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This report discusses the process of amending bills in the Senate.

This report provides historical background on the enactment of declarations of war and authorizations for the use of force and analyzes their legal effects under international and domestic law. The report concludes with a summary of the congressional procedures applicable to the enactment of a declaration of war or authorization for the use of force and to measures under the War Powers Resolution.

This report provides a listing of the largest M&A transactions worldwide (value equivalent to $2 billion or more) that were proposed during 2006. The report includes the dates on which transactions were completed and shows M&A deals that were still pending as of December 31, 2006, or that were no successful. These data have been drawn from publicly available sources and have not been otherwise verified by the Congressional Research Service.

The federal government has a long history of providing credit assistance to farmers by issuing direct loans and guarantees, and creating rural lending institutions. These institutions include the Farm Service Agency (FSA) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which makes or guarantees loans to farmers who cannot qualify at other lenders, and the Farm Credit System (FCS), which is a network of borrower-owned lending institutions operating as a government-sponsored enterprise. This report discusses legislation regarding this credit assistance expected in the the 110th Congress. Appropriators will consider funding for FSA’s farm loan programs, and the agriculture committees may consider changes to FSA and FCS lending programs. The 2007 farm bill is expected to be the venue for many of the authorizing issues, although stand-alone legislation may be used for extensive reforms.

This report contains background regarding how living donation is included within the larger organ donation construct, the likely impact that paired organ donation will have, and that list donation programs would have, on organ supply.

This report explains the FY2003 through FY2006 administrative guidance that governed the three homeland security assistance programs.

This report discusses the Procedures that usually occur every session day, and notes certain business items that occurs less frequently.

This report is a case study of the application of Davis-Bacon Act requirements to one such mechanism the Clean Water Act State Revolving Funds.

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This report provides information about the Benefits and Financing on Federal Employees’ Retirement System. Most civilian federal employees who were hired before 1984 are covered by the civil service retirement system.

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This report discusses the windfall elimination provision (WEP), which reduces the Social Security benefits of workers who also have pension benefits from employment not covered by Social Security. Its purpose is to remove an advantage these workers would otherwise receive because of Social Security’s benefit formula that favors workers with smaller amounts of Social Security-covered career earnings. Opponents contend that the provision is basically inaccurate and often unfair.

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