Compulsory DNA Collection: A Fourth Amendment Analysis (open access)

Compulsory DNA Collection: A Fourth Amendment Analysis

This report examines compulsory DNA collection by law enforcement and its implications in regards to 4th amendment protections by examining legal precedents and considering the contemporary scientific understanding of DNA.
Date: January 23, 2009
Creator: Henning, Anna C.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Economic Stimulus: Issues and Policy (open access)

Economic Stimulus: Issues and Policy

This report discusses the passing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which included tax cut and spending provisions totaling at a cost of $787 billion in an attempt to mitigate the economic fallout of the housing and financial crises on the general economy. The report examines issues surrounding fiscal stimulus such as timeliness, the magnitude of stimulus, long-term effects and previously adopted policies.
Date: January 23, 2009
Creator: Gravelle, Jane G.; Hungerford, Thomas L. & Labonte, Marc
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Federal Protective Service and Contract Security Guards: A Statutory History and Current Status (open access)

The Federal Protective Service and Contract Security Guards: A Statutory History and Current Status

This report discusses the history of the Federal Protective Service, which is responsible for protecting federal government property, personnel, visitors, and customers, including property leased by the General Services Administration (GSA). FPS currently employs over 15,000 contract security guards to protect federal property.
Date: January 23, 2009
Creator: Reese, Shawn
System: The UNT Digital Library
Federal Voluntary Voting System Guidelines: Issues (open access)

Federal Voluntary Voting System Guidelines: Issues

This report discusses the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG), which are a set of technical standards for voting systems that use computers to assist in recording or counting votes. Systems covered include most used in the United States—not only DREs (direct recording electronic systems) such as touchscreen voting machines, but also optical scan and punch card systems. Hand-counted paper-ballot and lever-machine systems, which do not involve computers, are not covered. However, they are used by a small and decreasing number of election jurisdictions.
Date: January 23, 2009
Creator: Fischer, Eric A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Immigration-Related Document Fraud: Overview of Civil, Criminal, and Immigration Consequences (open access)

Immigration-Related Document Fraud: Overview of Civil, Criminal, and Immigration Consequences

This report discusses the primary civil, criminal, and immigration-related penalties associated with immigration-related document fraud. In order to enter or remain in the United States and be eligible for various immigration-related benefits, non-citizens (aliens) must comply with a number of document requirements under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
Date: January 23, 2009
Creator: Kim, Yule & Garcia, Michael J.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Interrogation of Detainees: Requirements of the Detainee Treatment Act (open access)

Interrogation of Detainees: Requirements of the Detainee Treatment Act

This report discusses provisions of the Detainee Treatment Act concerning standards for the interrogation and treatment of detainees.
Date: January 23, 2009
Creator: Garcia, Michael J.
System: The UNT Digital Library
NATO in Afghanistan: A Test of the Transatlantic Alliance (open access)

NATO in Afghanistan: A Test of the Transatlantic Alliance

This report discusses the mission of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Afghanistan, the purpose of which is to stabilize and reconstruct Afghanistan by combating emerging threats such as terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. This report also discusses how the Obama Administration has made the Afghanistan conflict a policy priority, and what this stance could mean for potential future endeavors.
Date: January 23, 2009
Creator: Morelli, Vincent & Belkin, Paul
System: The UNT Digital Library
Selected Issues Related to an Expansion of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) (open access)

Selected Issues Related to an Expansion of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS)

This report outlines some of the current supply issues facing biofuels industries, including implications for agricultural feedstocks, infrastructure concerns, energy supply for biofuels production, and fuel price uncertainties.
Date: January 23, 2009
Creator: Yacobucci, Brent D. & Capehart, Tom
System: The UNT Digital Library
The U.S. Secret Service: An Examination and Analysis of Its Evolving Missions (open access)

The U.S. Secret Service: An Examination and Analysis of Its Evolving Missions

This report frames potential policy questions concerning the U.S. Secret Service's (USSS's) mission and organization through an examination of the USSS history and its statutory authorities, mission, and present activities within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Date: January 23, 2009
Creator: Reese, Shawn
System: The UNT Digital Library
Agriculture, Nutrition, and Rural Provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 (open access)

Agriculture, Nutrition, and Rural Provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009

This report analyzes the agriculture, nutrition, and rural provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA, P.L. 111-5). The ARRA boosts government spending on various infrastructure programs and government benefits programs, and offers individual and business tax benefits.
Date: February 23, 2009
Creator: Monke, Jim; Richardson, Joe; Stubbs, Megan; Cowan, Tadlock; Chite, Ralph M.; Becker, Geoffrey S. et al.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Carbon Capture and Sequestration (open access)

Carbon Capture and Sequestration

This report covers carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), but not other types of carbon sequestration activities whereby CO2 is removed from the atmosphere and stored in vegetation, soils, or oceans. Forests and agricultural lands store carbon, and the world's oceans exchange huge amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere through natural processes.
Date: February 23, 2009
Creator: Folger, Peter
System: The UNT Digital Library
Carbon Tax and Greenhouse Gas Control: Options and Considerations for Congress (open access)

Carbon Tax and Greenhouse Gas Control: Options and Considerations for Congress

This report provides an overview of the fundamental choices involved between a cost (tax) and a quantity (cap) control instrument, including a discussion of policy tools that could be employed to bridge the gap between a carbon tax and a cap-and-trade program. It also analyzes the potential advantages and disadvantages of a carbon tax, discusses implementation issues for a carbon tax -- including where to apply the tax, at what level to set the tax, and options for distributing the tax revenues-- and provides conclusions.
Date: February 23, 2009
Creator: Ramseur, Jonathan L. & Parker, Larry
System: The UNT Digital Library
Climate Change: Science Highlights (open access)

Climate Change: Science Highlights

This report summarizes highlights of scientific research and assessments related to human-induced climate change.
Date: February 23, 2009
Creator: Leggett, Jane A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Coal Mine Safety and Health (open access)

Coal Mine Safety and Health

This report begins by reviewing the record of working conditions in the coal mining industry. It then describes the regulatory regime of the U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration, incorporating discussion of the standard-setting required by the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act of 2006. The report closes with an examination of recent legislative initiatives.
Date: February 23, 2009
Creator: Levine, Linda
System: The UNT Digital Library
End-of-Life Care: Services, Costs, Ethics, and Quality of Care (open access)

End-of-Life Care: Services, Costs, Ethics, and Quality of Care

This report provides information on various aspects of end-of-life care: (1) demographic and historical changes affecting death and dying in the United States (2) the definitions of end-of-life, palliative, and hospice care (3) costs associated with end-of-life care (4) end-of-life care laws and ethics (5) quality of care at the end of life and (6) policy issues that would modify or expand the federal government's role in addressing end-of-life care.
Date: February 23, 2009
Creator: Colello, Kirsten J.; Mulvey, Janemarie; Sarata, Amanda K.; Williams, Erin D. & Thomas, Kenneth R.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act (open access)

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act

This report provides a summary and explanation of the provisions in the HITECH Act, which is intended to promote the widespread adoption of health information technology (HIT) for the electronic sharing of clinical data among hospitals, physicians, and other health care stakeholders. It gives an overview of prior actions taken by Congress and the Administrations to promote HIT, and briefly describes efforts by the 109th and 110th Congresses to enact comprehensive HIT legislation.
Date: February 23, 2009
Creator: Redhead, C. S.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Human Services Provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (open access)

Human Services Provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

This report discusses provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) for selected human services programs. The selected programs generally are those that provide benefits and services to families with children, though some programs (e.g., the Community Services Block Grant) provide services to other families as well. All of the programs discussed in this report are administered by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Date: February 23, 2009
Creator: Falk, Gene; Lynch, Karen E.; Solomon-Fears, Carmen; Perl, Libby; Richardson, Joe & Spar, Karen
System: The UNT Digital Library
Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies: FY2009 Appropriations (open access)

Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies: FY2009 Appropriations

This report contains final FY2008 enacted levels for agencies, programs, and activities. In general, in this report the term appropriations represents total funds available, including regular annual and supplemental appropriations, as well as rescissions, transfers, and deferrals, but excludes permanent mandatory budget authorities.
Date: February 23, 2009
Creator: Vincent, C. H.
System: The UNT Digital Library
U.S. Strategic Nuclear Forces: Background, Developments, and Issues (open access)

U.S. Strategic Nuclear Forces: Background, Developments, and Issues

This report reviews the ongoing programs that will affect the expected size and shape of the U.S. strategic nuclear force structure. It includes an overview of this force structure during the Cold War, and summarizes the reductions and changes that have occurred since 1991. It also offers details about each category of delivery vehicle--land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine launched ballistic missiles and heavy bombers--focusing on their current deployments and ongoing and planned modernization programs.
Date: February 23, 2009
Creator: Woolf, Amy F.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Afghanistan: Post-Taliban Governance, Security, and U.S. Policy (open access)

Afghanistan: Post-Taliban Governance, Security, and U.S. Policy

This report discusses the current political state of Afghanistan, focusing particularly on the influence of the Taliban and other militant groups and on the leadership of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. This report also discusses the U.S.-Afghanistan relationship and U.S. efforts under the Obama Administration to provide military, reconstructive, and stabilization aid.
Date: March 23, 2009
Creator: Katzman, Kenneth
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Democratic Republic of Congo: Background and Current Developments (open access)

The Democratic Republic of Congo: Background and Current Developments

This report discusses, in brief, the current political state of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as the crisis situation in eastern Congo that has displaced more than 250,000 civilians. It also describes U.S., U.N., and other international efforts to aid in resolving the crisis.
Date: March 23, 2009
Creator: Dagne, Ted
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Global Economic Downturn and Protectionism (open access)

The Global Economic Downturn and Protectionism

This report develops three scenarios to approximate different dimensions of the relationship between the global economic downturn and protectionism. The scenarios are not predictions, but descriptions of how and why pressures for protection could be manifested and transmitted under different circumstances and assumptions.
Date: March 23, 2009
Creator: Ahearn, Raymond J.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Tax Incentive Resources (open access)

Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Tax Incentive Resources

This report contains a list of authoritative resources is designed to assist in responding to a broad range of constituent questions and concerns about renewable energy and energy efficiency tax incentives.
Date: March 23, 2009
Creator: Cunningham, Lynn J. & Roberts, Beth A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Rwanda: Background and Current Developments (open access)

Rwanda: Background and Current Developments

This report discusses the current political conditions of Rwanda, including a brief historical overview. The report also includes information about the poor human rights conditions in Rwanda and U.S. Rwanda relations.
Date: March 23, 2009
Creator: Dagne, Ted
System: The UNT Digital Library