This report outlines the amended FY2002 defense budget request from the Bush administration, delivered to the Hill in June 2001.

This report discusses the reauthorization of the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Amendments of 2001. The new law maintains the FY2001 mandatory funding level, authorizes additional discretionary funding, and grants new program authority to provide mentoring services for children of prisoners. In addition, the enacted legislation allows states to use Promoting Safe and Stable Families funds for infant "safe haven" programs, provides for reallocation of unused program funds, clarifies language defining family support programs, and gives more explicit instructions to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) regarding use of funds set aside for research, evaluation and technical assistance.

This report discusses the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which provides comprehensive vocational rehabilitation (VR) services designed to help individuals with physical and mental disabilities become employable and to facilitate independence and integration into society.

The Supreme Court, in Toyota Motor Manufacturing v. Williams, held that to be an individual with a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) an individual must have substantial limitations on abilities that are central to daily life,rather than only to those abilities used in the workplace. In an unanimous opinion written by Justice O’Connor, the Court interpreted the definition of individual with disability narrowly to exclude individuals who are limited only in the performance of manual tasks associated with their job. This report will briefly discuss Williams and its implications for the ADA.

This report estimates the amount of funds that will be awarded to each state according to the formula, and also describes how the grants reward states that have education finance systems with characteristics favored by the formula.

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This report summarizes the provisions of all four parts of IDEA-Parts A through D and to discuss selected issues, especially regarding selected provisions of Part B-the most often discussed part of the act.

This report presents a summary of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, or Clean Water Act, describing the essence of the statute without discussing its implementation.

From Summary: "This report summarizes the various approaches states use to allow access to adoption records."

The Individuals with DisabilitiesEducation Act (IDEA) providesfundsto statesfor the education of children with disabilities. It contains detailed requirements for the receipt of these funds, including the core requirement of the provision of a free appropriate public education (FAPE). IDEA was comprehensively revised in 1997 by P.L. 105-17, but Congress has continued to grapple with issuesrelating to the Act. This report provides a brief overview of the Act with particular attention paid to issues of recent congressional concern, such as funding and the provision of FAPE for children with disabilities found to have brought a weapon to school.

This report discusses the burden of a national debt, the view among economists, the federal budget deficits, and the financial burden that future generations will inherit, a larger privately owned capital stock and a higher level of income.

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 House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on the District of Columbia Appropriations.

This report briefly reviews the status of climate science, international negotiations, and congressional activity focused specifically on climate change.

This report is a listing of the tax changes which were enacted during 2001 and effective at the beginning of 2002

This report contains an explanation of the major provisions of the Federal estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer taxes. The discussion divides the Federal estate tax into three components: the gross estate, deductions from the gross estate, and computation of the tax, including allowable tax credits.

This report compares selected procedural safeguards employed in criminal trials in federal criminal court with parallel protective measures in military general courts-martial, military commissions as authorized under the Military Order of November 13, and, as a possible benchmark of international standards, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

State governments rely on sales and use taxes for approximately one-third (32.3%) of their total tax revenue – or approximately $174 billion in FY2000. Local governments derived 16.4% of their tax revenue or $51.6 billion from local sales and use taxes in FY1999. Both state and local sales taxes are collected by vendors at the time of transaction and are levied at a percentage of a product’s retail price. Alternatively, use taxes are not collected by vendors if they do not have nexus (loosely defined as a physical presence) in the consumer’s state. Consumers are required to remit use taxes to their taxing jurisdiction. However, compliance with this requirement is quite low. Because of the low compliance, many observers suggest that the expansion of the internet as a means of transacting business across state lines, both from business to consumer (B to C) and from business to business (B to B), threatens to diminish the ability of state and local governments to collect sales and use taxes. Congress has a role in this issue because commerce between parties in different states conducted over the Internet falls under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. Congress can either take an active or …

State governments rely on sales and use taxes for approximately one-third (32.3%) of their total tax revenue – or approximately $174 billion in FY2000. Local governments derived 16.4% of their tax revenue or $51.6 billion from local sales and use taxes in FY1999. Both state and local sales taxes are collected by vendors at the time of transaction and are levied at a percentage of a product’s retail price. Alternatively, use taxes are not collected by vendors if they do not have nexus (loosely defined as a physical presence) in the consumer’s state. Consumers are required to remit use taxes to their taxing jurisdiction. However, compliance with this requirement is quite low. Because of the low compliance, many observers suggest that the expansion of the internet as a means of transacting business across state lines, both from business to consumer (B to C) and from business to business (B to B), threatens to diminish the ability of state and local governments to collect sales and use taxes. Congress has a role in this issue because commerce between parties in different states conducted over the Internet falls under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. Congress can either take an active or …