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This report describes the current laws governing the holding of employer stock in employee retirement plans and summarizes some key policy questions that pension analysts have raised about holding such stock in defined contribution retirement plans.

This report provides a concise historical account of the dispute, summarizes the subsidy and injury evidence, and discusses the current issues and events regarding lumber imports from Canada.

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Elections for a transitional National Assembly, provincial councils, and a Kurdish regional assembly were held on January 30, 2005. High voter turnout in mostly Shiite and Kurdish areas led to a first and second-place finish for slates backed by these two communities; and they are negotiating what appears to be a fragile governing coalition. Sunni Arabs mostly boycotted. See CRS Report RL31339, Iraq: U.S. Regime Change Efforts and Post-Saddam Governance.

When Congress put the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) on a self-sustaining basis in 1971, it continued to subsidize the mailing costs of such groups as the blind, non-profit organizations, local newspapers, and publishers of educational material, by providing an appropriation to USPS to cover the revenues that were given up, or “forgone,” in charging below-cost rates to these groups.

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Congressional Research Service (CRS) report entailing information about the E-rate program and controversies in regards to telecommunications discounts for schools and libraries. Topics include, recent developments, scope and funding, program status, etc.

Under provisions of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA, P.L. 107-16, enacted June 7, 2001), the estate tax is scheduled to be repealed in 2010 but reinstated in 2011. All tax cut provisions of EGTRRA are scheduled to sunset on December 31, 2010. This report tracks actions in the 108th Congress to permanently repeal the estate tax or to retain but alter the tax.

The Export Administration Act of 2001 was introduced on January 23, 2001. Hearings were held by the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, and the bill was reported for consideration by the full Senate by a vote of 19-1 to March 22, 2001. A companion version in the House, H.R. 2581, was introduced by Rep. Gilmanon July 20, 2001. The House International Relations Committee reported the measure with 35 amendments on August 1. The Export Administration Act of 1979 expired on August 20, 2001, however the President extended export control authority and the Export Administration Regulations by invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. During the 106th Congress, both houses held hearings on export control legislation and the Senate Banking Committee voted to adopt the Export Administration Act of 1999 (S. 1712, reported on October 8, 1999, S.Rept. 106-180).

In the 107th Congress, renewed efforts are underway to enact a permanent replacement for the Export Administration Act of 1979 (EAA), temporarily reauthorized in the 106th Congress until August 20, 2001. The Export Administration Act of 2001 (S. 149) was introduced on January 23, 2001. Hearings were held by the Senate Banking Committee, and the bill was reported for consideration by the full Senate by a vote of 19-1 to March 22, 2001. The difficulty in passing a comprehensive rewrite of the EAA has resulted, in part, from the continuing tension between national security and commercial concerns. Industry groups, proponents of heightened export controls, the Administration, and Congress have all participated in the reauthorization debate.

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This report contains a summary of the assistance to firefighters program, also known as the FIRE Act grant program.

This paper describes tomographic capabilities for the Nuclear Materials Identification System (NMIS). The tomographic capabilities add weapons component spatial and material properties information that result in a more detailed item signature (template) and provide more information for physical attributes analyses. The Nuclear Materials Identification System (NMIS) is used routinely to confirm the identity of HEU components in sealed containers. It does this through a radiation signature acquired by shining a {sup 252}Cf source through the container and measuring the radiation at four detectors stacked vertically on the other side. This measurement gives a gamma and neutron radiation transmission profile of the weapons component, mixed with the radiation production due to the induced fissions in the fissile materials. This information is sufficient to match an "unknown" weapons component signature to a template signature from a reference item when measuring under controlled conditions. Tomography measures the interior of an item by making transmission measurements from all angles around the item, whereas NMIS makes the measurements from a single angle. Figure 1 is a standard example of tomographic reconstruction, the Shepp-Logan human brain phantom. The measured quantity is attenuation so high values (white) are highly attenuating areas.