None

None

This report provides an overview of U.S. and international policy objectives in Kosovo from 1998 to mid-1999, when NATO ended an 11-week air strike operation against Yugoslavia (Serbia) and began to deploy a U.N.-authorized peacekeeping force in Kosovo. It reviews stated objectives at various points during this period. It provides an analysis of how certain policy objectives evolved and discusses the extent to which they were or were not achieved.

None

This report lists the key CRS staff relevant to the issues covered and related CRS Products.

None

this report mainly focuses on the Summary of Supreme Court Decisions of Capital Punishment during the 1998-99 Term. This case reveals distinct characteristics.

This report tracks trends in and legislation considered by the 105th Congress in regard to China.

Nationwide permits of the U.S Army Corps of Engineers authorize certain types of projects in wetlands and other waters and are a key means of minimizing the regulatory burden on landowners This report discusses the nationwide permits reissued in 1996, focusing on one of the most controversial permits (number 26), and a July 1998 proposal to modify nationwide permit 26 further. The revised permits and a federal court decision that invalidated certain Corps' regulations could be impetus for congressional activity. This report will be updated as developments warrant. Also see CRS Issue Brief 97014, Wetland Issues in the 105th Congress.

Plant Genetic Use Restriction Technologies (GURTs) are a group of complex genetic transformations that insert a genetic "on-off switch" in plants to prevent the unauthorized use of genetic traits contained within. GURTs are one of the latest bioengineering products developed for agriculture, with over 30 patents issued in the United States and Europe since 1997. The current state of biotechnology may allow GURTs to be introduced into the commercial seed market in the next 5 to 7 years

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) assists the President in carrying out his budgetary duties. Originally created by the 1921 Budget and Accounting Act as the Bureau of the Budget, it was reconstituted as OMB in 1970. Its primary function is to oversee the development and implementation of the federal budget.

Congress is currently seeking to reauthorize and amend the Superfund Act (Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, or "CERCLA"). This report targets the liability issues addressed in the two House committee-reported bills, H.R. 1300 and H.R. 2580, and the House Committee on Commerce's minority substitute offered by Representative Towns. Senate bills are not covered at this time because the Senate has decided to wait until the House acts.

This report discusses the federal role in regulating egg safety. Although the egg industry is primarily responsible for ensuring the safety of its products, four federal agencies hold statutory responsibilities for egg safety.

Presidential claims of a right to preserve the confidentiality of information and documents in the face of legislative demands have figured prominently, though intermittently, in executive-congressional relations since at least 1792, when the president Washington discussed with his cabinet how to respond to a congressional inquiry into the military debacle that befell General St. Clair's expedition. Few such interbranch disputes over access to information have reached the courts for substantive resolution, the vast majority achieving resolution through political negotiation and accommodation. In fact, it was not until the Watergate-related lawsuits in the 1970s seeking access to President Nixon's tapes that the existence of a presidential confidentiality privilege was judicially established as a necessary derivative of the President's status in our constitutional scheme of separated powers.

None

This meeting of the decision making body of the WTO was expected to make decisions that would lead to another round of negotiations on a wide variety of trade rules and related issues. Although the United States continues to assert the necessity of pursuing the twin goals of free trade and environmental protection and to argue that these need not be in conflict, controversy remains over how the multilateral trading system should address the specifics of environmental issues.

This report briefly discusses the factors that determine House committee jurisdiction and more specifically House Rule X.

The Constitution assigns each state a number of electors equal to the combined total of the state’s Senate and House of Representatives delegations; at present, the number of electors per state ranges from three to 55, for a total of 538. This report discuses constitutional origins, the electoral college today and explains the allocation of electors and electoral votes.

None

None

The congressional budget process, in the broadest sense, consists of the consideration and adoption of spending, revenue, and debt-limit legislation within the framework of an annual concurrent resolution on the budget. Under the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (TitlesI-IX of P.L. 93-344, 2 U.S.C. 601-688), the House and SenateBudgetCommittees develop the budget resolution, assisted by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

None

This report briefly discusses House Committee assignments, examining the process and assessing its effects.

None