The request for state and local wastewater and drinking water capital needs was a key issue. The request of $2.91 billion for State and Tribal Assistance Grants, which fund these needs, was about one-half billion less than in FY2000. The House passed $3.18 billion, the Senate $3.32 billion, and the conferees $3.62 billion. The request included $800 million for Clean Water State Revolving Funds, $550 million less than in FY2000. The House passed $1.20 billion, the Senate $1.35 billion and the conferees $1.35 billion. Conferees approved the $825 million requested for Drinking Water State Revolving Funds. Congress denied the Administration's request for a new Clean Air Partnership program. EPA requested $100 million for Mexican border water projects and $15 million for State of Alaska projects. Conferees approved $75 million and $35 million respectively. For state and tribal administrative grants, the conferees approved roughly the requested amount of $1.0 billion.

Proposals for a two-year budget cycle have previously been reported in the Senate in 1988, 1990, 1994, and 1997. Another such proposal, S. 92, was reported by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee on March 10, 1999 (S.Rept. 106-12). S. 92 calls for the House and Senate to use the first year of each Congress to consider a two-year budget resolution and two-year appropriation bills, and the second year to consider multiyear authorizations and conduct oversight. More recently, biennial budgeting has also been a topic of interest in the House where the Rules Committee conducted a series of hearings on February 16, March 10, and March 16, 2000.

Soft money is a major issue in the campaign finance reform debate because these generally unregulated funds are perceived as resulting from a loophole in the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA). Generally, soft money is funds that are raised and spent according to applicable state laws, which FECA prohibits from being spent directly on federal elections, but that may have an indirect influence on federal elections. This Issue Brief discusses three major types of soft money: political party soft money, corporate and labor union soft money, and soft money used for issue advocacy communications.

Appropriations are one part of a complex federal budget process that includes budget resolutions, appropriations (regular, supplemental, and continuing) bills, rescissions, and budget reconciliation bills. This report is a guide to one of the 13 regular appropriations bills that Congress passes each year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the Subcommittees on Transportation of the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations.

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The President’s veto is effective not only in preventing the passage of legislation undesirable to the President, but also as a threat, sometimes forcing Congress to modify legislation before it is presented to the President. However, as a veto threat is carried out, Congress is faced with choices: letting the veto stand, the difficult task of overriding the veto, meeting the President’s objections and sending a new bill forward, or resubmitting the same provisions under a new bill number.

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Attendance at meetings and speaking engagements by members of the Board of Managers of the Harris County Hospital District (RQ-0133-JC)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether the Polygraph Examiners Board may inspect a polygraph examiner’s work product in the examiner’s place of business without a search warrant, and related question (RQ-0140-JC)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a junior college district may procure insurance using a designated broker of record (RQ-0135-JC)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Questions relating to a conflict between the sheriff and commissioners court of Tarrant County with regard to their respective authority over budgetary matters.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a magistrate may require a bailable criminal defendant to satisfy a "split bond" (part personal bond, part bail bond backed by a surety), and related questions.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether an elected junior college trustee may simultaneously serve as a municipal judge.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether Randall County may be divided into fewer than four justice of the peace and constable precincts.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the management reform efforts conducted by the National Partnership for Reinventing Government, formerly known as the National Performance Review (NPR)."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the Office of the National Drug Control Policy's (ONDCP) contract with Ogilvy & Mather, the lead media campaign contractor for the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign. GAO reviewed ONDCP investigations into: (1) the facts and circumstances surrounding actions taken by ONDCP after receiving the allegations that Ogilvy may have over-billed the government, and (2) allegations that Ogilvy had provided services unrelated to the contract and had submitted invoices under the contract for those services. The Director of ONDCP, General Barry McCaffrey, knew about the fraud allegations concerning Ogilvy's billing practices. GAO found that Director McCaffrey had a private meeting with Ogilvy's project director after internal ONDCP discussions of the need for an external audit. However, GAO found no evidence that this meeting affected any decision with respect to an external audit of Ogilvy's contract. GAO also found that Ogilvy did not write congressional testimony for ONDCP employees, which would have gone beyond the scope of its contract with ONDCP. Ogilvy did provide ONDCP with figures, research, and documentation for use in responding to congressional inquiries and testimony. Ogilvy did not provide any services to Director …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed ways to improve the administration of the Medicare program, focusing on the: (1) issues the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) faces in administering the Medicare program; and (2) extent to which proposed reforms or alternative models might address these issues."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the decisions by the United States to support new or expanded United Nations (U.N.) operations in the following four locations: Kosovo, East Timor, Sierra Leone, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. These decisions were made between January 1999 and June 2000. This testimony focuses on: (1) whether GAO had sufficient access to agency records to conduct the study requested by Congress, (2) how Presidential Decision Directive 25 was used in deciding to support new or expanded U.N. operations, and (3) how the executive branch consulted with Congress during the Directive 25 decision process. GAO found that it lacked the full and independent access to agency records needed to complete its work. The intent of Directive 25 is to ensure selective and effective use of peacekeeping as a tool for advancing U.S. interests and to also establish factors to help assess whether U.S. support for an operation is appropriate. GAO found that Directive 25 factors were considered in the initial operation in East Timor, but GAO could not determine whether those factors were considered in other operations. Communications between Congress and the executive branch consisted …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Welfare recipients who plan to move into the workforce face significant barriers. Three-fourths of welfare recipients live in central cities or rural areas, while two-thirds of new jobs are in the suburbs. Public transportation offers little or no access to many of these jobs. The Job Access and Reverse Commute program authorizes the Department of Transportation (DOT) to provide grants to local agencies, nonprofit groups, transit authorities, and others to improve transportation to employment. This report examines DOT's implementation of the program in fiscal year 2000. GAO found that (1) DOT took steps to improve its process for selecting Job Access proposals for grant awards, (2) almost 90 percent of the fiscal year 1999 Job Access grantees that responded to GAO's survey were satisfied with the goals and intent of the program and, (3) DOT developed an evaluation plan that included specific performance criteria and requested specific information from the grantees for use in evaluating the program."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the challenges facing the Financial Management Service (FMS) in implementing the cross-servicing provision of the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO identified some of the challenges agencies face in producing credible performance information and how those challenges may affect performance reporting, focusing on: (1) whether the weaknesses identified in agencies' performance plans imply challenges for the performance reports; (2) some of the challenges agencies face in producing credible performance data; and (3) how performance reports can be used to address data credibility issues."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Bureau of the Census' Data Capture System (DCS) 2000 for the tabulation of 2000 census data, focusing on the status and quality of DCS 2000, as well as the risks Census faces in successfully completing the system."