Daily publication of the U.S. Office of the Federal Register contains rules and regulations, proposed legislation and rule changes, and other notices, including "Presidential proclamations and Executive Orders, Federal agency documents having general applicability and legal effect, documents required to be published by act of Congress, and other Federal agency documents of public interest" (p. ii). Table of Contents starts on page iii.

Congress will continue to decide on funding for the U.S. domestic and international programs focused on nuclear material security and nuclear terrorism prevention. Congress is also likely to assess implementation of the Administration's goal to secure nuclear materials by the end of 2013. The Obama Administration's FY2011 and FY2012 congressional budget request proposed overall increases in funding for nuclear security-related accounts, with the stated purpose of ramping up programs to meet the President's four-year goal.

This report provides historical background of the Council, including the role of the previous Commission. It discusses the Council's current mandate and structures, as well as U.S. policy and congressional actions. Finally, it highlights possible policy issues for the 112th Congress, including the overall effectiveness of the Council in addressing human rights, implications for U.S. membership, and U.S. financial contributions to the Council.

This report examines the evolution of counterterrorism cooperation between the United States and the European Union (EU), particularly since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. It includes a discussion of U.S.-EU cooperation progress and ongoing challenges, as well as perspectives and issues for Congress.

This report provides an overview of the controversies surrounding the first round of voting in Haiti's elections duringlate 2010, as well as concerns related to the second and final round of the elections. It also provides information about the beginning of Michel Martelly's start as Haitian president, including his difficulty in forming an administration.

This report discusses China's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as well as the policies and programs that they have put in place to mitigate them. These issues affect how Congress considers envionmental policies and relations with China.

This report offers a brief background of the salient issues raised by H.R. 1540 and S. 1867 regarding detention matters, provides a section-by-section analysis of the relevant subdivision of each bill, and compares the bills' approaches with respect to the major issues they address.

This brief report addresses three relevant topics that affect veterans: suicide, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and substance use disorders.

This report covers the background and current status of three bills introduced to the 112th Congress to repeal Section 511 withholding provisions. The bills are S. 89, S. 164, and H.R. 674, as well as S.Amdt. 405 to S.782, the Economic Development Revitalization Act of 2011.

This report covers the recent 2011 Nigerian elections, development challenges, reform initiatives, social issues, security concerns, and international relations in Nigeria. It ends with some concerns for Congress, including U.S.-Nigerian trade issues, Nigerian counter-terrorism efforts, and U.S. assistance to Nigeria.

This report discusses the Department of Defense (DOD) policy via the Defense Utilization and Marketing Service (DRMS) for disposing of government equipment and supplies considered surplus or deemed unnecessary to the agency's currently designated mission. The report focuses on DRMS background, as well as the most recent DRMS policy modifications.

This report uses the context of the current and long-term economic environment to examine the tax cuts implemented by the George W. Bush Administration, including the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 and the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003.

This report provides an overview of midnight rulemaking (regulations issued at the end of a presidential administration) and discusses actions that recent outgoing and incoming administrations have taken pertaining to midnight rules. It explains how an incoming President could change or eliminate midnight rules, and provides options for congressional oversight of midnight rules.

This report looks at actions taken by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) during its first year. The CFPB exists to implement and enforce federal consumer financial laws, ensure consumer access to financial products and services, and ensure that the markets for consumer financial services and products are fair, transparent, and competitive.

Report that discusses: earthquake hazards and risk in the United States, federal programs that support earthquake monitoring, the U.S. capability to detect earthquakes and issue notifications and warnings, and federally supported research to improve the fundamental scientific understanding of earthquakes with a goal of reducing U.S. vulnerability.

This report will provide an overview of the potential federal tax implications for same-sex married couples of the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) ruling in United States v. Windsor, with a focus on the federal income tax. Estate tax issues are also discussed. Importantly, this report focuses on changes in the interpretation and administration of federal tax law that may result from the SCOTUS decision.

The report discusses the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)-Related Congressional Actions in the 112th Congress.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and other federal agencies have taken steps to improve federal spending data available on USAspending.gov. This effort to publicly display comprehensive data arose from the federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, which required OMB to establish a free, publicly accessible website containing data on federal awards and subawards. OMB launched USAspending.gov in December 2007 to meet these requirements. As GAO reported in 2010, while OMB had satisfied most of the requirements associated with the act, such as establishing the site with required data elements and search capability, it had only partially satisfied the requirement to establish a pilot program to test the collection and display of subaward data and had not met the requirements to include subaward data by January 2009, or to report to Congress on the site’s usage. Also, GAO found that from a sample of 100 awards on USAspending.gov, each award had at least one data error and that USAspending.gov did not include information on grants from programs at 9 agencies for fiscal year 2008. Subsequently, OMB and agencies have taken steps to improve the site …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) would likely realize large financial gains from its proposed health care plan, primarily by increasing retirees’ use of Medicare. Specifically, USPS estimates that its plan would reduce its retiree health benefit liability by $54.6 billion, thereby eliminating its unfunded retiree health benefit liability. The plan would also reduce USPS’s required total annual health care payments by an estimated $7.8 billion in the first year of implementation and by $33.2 billion over the first 5 years of implementation. USPS also projects that relative to the total annual health care payments it would expect to make (reflecting its stated inability to make prefunding payments to fund retiree health benefits), its new plan would reduce its payments by $2.1 billion in the first year of implementation and $12.4 billion over 5 years. USPS also projects that its plan would increase the more than $550 billion that the federal government spends annually for Medicare by $1.0 billion in the first year and an average of about $1.3 billion annually in the first 5 years of its health plan—about 0.2 percent of Medicare’s annual costs. GAO …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and aircraft operators have taken several important actions to enhance general aviation security, and TSA is gathering input from operators to develop additional requirements. For example, TSA requires that certain general aviation aircraft operators implement security programs. Aircraft operators under these programs must, among other things, develop and maintain TSA-approved security programs. TSA has also conducted outreach to the general aviation community to establish a cooperative relationship with general aviation stakeholders. In 2008, TSA developed a proposed rule that would have imposed security requirements on all aircraft over 12,500 pounds, including large aircraft that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) analysis has shown could cause significant damage in an attack. In response to industry concerns about the proposed rule’s costs and security benefits, TSA is developing a new proposed rule. Officials from all six industry associations GAO spoke with stated that TSA has reached out to gather industry’s input, and three of the six associations stated that TSA has improved its efforts to gather input since the 2008 notice of proposed rulemaking."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since 2002, the Department of Defense (DOD) has spent over $80 billion on developing and fielding a Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) comprised of various land-and sea-based elements employed by multiple combatant commands and services. Since the time available to intercept a missile is short, integrating training among all organizations involved is important to connect seams where commands and elements must work together. In response to House Report 111-491 which accompanied H.R. 5136, GAO assessed the extent to which DOD has (1) developed a plan for integrating ballistic missile defense training across and among commands and multiple elements, and identified training roles, responsibilities, and commensurate authorities; and (2) identified and budgeted for the resources to support training. To do so, GAO analyzed DOD training instructions, plans, exercises, and budgets and assessed the extent to which the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the services have agreed on training cost estimates and funding responsibilities."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The United States Coast Guard's (USCG) Civil Rights Directorate's (CRD) principal functions are to provide Equal Opportunity (EO) services to its approximately 50,000 active duty military, and Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) services to its 8,000 civilian employees. We reported in April 2010 that CRD had taken action to help resolve its management challenges, such as dissatisfaction among USCG personnel and to improve its civil rights program, primarily guided by recommendations resulting from a 2009 Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH) study that CRD commissioned. Among these recommendations were that CRD centralize its organizational structure and institute a full-time equal employment workforce, which BAH expected would help significantly enhance program components, such as organizational cohesion. According to CRD officials, they implemented these recommendations in July 2009, and at the time of our last review continued to build on the organizational restructuring. In response to BAH recommendations, in July 2009 CRD: (1) Reorganized its field operations to deliver civil rights services by specialists through a centrally managed national structure divided into three national regions headed by regional managers. Regions are further divided into 14 subordinate zones. (2) Staffed the civil …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "TSA and aircraft operators have taken several important actions to enhance general aviation security, and TSA is working with aviation industry stakeholders to develop new security guidelines and regulations. Among other measures, TSA worked with members of the General Aviation Working Group of its Aviation Security Advisory Committee in 2003 and 2004 to develop recommended guidelines for general aviation airport security, and TSA expects the group to issue updated guidelines later this year. In addition, pursuant to the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, TSA established and oversees implementation of a security program in which aircraft weighing more than 12,500 pounds in scheduled or charter service that carry passengers or cargo or both, and that do not fall under another security program, must implement a “Twelve-Five” standard security program. Aircraft operators implementing a Twelve-Five security program must include, among other elements, procedures regarding bomb or air piracy threats. TSA obtains information directly from aircraft operators that fall under Twelve-Five through its review and approval of the security programs developed by these operators and through periodic inspections to determine the extent to which operators comply with their security programs. TSA …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Stakeholder-developed initiatives may facilitate companies' compliance with the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) final conflict minerals rule, but other factors may affect the rule's impact on reducing benefits to armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and neighboring countries. Agency and industry officials as well as representatives from international organizations and nongovernmental organizations (NGO) stated that adoption of the rule as well as stakeholder-developed initiatives--which include the development of guidance documents, audit protocols, and in-region sourcing of conflict minerals--can support companies' efforts to conduct due diligence and to identify and responsibly source conflict minerals. For example, officials GAO interviewed explained that the Conflict-Free Smelter Program enables suppliers to source conflict minerals from smelters (companies that refine the ore of the conflict minerals into metals) that have been certified by an independent third-party auditor as obtaining their minerals from sources that did not benefit armed groups. However, officials GAO interviewed cited constraining factors such as lack of security, lack of infrastructure, and lack of capacity in the DRC that could affect the ability to expand on efforts to achieve conflict-free sourcing of minerals from …