This report provides an overview of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and describes its background, objectives, and structure, including the role of the Convention's monitoring body, the CEDAW Committee. It examines U.S. policy and issues in the U.S. ratification debate, including the Convention's possible impact on U.S. sovereignty, its effectiveness in combating discrimination, and its role as an instrument of U.S. foreign policy.

This report provides historical background of the Council, including the role of the previous Commission. It discusses the Council's current mandate and structure, as well as U.S. policy and congressional actions.

This report provides historical background of the Council, including the role of the previous Commission. It discusses the Council's current mandate and structure, as well as U.S. policy and congressional actions.

This report focuses on current U.N. reform efforts and priorities from the perspective of several key actors, including the U.S. government, the U.N. Secretary-General, selected groups of member states, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and a cross-section of groups tasked with addressing U.N. reform. It also examines congressional actions related to U.N. reform, as well as future policy considerations.

This report tracks the process by which Congress provides the funding for U.S. assessed contributions to the regular budgets of the United Nations, its agencies, and U.N. peacekeeping operation accounts, as well as for U.S. voluntary contributions to U.N. system programs and funds.

This report discusses the Russian economy, which has grown impressively since 1999 and, by some measures, has been one of the fastest growing economies in the world. The improvement in the Russian economy is arguably a factor in the boldness with which the Putin leadership has reasserted Russia's status as a world power.

This report examines the Consolidated Appropriations Act for 2008, and identifies four types of such provisions: (1) restrictions on the finalization of particular proposed rules, (2) restrictions on regulatory activity within certain areas, (3) implementation or enforcement restrictions, and (4) conditional restrictions (e.g., preventing implementation of a rule until certain actions are taken). The report then examines appropriations acts in nine previous fiscal years, noting that some provisions have been included in appropriations bills every year, and others have appeared for several years in a row. Numerous examples of regulatory appropriations restrictions are provided in this report.

This report analyzes two consolidations of separate counterintelligence (CI) office — the first authorized by Congress at the Department of Energy's (DOE) request; the second initiated by DOE — and examines the impact of each on the effectiveness of the Department's CI program. A major oversight issue for Congress is whether either, or both, organizational changes will strengthen the Department's CI program as intended. Some observers are concerned that the two consolidations may have undercut CI capabilities.

This report focuses on current developments in Taiwan, analyzing how those developments are affecting choices the United States makes about its policy toward Taiwan, specifically, and toward the People's Republic of Chine (PRC) more broadly.

This report provides an overview of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) and discusses current legal and legislative developments.

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The report provides an overview regarding the establishment and the role of Global Environment Facility (GEF).

This report discusses public, educational, and governmental (PEG) access channels that are set aside for use by the general public, by local schools, colleges, and universities, and by elements of local government.

This report focuses on deductions for charitable contributions, and on institutions that are generally eligible for deductible charitable contributions, such as social welfare organizations, educational institutions, nonprofit hospitals, and churches, along with conduits to those institutions such as private foundations, donor-advised funds, and supporting organizations.

This report first discusses the current state of the economy, including measures that have already been taken by the monetary authorities, and assesses the need for and potential consequences of fiscal stimulus. The second part of the report reviews the proposals discussed during debate on the recently enacted fiscal stimulus, both those adopted and those considered but not adopted.

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This report is organized in three parts. First, it discusses the extent of GHG emissions associated with the U.S. agriculture sector, and cites current and potential estimates for U.S. agricultural soils to sequester carbon and partly offset national GHG emissions. Second, the report describes the types of land management and farm conservation practices that can reduce GHG emissions and/or sequester carbon in agricultural soils, highlighting those practices that are currently promoted under existing voluntary federal agricultural programs. The Appendix provides a summary primer of the key background information presented in these first two sections. Finally, the report describes ongoing legislative action within both the climate change and farm bill debates, and discusses the types of questions that may be raised regarding the role of the U.S. agriculture sector in the broader climate change debate.

According to the Insurance Services Office, Inc., (ISO), the property/casualty (p/c) insurance industry paid $62.2 billion in catastrophe losses from 24 disasters and more than 4.4 million claims in 2005, making 2005 the most costly year for catastrophe losses. This report begins by providing some background on the market for catastrophe insurance. It continues by describing the proposal for tax-deductible reserve accounts as set forth in H.R. 164/S. 926 of the 110th Congress, and concludes by providing an economic analysis of the plan.

On September 7, 2005, the Commodity Credit Corporation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (CCC/USDA) presented a Scoping Memo (Argonne 2005) for preliminary consideration by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), suggesting possible remedial options for the carbon tetrachloride contamination in groundwater at Everest, Kansas. The suggested approaches were discussed by representatives of the KDHE, the CCC/USDA, and Argonne at the KDHE office in Topeka on September 8-9, 2005, along with other technical and logistic issues related to the Everest site. In response to these discussions, the KDHE recommended (KDHE 2005) evaluation of several remedial processes, either alone or in combination, as part of a Corrective Action Study (CAS) for Everest. The primary remedial processes suggested by the KDHE were the following: Hydraulic control by groundwater extraction with aboveground treatment; Air sparging (AS) coupled with soil vapor extraction (SVE) in large-diameter boreholes (LDBs); and Phytoremediation. As a further outcome of the 2005 meeting and as a precursor to development of a possible CAS, the CCC/USDA completed the following supplemental investigations at Everest to address several specific technical concerns discussed with the KDHE: (1) Construction of interpretive cross sections at strategic locations selected by the KDHE along the main …

This report discusses some of the arguments surrounding the proper size of government that are economic in nature, including the questions of what role the state plays in economic activity and how the economy is affected by government intervention.

This report begins by reviewing the record of working conditions in the coal mining industry. It then describes the regulatory regime and recent funding of the U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration. The report closes with an analysis of current regulatory and legislative initiatives.

This report contains an explanation of the major provisions of the federal estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer taxes. The discussion divides the federal estate tax into three components: the gross estate, deductions from the gross estate, and computation of the tax, including allowable tax credits. The federal estate tax is computed through a series of adjustments and modifications of a tax base known as the "gross estate." Certain allowable deductions reduce the gross estate to the "taxable estate," to which is then added the total of all lifetime taxable gifts made by the decedent. The tax rates are applied and, after reduction for certain allowable credits, the amount of tax owed by the estate is reached.

This report describes how the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) is ineffective under the tax reductions of 2004-2007.

This report discusses the legislation addressing communications among first responders focused first on interoperability -- the capability of different systems to connect -- with provisions in the Homeland Security Act (P.L. 107-296).