This report provides an introduction to the Volcker Rule, which is the regulatory regime imposed upon banking institutions and their affiliates under Section 619 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-203).

This report describes the March 25 proposed rule to define "waters of the United States," particularly focused on clarifying the regulatory status of waters located in isolated places in a landscape, the types of waters with ambiguous jurisdictional status following the Supreme Court's ruling. It includes a table comparing the proposal to existing regulatory language.

This report discusses the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), enacted in 1938 (P.L. 75-718), which is the federal legislation that establishes the general minimum wage that must be paid to all covered workers.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "As of December 2012, the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) four offshore programs have resulted in more than 39,000 disclosures by taxpayers and over $5.5 billion in revenues. The offshore programs attract taxpayers by offering a reduced risk of criminal prosecution and lower penalties than if the unreported income was discovered by one of IRS's other enforcement programs. For the 2009 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP), nearly all program participants received the standard offshore penalty--20 percent of the highest aggregate value of the accounts--meaning the account value was greater than $75,000 and taxpayers used the accounts (e.g., made deposits or withdrawals) during the period under review. The median account balance of the more than 10,000 cases closed so far from the 2009 OVDP was $570,000. Participant cases with offshore penalties greater than $1 million represented about 6 percent of all 2009 OVDP cases, but accounted for almost half of all offshore penalties. Taxpayers from these cases disclosed a variety of reasons for having offshore accounts, and more than half of them had accounts at Swiss bank UBS."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Indian tribes and tribally designated housing entities face both external and internal challenges in carrying out affordable housing activities under the Indian Housing Block Grant (IHBG) program, which was authorized by the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996 (NAHASDA). The most commonly identified external challenges included the often remote location of tribal lands and lack of infrastructure such as running water and sewer systems. Meeting these challenges can significantly increase development costs. For example, one Arizona tribe saw its costs double because materials had to be brought in by helicopter. Tribes also identified differing federal agency requirements, particularly for environmental reviews, as a challenge that delayed projects and increased costs when IHBG and other funds were combined. Further, tribes were concerned that recent changes in federally authorized training and technical assistance could reduce their quality and frequency, in part because of the reduced role of a longstanding provider. The most commonly identified internal challenges were recipients' limited administrative capacity, conflicts within tribes that impact housing priorities and planning, and cultural preferences for certain types of housing. The Navajo Nation's housing entity, the largest …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Of the approximately $608 million spent by the Department of Commerce's (Commerce) National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in fiscal years 2009 through 2013 on the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program, NIST used most of the funds to directly support MEP centers. Specifically, NIST spent about $495 million on awards to centers and spent the rest on contracts, staff, agency-wide overhead charges, and other items, some of which NIST considered direct support and some of which NIST considered administrative spending. Although NIST is not required to track, and has not historically tracked, administrative spending, NIST officials told GAO the agency developed definitions of direct support and administrative spending in fiscal year 2013 in response to congressional interest, then conducted an analysis of fiscal year 2013 federal MEP program spending using those definitions. NIST defines direct support spending as spending that directly supports the MEP center system's work with manufacturing firms, such as awards to centers or contracts to train MEP center staff on how to quickly assess innovative ideas for new products. NIST considers all other spending to be administrative, including spending on performance evaluations …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In carrying out its mission to ensure that securities markets are fair, orderly, and efficiently maintained, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) relies extensively on computerized systems. Integrating effective information security controls into a layered control strategy is essential to ensure that SEC's financial and sensitive information is protected from inadvertent or deliberate misuse, disclosure, or destruction. As part of its audit of SEC's financial statements, GAO assessed (1) SEC's actions to correct previously reported information security weaknesses and (2) the effectiveness of controls for ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of SEC's information systems and information. To do this, GAO examined security policies and artifacts, interviewed pertinent officials, and conducted tests and observations of controls in operation."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Agencies use a risk-based approach, including workload and threat assessment data, to allocate resources, but most do not fully track those used for export control enforcement activities. As their missions are broader than export controls, agencies can use staff resources for other activities based on need, making tracking resources used solely for export control enforcement difficult. Only Commerce’s Office of Export Enforcement allocates its resources exclusively to export control enforcement as that is its primary mission. Other agencies, such as State and the Treasury, have relatively few export control enforcement staff to track. While several agencies acknowledge the need to better track export enforcement resources and have taken steps to do so, they do not know the full extent of their use of these resources and do not use this information in resource allocation decisions. In some cities, agencies are informally leveraging export enforcement resources through voluntarily created local task forces that bring together enforcement resources to work collectively on export control cases."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "U.S. agencies have adopted interagency guidance documents that establish PSI policies and procedures and have submitted annual reports; however, these reports do not contain expenditure data for all agencies as required by law. The agencies produced documents that contain general PSI policies and procedures. In addition, DOD and the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP) developed policies and procedures specifically to guide their agencies’ PSI activities. The annual reports submitted in 2009, 2010, and 2011 met requirements to describe PSI-related activities planned for future years and those that took place in the preceding year. Although the reports included an account of DOD’s PSI expenditures, they did not contain all expenditures for other agencies for PSI activities as required by law."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has called for using risk-informed approaches to help prioritize its investments, develop plans, and allocate resources in a way that balances security and commerce. Within DHS, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is responsible for making risk-informed investments to secure the transportation system. GAO evaluated to what extent TSA (1) implemented a risk management approach to inform the allocation of resources across the transportation sector and (2) followed internal control standards in its efforts to implement and use a risk management approach to inform resource allocation."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation's (PBGC) single-employer insurance program insures the pension benefits of over 34 million participants in almost 29,000 private sector defined benefit pension plans. The increase in PBGC's probable claims has raised questions about PBGC's monitoring and financial disclosure practices, including whether the information that PBGC discloses is sufficient for interested parties to understand the effect on PBGC's financial condition. GAO examined (1) the steps that PBGC takes to monitor and ensure the accuracy of its probable claims, (2) how PBGC's financial liability reporting compares with those of publicly traded companies, and (3) the steps PBGC has taken to improve the transparency of its financial reporting and whether additional improvement is needed."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Energy (DOE) spends billions of dollars on major construction projects that help maintain the nuclear weapons stockpile, conduct research and development, and process nuclear waste so that it can be disposed of. Because of DOE's long-standing project management problems, GAO determined the extent to which (1) DOE's major construction projects are having cost increases and schedule delays and the major factors contributing to these problems and (2) DOE ensures that project designs are sufficiently complete before construction begins to help avoid cost increases and delays. We examined 12 DOE major projects with total costs of about $27 billion, spoke with federal and contractor officials, and reviewed project management documents."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Of the 15 selected Department of Defense (DOD) major automated information system (MAIS) programs, 13 had cost information available (2 did not, due to revisions to requirements and changes in scope). Of these 13 programs, 11 experienced changes in their cost estimates, including 7 that experienced increases ranging from 4 to 2,233 percent and 4 that experienced decreases ranging from 4 to 86 percent. Two programs remained unchanged in their cost goals. Additionally, of 14 programs that had schedule information available (1 did not due to revisions to requirements), 13 experienced schedule changes—including 12 that had slippages ranging from a few months to 6 years, and 1 that accelerated its schedule. One program remained on schedule. Further, of 11 programs that had system performance data available, 3 programs met their system performance targets, while 8 did not fully meet their targets."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "To collaborate with state and local law enforcement, the Federal Protective Service (FPS) uses memorandums of understanding (MOU), long-standing working relationships, written guidance to FPS staff, joint operations, and other initiatives. For example, FPS has MOUs ranging from sharing radio frequency usage in Alabama, to a mutual aid agreement with the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority in Georgia. In some jurisdictions, such as the suburbs of the District of Columbia, FPS has no MOUs but has regular contact and long-standing mutual aid relationships with state and local law enforcement. To collaborate with state and local law enforcement, FPS has guidance that addresses issues such as the scope of law enforcement authorities on federal property and information sharing among jurisdictions. FPS established regional staff positions intended to improve collaboration with other organizations and has engaged in joint operations with state and local law enforcement. By comparison, other federal organizations with law enforcement responsibilities similar to FPS also use a variety of methods, ranging from the Department of Veterans Affairs’ policy to seek MOUs with state and local law enforcement to the Smithsonian Institution’s established relationships with the …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Hypertension was the most commonly reported medical condition among adults that could result in a health insurer denying coverage, requiring higher-than-average premiums, or restricting coverage. GAO’s analysis found that about 33.2 million adults age 19-64 years old, or about 18 percent, reported hypertension in 2009. Individuals with hypertension reported average annual expenditures related to treating the condition of $650, but maximum reported expenditures were $61,540. Mental health disorders and diabetes were the second and third most commonly reported conditions among adults. Cancer was the condition with the highest average annual treatment expenditures—about $9,000."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act of 1990 (CARE Act) makes federal funds available to assist individuals affected by HIV/AIDS. The Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) awards CARE Act funding to grantees that include states, territories, and metropolitan areas. Because minorities have been disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS, the CARE Act's Minority AIDS Initiative (MAI) provides funding through five parts (A, B, C, D, and F) of the act with the goal of reducing HIV-related health care disparities among minorities. The reauthorization of CARE Act programs changed the process by which HRSA awards MAI grants under Part A (funding for metropolitan areas) and Part B (for states and territories) from a formula based solely on demographics of the metropolitan area, state, or territory to a competitive process. The CARE Act requires GAO to report on MAI and related issues. This report provides information on (1) the effect on grantees and service providers of the new competitive process for awarding Part A and B MAI funds, (2) the types of services grantees funded under MAI, and (3) barriers …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the extent to which the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) complied with the HUD Reform Act of 1989 in fiscal years 1997 and 1998, focusing on HUD's actions in response to: (1) title I of the Reform Act, which is the title principally concerned with addressing the ethics, management and Federal Housing Administration (FHA) issues raised during the late 1980s; and (2) four other titles in the act--II, III, VII, and VIII--that address other changes in HUD's management of federally assisted housing."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Initiative is a complex, long-term effort to restore the South Florida ecosystem--including the Everglades--that involves federal, state, local, and tribal entities, as well as public and private interests. In response to growing signs of the ecosystem's deterioration, federal agencies established the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force in 1993 to coordinate ongoing federal activities. The Task Force is charged with coordinating and facilitating the overall restoration effort. The Task Force's strategic plan is a good start. However, because the plan does not contain all the elements that GAO recommended in a previous report, it does not fulfill the requirement placed on the Secretary of the Interior, as the Task Force Chair, by the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations. GAO recognizes that the plan is a "work in progress" and that the Task Force will continue to refine and improve its strategic plan as it learns more about the ecosystem and how the ecosystem is responding to the Task Force's efforts. Revising the plan when it is updated in 2002 to include all the elements would fulfill the Committees' requirement and …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Schools and Libraries Universal Service Support Mechanism--also known as the E-rate program--is a significant source of federal funding for information technology for schools and libraries, providing about $2 billion a year. As requested, GAO assessed issues related to the E-rate program's long-term goals, including (1) key trends in the demand for and use of E-rate funding and the implications of these trends; (2) the rate of program participation, participants' views on requirements, and FCC's actions to facilitate participation; and (3) FCC's performance goals and measures for the program and how they compare to key characteristics of successful goals and measures. To perform this work, GAO analyzed data going back to the first year of the program, surveyed a sample of participating schools and libraries, reviewed agency documents, and interviewed agency officials and program stakeholders."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Cancellation of a major Department of Defense (DOD) weapon program can have broad effects. Cancellation of one program can affect the schedules or budgets for related programs as well as the industrial base and local economies. For example, the cancellation of one program has impacted the schedule for the Army's network modernization efforts. DOD stakeholders can provide input to program officials on the potential effects of a cancellation."

This report discusses the reprocessing of nuclear fuel that refers to the chemical separation of fissionable uranium and plutonium from irradiated nuclear fuel.

The following report discusses the construction of two heavy-ion linear accelerators, one at the the University of California Radiation Laboratory and the other at Yale University. The goal for these accelerators is to produce ions of masses up to that of neon with energies of 10 Mev per nucleon.

This report provides background information and policy analysis regarding the ways to develop that directly and indirectly convert coal into liquid fuel.

This report discusses recent actions taken by the FDIC in support of financial and housing markets, which include restoration of the Deposit Insurance Fund, the development of the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program, efforts to reduce foreclosures, and establishment of the proposed Public-Private Investment Fund. Legislation such as H.R. 786 (introduced by Representative Barney Frank); H.R. 1106, Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009 (introduced by Representative John Conyers, Jr., with 24 co-sponsors); and S. 541, The Depositor Protection Act of 2009 (introduced by Senator Christopher Dodd with 12 co-sponsors) have also been introduced to increase the effectiveness of the FDIC’s efforts to respond to recent market weaknesses.