This report discusses the Better Education for Students and Teachers Act, which would eliminate the requirement for educational services to children with disabilities in certain situations.

Power in American national government is decentralized, divided, dispersed, and limited. This distribution of power derives in part from the Constitution, through limitations imposed on the government, the system of checks and balances among the three branches, and independent bases of support and authority for each branch. This report, which examines these elements, will be updated as developments require.

The United States and Russia signed the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START II) on January 3, 1993. This report presents the background on the Russian parliament approval of the START II ratification. The report also discusses the linkage between U.S. withdrawal from ABM treaty and Russia’s possible withdrawal from START II. It discusses the alternative approaches for the United States and the future for the U.S.-Russian arms control process.

This report outlines U.S. military operations in Bosnia and discusses issues such as U.S. and Allied Participation in Bosnia Peacekeeping (IFOR/SFOR), duration, cost, arms control and military assistance. This report also includes most recent development, background analysis, and legislation.

The Bush Administration outlined its proposals for addressing the nation’s energy problems in May 2001 with a 170-page report by the National Energy Policy Development Group (NEPD) titled National Energy Policy (NEP). In June, the President transmitted to Congress a summation of the report’s concepts and strategies that call for legislative action.

The Supreme Court in Buckley v. Valeo ruled that spending limits, including the amount a candidate can spend on his or her own campaign from personal funds (also known as personal fund expenditure limits) are unconstitutional. The Court did, however, uphold a system of spending limits, on the condition that they are voluntarily accepted in exchange for some form of public financing. As a result of these Court rulings, the concept of various incentives toward voluntary compliance with a personal funds expenditure limit has been developed. This report discusses some constitutional issues raised by two such incentives: public subsidies and variable contribution limits.

The Climate Change Technology Initiative (CCTI) was the Clinton Administration's package of R&D (to develop renewable energy sources and more energy efficient technologies), targeted tax credits (to encourage purchase and deployment of more efficient technologies), and voluntary information programs (to help businesses and schools be better informed when making purchasing and operating decisions that involve energy use and emissions). This report describes the R&D, voluntary information programs, and funding aspects of the CCTI.

This report provides a side-by-side comparison of the charitable choice provisions of H.R. 7 with those of the 1996 welfare reform law (P.L. 104-193) and of later laws that extended charitable choice rules to the Community Services Block Grant Act (P.L. 105-285) and to substance abuse treatment and prevention services under the Public Health Service Act (P.L 106-310 and P.L. 106-554).

Details of Bush Administration plans for the defense budget have been on hold for several months as senior officials have undertaken a reassessment of defense policy known as the “National Defense Review.” The initial Bush budget outline, A Blueprint for New Beginnings, released on February 28, and the Administration’s official FY2002 budget request, released on April 9, include $325 billion in new budget authority for national defense in FY2002, but that total remains subject to change as the defense review proceeds. Moreover, official Administration defense budget projections beyond FY2002 simply reflect projected growth with inflation in overall annual funding for national defense fromFY2003 through FY2006 rather than the results of any policy assessment.

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This report discusses the efforts of the federal and state initiatives to integrate acute and long-term care, with a n eye toward providing Congress with the necessary information with which to consider future action in the area.

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This report provides information about A Brief History and Summary of Recent Supreme Court Decisions and Proposed Constitutional Amendment on Flag Protection.This report is divided into two reports.The first report gives a brief history of the flag protection issue and the other summarizes the two decisions of the United States supreme court.

This report is divided into two parts. The first gives a brief history of the protection of the flag issue from the enactment of the Flag Protection Act in 1968 until the present consideration of an amendment to the Constitution in the 106th Congress. The second part briefly summarizes the two decisions of the United States Supreme Court, Texas v. Johnson and United States v. Eichmann, which struck down the state and federal flag protection statutes as applied in the context punishing expressive conduct.

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

This report provides an overview of the immigration legalization and status adjustment legislation.

This report provides an overview of the registry as means of obtaining lawful permanent residence on immigration.

This report discusses general information about individual retirement accounts (IRAs), established by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (P.L. 93-406) to promote retirement saving; the accounts were limited at first to workers (and spouses) who lacked employer pension coverage.

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As a group, the multilateral development banks (MDBs) are the largest source of development assistance to middle- and low-income developing countries. This report discusses the organization and operations of the MDBs. It shows the share of their lending by region and by economic sector. The report is based on preliminary data for 2000. (The fiscal years for the regional banks ended on December 31.) It uses data for 1999 (to mid-2000 for the World Bank) in several sections. It will be updated when newer data become available.

This report discusses the process for U.S. involvement in each of the seven multilateral development institutions which the U.S. is a part of. The U.S. Treasury Department manages U.S. participation, in consultation with other agencies. Congress has a major role in the formulation of U.S. policy, though this differs in several important respects from the role it exercises over U.S. agencies.