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This report gives an overview of the background and funding of the food stamps program.

This report provides a table outlining the bills vetoed by President William Jefferson Clinton's two terms in office. It includes an overview and the bill number, date, title, and override attempts for each veto.

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This report discusses Environmental Protection Issues in the 106th Congress.

This report discusses the burden of a national debt and who bears that burden, which is a matter of Congressional concern since the gross national debt of the United States stands at some $5.5 trillion dollars.

On March 12, 1999, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary formally became members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization; nine additional central and eastern European nations have applied to join the alliance: Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. There arc several general guidelines for evaluating nations seeking NATO membership; however, these guidelines are not a checklist that, when completed, would automatically guarantee membership. NATO members decide on the basis of consensus whether the admission of a state will serve the interests of the Alliance and promote European security and stability. This report, which was compiled from memoranda prepared in January 1999 at the request of Senator William Roth, contains brief assessments of the NATO applicants' qualifications, compared to those of the three new members, The report was updated in February 2000. The report will be updated as necessary.

Constant or repeated exposure to sounds of 90 decibels or higher can lead to hearing loss, and noise exposure is responsible for hearing impairment in about 10 million people in the United States. To limit the public's exposure to potentially harmful sound levels, the federal government sets and enforces uniform noise control standards for aircraft and airports, interstate motor carriers and railroads, workplace activities, medium and heavy-duty trucks, motorcycles and mopeds, portable air compressors, and federally assisted housing projects located in noise exposed areas.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released in September new estimates showing that each year in the United States 76 million people get sick, 325,000 are hospitalized, and 5,000 die from food-related illnesses. Food-borne illness is a serious public health problem. Often, people do not seek medical help and their illness is not officially reported. Yet, consumers have become aware of the serious consequences of illnesses linked to a growing variety of foods, produced domestically or imported. Consumers want the government to regulate the food supply, and industry is interested in producing foods that are safe at a reasonable price. As a result there is congressional interest in oversight and legislation in this area.

Legislation was enacted in 1998 to replace in U.S. statutes the misleading term "most-favored-nation" with "normal trade relations" or another appropriate term. The United States accords general most- favored-nation (nondiscriminatory) treatment as a matter of statutory policy to all trading partners except those whose MFN tariff status has been suspended by specific legislation. Virtually all such suspensions have been carried out under the mandate of the Trade Agreements Extension Act of 1951.

Precision agriculture (PA) is a suite of information technologies that can support a farm-based and site-specific crop management system in agricultural production. PA is not a single technology or farming system, but rather a cluster of different techniques. PA uses advanced information technologies to identify and to evaluate temporal and spatial variation in cropland

The end of the Cold War and its impact on defense spending has created a strong need to reform Department of Defense’s (DOD) acquisition system. With procurement spending down, DOD expects to depend on savings from acquisition reform to help finance future force modernization. Policymakers believe that DOD should use more commercial products because, in many instances, they cost less and their quality is comparable to products built according to DOD military specifications. Many such reform proposals are based on recognition that DOD regulatory barriers and a Cold War acquisition “culture” have inhibited the introduction of commercial products.

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Appropriations are one part of a complex federal budget process that includes budget resolutions, appropriations (regular, supplemental, and continuing) bills, rescissions, and budget reconciliation bills. This report is a guide to one of the 13 regular appropriations bills that Congress passes each year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Military Construction Appropriations.

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The Social Security “full retirement age” — the age at which retired workers, aged spouses, or surviving aged spouses receive benefits that are not reduced for “early” retirement — will gradually rise from 65 to 67 beginning with people who attain age 62 in 2000 (i.e., those born in 1938). Early retirement benefits will still be available beginning at age 62 (age 60 for aged widows and widowers), but at lower levels. This report discusses bills introduced in the last four Congresses that would, among other things, accelerate the phase-in of the increase in the full retirement age to 67, raise the early retirement age to 65 or 67, and raise the full retirement age to 69 or 70.

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This report summarizes current housing issues, cites legislative proposals, and in some cases, presents brief pro/con discussions.

Virtually all political organizations are "section 527" political organizations, which means that they are tax-exempt. 527 organizations are created to influence the election or defeat of public officials. This report compares the tax and election laws relating to political organizations and political committees prior to the enactment of P.L. 106-230 in an attempt to highlight the differences between them, and discusses some of the proposals in the 106th Congress to require additional reporting by organizations engaging in political activities. This report does not address the taxation of other tax-exempt organizations making political expenditures taxable under IRC § 527.