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 Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents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.

Daily publication of the U.S. Office of the Federal Register contains rules and regulations, proposed legislation and rule changes, and other notices, including "Presidential proclamations and Executive Orders, Federal agency documents having general applicability and legal effect, documents required to be published by act of Congress, and other Federal agency documents of public interest" (p. ii). Table of Contents starts on page iii.

Report on the activities of the Health Professions Council for fiscal year 2011, highlighting the organization's accomplishments and budget.

This report analyzes data about reforming itemized tax deductions for individuals.

This report discusses the current state of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, its relationship with the United States, and future initiatives to further develop U.S.-Saudi relations.

This report discusses the visa waiver program (VWP), which allows for a bypass of the first step by which foreign visitors are screened for admissibility to enter the United States. Some policymakers are concerned that this waiver allows terrorists to more easily enter the country. The report provides waiver-related statistics and related legislation.

This report describes three kinds of unemployment benefit programs: regular Unemployment Compensation (UC), Extended Benefits (EB), and Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC08). The report explains their basic eligibility requirements, benefits, and financing structure.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Maritime Administration (MARAD) uses a two-step source selection process, first by qualifying contractors and then awarding contracts for ship recycling services based on best value, consistent with the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). In the first step, MARAD qualifies contractors' ship recycling facilities. The qualification process involves evaluating ship recycling facilities' proposals based on multiple criteria, including how a facility plans to dismantle ships and the extent to which the contractor-including its ability to meet local, state, and federal regulations-supports that effort. For the second step, MARAD awards ship recycling contracts for specific ships using a best value source selection process. The best value source selection process allows the government to accept an offer other than the best-priced offer, considering both price and non-price factors, that provides the greatest overall benefit to the government. MARAD considers three evaluation criteria-price, schedule and capacity, and past performance."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) fiscal year 2013 information technology (IT) expenditure plan satisfied the two sets of statutory conditions contained in the appropriations act. Regarding the first set of conditions, the plan identified for each project the functional and performance capabilities to be delivered, mission benefits, life-cycle costs, and key milestones. For example, for the Federal Housing Administration Transformation's Portfolio Evaluation Tool project, the plan identified functional capabilities such as the ability to produce on-demand reports to assess financial impacts and risks. The plan also satisfied the second set of conditions by demonstrating that each project was in compliance with HUD's enterprise architecture, was being managed in accordance with applicable life-cycle policies and guidance, conformed to capital planning and investment control requirements, and was supported by an adequately staffed project office. For instance, it included assessments demonstrating how projects conformed to requirements for planning and controlling investments. By satisfying these conditions, the plan should better inform the decision making of HUD's appropriations committees on current modernization projects."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The federal government has opportunities to limit its exposure and increase the nation's resilience to extreme weather events. Since 1980, the U.S. has experienced 151 weather disasters with damages exceeding 1 billion dollars each. This testimony focuses on 4 areas where the government could limit its fiscal exposure."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) has improved its Strategic Management Plan (SMP) by including additional strategic planning elements that were lacking from previous plans; however, the fiscal year 2012-2013 SMP still needs to incorporate some key information that would make it more useful for DOD decision makers as a guide for implementing business transformation efforts and for measuring progress. Improvements in the SMP include links between its business goals and DOD-wide goals, as well as milestone or target data that would enable DOD to better measure performance and assess progress in achieving SMP goals. However, the SMP does not fully describe the specific challenges the goals are intended to address and what the root causes of those challenges are. For example, the SMP states that the goal on strengthening DOD's acquisition processes is aimed at obtaining greater efficiency and productivity in defense spending, but the accompanying narrative does not describe what is causing acquisition-related cost growth and how the goal's initiatives may address those causes. The SMP also lacks sufficient context for why business goals and strategies were chosen or changed from prior plans, such as …

This document provides information on the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) area, regional, and Watermaster office locations.

This report contains two main parts: a section describing recent events and a longer background section on key elements of the U.S.-South Korea relationship. The end of the report provides a list of CRS products on South Korea and North Korea.

This report summarizes what is known from open sources about the North Korean nuclear weapons program — including weapons-usable fissile material and warhead estimates — and assesses current developments in achieving denuclearization.

This report provides an overview of the Federal Reserve and issues for Congress. The Federal Reserve (the Fed) defines monetary policy as the actions it undertakes to influence the availability and cost of money and credit. Because the expectations of market participants play an important role in determining prices and growth, monetary policy can also be defined to include the directives, policies, statements, and actions of the Fed that influence how the future is perceived. In addition, the Fed acts as a "lender of last resort" to the nation's financial system, meaning that it ensures continued smooth functioning of financial intermediation by providing financial markets with adequate liquidity.

This report covers health benefits made available to Members of Congress through federal government employment, including Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), dental and vision insurance, flexible spending accounts, long-term care insurance, services at the Office of the Attending Physician and military hospitals, and Medicare. It also offers a comparison of FEHBP to health benefits offered by the private sector and state and local governments and a discussion of the effect of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on Members' health benefits.

This report provides an overview of the history of U.S.A - Belarus relations. The report discusses the political and economic situation in Belarus, the relations with Russia, European Union and NATO.

This report discusses the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), which bans all nuclear explosion and was in 1996 adopted by the U.N. General Assembly but rejected by the U.S. Senate in 1997. This report discusses the Obama Administration's stated goal of pursuing U.S. ratification of the CTBT, although the Administration has mainly focused on securing Senate consent to ratification of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START). This report also discusses other nuclear weapons-related issues as well as the long history of nuclear testing.

This report details legislation and policies that restrict or place requirements on U.S. funding of abortion or family planning activities abroad. The level and extent of federal funding for these activities is an ongoing and controversial issue in U.S. foreign assistance and will likely continue to be a point of contention during the 113th Congress.

This report analyzes the relationship between the dollar and the price of oil and how the two might interact. It includes sections describing real and nominal oil prices, major currencies, oil exchanges, oil supply and demand and factors affecting the international exchange value of the dollar: capital flows, the U.S. financial balance, the foreign exchage market, and the U.S. trade deficit.

This report discusses the political climate, development challenges and reform in Nigeria. The report also considers the social issues and security concerns of Nigeria. In addition, other issues are mentioned, as Congress provides oversight for over $600 million in U.S. foreign assistance programs to Nigeria.

This report analyzes Division C of the Department of Defense Emergency Supplemental Appropriations, P.L. 109-148, which was signed into law on December 30, 2005, and which limits liability with respect to pandemic flu and other public health countermeasures.

This report provides information on the Community Health Center Fund (CHCF) that may be useful for discussions about the fund's future. Specifically, it includes information on: the types of grants awarded, total funds disbursed, and the amount of CHCF funds that facilities in each state and territory received.

This report describes the primary features of two common retirement savings accounts that are available to individuals. Although the accounts have many features in common, they differ in some very important aspects. Both traditional and Roth IRAs offer tax incentives to encourage individuals to save for retirement.