This report discusses the current political and economic landscape of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and its relationship with the U.S. The UAE has been a significant U.S. partner in Gulf security for more than two decades, and the alliance has deepened further in recent years in order to address multiple regional threats.

This report discusses the various industrial uses for hemp, a variety of Cannabis sativa of the same plant species as marijuana. It compares hemp with marijuana and discusses global production, legal status, and recent legislative activity.

This report outlines U.S. funding for global health by agency and program. Congress may debate several pressing global health issues, including strengthening health systems, bolstering pandemic preparedness, considering the FY2019 budget request, protecting life in global health assistance, and authorizing the extension of PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief).

This report provides a broad overview of U.S. immigration policy. The first section addresses policies governing how foreign nationals enter the United States either to reside permanently or to stay temporarily. The second section discusses enforcement policies for excluding foreign nationals from admission into the United States, as well as for detaining and removing those who enter the country unlawfully or who enter lawfully but subsequently commit crimes that make them deportable. The third section addresses policies for unauthorized aliens residing in the United States.

This report provides an overview of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA's) Individual Assistance (IA) program and the Small Business Administration's (SBA's) Disaster Loan Program. It includes discussions about how declarations put the programs into effect, the application process for both programs, the criteria used by FEMA and the SBA to determine assistance, and the FEMA and SBA appeal processes. The report concludes with policy observations and considerations for Congress.

This report provides information on current debates over exchange rates in the global economy. It offers an overview of how exchange rates work; analyzes specific disagreements and debates; and examines existing frameworks for potentially addressing currency disputes. It also lays out some policy options available to Congress.

This report looks at President Obama's FY2013 budget request, which included an $11.2 billion for military construction appropriations.

This report looks at the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to “assist the development and support of a sustainable commercial biofuels industry" which was entered into by the Secretaries of Energy, Agriculture, and the Navy. It raises issues and concerns for Congress to consider when deciding how to fund MOU.

This report focuses on the United States' relationship with Iran and how the Obama Administration is handling prior administrations' economic sanctions against Iran. However, with subsequent negotiations yielding no firm Iranian agreement to compromise regarding their nuclear program, the Administration has focused on achieving the imposition of additional U.N., U.S., and allied country sanctions whose cumulative effect would be to compel it to accept a nuclear bargain

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This report discusses the scope of the trade-based money laundering (TBML) problem and analyzes selected U.S. government policy responses to address TBML. It includes a listing of hearings in the 114th Congress that addressed TBML.

This report examines mileage-based user charges as an possible source of highway funding. Federal highway and public transportation programs are funded mainly by taxes on motor fuel that flow into the Highway Trust Fund (HTF). The tax rates, set on a per-gallon basis, have not been raised since 1993, and motor fuel tax receipts have been insufficient to support the transportation programs authorized by Congress since FY2008.

This report provides an overview of the history of science and technology (S&T) advice to the President and discusses selected recurrent issues for Congress regarding Office of Science and Technology Policy's (OSTP) Director, OSTP management and operations, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), and the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC).

This report briefly discusses the second phase of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and fuel efficiency standards for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles jointly proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on July 13, 2015.

This report examines U.S. oil and natural gas production data for federal and non-federal areas with an emphasis on the past five fiscal years of production.

This report reviews the process and procedures that currently apply to congressional consideration of foreign arms sales proposed by the President. This includes consideration of proposals to sell major defense equipment, defense articles and services, or the re-transfer to third party states of such military items.

The focus of this report is The U.S. food and agricultural sectors, which has benefited especially from NAFTA.

This report discusses the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (P.L. 108-458) that was the most significant legislation affecting the U.S. intelligence community since the National Security Act of 1947.

This report reviews unilateral preference programs for the Caribbean, discusses how they have been affected by FTAs in the region, and considers trade policy options for dealing with countries still relying on trade preferences and that may be considering whether to negotiate an FTA with the United States.

This report discusses the opening of the Chinese market to U.S. beef imports under certain restrictions. The negotiation process and conditions of the agreement and China's current largest beef import partners are also discussed.

This report provides a historical synopsis of the evolving nature of the federal grants-in-aid system, focusing on the role Congress has played in defining the system's scope and nature. It begins with an overview of the contemporary federal grants-in-aid system and then examines its evolution over time, focusing on the internal and external factors that have influenced congressional decisions concerning the system's development. It concludes with an assessment of the scope and nature of the contemporary federal grants-in-aid system and raises several issues for congressional consideration, including possible ways to augment congressional capacity to provide effective oversight of this system.

This report describes how Housing and Urban Development (HUD) currently distributes the four existing Homeless Assistance Grants.

This report contains a brief overview of the unemployment compensation and military service.