This report provides an overview of the new consequences of illegal presence on immigration.

The Forest Service in the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Land Management in the Department of the Interior each currently have a system of administrative appeals for moat agency land management decisions. Critics assert that administrative and judicial appeals are stopping or unacceptably slowing the decision-making processes and the use of federal lands and resources; that many appeals are "frivolous" and brought for the purpose of frustrating rather than improving land management actions, and that appeals greatly increase the costs of management

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The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), enacted in 1985, enables producers to bid to retire highly erodible or environmentally sensitive cropland, usually for 10 years. Participants receive annual rental and cost-sharing payments, and technical assistance to install approved plantings. Up to 36.4 million acres have been enrolled; current enrollment is estimated to be 32.9 million acres.

This report discusses Taiwan’s National Development and and policy changes important to Taiwan, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and the United States.

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Science, technology, and medicine are an indisputable part of many of the policy issues that may come before the Congress this coming year. This report provides an overview of several of these issue and identifies CRS publications that treat them in more depth.

Among a number of proposals advanced for discussion in the Republican-led 104th Congress was one to restructure the Department of the Interior. As part of this restructuring, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) was tentatively targeted for elimination in a list of possible offsets to help fund proposed tax cuts and program changes in the House Republican "Contract With America."

Legal immigration to the United States has increased sharply in recent years, and shows no signs of slowing down. The question of why immigration has grown so rapidly and the implications of this growth for the future are expected to be issues in the 105th Congress. Primarily because of legislation enacted in 1980 and 1986, the numerical restrictions of the basic family and employment-based immigration preference system became less significant. The growth in legal immigration during the past 15 years came in three groups admitted outside these numerical limits -- legalized aliens, refugees, and numerically exempt immediate relatives of U.S. citizens. For example, about 2.8 million illegal or undocumented aliens were "legalized" between 1981 and 1995.

Report detailing the sharp growth in U.S. legal immigration from 1981 to 1995, including statistics, charts, priorities, and more.

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This report presents a brief description of the five methods used to bring proposed legislation to the House floor for consideration.

Congressional debate over U.S. population assistance policy was quite contentious in the 104th Congress. House and Senate differences over abortion restrictions and United Nations population programs were such that the 104th Congress was not able to agree to a final, long-term resolution on what level of abortion restrictions should govern U.S. international family planning assistance. Instead, House, Senate, and White House negotiators eventually reached a settlement that did not directly address the abortion issue. The settlement, included in the FY1997 Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations measure, represented more of a temporary solution to the family planning issue requiring further presidential and congressional action in February 1997.