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Campaign Finance Legislation in the 108th Congress (open access)

Campaign Finance Legislation in the 108th Congress

As of October 11, 2004, 29 bills have been introduced in the 108th Congress to change the nation’s campaign finance laws (primarily under Titles 2 and 26 of the U.S. Code). These bills — 20 in the House and nine in the Senate — seek to make improvements in the current system, including to tighten perceived loopholes. In the wake of enactment of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (P.L. 107- 155), there has been decidedly less legislative activity in this area than in recent Congresses, which typically saw well over 100 campaign finance-related bills introduced.
Date: October 27, 2004
Creator: Cantor, Joseph E.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Monitoring Foreign Students in the United States: The Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) (open access)

Monitoring Foreign Students in the United States: The Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS)

Congressional Research Service (CRS) report entailing information about the student and exchange visitor information system (SEVIS), in regards to monitoring foreign students in the United States. Topics include, a legislative history of the student monitoring system, SEVIS, technical and legal issues, etc..
Date: October 20, 2004
Creator: Siskin, Alison
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Energy Efficiency: Budget, Oil Conservation, and Electricity Conservation Issues (open access)

Energy Efficiency: Budget, Oil Conservation, and Electricity Conservation Issues

In the 108th Congress, debate over energy efficiency programs has focused on budget, oil, natural gas, and electricity issues, and provisions in the omnibus energy policy bill, S. 2095, H.R. 6, and S. 14/S. 1149. The Bush Administration’s FY2005 budget request for the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Energy Efficiency Program sought $875.9 million, including $543.9 for R&D and $332.0 million for grants. In the first session, the omnibus energy bill (H.R. 6) had several significant tax and regulatory measures for energy efficiency. It did not pass the Senate due to concerns about cost and an MTBE “safe harbor” provision.
Date: October 29, 2004
Creator: Sissine, Fred
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Renewable Energy: Tax Credit, Budget, and Electricity Production Issues (open access)

Renewable Energy: Tax Credit, Budget, and Electricity Production Issues

Renewable energy is derived from resources that are generally not depleted by human use, such as the sun, wind, and water movement. This report discusses various aspects of policy regarding renewable energy including tax credits and budget legislation.
Date: October 29, 2004
Creator: Sissine, Fred
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Energy Tax Policy (open access)

Energy Tax Policy

Omnibus energy legislation (H.R. 4) that is now in conference would expand energy tax incentives significantly. The House passed the bill on August 2, 2001, and the Senate approved its version April 25, 2002. Several energy tax issues are addressed in these bills: 1) tax incentives to increase the supply of oil and gas, and the demand for coal; 2) energy tax issues relating to energy conservation and energy efficiency; 3) energy tax issues relating to alternative fuels; 4) selected issues relating to electricity restructuring; and 5) expiring energy tax provisions.
Date: October 9, 2004
Creator: Lazzari, Salvatore
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Energy Policy: The Continuing Debate and Omnibus Energy Legislation (open access)

Energy Policy: The Continuing Debate and Omnibus Energy Legislation

The history of omnibus energy legislation in the 108th Congress has been protracted. The House passed the conference version of H.R. 6 on November 18, 2003. On November 21, a cloture motion to limit debate in the Senate on the H.R. 6 conference report failed (57-40). Efforts to bring the bill back to the Senate floor early in the second session were unsuccessful. Some argued that any major changes to the legislation would not be viable because of the careful regional and political compromises that were reached to get a bill out of conference and through the House. The closest consensus was that the cost of the bill had to be reduced.
Date: October 1, 2004
Creator: Bamberger, Robert L.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Gasoline Prices: Policies and Proposals (open access)

Gasoline Prices: Policies and Proposals

This report details the information related to gasoline prices and discusses on policies and proposals.
Date: October 7, 2004
Creator: Behrens, Carl E. & Glover, Carol
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Nuclear Energy Policy (open access)

Nuclear Energy Policy

None
Date: October 26, 2004
Creator: Holt, Mark
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Government Activities to Protect the Electric Grid (open access)

Government Activities to Protect the Electric Grid

This report provides a description of initiatives within the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Departments of Energy, Homeland Security, and Defense to protect the physical transmission infrastructure.
Date: October 20, 2004
Creator: Abel, Amy
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Clean Air Act Issues in the 108th Congress (open access)

Clean Air Act Issues in the 108th Congress

The conference report on the energy bill (H.R. 6), which came to the House and Senate floor for action the week of November 17, 2003, contained several Clean Air Act provisions. Most of these are also contained in S. 2095, a revised version of the bill introduced February 12, 2004, and in H.R. 4503, which passed the House June 15, 2004. Most of the air provisions concern the gasoline additives MTBE and ethanol, used to meet Clean Air Act requirements that reformulated gasoline (RFG) sold in the nation’s worst ozone nonattainment areas contain at least 2% oxygen, to improve combustion.
Date: October 22, 2004
Creator: McCarthy, James E.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Clean Water Act Issues in the 108th Congress (open access)

Clean Water Act Issues in the 108th Congress

The Clean Water Act Issues has again received attention in the 108th Congress. At issue is how the federal government will assist states and cities in meeting needs to rebuild, repair, and upgrade wastewater treatment plants, especially in light of capital costs which are projected to be as much as $390 billion over the next two decades. In October 2004, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee reported legislation to authorize $20 billion in funding for clean water infrastructure (S. 2550), while in July 2003, a House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee also approved a water infrastructure financing bill (H.R. 1560). Still, prospects for further action during the 108th Congress are uncertain.
Date: October 25, 2004
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Environmental Protection Issues in the 108th Congress (open access)

Environmental Protection Issues in the 108th Congress

The 108th Congress has acted on a variety of disparate environmental measures; some of these represent proposals or issues that had been under consideration in the 107th Congress and earlier. Environmental issues considered by Congress tend to fall into several major categories: (1) funding issues — whether funding levels are adequate and focused on appropriate priorities; (2) expanding, renewing, or refocusing specific environment programs; (3) environmental issues that are important “subsets” of other major areas of concern, such as energy, defense, or transportation programs; and more recently, (4) terrorism and infrastructure protection in areas such as wastewater and chemical facilities.
Date: October 25, 2004
Creator: Fletcher, Susan R. & Isler, Margaret M.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Environmental Protection Issues in the 108th Congress (open access)

Environmental Protection Issues in the 108th Congress

The 108th Congress has acted on a variety of disparate environmental measures; some of these represent proposals or issues that had been under consideration in the 107th Congress and earlier. Environmental issues considered by Congress tend to fall into several major categories: (1) funding issues — whether funding levels are adequate and focused on appropriate priorities; (2) expanding, renewing, or refocusing specific environment programs; (3) environmental issues that are important “subsets” of other major areas of concern, such as energy, defense, or transportation programs; and more recently, (4) terrorism and infrastructure protection in areas such as wastewater and chemical facilities.
Date: October 28, 2004
Creator: Fletcher, Susan R. & Isler, Margaret M.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration: Overview, FY2005 Budget in Brief, and Key Issues for Congress (open access)

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration: Overview, FY2005 Budget in Brief, and Key Issues for Congress

None
Date: October 22, 2004
Creator: Smith, Marcia S. & Morgan, Daniel
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Mexico-U.S. Relations: Issues for the 108th Congress (open access)

Mexico-U.S. Relations: Issues for the 108th Congress

None
Date: October 26, 2004
Creator: Storrs, K. Larry
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Secrecy Versus Openness: New Proposed Arrangements for Balancing Competing Needs (open access)

Secrecy Versus Openness: New Proposed Arrangements for Balancing Competing Needs

None
Date: October 12, 2004
Creator: Relyea, Harold C.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Visa Issuances: Policy, Issues, and Legislation (open access)

Visa Issuances: Policy, Issues, and Legislation

This report opens with an overview of visa issuances, with sections on procedures for aliens coming to live in the United States permanently and on procedures for aliens admitted for temporary stays. It includes a discussion of visa screening policies, including inadmissibility, databases, an analysis of visa refusals, biometric visas and other major visa policy procedures. Summaries of key laws revising visa policy enacted in the 107th Congress follows. The final section analyzes selected issues in the 108th Congress, notably the 9/11 Commission recommendations, visa revocation and removal, new technologies, potential impact on business, and other security concerns.
Date: October 13, 2004
Creator: Wasem, Ruth Ellen
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Immigration Legislation and Issues in the 108th Congress (open access)

Immigration Legislation and Issues in the 108th Congress

None
Date: October 6, 2004
Creator: Bruno, Andorra; Wasem, Ruth Ellen; Siskin, Alison; Ester, Karma; Lee, Margaret Mikyung; Viña, Stephen R. et al.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
9/11 Commission: Current Legislative Proposals for U.S. Immigration Law and Policy (open access)

9/11 Commission: Current Legislative Proposals for U.S. Immigration Law and Policy

This report briefly discusses some of the major immigration areas under consideration in comprehensive reform proposals suggested by the 9/11 Commission, including asylum, biometric tracking systems, border security, document security, exclusion, immigration enforcement, and visa issuances. It refers to other CRS reports that discuss these issues in depth and will be updated as needed.
Date: October 18, 2004
Creator: Garcia, Michael John & Wasem, Ruth Ellen
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Critical Infrastructure and Key Assets: Definition and Identification (open access)

Critical Infrastructure and Key Assets: Definition and Identification

This report reviews the concept and definition of “critical infrastructure” as it has appeared in federal reports, legislation and regulation since the early 1980s. The report highlights the changes and expansion of that definition as the focus of public policy debates shifted from infrastructure adequacy to infrastructure protection. Finally the report summarizes current policy issues associated with critical infrastructure identification by federal agencies and the private sector. The report is intentionally limited to definitional issues and categorization of infrastructure.
Date: October 1, 2004
Creator: Moteff, John D. & Parfomak, Paul W.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Copyright Law: Digital Rights Management Legislation (open access)

Copyright Law: Digital Rights Management Legislation

Digital Rights Management (DRM) refers to the technology that copyright owners use to protect digital media. This report surveys several of the DRM bills that were introduced in the 107th Congress and those that are pending in the 108th Congress. Generally, the bills are directed at two separate goals. One goal is to increase access to digitally-protected media for lawful purposes. The other attempts to thwart digital piracy and would do so by enhancing civil and criminal sanctions for digital (and traditional) copyright infringement and educating the public about the rights of copyright holders.
Date: October 1, 2004
Creator: Jeweler, Robin
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Intelligence Issues for Congress (open access)

Intelligence Issues for Congress

This report discusses intelligence issues for Congress including narcotics trafficking, conflicts between Israel and Palestine, in Iraq, and among the former Yugoslav states, and North Korean missile capabilities. Updated October 27, 2004.
Date: October 27, 2004
Creator: Best, Richard A., Jr.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Comparison of 9/11 Commission Recommended Intelligence Reforms, S. 2845, S. 2774, H.R. 5024, Administration Proposal, H.R. 10, Current Law (open access)

Comparison of 9/11 Commission Recommended Intelligence Reforms, S. 2845, S. 2774, H.R. 5024, Administration Proposal, H.R. 10, Current Law

This report, the second of two reports, presents side-by-side comparisons of the 9/11 Commission recommendations and current law and legislation proposed by Senators Collins and Lieberman (S. 2845) and unanimously approved by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee on September 22, 2004, as amended; House Speaker Dennis Hastert (H.R. 10), as reported out be the House Committee on Rules; Senators McCain and Lieberman (S. 2774); Representative Pelosi (H.R. 5024); and President Bush. CRS Report RL32600 presents side-by-side comparisons of the 9/11 Commission recommendations and current law; and legislation proposed by Senators Feinstein, Bob Graham, Daschle, and Roberts; President Bush; and relevant provisions of current law.
Date: October 6, 2004
Creator: Cumming, Alfred
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
H.R. 10 (9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act) and S. 2845 (National Intelligence Reform Act of 2004): A Comparative Analysis (open access)

H.R. 10 (9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act) and S. 2845 (National Intelligence Reform Act of 2004): A Comparative Analysis

None
Date: October 20, 2004
Creator: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library