This report discusses the constitutional issues raised by state and local laws intended to deter the presence of unauthorized aliens by limiting their access to housing, employment, and public benefits, as well as the implications that federal civil rights statutes might have for the implementation and enforcement of these laws. It also discusses recent federal court cases addressing the constitutionality of such measures.

This report discusses the congressional franking privilege, which dates from 1775 and allows Members of Congress to transmit mail matter under their signature without postage.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 created an Emergency Contingency Fund (ECF) within the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant. The fund expired on September 30, 2010. It helped states, Indian tribes, and territories pay for additional costs of providing economic aid to families during the current economic downturn for FY2009 and FY2010. This report describes the TANF ECF as well as proposals offered in 2010 to extend and modify TANF emergency funding.

This report discusses whether to enact new legislation specifically addressing spyware, or to rely on industry self-regulation and enforcement actions by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice under existing law, as well as the opinions of both the opponents and the supporters of industry self-regulation.

The term "Reserve Component" is used to refer collectively to the seven individual reserve components of the armed forces: the Army National Guard of the United States, the Army Reserve, the Navy Reserve, the Marine Corps Reserve, the Air National Guard of the United States, the Air Force Reserve, and the Coast Guard Reserve. This report provides insight to reserve component personnel issues through a series of questions and answers.

From 1789 through August 2010, Presidents submitted 160 nominations to Supreme Court positions. Of these, 36 were not confirmed by the Senate. This report provides a summary of these unsuccessful nominations and the factors that lead to them.

This report discusses the current political and foreign policy status of Morocco, especially with regard to its relationship with the United States and its struggles combating terrorism.

This report discusses the four major principles underlie current U.S. policy on permanent immigration: the reunification of families, the admission of immigrants with needed skills, the protection of refugees, and the diversity of admissions by country of origin. Against competing priorities for increased immigration are those who offer options to scale back immigration levels, with options ranging from limiting family-based legal permanent residents to the immediate relatives of U.S. citizens to confining employment-based legal permanent residents exceptional, extraordinary, or outstanding individuals.

This report provides a brief overview of the renewable fuel standard (RFS) program and discusses the process and criteria for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to approve a waiver petition. The RFS program required that renewable fuels be blended into gasoline and other transportation fuels.

This report describes the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" military policy, which holds that the presence in the armed forces of persons who demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in same-sex acts would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion which are the essence of military capability. Under this policy, but not the law, service members are not to be asked about nor allowed to discuss their "same-sex orientation." This report also describes recent efforts by certain Members of Congress to amending this policy.

This report discusses key issues facing U.S. policy makers and Members of Congress when considering U.S. security assistance in the context of U.S. policy toward Lebanon. These key issues include assessing the effectiveness of U.S. assistance programs, assessing overall U.S. policy toward Lebanon, and managing relations with other external actors.

This report examines the current state of employment-based immigration, and discusses its perceived effects on the labor market.

Current law prohibits the franking of mass mailings by Senators fewer than 60 days, and by House Members fewer than 90 days, prior to any primary or general election in which the Member is a candidate. This report discusses H.R. 2056, which would amend Title 39, United States Code, by altering the prohibition for both Senators and House Members to the period starting 90 days prior to any primary and ending on the day of the general election, unless the Member has made a public announcement that the Member will not be a candidate for reelection to any federal office.

This report provides background and analysis on U.S. Commission on ocean policy and the Pew oceans commission.

This report provides a legal analysis of the various constitutional challenges that have been brought against "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT).

This report discusses key spectrum policy provisions in the bills, as well as other spectrum policy issues that are being considered in the 112th Congress, such as the role of wholesale networks like that being deployed by LightSquared.

This report provides background data on U.S. arms sales agreements with and deliveries to its major purchasers during calendar years 2002-2009, made through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program.

This report covers issues for Congress regarding text and multimedia messaging. The increasing use of text and multimedia messaging has raised several policy issues: distracted driving, SMS spam, the inability of consumers to disable text messaging, text messaging price fixing, carrier blocking of common short code messages, deceptive and misleading common short code programs, protecting children from inappropriate content on wireless devices, "sexting," mobile cyberbullying, privacy of text messages, and using SMS to support law enforcement and emergency response.

This report details the National Directory of New Hires - including its background, how data is managed in the directory, and concerns regarding the directory.

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This report discusses key issues facing U.S. policy makers and Members of Congress when considering U.S. security assistance in the context of U.S. policy toward Lebanon. These key issues include assessing the effectiveness of U.S. assistance programs, assessing overall U.S. policy toward Lebanon, and managing relations with other external actors.