This report begins with an overview of Canada's political scene, economic conditions, security and foreign policy, and environmental initiatives, focusing particularly on issues that may be relevant to U.S. policymakers. This country survey is followed by several summaries of current bilateral issues in the political, international security, trade, and environmental arenas. The questions following each summary are designed as potential inquiries to Canadian officials to promote thought and discussion among policymakers.

This report discusses the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA; P.L. 89-329) that authorizes numerous federal aid programs that provide support to both individuals pursuing a postsecondary education and institutions of higher education (IHEs).

This report gives a brief overview of P.L. 110-49, the Foreign Investment and National Security Act of 2007. Although both the President and Congress are directly involved in formulating the scope and direction of U.S. foreign investment policy, this law broadens Congress' oversight role; it also explicitly includes the areas of homeland security and critical infrastructure as separately-identifiable components of national security that the President must consider when evaluating the national security implications of a foreign investment transaction.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), 6 of its19 major information technology (IT) investments were within 10 percent of cost and schedule estimates during fiscal year 2013. The remaining 13 were reported as having significant cost and schedule variances for at least 1 month of the year. Specifically, IRS reported 8 investments as being below cost or ahead of schedule; 3 as behind schedule; and 2 as over cost (see figure). IRS reported a range of reasons for these variances, including cost savings from contract negotiations and scope deferrals for those below cost or ahead of schedule, and procurement delays for those behind schedule. It is important to note that the reported monthly cost and schedule variances are for the fiscal year only. IRS's reporting would be more meaningful if it were supplemented with cumulative cost and schedule variances for the investments or investment segments, consistent with the Office of Management and Budget's guidance for measuring progress towards meeting investment goals."

This report discusses federal employees with permanent appointments that may be eligible for retirement and disability benefits under either the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) or the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS).

This report discusses the number of illegal alien apprehensions between southern ports of entry (POE) in the United States, which has generally declined.

This report provides government-wide, multi-agency, and individual agency analyses of the President's Fiscal Year 2015 request as it relates to R&D and related activities.

This report provides references to analytical reports on cybersecurity from CRS, other government agencies, trade associations, and interest groups. The reports and related websites are grouped under the following cybersecurity topics: policy overview; National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC); cloud computing and FedRAMP; critical infrastructure; cybercrime, data breaches and data security; national security, cyber espionage, and cyberwar (including Stuxnet); international efforts; education/training/workforce; and research and development (R&D).

This report discusses the United States International Broadcasting Act of 1994 (USIB Act) and the U.S. international broadcasting services were consolidated under the BBG within the United States Information Agency (USIA).

This report describes the current status of the Research Tax Credit, summarizes its legislative history, discusses policy issues it raises, and describes legislation to modify and extend it. The report will be updated as warranted by legislative activity or other developments affecting the credit.

This report discusses the travel and tourism industry, which is an amalgam of business activities including transportation, lodging, entertainment, meals, and retail trade.

This report discusses the continued debate amongst congressional policymakers regarding telecommunications reform. A major point of the ongoing discussion is whether action is needed to ensure unfettered access to the Internet.

This report begins with the history, role, and scope of SBA's export promotion activities, and the creation of OIT. Next, quantitative data from SBA and qualitative data from other sources are used to provide performance analysis of SBA's international programs. This report concludes with a presentation of three issues for consideration during an era where concerns of fiscal responsibility and economic recovery are high priorities for many policy makers.

This report provides an overview of Arctic-related issues for Congress and refers readers to more in-depth CRS reports on specific relevant topics.

This report discusses the state of Iraqi politics, governance, and human rights, including the worsening relations between local Sunni and Shiite populations.

The report discusses the President's annual funding request for the Peace Corps, efforts to reauthorize the Peace Corps, and related issues. Current issues include the extent to which there is available funding for Peace Corps expansion, whether the Peace Corps has the institutional capacity to expand, and whether volunteers are able to function in a safe and secure environment.

This report explains the major provisions of the federal estate and gift transfer taxes for transfers by nonresident aliens in 2014. This discussion highlights the different tax rules for estates of nonresident aliens as compared to the estates of U.S. citizens and resident aliens.

This report analyzes data from a variety of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) presentations, testimony, and other sources to present a historical overview of the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) performance to date. It identifies an ongoing gap between the number of chemical facilities that have received final risk tier assignments and the total number of regulated facilities.

This report provides a brief overview of hydraulic fracturing and water use in California.

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The atmospheric pressure carbon arc in inert gases such as helium is an important method for the production of nanomaterials. It has recently been shown that the formation of the carbon deposit on the cathode from gaseous carbon plays a crucial role in the operation of the arc, reaching the high temperatures necessary for thermionic emission to take place even with low melting point cathodes. Based on observed ablation and deposition rates, we explore the implications of deposit formation on the energy balance at the cathode surface, and show how the operation of the arc is self-organised process. Our results suggest that the can arc operate in two di erent regimes, one of which has an important contribution from latent heat to the cathode energy balance. This regime is characterised by the enhanced ablation rate, which may be favourable for high yield synthesis of nanomaterials. The second regime has a small and approximately constant ablation rate with a negligible contribution from latent heat.

This report discusses the history and political background of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia since their breakaway from the former Soviet Union at the end of 1991. It looks at key issues for the 112th Congress including economies, energy, regional politics, local crime, and terrorism.

This report provides background and discusssion regarding United States aid in food, energy, and denuclearization to North Korea. Currently plans for new aid are on hold due to the North Korean rocket launch on April 13, 2012.