Key water quality issues that may face the 107th Congress include: actions to implement existing provisions of the Clean Water Act (CWA), whether additional steps are necessary to achieve overall goals of the Act, and the appropriate federal role in guiding and paying for clean water activities. Legislative prospects for comprehensively amending the Act have for some time stalled over whether and exactly how to change the law. If clean water issues receive attention in the 107th Congress, consideration of specific issues will depend in part on the CWA policy agenda of the new Bush Administration and on priorities of the key committees that have major jurisdiction over the Act.

Congress enacted the most recent major amendments to the Clean Water Act in 1987 (P.L. 100-4). Since then, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), states, and others have been working to implement the many program changes and additions mandated in the law. At issue today, as it has been for some time, is what progress EPA and the states are making. In general, many states and environmental groups fault EPA for delays in issuing guidance and assistance needed to carry out the provisions of the law. EPA and others are critical of states, in turn, for not reaching beyond conventional knowledge and institutional approaches to address their water quality problems. Environmental groups have been criticized for insufficient recognition of EPA's and states' need for flexibility to implement the Act. Finally, Congress has been criticized for not providing adequate funding and resources to meet EPA and state needs.

This report summarizes the steps taken by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to execute the Livestock Mandatory Price Reporting (LMPR) law which was enforced to provide more information and disclosure on pricing. Updated August 15, 2001.

Both the House and the Senate have procedures whereby the full bodies may issue instructions to conferees on budget resolutions, usually in the form of a motion. The practices of the House and Senate regarding such motions differ markedly in key respects. First, the House resorts to such motions regularly (having considered 10 such motions in the past 12 years), while the Senate seldom uses them. Second, the House has considered only one motion per budget resolution, while the Senate considered five motions on one budget resolution. Finally, the House regards the motion to instruct conferees strictly as a prerogative of the minority party, while the Senate does not.