This report discusses the congressional franking privilege, which dates from 1775 and allows Members of Congress to transmit mail matter under their signature without postage.

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This report includes a fact sheet based on the draft bill and committee report (H.Rept. 114-102) and is designed as a time-urgent product offering Members the best available information about the bill pending publication of a CRS report on the FY2016 Defense Authorization and Appropriations legislation.

The report provides background information on Domain Name System and the role of the U.S. government. This report discusses the U.S. government limited authority over the Internet's domain name system, primarily through the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions contract between the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

This report answers frequently asked questions about international investment agreements (IIAs) made between the United States and other countries. Questions are categorized in three main areas: background and context; U.S. international investment agreements; and investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS).

This report provides an overview of Iran's foreign policy, which has been a subject of numerous congressional hearings and of sanctions and other legislation for many years. The report analyzes Iranian foreign policy as a whole and by region. The regional analysis discusses those countries where Iranian policy is of U.S. concern. The report also makes reference to Iran's efforts to utilize its ties to various countries to try to mitigate the effects of U.S. sanctions.

This report begins by discussing the general goals of statutory interpretation, reviewing a variety of contemporary as well as historical approaches. The report then briefly describes the two primary theories of interpretation employed today, before examining the main types of tools that courts use to determine statutory meaning. The report concludes by exploring developing issues in statutory interpretation.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate granting the legislature permission to adjourn for more than three days during the period beginning on Wednesday, February 25, 2015, and ending on Monday, March 2, 2015.

This report provides a historical synopsis of the evolving nature of the federal grants-in-aid system, focusing on the role Congress has played in defining the system's scope and nature.

This report discusses the supervised release (parole) for federal crimes, the nature of the supervision and the conditions imposed during supervised release.

This report discusses the supervised release (parole) for federal crimes, the nature of the supervision, and the conditions imposed during supervised release.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate in memory of U.S. Army Sergeant Gilberto Lopez Sanchez of New Braunfels.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate granting the legislature permission to adjourn for more than three days.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate inviting the governor to address a joint session of the legislature on February 17, 2015.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate providing for procedures for the canvass of votes for the governor and lieutenant governor and the inauguration of the governor and lieutenant governor, and inviting the governor to address a joint session of the legislature on January 15, 2015.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate granting the legislature permission to adjourn for more than three days during the period beginning on Thursday, January 15, 2015, and ending on Tuesday, January 20, 2015.

This report discusses the current debate over "net neutrality." While there is no single accepted definition of "net neutrality," most agree that any such definition should include the general principles that owners of the networks that compose and provide access to the Internet should not control how consumers lawfully use that network, and they should not be able to discriminate against content provider access to that network.

As communities face a variety of economic challenges, some are looking to local banks and financial institutions for solutions that address the specific development needs of low-income and distressed communities. Community development financial institutions (CDFIs) provide financial products and services, such as mortgage financing for homebuyers and not-for-profit developers; underwriting and risk capital for community facilities; technical assistance; and commercial loans and investments to small, start-up, or expanding businesses. This report begins by describing the CDFI Fund’s history, current appropriations, and each of its programs. A description of the fund’s process of certifying certain financial institutions to be eligible for the fund’s program awards follows. The next section provides an overview of each program’s purpose, use of award proceeds, eligibility criteria, and relevant issues for Congress.

This report provides roll call vote data related to the proposed TransCanada Keystone XL Pipeline that would transport oil sands crude from Canada and shale oil produced in North Dakota and Montana to a market hub in Nebraska for further delivery to Gulf Coast refineries. Voting information is listed chronologically and broken down by chamber, Congress, and type of legislation.

This report describes data and statistics from government, industry, and information technology (IT) security firms regarding the current state of cybersecurity threats in the United States and internationally. These include incident estimates, costs, and annual reports on data security breaches, identity thefts, cybercrimes, malwares, and network securities.

This report presents figures showing trends in discretionary budget authority as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) by subfunction within each of 17 budget function categories, using data from President Obama's FY2016 budget submission. This report provides a graphical overview of historical trends in discretionary budget authority from FY1977 through FY2014, estimates for FY2015 spending, and the levels consistent with the President's proposals for FY2016 through FY2020.

This report provides background and discusses four options to address greenhouse gas (GHG) sources: (1) resolutions of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act; (2) freestanding legislation directing, delaying, or prohibiting EPA action; (3) the use of appropriations bills as a vehicle to influence EPA activity; and (4) amendments to the Clean Air Act, including legislation to establish a new GHG control regime.

This report provides an overview of existing legal requirements pertaining to past performance, including the issues raised by federal contractors' attempts to challenge agency evaluations of their past performance, source selection decisions based, in part, on consideration of past performance information, and responsibility determinations. It also surveys recently enacted and proposed legislation and executive branch initiatives related to evaluations of past performance.

This report provides descriptive analysis of the U.S. income distribution to illustrate various concepts. First, it examines the complexities of income measurement and important definitional and data considerations to bear in mind when using and interpreting income statistics. Next, it describes two popular data sources used to study the U.S. income distribution, followed by sections on statistics commonly used to provide point-in-time analysis and to compare U.S. income across groups, time, and location. The report concludes with an explanation of the Gini index.