This report provides background information and potential oversight issues for Congress on the Coast Guard's programs for procuring 8 National Security Cutters (NSCs), 25 Offshore Patrol Cutters (OPCs), and 58 Fast Response Cutters (FRCs). Congress's decisions on these three programs could substantially affect Coast Guard capabilities and funding requirements, and the U.S. shipbuilding industrial base.

This report is divided into three major sections analyzing Cuba's political and economic environment, U.S. policy, and selected issues in U.S.-Cuban relations. While legislative initiatives are noted throughout the report, a final section of the report provides a listing of bills and resolutions introduced in the 114th Congress.

This report briefly discusses the Foreign Corrupt Practice Act of 1977 (FCPA), which was intended to prevent corporate bribery of foreign officials. Criticisms of the act's operation and scope began almost immediately after its passage and have continued. This report addresses these criticisms.

The Budget Control Act (P.L. 112-25, hereinafter the BCA) established a set of limits on federal spending, as well as a set of mechanisms to adjust those limits to accommodate spending that has special priority. This report looks at how the adjustment has functioned over the first five years, and what the future of disaster relief (as defined under the BCA) may look like under current law for the next five years and beyond.

This report provides background information and issues for Congress on the sustainment and modernization of the Coast Guard's polar icebreaker fleet.

This report examines the current political state of Afghanistan at length, discussing the political background, security policy, and regional relations.

This report provides background information on sexual violence on campus and its prevalence, descriptions of the Clery Act and Title IX, and an analysis of prominent policy and legal issues related to these two statutes. It also includes a brief description of a related third statute focused on educational privacy.

This report summarizes the issues the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) encountered when developing regulations for "carbon pollution" from existing power plants as part of the Clean Power Plan, and describes how the EPA resolved these issues.

This report discusses certain measures of the U.S. labor market "dynamism" or "fluidity"--including job reallocation, worker churn, and geographic labor mobility-- which some observers note have been declining for the past 20 years or more.

This report discusses various issues regarding the Family Planning Program, Title X of the Public Health Service Act. Enacted in 1970, it is the only domestic federal program devoted solely to family planning and related preventive health services.

This report discusses current issues regarding the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which is an independent federal agency charged with regulating interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable.

This report discusses Justice Antonin Scalia's last opinion for the court (Kansas v. Carr). There, the Court reversed two decisions of the Kansas Supreme Court and held that "the Eighth Amendment [does not] require... capital-sentencing courts to instruct the jury that mitigating circumstances need not be proved beyond a reasonable doubt." It also held that the Eighth Amendment did not require separate trials for two of the defendants in one of the Kansas cases.

This report provides background information and issues for Congress on the John Lewis (TAO-205) class oiler shipbuilding program, a program to build a new class of 17 fleet oilers for the Navy.

This report briefly addresses selected questions about possible contested Democratic and Republican conventions that might be relevant as Members of Congress prepare for the 2016 election.

A report which summarizes the latest information on U.S. anthropogenic greenhouse gas emission trends from 1990 through 2014.

This report discusses the national infrastructure and ways to provide low-cost, long-term loans for the propose of increasing federal infrastructure investment.

This report discusses the operation on a limited basis of the Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im Bank) despite a renewal of its general statutory charter through FY2019 (P.L. 114-94,

This report discusses the "Climate Action Plan" (CAP) announced by President Obama to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases (GHGs), as well as to encourage adaptation to expected climate change.

This report provides background information for Congress on the levels of Department of Defense (DOD) troop and contractor personnel deployed in support of prior and ongoing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This report examines campaign finance law in the context of political party committee expenditures. It discusses relevant Supreme Court precedent and recent legislative activity.

This report discusses a series of large natural gas discoveries in the Levant Basin, the Eastern Mediterranean region. New gas reserves could change how energy is used in the region.

This report discuses the Department of Justice's (DOJ's) civil forfeiture action against $1 billion worth of assets bought with money embezzled from the government of Malaysia by high-level officials in Malaysia from 2009 to 2015.

This report provides background information and issues for Congress on the sustainment and modernization of the Coast Guard's polar icebreaker fleet. Coast Guard polar icebreakers perform a variety of missions supporting U.S. interests in polar regions. The issue for Congress is whether to approve, reject, or modify the Administration's plans for sustaining and modernizing the polar icebreaking fleet.

This report focuses on several proposals for a new Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) specifically targeting the Islamic State made during the 113th and 114th Congresses. It includes a brief review of existing authorities and AUMFs, as well as a discussion of issues related to various provisions included in existing and proposed AUMFs that both authorize and limit presidential use of military force. Appendices provide a comparative analysis of similar provisions in new AUMFs proposed in the 113th and 114th Congresses. This report will be updated to reflect congressional activity.