The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 established "Tier 1" standards to limit tailpipe emissions from new motor vehicles, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is required to determine if more stringent requirements are needed to attain or maintain National Ambient Air Quality Standards. EPA also must assess the availability and cost-effectiveness of technologies necessary to control emissions. In a report submitted to Congress in August 1998, EPA concluded that tougher standards are necessary and that essential technologies are available and cost-effective

The conference report on H.R. 1757, the Foreign Relations Authorization bill for FY1998-FY1999, will be debated in the Senate beginning April 24 with a vote expected April 28, 1998. On March 26, the House adopted the conference report (H.Rept. 105-432) on H.R. 1757; the bill authorizes a total of $926 million for payment of arrears to international organizations in exchange for U.N. and U.N. agency reforms. The House version of the bill did not address payment of the U.S. arrears or U.N. reforms. The conferees accepted virtually all the Senate language in Conference. The Conference version of the bill also contains unrelated House language restricting activities of foreign family planning organizations, which the President has threatened to veto. This linkage derailed passage of the bill in 1997.

None

The decisions by the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1997 to revise the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone and particulate matter refocused attention on the criteria and the process by which these decisions are made Tracing the steps of the decision pieces, this report identifies the statutory criteria established by the Congress and summarizes the administrative procedures the Agency follows in setting these standards and in reviewing them every 5 years.

None

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is located within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the Department of Commerce. NOAA and NMFS were created by President Nixon's Reorganization Plan No. 4 of July 9, 1970 (84 Stat. 2090). Programs now comprising NMFS had previously been located in the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries within U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in the Department of the Interior.

In the 106th Congress, no comprehensive activity on reauthorizing the Clean Water Act occurred, although a number of individual clean water bills were enacted. Other issues have been debated recently, such as reforming the law to provide regulatory relief for industry, states and cities, and individual landowners. The debate over many of these issues highlights differing views of the Act and its implementation by some who seek to strengthen existing requirements and others who believe that costs and benefits should be more carefully weighed before additional control programs are mandated.

This report discusses the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). It is divided into six sections: Introduction, Background, CITES and the Endangered Species Act, Implementation, Upcoming Events, and Appendices.

Under current federal law, local governments are compensated through various programs for losses to their tax bases due to the presence of most federally owned land. Some of these programs are run by specific agencies, and apply only to that agency's land. The most widely applicable program, while run by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), applies to many types of federally owned land, and is called "Payments in Lieu of Taxes" or PILT. The level of payments is calculated under a complex formula.

The prospects for Japan-U.S. relations in a rapidly changing minternational environment were explored in depth in a September 27, 1991, CRS seminar entitled "The Future of U.S.-Japan Relations: Global Partnership or Strategic, Rivalry?" A full transcript of the proceedings was published in February 1992 by the House Committee on Ways and Means as a Committee Print. This report summarizes the principal findings of that seminar.

On Oct. 7, 1992, Hong Kong's new Governor, Christopher F. Patten, unveiled a set of proposals to expand the voting franchise in Hong Kong and broaden the scope of other democratic initiatives. The People's Republic of China, which resumes sovereignty over Hong Kong on July 1, 1997, has objected strenuously to the proposals, claiming they are a violation of the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Question of Hong Kong. British and Hong Kong officials deny this, stating that the proposals deal with matters not mentioned in the Joint Declaration.

By June 3, 1994, President Clinton must determine whether or not to recommend to Congress a one-year extension of his Jackson-Vanik waiver authority, in effect extending most-favored-nation (MFN)[1] trading status to China for anothe year. The media are reporting that the President has not yet decided whether he will ask for an extension, and that he may also be deliberating over whether or not to attach conditions to a recommendation for approval.

None

This report reviews some of the concerns surrounding the environment work program and other environmental issues. It briefly describes work underway in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and current thinking underlying development of U.S. positions on trade and the environment in the GATT.

None

The discussion describes some basics about the grants process and some of the approaches and techniques used by congressional offices in dealing with this type of constitutional service

Members of Congress often get requests from constituents for information and help in obtaining funds for projects. Many state and local governments, nonprofit social service and community action organizations, private research groups, small businesses, and individuals approach congressional offices to find out about funding, both from the federal government and from the private sector. The success rate in obtaining federal assistance is not high, given the competition for federal funds. A grants staff’s effectiveness often depends on both an understanding of the grants process and on the relations it establishes with agency and other contacts. The following report does not constitute a blueprint for every office involved in grants and projects activity, nor does it present in-depth information about all aspects of staff activity in this area. The discussion is aimed at describing some basics about the grants process and some of the approaches and techniques used by congressional offices in dealing with this type of constituent service.

The salvage timber rider is actually the Emergency Salvage Timber Sale Program, enacted as �2001 of P.L. 104-19, the 1995 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations and Rescissions Act on July 27, 1995.

This report presents several different measures of the distribution of the capital gains tax are presented. These measures examine the absolute and relative distribution across income classes, the effects on the distribution of taxes, and the proportion of the population affected by the tax.

The annual Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations bill includes funding for agencies and programs in four separate federal departments, as well as numerous smaller agencies and diverse programs. This report discusses the FY1998 appropriations authorized under this bill.

This report discusses the Energy and Water Development FY2000 appropriations bill, which includes funding for civil projects of the Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Reclamation (BuRec), most of the Department of Energy (DOE), and a number of independent agencies.

This report discusses the federal sugar program, which authorized by the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 seeks to ensure the viability of the U.S. sugar producing sector primarily by supporting the incomes of sugar beet and sugarcane producers and of those firms that process each crop into sugar.

The Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) of 1993, P.L. 103-62, encourages greater accountability, requiring agencies to set goals and use performance measures for management and budgeting. This report examines how agencies will solicit information from stakeholders and consult with Congress to develop strategic goals, to be provided in final form to Congress in September 1997; GAO and OMB are to report in May and June 1997 (but may advance the date to March 1997) to Congress on agency readiness for full scale implementation and to recommend changes in the statute; and agencies are expected to comply with OMB's requirements to use more performance measurement information in FY1998 budget requests.

None