This report provides background information and selected views on the role of the appointments made by President Barack H. Obama to his Administration or by Cabinet secretaries to their departments. Additionally, it discusses some of the constitutional concerns that have been raised about presidential advisors.

This report discusses the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) process by which vehicle safety defects are identified and vehicles are recalled, as well as the impact that the 2009 GM bankruptcy may have on liability for this defect.

This report discusses the recent disclosures of various National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance and data collection programs that have prompted increased attention on the government's collection of foreign intelligence.

This report discusses relatively uniform methods of screening airline passengers applied by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

This report discusses the current political and economic conditions in Russia, focusing on the impact of Vladimir Putin's leadership and the leadership of his successor/protégé, Dmitriy Medvedev, both of which have steered Russia away from progress toward democratization. The report also discusses the state of the economy since the Soviet collapse in 1999, how the recent global economic downturn has affected Russia, the state of Russia's military, and the current relationship between Russia and the United States.

This report discuses sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures, which are laws, regulations, standards, and procedures that governments employ as "necessary to protect human, animal or plant life or health" from the risks associated with the spread of pests, diseases, or disease-carrying and causing organisms, or from additives, toxins, or contaminants in food, beverages, or feedstuffs.

This report provides background on, and analysis of, key legal issues that such suits present. It provides a broad overview of tort claims generally, discusses the primary mechanisms through which contractors have attempted to defend against tort liability, and examines indemnification agreements between the government and contractors.

This report discusses the size of the U.S. bilateral trade deficit with China that continues to be an important issue in bilateral trade relations.

This report discusses the new defense strategy, which was unveiled by senior Department of Defense (DOD) leadership based on a review of potential future security challenges, current defense strategy, and budgetary constraints. This strategy will rebalance the Army's global posture and presence, emphasizing where potential problems are likely to arise, such as the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East.

This report provides an overview of Arctic-related issues for Congress and refers readers to more in-depth CRS reports on specific relevant topics.

This report provides background information and potential oversight issues for Congress on the Coast Guard's programs for procuring 8 National Security Cutters (NSCs), 25 Offshore Patrol Cutters (OPCs), and 58 Fast Response Cutters (FRCs).

This report provides background information and issues for Congress on the sustainment and modernization of the Coast Guard's polar icebreaker fleet, which performs a variety of missions supporting U.S. interests in polar regions. The report is written in response to the Coast Guard's budget request for a new polar ice breaker (none are currently in operation).

This report describes the farm commodity programs in Title I of the 2014 farm bill for "covered commodities" such as wheat, corn, soybeans, rice, and peanuts. Producer support is provided for the 2014-2018 crop years primarily through either statutory ("reference") prices or historical revenue guarantees based on the five most recent years of crop prices and yields.

This report provides a state-by-state breakdown of the grants awarded to date. It then briefly describes the requirement for exchanges to be selfsustaining, and concludes with a discussion of the sources and amounts of funding that Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has used and plans to use to support federally-facilitated exchange (FFE) operations.

This report discusses the Domain Name System (DNS), which is the distributed set of databases that contain address numbers mapped to corresponding domain names, making it possible to send and receive messages and to access information on the Internet. The report includes background on the DNS and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) that manages the servies, as well as related issues for the 113th Congress.

This report discusses the control of surplus nuclear weapons material that became an urgent U.S. foreign policy goal with the end of the Cold War and breakup of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.

This report provides background information and potential oversight issues for Congress on the Ohio replacement program (ORP), a program to design and build a new class of 12 ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) to replace the Navy's current force of 14 Ohio-class SSBNs. This report focuses on the Ohio replacement program as a Navy shipbuilding program.

This report discusses legal issues related to state and local measures that limit law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration authorities. It includes legal background and select limitations on immigration enforcement including traditional "sanctuary" policies, declining to honor immigration detainers, shielding juveniles from federal detection, and modifying criminal sentences to avoid immigration consequences.

This report looks at the background and current Congressional status of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002.

This report provides an overview of key legal issues raised by state laws regarding the denial or issuance of driver's licenses and other forms of ID to unlawfully present aliens, as well as by state and local approaches to recognizing foreign-issued ID documents.

This report discusses the Crediting Military Service under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and the Federal Employees' Retirement System (FERS). Under both CSRS and FERS, federal employees who have served on active duty in the military can have their years of military service counted for retirement eligibility and pension benefits.

This report is a research aid, which lists the Department Of Defense authorization bills and appropriations bills for FY1970-FY2011. It includes key definitions and all the pertinent information on the passage of these bills through the legislative process: bill numbers, report numbers, dates reported and passed, recorded vote numbers and vote tallies, dates of passage of the conference reports with their numbers and votes, vetoes, substitutions, dates of final passage, and public law numbers.

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.

In vitro diagnostic (IVD) devices are used in the analysis of human samples, such as blood or tissue, to provide information in making health care decisions. Examples of IVDs include pregnancy test kits or blood glucose tests for home use; laboratory tests for infectious disease, such as HIV or hepatitis, and routine blood tests, such as cholesterol and anemia; and tests for various genetic diseases or conditions. More recently, a specific type of diagnostic test--called a companion diagnostic--has been developed that may be used to select the best therapy, at the right dose, at the correct time for a particular patient; this is often referred to as personalized or precision medicine. This report provides an overview of federal regulation of IVDs by FDA, through the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act (FFDCA) and the Public Health Service Act (PHSA), and by CMS, through the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) of 1988.