This report provides a summary of the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 (AJCA), its most important provisions, and brief legislative history.

This report discusses the history and current status of federal student loan programs. Specifically, the report focuses on the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) and the William D. Ford Direct Loan (DL). Moreover, the report highlights differences in the two programs such as that the FFEL is financed by private lenders, while the DL is financed by the federal government.

This report discusses the issue of U.S. economic assistance to sub-Saharan Africa, highlighting the importance of continued assistance in light of U.S. national security and also various U.S.-led efforts to promote reform among African citizens themselves. U.S. assistance finds its way to Africa through a variety of channels, including the USAID-administered DA program, food aid programs, and indirect aid provided through international financial institutions and the United Nations.

The air cargo system is vulnerable to several security threats, including: potential plots to place explosives aboard aircraft; illegal shipments of hazardous materials; criminal activities such as smuggling and theft; and potential hijackings and sabotage by persons with access to aircraft. This report discusses legislative efforts currently underway to improve air cargo system security.

This report summarizes the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) proposed changes to the particulate matter (PM) National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) and includes comparisons with previous (1997) and current promulgated and proposed standards.

This report discusses the ongoing debate about whether or not to approve energy development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Current law forbids energy leasing in the Refuge. This report addresses several legislative options on the issue, as well as policymakers' arguments for and against development, especially in the wake of increasing terrorism since 2000-2001.

After the massive reorganization of federal agencies precipitated by the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), there are now four main federal agencies charged with securing the United States’ borders: the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which patrols the border and conducts immigrations, customs, and agricultural inspections at ports of entry; the Bureau of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which investigates immigrations and customs violations in the interior of the country; the United States Coast Guard, which provides maritime and port security; and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which is responsible for securing the nation’s land, rail, and air transportation networks. This report is meant to serve as a primer on the key federal agencies charged with border security; as such it will briefly describe each agency’s role in securing our nation’s borders.

This report provides facts and statistics about Social Security that are frequently requested by Members of Congress and their staffs. It includes information about Social Security taxes and benefits, the program's impact on its recipients' incomes, federal tax receipts, federal spending and the economy, administrative information, and selected facts about Medicare.

This is one part in the series of reports that provide a background and analysis, and most recent developments regarding broadband or high-speed Internet access. The report starts out by answering questions; what is broadband and why is it important? This report also discusses broadband technologies, the status of broadband deployment and the related policy issues, as well as the legislation in congress.

This report provides information about the Budget Reconciliation FY2006. It proposed changes to Medicaid, Medicare, and State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) .

This report discusses the Bush administration's "Charitable Choice" agenda aimed at expanding the ability of faith-based organizations to provide federally funded social services.

This report provides an outline of the complex current law governing the funding of single-employer defined benefit pension plans. It describes reporting and disclosure requirements that apply to plans. This report also includes an illustration of the effect on a hypothetical plan sponsor's plan contribution and funded ratio of the credit balance approach used in current law versus the Administration proposal.

This report provides information about the Labor Rights Issues for DR-CAFTA. Congress had linked labor protections to trade promotion vehicles for at least two decades with purposes in mind.

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This collaborative research project between Georgia State University (Prof. Elliott) and Oklahoma University (Profs. Elmore and Engle) is aimed at understanding further the measurement of the timing of geologic processes causing diagenetic events (e.g. burial metamorphism, thrust sheet burial, basinwide fluid migration, contact metamorphism) through combined application of paleomagnetic analyses and K-Ar age determination of illite. These diagnenetic events are known to heat rocks to temperatures sufficient to form crude oil and natural gas. Thus, improved knowledge of the timing of diagenetic events lead to improved burial history models for the exploration of crude oil and natural gas (e.g. Pevear, 1999). Our principal working hypothesis is that the authigenesis of magnetic mineral phases results also from the conversion of smectite to illite and the ages of these diagenetic events can be constrained by comparing the ages of chemical remanent magnetizations (CRMs) to independently measurements of K-Ar age of diagenetic illite. In this study, we have tested the hypothesized connection between smectite to illite (i.e clay diagenesis) and remagnetization by conducting K-Ar dating of authigenic illites in units in Scotland and Montana (e.g., Elliott et al., 2006a; Elliott et al., 2006b).

The United States spends a large and growing share of national income on health care. In 2005, health spending is expected to approach $1.9 trillion and account for more than 15% of gross domestic product. This report contains information on the background of the healthcare industry in the United States, key issues for Congress in this policy area, and three policy directions to consider: changing health care, changing federal programs, and changing tax policy.

This report provides the policy considerations related to guest worker programs on immigration.

This report provides an overview of the issues and legislation of the immigration policy for intracompany transfers (L Visa). Concerns are growing that the visa category that allows executives and managers of multinational corporations to work temporarily in the United States is misused.

Since 1965, United States policy has supported international population planning based on principles of volunteerism and informed choice that gives participants access to information on all methods of birth control. This policy, however, has generated contentious debate for over two decades, resulting in frequent clarification and modification of U.S. international family planning programs. This report provides the context of this debate.

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This report summarizes research related to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's (LLNL) Experimental Test Site, Site 300 (S300), located within Alameda and San Joaquin Counties (Figure 1) and conducted under the 10(a)(1)(A) (Recovery) permit TE-053672-2. This property is held in ownership by the U.S. Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The 2005 Recovery research at S300 involved fieldwork associated with only two species: Alameda whipsnake (Masticophis lateralis euryxanthus) and the California red-legged frog (Rana aurora draytonii) (RLF). Note: the whipsnake subspecies existing at S300 shows taxonomic variation (generally 50% chaparral whipsnake [Masticophis lateralis] traits) when compared to the Alameda whipsnake (Riemer 1954) and therefore it will be referred to as ''California whipsnake (Masticophis lateralis)'' (CWS) for classification purposes in this report (Swaim 2004).

This report provides a brief overview of Mexico's political history from 1910 to 2006, with an emphasis on electoral reforms and elections. The report demonstrates that Mexico has evolved from long-term domination by a single party to alternation and effective competition among the three major parties.