Temporary Protected Status: Current Immigration Policy and Issues (open access)

Temporary Protected Status: Current Immigration Policy and Issues

This report is a brief overview of current policies regarding temporatry protected status (TPS), which is relief from removal under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). It includes information about humanitarian migrants, temporary protected status, other blanket forms of relief, nationalities receiving protections, and issues with TPS, as well as recent legislation.
Date: January 14, 2014
Creator: Wasem, Ruth Ellen & Ester, Karma
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB): A Legal Analysis (open access)

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB): A Legal Analysis

This report provides an overview of the regulatory structure of consumer finance under existing federal law before the Dodd-Frank Act went into effect, and examines arguments for modifying the regime in order to more effectively regulate consumer financial markets. It then analyzes how the CFP Act changes the legal structure, with a focus on the Bureau's organization; the entities and activities that fall (and do not fall) under the Bureau's supervisory, enforcement, and rulemaking authorities; the Bureau's general and specific rulemaking powers and procedures; and the Bureau's funding.
Date: January 14, 2014
Creator: Carpenter, David H.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Executive Order 13438: Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq (open access)

Executive Order 13438: Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq

Report that provides a brief history of the development of presidential powers in peacetime. It discusses some of the issues that might be raised in light of the contrast between the executive order's broad language and its narrow aim. It examines the reach of the executive order and provides legal analyses of some of the constitutional questions raised in the courts by similar sanctions programs.
Date: January 14, 2011
Creator: Murphy, M. Maureen
System: The UNT Digital Library
Military Uniform Procurement: Questions and Answers (open access)

Military Uniform Procurement: Questions and Answers

Report that concerning how military uniforms are procured, legal authority for procurement, military uniform vendors, and new initiatives affecting uniform procurement.
Date: January 14, 2011
Creator: Grasso, Valerie Bailey
System: The UNT Digital Library
Financial Services and General Government (FSGG): FY2011 Appropriations (open access)

Financial Services and General Government (FSGG): FY2011 Appropriations

Report discussing the Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) Fiscal Year 2011 appropriations bill, which includes funding for the Department of the Treasury, the Executive Office of the President (EOP), the judiciary, the District of Columbia, and 26 independent agencies, including the Small Business Administration and the United States Postal Service.
Date: January 14, 2011
Creator: Hatch, Garrett
System: The UNT Digital Library
Navy Nuclear Aircraft Carrier (CVN) Homeporting at Mayport: Background and Issues for Congress (open access)

Navy Nuclear Aircraft Carrier (CVN) Homeporting at Mayport: Background and Issues for Congress

This report provides background information and issues for Congress on the Navy's proposal to homeport a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier (CVN) at Mayport, Florida. Economic and homeland security concerns are discussed.
Date: January 14, 2011
Creator: O'Rourke, Ronald
System: The UNT Digital Library
Sending Mail to Members of the Armed Forces at Reduced or Free Postage: An Overview (open access)

Sending Mail to Members of the Armed Forces at Reduced or Free Postage: An Overview

This report looks the background, and current methods of, sending mail to troops serving overseas via subsidized postage.
Date: January 14, 2011
Creator: Kosar, Kevin R.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Navy SSBN(X) Ballistic Missile Submarine Program: Background and Issues for Congress (open access)

Navy SSBN(X) Ballistic Missile Submarine Program: Background and Issues for Congress

Report discussing the United States Navy's plan to develop and design a class of 12 next-generation ballistic missile submarines, or SSBN(X)s, as replacements for the 14 Ohio class SSBNs currently in operation. The report explores the affordability of the project and its potential impact on other Navy shipbuilding programs, alternatives to the program, and which shipyard or shipyards will build the proposed ships.
Date: January 14, 2011
Creator: O'Rourke, Ronald
System: The UNT Digital Library
Recruiting and Retention: An Overview of Fiscal Year 2009 and Fiscal Year 2010 Results for Active and Reserve Component Enlisted Personnel (open access)

Recruiting and Retention: An Overview of Fiscal Year 2009 and Fiscal Year 2010 Results for Active and Reserve Component Enlisted Personnel

Report that provides a brief overview of the recruiting and retention results for Active and Reserve Component enlisted personnel during FY2009 and FY2010.
Date: January 14, 2011
Creator: Kapp, Lawrence
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and Federal Water Rights (open access)

The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and Federal Water Rights

This report discusses federal authority over water, and federal “reserved” and non-reserved water rights. It discusses water rights under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and water rights provisions within specific designations.
Date: January 14, 2008
Creator: Brougher, Cynthia
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Endangered Species Act and Claims of Property Rights “Takings (open access)

The Endangered Species Act and Claims of Property Rights “Takings

This report discusses Endangered Species Act (ESA) that has long been one of the major flash points in the “property rights” debate. This report first outlines the ESA provisions most relevant to the act's impacts on private property, then surveys the major ESA-relevant principles of Fifth Amendment takings law, and finally discusses the court decisions adjudicating whether government measures based on the ESA effect a taking of property under the Fifth Amendment.
Date: January 14, 2008
Creator: Meltz, Robert
System: The UNT Digital Library
Tax Reform: An Overview of Proposals in the 112th Congress (open access)

Tax Reform: An Overview of Proposals in the 112th Congress

This report primarily covers fundamental tax reform. CRS reports are available online concerning the other three categories of tax reform: tax reform based on the elimination of the individual alternative minimum tax (AMT), proposals for reforming the corporate income tax, and proposals for reforming the U.S. taxation of international business.
Date: January 14, 2011
Creator: Bickley, James M.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Arms Sales: Congressional Review Process (open access)

Arms Sales: Congressional Review Process

This report reviews the process and procedures that currently apply to congressional consideration of foreign arms sales proposed by the President.
Date: January 14, 2008
Creator: Grimmett, Richard F.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Federal Crop Insurance: Issues in the 106th Congress (open access)

Federal Crop Insurance: Issues in the 106th Congress

None
Date: January 14, 2000
Creator: Chite, Ralph M.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Social Security: The Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) (open access)

Social Security: The Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP)

This report discusses the windfall elimination provision (WEP), which reduces the Social Security benefits of workers who also have pension benefits from employment not covered by Social Security. Its purpose is to remove an advantage these workers would otherwise receive because of Social Security’s benefit formula that favors workers with smaller amounts of Social Security-covered career earnings. Opponents contend that the provision is basically imprecise and often unfair.
Date: January 14, 2008
Creator: Haltzel, Laura
System: The UNT Digital Library
Social Security Retirement Earnings Test: How Earnings Affect Benefits (open access)

Social Security Retirement Earnings Test: How Earnings Affect Benefits

Social Security benefits received before a person attains full retirement age (FRA) are subject to an actuarial reduction for early retirement and also may be reduced by the Social Security Retirement Earnings Test (RET) if the beneficiary has earnings that exceed an annual threshold. This report explains how the RET is applied under current law and provides detailed benefit examples to show how the RET affects both the worker beneficiary and any family members (auxiliary beneficiaries) who receive benefits based on the worker beneficiary’s record. The report points out features of the RET that are not widely known or understood, such as the recomputation of benefits when a beneficiary attains FRA to adjust (increase) benefits to take into account months for which no benefit or a partial benefit was paid as a result of the RET. Finally, the report discusses policy issues related to the RET, including recent research on the effect of the RET on work effort and the decision to claim Social Security benefits.
Date: January 14, 2011
Creator: Nuschler, Dawn & Shelton, Alison M.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Compulsory Licensing of Patented Inventions (open access)

Compulsory Licensing of Patented Inventions

The report is about Compulsory Licensing of Patented Inventions. It discusses a number of international agreements to which the United states and its trading partners are signatories, including the Paris convention for the Protection of industrial Property.
Date: January 14, 2014
Creator: Thomas, John R.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Energy Policy: Setting the Stage for the Current Debate (open access)

Energy Policy: Setting the Stage for the Current Debate

This report discusses the energy policy. Comprehensive energy legislation was introduced in the Senate by both parties by late March (S. 388, S. 389, S. 596, S. 597).
Date: January 14, 2003
Creator: Bamberger, Robert L.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Conservation Reserve Program: Status and Current Issues (open access)

Conservation Reserve Program: Status and Current Issues

The report discusses the Conservative Reserve Program enacted in 1985, that provides payments to farmers to take highly erodible or environmentally sensitive cropland out of production for ten years or more. It also discusses CRP'S several other subprograms.
Date: January 14, 2009
Creator: Cowan, Tadlock
System: The UNT Digital Library
Court Security Improvement Act of 2007: A Legal Analysis of Public Law 110-177 (H.R. 660 and S. 378) (open access)

Court Security Improvement Act of 2007: A Legal Analysis of Public Law 110-177 (H.R. 660 and S. 378)

This report discusses the proposals of the Court Security Improvement Act of 2007. It consists of amendments to existing federal criminal law.
Date: January 14, 2008
Creator: Doyle, Charles
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Lacey Act: Protecting the Environment by Restricting Trade (open access)

The Lacey Act: Protecting the Environment by Restricting Trade

This report looks at the history and applications of the Lacey Act, which allows the U.S. to enforce the laws of other countries.
Date: January 14, 2014
Creator: Alexander, Kristina
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Future of NASA: Space Policy Issues Facing Congress (open access)

The Future of NASA: Space Policy Issues Facing Congress

This report analyzes questions regarding space policy challenges and gives some possible answers. It also addresses a number of cross-cutting issues, such as NASA's (the National Aeronautics and Space Agency's) interactions with other federal agencies and the growing role of the commercial space industry.
Date: January 14, 2010
Creator: Morgan, Daniel
System: The UNT Digital Library
Earthquakes: Risk, Detection, Warning, and Research (open access)

Earthquakes: Risk, Detection, Warning, and Research

This report discusses earthquake hazards and risk in the United States, federal programs that support earthquake monitoring, the U.S. capability to detect earthquakes and issue notifications and warnings, and federally-supported research to improve the fundamental scientific understanding of earthquakes with a goal of reducing U.S. vulnerability.
Date: January 14, 2010
Creator: Folger, Peter
System: The UNT Digital Library
Nonstrategic Nuclear Weapons (open access)

Nonstrategic Nuclear Weapons

This report provides basic information about U.S. and Russian nonstrategic nuclear weapons. It begins with a brief discussion of the differences between strategic and nonstrategic nuclear weapons. It then provides some historical background, describing the numbers and types of nonstrategic nuclear weapons deployed by both nations during the Cold War and in the past decade; the policies that guided the deployment and prospective use of these weapons; and the measures that the two sides have taken to reduce, eliminate, and, more recently, augment their forces.
Date: January 14, 2010
Creator: Woolf, Amy F.
System: The UNT Digital Library