A presentation that analysis the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 as well as the economic wide cap and trade program, the energy efficiency provisions, and the competitiveness provisions.

A paper about how the United States Environmental Protection Agency accepts applications from federally recognized Tribal governments and Tribal consortia with specific focus on the availability of funds and solicits applications from eligible entities to receive financial assistance through the Sustainability for the 7th Generation Initiative (SGI).

This brief discusses the costs related to the reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions in the United States.

This transmittal is a response to your request of January 22, 2009, for a letter work plan outlining a program of annual groundwater and surface water monitoring at Everest, Kansas. Once yearly, they propose to conduct surface water sampling at the 5 locations shown in Figure 1 and groundwater sampling in the 16 wells identified in Figure 2. The wells will be sampled according to the low-flow procedure. The next sampling event is planned for April 2009. The surface water and groundwater samples collected will be preserved, shipped, and analyzed for volatile organic compounds as in previous work at Everest. Results will be reported to the KDHE. This monitoring program will continue until identified plume conditions at the site indicate a technical justification to change the monitoring program.

This report provides background on issues regarding peacekeeping efforts, as well as stabilization and reconstruction operations. It also discusses proposals and tracks related legislative action.

This report discusses the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG), which are a set of technical standards for voting systems that use computers to assist in recording or counting votes. Systems covered include most used in the United States—not only DREs (direct recording electronic systems) such as touchscreen voting machines, but also optical scan and punch card systems. Hand-counted paper-ballot and lever-machine systems, which do not involve computers, are not covered. However, they are used by a small and decreasing number of election jurisdictions.

This report provides an overview of home visitation for families with young children. It also provides models and Congressional proposals for Home Visiting programs.

This report analyzes the agriculture, nutrition, and rural provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA, P.L. 111-5). The ARRA boosts government spending on various infrastructure programs and government benefits programs, and offers individual and business tax benefits.

This report discusses the history of the Federal Protective Service, which is responsible for protecting federal government property, personnel, visitors, and customers, including property leased by the General Services Administration (GSA). FPS currently employs over 15,000 contract security guards to protect federal property.

This report outlines some of the current supply issues facing biofuels industries, including implications for agricultural feedstocks, infrastructure concerns, energy supply for biofuels production, and fuel price uncertainties.

This report provides an overview of the fundamental choices involved between a cost (tax) and a quantity (cap) control instrument, including a discussion of policy tools that could be employed to bridge the gap between a carbon tax and a cap-and-trade program. It also analyzes the potential advantages and disadvantages of a carbon tax, discusses implementation issues for a carbon tax -- including where to apply the tax, at what level to set the tax, and options for distributing the tax revenues-- and provides conclusions.

This report provides a summary and explanation of the provisions in the HITECH Act, which is intended to promote the widespread adoption of health information technology (HIT) for the electronic sharing of clinical data among hospitals, physicians, and other health care stakeholders. It gives an overview of prior actions taken by Congress and the Administrations to promote HIT, and briefly describes efforts by the 109th and 110th Congresses to enact comprehensive HIT legislation.

This report provides information on various aspects of end-of-life care: (1) demographic and historical changes affecting death and dying in the United States (2) the definitions of end-of-life, palliative, and hospice care (3) costs associated with end-of-life care (4) end-of-life care laws and ethics (5) quality of care at the end of life and (6) policy issues that would modify or expand the federal government's role in addressing end-of-life care.

This report discusses the primary civil, criminal, and immigration-related penalties associated with immigration-related document fraud. In order to enter or remain in the United States and be eligible for various immigration-related benefits, non-citizens (aliens) must comply with a number of document requirements under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).

This report provides information on the announcement that the United States Postal Service was considering the closure of 3,105 branches; historical data on the number of post offices and other retail postal facilities; an explanation of the legal authorities relevant to retail postal facility closures; a review of the retail postal facility closure processes, including data on public appeals of closures, and H.R. 658's proposed alterations to the processes; and a concluding discussion that suggests observations and possible issues for Congress.

This report discusses issues Congress faces regarding the Navy's proposed FY2010 budget, particularly as relating to destroyer procurement plans and programs.

This report contains a list of authoritative resources is designed to assist in responding to a broad range of constituent questions and concerns about renewable energy and energy efficiency tax incentives.

This report discusses challenges the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will likely face to address projected growth in passenger airline travel while maintaining and improving upon the efficiency and effectiveness of passenger screening operations.

This report discusses provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) for selected human services programs. The selected programs generally are those that provide benefits and services to families with children, though some programs (e.g., the Community Services Block Grant) provide services to other families as well. All of the programs discussed in this report are administered by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

This report examines policy changes that have driven actual and proposed shifts in the alliance between the U.S. and Japan. Key features of the proposals include a reduction in the number of U.S. Marines in Japan, the relocation of a controversial Marine air base in Okinawa, expanded cooperation in training and intelligence sharing, and command structure changes.

This report discusses the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, which seeks to provide for, strengthen, and expedite the national defense by protecting servicemembers, enabling them to "devote their entire energy to the defense needs of the Nation." The SCRA protects servicemembers by temporarily suspending certain judicial and administrative proceedings and transactions that may adversely affect their legal rights during military service.

This report covers issues for Congress regarding text and multimedia messaging. The increasing use of text and multimedia messaging has raised several policy issue, such as distracted driving, SMS spam, the inability of consumers to disable text messaging, text messaging price fixing, carrier blocking of common short code messages, deceptive and misleading common short code programs, protecting children from inappropriate content on wireless devices.

This report discusses provisions of the Detainee Treatment Act concerning standards for the interrogation and treatment of detainees.

This report discusses issues for Congress in FY2011, which are whether to approve, reject, or modify DOD's new KC-X competition strategy, and whether to approve, reject, or modify the Air Force's request for FY2011 research and development funding for the new KC-X program.