Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a taxing authority may impose, and a county is obligated to pay, penalties and interest on ad valorem taxes imposed on real property purchased by a county for the year of sale that have remained unpaid (RQ-I063-GA).

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Authority of an employer to ban the transport and storage of handguns by concealed handgun license holders in locked private vehicles on employee parking lots (RQ-I061-GA).

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This report briefly reviews the legal basis for investigative oversight, followed by several prominent examples of congressional oversight that reflect the significant breadth and reach of the legislative investigative prerogative vis-à-vis the Department. The report alos reviews and assess the Department’s contentions, based on policy, common law, and constitutional privilege, that it has asserted to attempt to limit congressional access to agency information.

This report examines the administrative history of the program, the evolution of its award process, and the issues that Congress may consider as the EFS program approaches its fourth decade. In particular, the report highlights recent program delays in funding and, in general, how the EFS program and its emphasis on emergency services fit into the context of the federal government's approach to addressing homelessness.

This report describes the Keystone XL pipeline project, as proposed by TransCanada in its May 4, 2012, Presidential Permit application, and the process and procedures that the State Department is obligated to complete in processing that permit application. It also summarizes issues that arose during the 2008 permit application process, particularly those that may affect the current permit application. This report also summarizes key arguments that have been raised, both for and against the pipeline, by the pipeline’s developers, state and federal agencies, environmental groups, and other stakeholders. Finally, the report reviews the constitutional basis for the State Department’s authority to issue a Presidential Permit, and opponents’ possible challenges to this authority.

This report discusses the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which is an agency of the Department of Commerce set up to advise on domestic and international telecommunications and information policies.

This report examines the developments associated with the implementation of mortgage lending reforms. The report begins with a summary of proposed ability to repay and risk-retention standards. Next, the report describes risky underwriting and financing practices that occurred prior to the mortgage crisis, followed by a discussion of how access to mortgage credit might be affected.

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This report is intended to provide Members of Congress and their staff with information to understand why that would be the case.

Short guide with rules on acceptance and filing of financial donations as well as rules for candidates of different political openings.

Comprehensive annual financial report of the San Jacinto River Authority discussing the finances and statistics for the activities of the agency during fiscal year 2012.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Appraisers’ most prominent role relative to the three types of tax returns GAO studied is in the valuation of estates. In the most recent years for which GAO had data, appraisers were likely involved in the valuation of property worth from $75 billion to $167 billion reported on estate tax returns in 2009. In contrast, less than $17 billion worth of gifts in 2009 and less than $10 billion in noncash contributions in 2008 likely involved an appraiser. Gift tax returns that likely used appraisers had higher audit rates than gift returns that were unlikely to have appraisers. The use of appraisers was not associated with higher audit rates for estate tax returns and individual returns with noncash contributions."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Estimates of the size of shale oil and gas resources in the United States by the Energy Information Administration (EIA), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and the Potential Gas Committee--three organizations that estimate the size of these resources--have increased over the last 5 years, which could mean an increase in the nation's energy portfolio. For example, in 2012, EIA estimated that the amount of technically recoverable shale gas in the United States was 482 trillion cubic feet--an increase of 280 percent from EIA's 2008 estimate. However, according to EIA and USGS officials, estimates of the size of shale oil and gas resources in the United States are highly dependent on the data, methodologies, model structures, and assumptions used to develop them. In addition, less is known about the amount of technically recoverable shale oil than shale gas, in part because large-scale production of shale oil has been under way for only the past few years. Estimates are based on data available at a given point in time and will change as additional information becomes available. In addition, domestic shale oil and gas production has experienced substantial growth; …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) spends most of its enforcement resources on examinations. Correspondence exams of individual tax returns, which target fewer and simpler compliance issues, are significantly less costly on average than the broader and more complex field exams. GAO estimated that the average cost (including overhead) of correspondence exams opened in 2007 and 2008 was $274, compared to an average of $2,278 for field exams. IRS spent almost 20 percent of the $1.6 billion per year that it devoted to exams on returns from taxpayers with positive income of at least $200,000, even though such returns accounted for only 3 percent of the 136 million individual returns filed per year. (Positive income, a measure that IRS uses to classify returns for exam planning purposes, disregards losses that may offset this income)."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Based on available data, about 14 percent of small employers sponsor some type of retirement plan. Overall, GAO found that the likelihood that a small employer will sponsor a retirement plan largely depends on the size of the employer’s workforce and the workers’ average wages more than on the industry in which the employer operates and the geographic region in which the employer is located. GAO found the greatest likelihood of plan sponsorship was among small employers with larger numbers of employees and those paying an average annual wage of $50,000 to $99,999. GAO also found that the most common plans sponsored by small employers are 401(k)s and Savings Incentive Match Plans for Employees (SIMPLE) Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRA)—an employer-sponsored IRA designed for small employers—at 46 percent and 40 percent, respectively, of total plans. However, IRS currently does not have the means to collect information on employers that sponsor another type of IRA plan designed for small employers, the Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) IRA plan, which limits what is known about employers that sponsor these plans."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) has made progress in developing guidance and procedures to monitor participants' compliance with requirements for the Small Business Lending Fund (SBLF) and the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) programs. In response to GAO's previous recommendation on SBLF monitoring, Treasury has developed procedures for monitoring SBLF participant compliance with legal and reporting requirements. Treasury also issued standards to provide states with best practices for reviewing participants' compliance with SSBCI's legal and policy requirements and developed procedures for sampling transaction-level data to evaluate the accuracy of the states' SSBCI annual reports."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) periodically reviews licensees’ decommissioning funds and related licensee data to determine if licensees have provided reasonable assurance that they will accumulate adequate funds for decommissioning. For example, licensees must submit estimates to NRC of decommissioning costs throughout the life of the reactor and submit fund status reports at least every 2 years while the reactor is operating. Licensees typically accumulate such funds over time through trust fund investments. The minimum amount of funds considered adequate is established by NRC’s decommissioning funding formula, which is based on information collected more than 30 years ago."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Four key considerations related to ELE's availability beyond 2013 include (1) the potential for administrative savings; (2) effects on enrollment of eligible, but not enrolled, children; (3) states' level of interest in using ELE particularly for implementing PPACA; and (4) uncertainty regarding the potential for erroneous excess payments for children enrolled through ELE."

Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The state and local government sector continues to face near-term and long-term fiscal challenges that grow over time. The fiscal challenges confronting the state and local sector add to the nation’s overall fiscal challenges. The fiscal situation of the state and local government sector has improved in the past year as the sector’s tax receipts have slowly increased in conjunction with the economic recovery. Nonetheless, total tax receipts have only recently returned to the prerecession levels of 2007 and the sector still faces a gap between revenue and spending. The sector faces long-term fiscal challenges that grow over time. The fiscal position of the sector will steadily decline through 2060 absent any policy changes."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Medicare and Medicaid consumer protection requirements vary across programs, payment systems--either fee-for-service (FFS) or managed care--and states. Within Medicare, enrollment in managed care through the Medicare Advantage (MA) program must always be voluntary, whereas state Medicaid programs can require enrollment in managed care in certain situations. For example, Arizona requires nearly all beneficiaries, including dual-eligible beneficiaries, to enroll in managed care, but in North Carolina all beneficiaries are in FFS. In addition, Medicare and state Medicaid programs require managed care plans to meet certain provider network requirements to ensure beneficiaries have adequate access to covered services. For example, MA plans in rural counties must have at least one primary care provider per 1,000 beneficiaries. Subject to federal parameters, states establish network requirements for their Medicaid programs. For example, in California every plan must have at least one primary care provider per 2,000 beneficiaries. Finally, Medicare and Medicaid also have different appeals processes that do not align with each other. The Medicare appeals process has up to five levels of review for decisions to deny, reduce, or terminate services, with certain differences between FFS and MA. In …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "As with conventional oil and gas development, requirements from eight federal environmental and public health laws apply to unconventional oil and gas development. For example, the Clean Water Act (CWA) regulates discharges of pollutants into surface waters. Among other things, CWA requires oil and gas well site operators to obtain permits for discharges of produced water—which includes fluids used for hydraulic fracturing, as well as water that occurs naturally in oil- or gas-bearing formations—to surface waters. In addition, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) governs the management and disposal of hazardous wastes, among other things. However, key exemptions or limitations in regulatory coverage affect the applicability of six of these environmental and public health laws. For example, CWA also generally regulates stormwater discharges by requiring that facilities associated with industrial and construction activities get permits, but the law and its regulations largely exempt oil and gas well sites. In addition, oil and gas exploration and production wastes are exempt from RCRA hazardous waste requirements based on a regulatory determination made by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1988. EPA generally retains its authorities under federal …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The federal-state TANF partnership makes significant resources available to address poverty in the lives of families with children. With these resources, TANF has provided a basic safety net to many families and helped many parents step into jobs. At the same time, there are questions about the strength and breadth of the TANF safety net. Many eligible families—some of whom have very low incomes—are not receiving TANF cash assistance. Regarding TANF as a welfare-to-work program, the emphasis on work participation rates as a measure of state program performance has helped change the culture of state welfare programs to focus on moving families into employment. However, features of the work participation rates as currently implemented undercut their effectiveness as a way to encourage states to engage parents, including those difficult to serve, and help them achieve self-sufficiency. Finally, states have used TANF funds to support a variety of programs other than cash assistance as allowed by law. Yet, we do not know enough about this spending or whether this flexibility is resulting in the most efficient and effective use of funds at this time."

Report that discusses FY2013 budget cuts for the Department of Defense (DOD), including the pros and cons.