The Congressional Record contains the records for sessions of the U.S. Congress including summaries of proceedings, letters, and speeches for the Senate and House of Representatives.

This report lays out foreign and defense policy issues likely to receive attention in the 106th Congress, either in oversight or in enacting legislation. The report discusses the U.S. role in the world, and addresses tools available to Members to affect foreign and defense policy, including: the use of military force, foreign assistance, foreign policy sanctions, export controls, participation in the United Nations, and oversight of the State Department.

Prior to 1986, general funds of the U.S. treasury were used to pay 65% of the cost to operate ocean and inland ports and to maintain and deepen their channels. The other 35 percent is paid by ports, or by state or local governments. In 1986, Congress enacted the Harbor Maintenance Tax and used the revenues to provide some of the funds for what has come to be considered the federal portion of such costs

The Passenger Service Act (PSA) requires that domestic ocean passenger transportation be provided only by ships that are U.S.-owned, U.S.-built and operated by U.S. crews. Proposed legislation to relax some PSA restrictions was introduced during the 105th Congress. Both the Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee and the Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Subcommittee on the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation, have made recent public statements indicating their strong interets enacting changes to the passenger Service Act during the 106th Congress. This report will be updated as developments warrant.

The 104th Congress pursued efforts to reform environmental regulations on several fronts: (1) revising regulatory decision making processes; (2) attaching specific reforms to funding bills; (3) establishing a House corrections day calendar of bills addressing specific regulatory problems; and (4) incorporating regulatory reforms into individual program reauthorization bills. The 105th Congress has pursued regulatory reform in four primary directions: (1) proposals to establish a comprehensive cost-benefit/risk analysis framework for regulatory programs, (2) private property “takings” initiatives, (3) amendments and reforms directed at individual environmental statutes, and (4) oversight of environmental programs.

This fact sheet details changes in the committee system contained in H. Res. 5, the rules of the House for the 106th Congress