This report provides information about the Clean Air Act Issues in the 106th Congress. Congress last enacted major amendments to the clear air act in 1990 and EPA is in the midst of implementing numerous provisions of those amendments.

This report presents a profile of the membership of the 108th Congress. Included is information on numbers of Members, party affiliation, average age and length of service, occupations, religious affiliation, military service, female and minority Members, and foreign-born Members.

This report provides a brief overview of some of the key environmental protection issues that have been and are likely to continue to be the focus of public and congressional attention.

This report discusses the anxieties within Congress in the wake of the Enron scandal. Moreover, the report notes that the 108th Congress is not likely to pass legislative reform as extreme as the 107th Congress, but will still confront issues of accounting reform. The report also highlights what the 108th Congress plans to reform.

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Prospects for legislative initiatives to comprehensively amend the Clean Water Act have stated for some time over whether and exactly how to change the law, and Congress has recently focused legislative attention on narrow bills to extend or modify selected Clean Water Act programs, rather than taking up comprehensive proposals. This report contains information on the issues and actions regarding the Clean Water Act addressed in the 108th Congress.

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This report provides an explanation of rules changes.

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The purpose of this report is to provide background for and summarize current developments in U.S. - People’s Republic of China (PRC) relations, including current and pending congressional actions involving the PRC.

The 108th Congress has acted on a variety of disparate environmental measures; some of these represent proposals or issues that had been under consideration in the 107th Congress and earlier. Environmental issues considered by Congress tend to fall into several major categories: (1) funding issues — whether funding levels are adequate and focused on appropriate priorities; (2) expanding, renewing, or refocusing specific environment programs; (3) environmental issues that are important “subsets” of other major areas of concern, such as energy, defense, or transportation programs; and more recently, (4) terrorism and infrastructure protection in areas such as wastewater and chemical facilities.

This report discusses the information related to gun control legislation. The contents include Gun-related statistics, federal regulation of firearms, possible issues in the 108th Congress

Clean air issues were discussed at length in the 107th Congress, but legislation was not enacted, leaving the same issues for possible consideration in the 108th. The most prominent air quality issues discussed in this report are; the controversy over EPA’s proposed changes to the New Source Review (NSR) requirements, Clear Skies / Multi-Pollutant Legislation, gasoline additive MTBE, Conformity of Transportation Plans and SIPs Deadlines for Achieving the Ozone Air Quality Standard.

Clean air issues were discussed at length in the 107th Congress, but legislation was not enacted, leaving the same issues for possible consideration in the 108th. The most prominent air quality issues discussed in this report are; the controversy over EPA’s proposed changes to the New Source Review (NSR) requirements, Clear Skies / Multi-Pollutant Legislation, gasoline additive MTBE, Conformity of Transportation Plans and SIPs Deadlines for Achieving the Ozone Air Quality Standard.

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This report provides information about the Budgeting and Priority-Setting Issues, 108th Congress on Federal Research and Development. Federal R & D funding priorities change over time, reflecting presidential and national preferences.

After passing a major multi-year tax cut in Mid-2001 (which was sunsetted after ten years) and a stimulus bill in 2002, Congress is considering energy tax subsidies, tax incentives for charitable giving deductions, pension diversification in the wake of the ENRON problems, and tax shelters. The House has passed several bills that would make the multiyear tax cut permanent as well as a bill to speed up certain provisions.

This report summarizes the results of the debates from the 2nd hearing for the 108th Congress. It discusses federal funding, science and technology policy issues, the development of new technologies, and the role of the government in the pharmaceutical industry.