This report discusses legislation related to power production, fuel types, and environmental protections in the energy industry which were introduced in the 91st Congress.

This report covers the recent economical and political development in Nigeria; elections, development challenges, reform initiatives, social issues, security concerns, and international relations in Nigeria. The report ends with some concerns for Congress, including U.S.-Nigerian trade issues, Nigerian counter-terrorism efforts, and U.S. assistance to Nigeria.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "A majority of the initiatives GAO reviewed (26 of 30) met, or expected to meet, the Department of Defense’s (DOD) expectation for fielding a capability in response to joint urgent operational needs within 2 years. However, performance in meeting schedule estimates varied, and more than half of the initiatives experienced schedule delays."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Title insurance is a required element of almost all real estate purchases and is not an insignificant cost for consumers. However, consumers generally do not have the knowledge needed to "shop around" for title insurance and usually rely on professionals involved in real estate--such as lenders, real estate agents, and attorneys--for advice in selecting a title insurer. Recent state and federal investigations into title insurance sales have identified practices that may have benefited these professionals and title insurance providers at the expense of consumers. At your request, GAO currently has work under way studying the title insurance industry, including pricing, competition, the size of the market, the roles of the various participants in the market, and how they are regulated. You asked GAO to identify and report on preliminary issues for further study. In so doing, this report focuses on: (1) the reasonableness of cost structures and agent practices common to the title insurance market that are not typical of other insurance markets; (2) the implications of activities identified in recent state and federal investigations that may have benefited real estate professionals rather than consumers; and …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Government Performance and Results Act calls for agencies to address human capital in the context of performance-based management. The act requires that annual performance plans describe how agencies will use their human capital to accomplish their goals and objectives. Designing, implementing, and maintaining a strategic human capital management focus are critical to maximizing performance and ensuring that government is accountable to the American people. GAO found that the human capital challenges described in fiscal year 2001 performance plans reflected the different levels of attention agencies are to pay this critical issue. GAO contends that the breadth, depth, and specificity of many related human capital goals and strategies needs to be increased. The plans' discussions of human capital increasingly need to focus on describing human capital challenges. The plans need to specify the what, why, how, and when of the strategies to address those challenges. The discussions should also better link human capital management and the agencies' strategic and program planning to maximize performance and ensure optimal resource allocation. Overall, the fiscal year 2001 plans showed that substantial opportunities exist for goals and strategies as they …

A briefing report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on Balkans security issues, focusing on: (1) the current security situation in the Balkans, particularly in Kosovo and Bosnia; (2) the projected security in the region over the next 5 years; (3) factors in the decision to withdraw Yugoslav security forces from Kosovo; and (4) how the executive branch has defined U.S. interests in the region in the National Security Strategy and public statements."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) manages and operates about 577,000 structures worldwide, valued at about $712 billion. DOD has worked for several years to develop models that can reliably estimate the installation support funds needed to sustain these facilities, and plans to spend over $55 billion to support these facilities and operate its bases in fiscal year 2008. Because GAO has identified support infrastructure as a high-risk area that affects DOD's ability to devote funds to other more critical needs, GAO initiated this review under the Comptroller General's authority. This report discusses (1) the reliability of the annual funding estimates produced by the facilities sustainment model, (2) DOD's progress in meeting funding goals for facility sustainment and recapitalization, (3) the extent to which DOD has addressed deferred facility sustainment funding needs, and (4) the status of DOD's efforts to develop a new installation services model. To address these objectives, GAO reviewed the accuracy and support for the model's key inputs, analyzed pertinent documents, and visited eight judgmentally selected installations."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins ""

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Plan sponsors and participants paid a range of fees for services, though smaller plans typically paid higher fees as a percentage of plan assets. For example, the average amount sponsors of small plans reported paying for recordkeeping and administrative services was 1.33 percent of assets annually, compared with 0.15 percent paid by sponsors of large plans. Larger plans were more likely to pass recordkeeping fees along to participants, but when fees were passed along to participants in small plans, those in large plans paid lower fees than those in small plans. Participants also paid for investment and plan consulting fees—through fees deducted from their plan assets—in more instances than sponsors."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO confirmed differences among the United States, the United Kingdom, and France in the rates at which illnesses have been reported among their Gulf War veterans; their assessment of nuclear, biological, and chemical threats in the Gulf; and their preparations to meet them. However, because of differences in the experiences of the three sets of veterans, there is no single, unambiguous cause that can be identified for the reported illnesses. If multinational allies are to act in a coordinated fashion, they require a similar level of awareness of and preparation for the threats to be faced; otherwise, force protection and operational success could be jeopardized and the utility of some forces restricted. Gulf War Coalition members prepared for somewhat different threats and used different countermeasures. In addition, the U.S. lacked clear doctrine for timely and systematic warning of allied forces and U.S. ground troops about pending strikes on suspected nuclear, biological, and chemical targets."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "By law, married persons who file joint tax returns are each fully responsible for the accuracy of the tax return and for the full tax liability. This is true even though only one taxpayer may have earned the wages or income shown on the tax return. Under the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) Innocent Spousal Program, IRS can relieve taxpayers of tax debts on the basis of equity considerations, such as not knowing that their spouse failed to pay taxes due. Since passage of the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998, IRS has received thousands of requests from taxpayers for innocent spouse relief. IRS's inability to provide timely responses to such requests has generated concerns among taxpayers, Congress, and other stakeholders. IRS reached decisions on 21 percent more cases than it received in fiscal year 2001, reducing some of its backlog from previous years. The agency accomplished this through a variety of initiatives, including a substantial staffing commitment, centralization and specialization, automated tools, and routine estimating of future workload and staffing needs. IRS's procedures conform to applicable guidance for transferring tax liabilities from joint tax accounts …

This report discusses the Nutrition Title (Title IV) of the enacted 2014 farm bill. As Congress formulated the Nutrition provisions of the 2014 farm bill.

This report discusses the Emergency Drought Relief Act of 2014, which would address drought impacts in California and other states, and assist with drought response.

This report describes the relevant BAPCPA provisions and discusses the recent court decisions.

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Since September 11, 2001, several bills introduced in the U.S. Congress have included provisions to assist emergency communications. Key provisions from a number of these bills have become law. This report summarizes progress in developing legislation, especially in the 109th Congress, in three areas of emergency communications: communications among first responders and other emergency personnel; emergency warnings and alerts; and 911 call centers and systems.

This report provides an overview of Medicare, the nation's federal insurance program, which pays for covered health care services of qualified beneficiaries.

This report discusses the "minority witness rule." When a Senate committee, other than the Appropriations Committee, holds a hearing, the minority party members of the panel have the right to call witnesses of their choosing to testify during at least one day of that hearing.

The report discusses the Agricultural Act of 2014 that was enacted on February 7, 2014. It further discusses Agricultural Conservative Easement Program (ACEP), that retains most of the program provision in the repealed easement programs.

This report reviews the history and trends of oil spills in the United States, and identifies the legal authorities governing oil spill prevention, response, and cleanup.

This report outlines U.S. jurisdiction over ocean resources and analyzes the existing laws to assess their application to marine environments.

Weekly report discussing the state of the raw sugar market, including details for prices and market fluctuations related to weights in tons, regions, distribution, years, and figures.

Daily cash report for Imperial Sugar Company including a list of large withdrawals for the months surrounding the date showing the daily expenses and estimated balance for each entry. It also lists scheduled payments for bank loans.

This report discusses the flood insurance coverage gaps in the United States, provides statistics on the level of coverage and amount of flooding in coastal areas recently hit by hurricanes, and provides possible solutions to the flood insurance gap.