and negotiation of treatise that pertain to the Panama Canal.

This report provides a timeline of events from 1969 to 1973 related to the discovery, exploration, and drilling of the North Slope oil fields in northern Alaska.

This report discusses how best to coordinate the Federal government's multi-agency efforts to curb illicit traffic in dangerous drugs has once again become an issue of major interest to the Congress. Critics of the Reagan Administration's anti-drug program contend that it lacks an overall strategy and that it suffers from the absence of a central mechanism for the formulation of general policy as well as for the broad direction of operations

This report focuses on the R&D programs. It divides the programs into four categories: energy resources R&D, science, national security R&D, and environmental quality R&D. Those categories, which approximate the way DOE has divided up its programs, are set up to keep similar research activities together.(1) R&D funding is concentrated in the first three. The report gives a description of the programs within each category including their research objectives and the activities where significant budget changes were requested for FY1999. It then describes the request, and congressional appropriation and authorization action. There follows a discussion of issues about the FY1999 request that are emerging during congressional consideration of the budget.

Very low levels of dissolved oxygen (hypoxia) in bottom-water "dead zones" are natural phenomena, but can be intensified by certain human activities. The largest hypoxic area affecting the United States is in the northern Gulf of Mexico near the mouth of the Mississippi River, but there are others as well.

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For the third Congress in a row, there was a major effort to reauthorize Superfund. Chairmen of the three committees of jurisdiction introduced comprehensive reauthorization bills -- S. 8, H.R. 2727, and H.R. 3000; hearings were held on all three, S. 8 was ordered reported, and H.R. 2727 was approved by subcommittee. None of these bills was enacted.

This report discusses the issue of children that have been left as orphans due to AIDS taking their parents lives. Moreover, the report details that between 2001 and 2003 the number of children orphaned from AIDS increased by 3.5 million. The rate of orphaned children is only expected to increase in the future if massive spending is not issued to curb the problem.

This report responds to congressional inquiries concerning the process for awarding Congressional Gold Medals, and includes a historical examination and chronological list of these awards.

This report provides information about Considering Measures in the House Under the One-Hour Rule which means occupying more than one hour in a debate on a question in the house.

Dumping in the United States is the selling of a product by a foreign producer at a price that is below the product’s sale price in the country of origin, or at a price that is lower than the cost of production. Under U.S. law such an action is considered an unfair trade practice. If that action is found to cause “material injury” to a competing domestic industry, an antidumping duty equal to the “dumping margin” will be levied against the foreign good.

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This report provides information about the Fishery, Aquaculture, and Marine Mammal Legislation in the 108th Congress. fish and marine are important resources in the open ocean and nearshore coastal areas.

This report covers health benefits and initiatives for federal government employees.

This report discusses the Conservation Security Program (CSP), which is a agricultural conservation program created in the 2002 farm bill (P.L. 107-171, §2001). It provides incentives for farmers to pursue conservation and helps pay for conservation practices. Unlike some other NRCS programs, it pays for conservation on land that remains in production and makes eligible a wide range of farm lands (cropland, pastureland, rangeland, grassland, prairie land, tribal lands, and forested lands incidental to an agricultural operation)

This fact sheet provides Internet links to the federal agencies or departments currently involved in the contracting process, along with their specific Iraq reconstruction programs underway or proposed. It provides overview information on federal agency contract solicitations, application procedures, and contact information where appropriate.

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The federal government has a long history of providing credit assistance to farmers by issuing direct loans and guarantees, and creating rural lending institutions. These institutions include the Farm Credit System (FCS), which is a network of borrower-owned lending institutions operating as a government-sponsored enterprise, and the Farm Service Agency (FSA) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which makes or guarantees loans to farmers who cannot qualify at other lenders. When loans cannot be repaid, special bankruptcy provisions help family farmers reorganize debts and continue farming (P.L. 109-8 made Chapter 12 permanent and expanded eligibility). S. 238 and H.R. 399 (the Rural Economic Investment Act) would exempt commercial banks from paying taxes on profits from farm real estate loans, thus providing similar benefits as to the Farm Credit System.

This report consists of american bankers association v. lockyer: Whether California’s Financial Information Privacy Law Has Been Preempted by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions (FACT) Act.

This report is designed to assist congressional policymakers to understand and apply broad based objective criteria when evaluating progress in the nation’s efforts to combat terrorism. It is not intended to define specific, in-depth, metrics for measuring progress against terrorism.

This report examines EPA's analysis and adjusts some of its assumptions to reflect current regulations. The most important adjustment is the choice of baseline. The agency’s analysis assumes as a baseline that, in the absence of new federal legislation, EPA and the states will take no additional action to control SO2, NOx, Hg, or CO2 emissions beyond those actions finalized by mid-2004. This baseline is put forth despite three rules recently promulgated by EPA that limit SO2, NOx, and Hg emissions on a timeframe similar to that proposed by the Clear Skies legislation.

This report discusses the Farm Credit System (FCS) is a nationwide financial cooperative that lends to agricultural producers, rural homeowners, certain agriculture-related businesses, and agricultural, aquatic, and public utility cooperatives. Established by the Federal Farm Loan Act in 1916 as a government-sponsored enterprise (GSE), it has a statutory mandate to serve agriculture and related enterprises.

This report presents current data on estimated ownership of United States Treasury securities and major holders of federal debt by country.