This report provides a user's guide to the proceedings of the House and Senate, the proceedings of the House and Senate.

The report is categorized into three categories: (I) Background, (II) Bilingual Education Act and (III) Selected Issues.

This report provides an overview of the Cuban economy.

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This report addresses some of the frequently asked historical, constitutional, procedural, and legal questions concerning the federal income tax.

This report discusses several issues as the Congress considers legislation to reform the voting process, a number of issues have emerged as part of the debate: the reliability of different types of voting technologies; voting problems and irregularities in the 2000 election; problems for militaryand overseas voters; the electoral college; and early media projections of election results.

This report presents an overview of the predatory lending issue, a summary of present law, a summary of joint HUD and Treasury recommendations to address the issue, and a side-by-side summary of five bills introduced in the 106th Congress that addressed the issue. Though no action occurred on these bills, the issue is expected to continue in the 107th Congress.

This report examines the Airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft, which significantly improves the effectiveness of modern defensive and offensive air operations. Presently only a few countries manufacture such aircrafts. The demand for AEW aircraft, is growing however, as their utility is recognized. AEW aircraft have been sought by China and India, each a party in regional rivalries. Congress is likely to review the U.S. national security interests and policies raised by these cases.

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This report provides information about the Production, Distribution, and Accessibility of Congressional Record. The Congressional Record is the most widely published account of the debates and activities in congress.

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This report briefly sketches the origins of Section 4(e), examines its provisions, and the potential for its implementation.

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This report discuss issues that received congressional attention in the 107th Congress, such as The impact of air quality regulations, key water quality issues, superfund, solid/hazardous wastes, multibillion dollar cleanup and compliance programs, climate change, pesticides, EPA budget, and Science and Technology.

After four Congresses in which Superfund reauthorization was not achieved, the 107th Congress is focusing on the brownfields program to clean up less seriously contaminated sites. S. 350 passed the Senate on April 25, 2001. The bill provides $200 million per year for the program and relieves liability for contiguous property owners, prospective purchasers, and innocent landowners. An additional $50 million is provided for petroleum-contaminated sites.

The Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 (PUHCA) and the Federal Power Act (FPA) were enacted to eliminate unfair practices and other abuses by electricity and gas holding companies by requiring federal control and regulation of interstate public utility holding companies. Comprehensive energy legislation has passed the House and Senate. The House passed H.R. 6 on April 11, 2003. On July 31, 2003, the Senate suspended debate on S. 14, inserted the text of H.R. 4 (107th Congress) as a substitute, and passed H.R. 6. A conference agreement was reached November 17, 2003, and passed by the House the next day. H.R. 6 includes an electricity title that would, in part, repeal PUHCA, would prospectively repeal the mandatory purchase requirement under PURPA, and would create an electric reliability organization. On June 15, 2004, H.R. 4503, a comprehensive energy policy bill, passed the House.

The 106th Congress completed action on a number of major trade initiatives. The impact on American firms and workers was a paramount concern in the passage of this legislation. Most notably, bills were passed to establish "normal trade relations" with China, deepen economic ties with the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, enhance trade benefits for 24 Caribbean Basin countries, and to ease trade sanctions on Cuba and other countries. Congress also voted to maintain U.S. participation in the World Trade Organization (WTO), as well as worked with the Clinton Administration to pass replacement legislation for the Foreign Sales Corporation (FSC) tax benefit for U.S. exports. The latter action averted, at least until mid-2001, the imposition of punitive tariffs by the European Union on an estimated $4 billion in U.S. exports.

Wetlands, in a wide variety of forms, are found throughout the country. The various values of these areas have been increasingly recognized in recent years, but the remaining acreage continues to disappear. When European settlers first arrived, total wetland acreage was more than 220 million acres in the lower 48 states, according to estimates by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It estimates that by 1997 total wetland acreage was 105.5 million acres. Losses continue, although the rate of loss has slowed considerably during the past decade and restoration efforts have grown, and some regions are approaching the national policy goal of no-net-loss. Recent losses have been concentrated in forested wetlands, and net losses are greatest in the eastern United States.

This report discusses the final budget numbers for FY2000 that put the surplus for FY2000 at $236 billion , receipts at $2,025 billion and outlays at $1,789 billion. They differ very little from the numbers that the Treasury previously released on October 24, 2000.

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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 Subcommittee on VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies.

The Immigration and NaturalizationService (INS), with a current annual budget of $5.0 billion, is the primary agency charged with enforcing the nation’s immigration law. Regulating immigration can be viewed as having two basic components:stemming illegal immigration (enforcement) and facilitating legal immigration (service). The Bush Administration supports separating service from enforcement. While no legislation to restructure INS has been introduced in the 107th Congress at this date, it is likely that proposals will be introduced in the future, since restructuring may necessitate amending existing statutory authorities. For now, Members of Congress, who support restructuring INS, are waiting to review the Bush Administration’s plan before introducing legislation themselves.