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This report mainly discusses The European Parliament which is a key institution of 25 member European Union. The role of the European Parliament in the legislative has expanded steadily over time as the scope of EU policy has grown.

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This report discusses federal authority over water, and federal "reserved" and non-reserved water rights.

U.S. animal agriculture is seeking to improve its ability to trace the movement of livestock from their birthplace to slaughter. The livestock and meat industries are working with the U.S. government to develop a national animal identification (ID) plan for livestock disease tracking purposes. This report focuses on animal ID and, to a lesser extent, on meat traceability.

This report provides background on appearance of BSE(bovine spongiform encephalopathy or "mad cow disease") in North America.

This report briefly discusses the USDA's FY2006 appropriation, which postpones rules requiring many retailers to provide country-of-origin labeling (COOL) for fresh produce, red meats, and peanuts until September 30, 2008. The report also discusses related legislation.

Federal farm support, food assistance, agricultural trade, marketing, and rural development policies are governed by a variety of separate laws. Many of these laws periodically have been evaluated, revised, and renewed through an omnibus, multi-year farm bill. This report discusses the "farm bill" and it's components.

More than 90,000 U.S. horses were slaughtered for human food in 2005, mainly for European and Asian consumers. Congress voted to limit the use of FY2006 appropriated funds for such slaughter, but USDA anticipates that the practice will continue, funded by industry user fees. This report examines the debate, which has focused on the acceptability of horse slaughter, and how to care for and eventually dispose of such horses if they no longer went for human food.

This report various sides of the debate related to domestic launch services, such as satellite export issues, the development of new launch vehicles by the private sector, and whether tax incentives or loan guarantees should be created for companies attempting to develop lower-cost launch vehicles.

This report discusses policy options for Congress regarding gas prices. The high price of gasoline was an important consideration during the debate on major energy legislation, which ended August 8 as the President signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005, H.R. 6 (P.L. 109-58). However, prices continued to surge, spiking at the end of August when Hurricane Katrina shut down refining operations in the Gulf of Mexico. The continuing crisis renewed attention to some issues that were dropped or compromised in the debate over P.L. 109-58. A large number of factors combined to put pressure on gasoline prices, including increased world demand for crude oil and U.S. refinery capacity inadequate to supply gasoline to a recovering national economy. The war and continued violence in Iraq added uncertainty and a threat of supply disruption that added pressure particularly to the commodity futures markets.

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This report discusses open ocean aquaculture, which is defined as the rearing of marine organisms under controlled conditions in exposed, high-energy ocean environments beyond significant coastal influence, is one possible option for meeting increasing consumer demand for marine products and offering new and alternative employment opportunities.

This report provides information about the Community Development Block Grant Funds in Disaster Relief and Recovery. Over the years, congress has appropriated supplemental CDBG funds supported recovery efforts in New York city.

This report discusses what RCTs are and identifies a number of issues regarding RCTs that might arise when Congress considers making program evaluation policy. For example, in the 109th Congress, Section 3 of S. 1934 (as introduced) would establish a priority for RCTs when evaluating offender reentry demonstration projects; Section 114 of S. 667 (Senate Finance Committee-reported bill) would require RCTs for demonstration projects for low-income families; and Section 5 of S. 1129 (as introduced) would call for RCTs for projects and policies of multilateral development banks. Issues regarding RCTs could also arise when actors in the policy process present specific program evaluations to Congress (e.g., in the President’s budget proposals) to influence Congress’s views and decision making. For many reasons, evaluations often merit scrutiny and care in interpretation.

This report discusses the department of defense recommended closures and realignments that the agency estimated would eliminate approximately 18,000 civilian support positions.

This report provides background and analysis and discusses the most recent regarding the law of the sea convention.

This report includes information regarding issues for Congress related United Nations peacekeeping and recent developments, background, funding, and various proposals

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Report detailing issues and legislative concerns regarding immigration during the 109th Congress, with a focus on security concerns.

Fish and marine mammals are important resources in open ocean and nearshore coastal areas. Many laws and regulations guide the management of these resources by federal agencies. This report contains information on commercial and sport fisheries, aquaculture, and marine mammals and issues related to the 109th Congress.