Resource Type

Overview of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (open access)

Overview of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003

None
Date: April 21, 2004
Creator: O'Sullivan, Jennifer; Chaikind, Hinda Ripps; Tilson, Sibyl L.; Boulanger, Jennifer & Morgan, Paulette C.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Medicare's Skilled Nursing Facility Benefit (open access)

Medicare's Skilled Nursing Facility Benefit

None
Date: April 16, 2001
Creator: Yacker, Heidi G.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The 1996 Farm Bill: Comparisons of Selected Provisions with Previous Law (open access)

The 1996 Farm Bill: Comparisons of Selected Provisions with Previous Law

Final congressional approval was given to H.R. 2854, the Federal Agricultural Improvement and Reform (FAIR) Act, otherwise known as the "1996 farm bill," on March 28, 1996. President Clinton signed the bill into law on April 4, 1996 (P.L. 104-127). In tabular format, this CRS report lays out in descriptive, rather than legislative language, the major provisions of the new farm bill in contrast to preceding law.
Date: April 4, 1996
Creator: Library of Congress. Environment and Natural Resources Policy Division. Food and Agriculture Section.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Agricultural Marketing and Regulatory Provisions of the 1996 Farm Bill (open access)

Agricultural Marketing and Regulatory Provisions of the 1996 Farm Bill

The Federal Agricultural Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-127), signed into law on April 4, for the first time grants the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) broad-based authority to establish national generic promotion ("check-off") programs for virtually any agricultural commodity. Formerly, individual programs first had to be authorized expressly by Congress. The new law also explicitly authorizes the establishment of new check-off programs for rapeseed and canola, kiwifruit, and popcorn. Other provisions require USDA to establish a new meat and poultry inspection advisory committee; deal with the collection of user fees for the inspection of agricultural imports; and authorize new guidelines to protect horses being transported to slaughter facilities, among other things.
Date: April 30, 1996
Creator: Becker, Geoffrey S.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Conservation Compliance for Agriculture: Status and Policy Issues (open access)

Conservation Compliance for Agriculture: Status and Policy Issues

This program, known as "conservation compliance," was amended in 1990 and 1996. This paper reviews the compliance concept, the program requirements, and the implementation record. It also introduces three policy topics: the effect of compliance on erosion rates and patterns; the effectiveness and flexibility of implementation; and the possible impact of changes to commodity policies enacted in the 1996 farm bill.
Date: April 10, 1998
Creator: Zinn, Jeffrey A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Conservation Reserve Program - Preliminary Results from the 15th Signup (open access)

Conservation Reserve Program - Preliminary Results from the 15th Signup

This report includes a table listing, by state, the: Number of bids, or offers, received; Total acres offered for enrollment; Acres offered that are currently enrolled in the CRP; Acres offered are not currently enrolled in the CRP; Acres on which contracts expire on September 30, 1997; Percentage of acres currently in the program that were offered for reenrollment; and Percentage of acres offered that are not currently enrolled in the CRP.
Date: April 18, 1997
Creator: Zinn, Jeffrey A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Tobacco Marketing and Advertising Restrictions in S. 1648, 105th Congress: First Amendment Issues (open access)

Tobacco Marketing and Advertising Restrictions in S. 1648, 105th Congress: First Amendment Issues

None
Date: April 8, 1998
Creator: Cohen, Henry
System: The UNT Digital Library
Farm Commodity Programs: Sugar (open access)

Farm Commodity Programs: Sugar

This report discusses the federal sugar program, which authorized by the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 seeks to ensure the viability of the U.S. sugar producing sector primarily by supporting the incomes of sugar beet and sugarcane producers and of those firms that process each crop into sugar.
Date: April 24, 1998
Creator: Jurenas, Remy
System: The UNT Digital Library
Animal Agriculture: Current Issues (open access)

Animal Agriculture: Current Issues

A variety of animal agriculture issues, including low livestock prices, the impact of consolidation in the meat packing industry, trade, and the environmental impacts of large feedlots, generated interest in the 106th and 107th Congresses. This report addresses this issues in detail.
Date: April 16, 2001
Creator: Heykoop, Jerry & Segarra, Alejandro E.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Sugar Policy Issues (open access)

Sugar Policy Issues

None
Date: April 13, 2001
Creator: Jurenas, Remy
System: The UNT Digital Library
Sugar Policy Issues (open access)

Sugar Policy Issues

None
Date: April 5, 2002
Creator: Jurenas, Remy
System: The UNT Digital Library
Soil and Water Conservation Issues (open access)

Soil and Water Conservation Issues

None
Date: April 14, 2003
Creator: Zinn, Jeffrey A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Dairy Policy Issues (open access)

Dairy Policy Issues

Three major dairy policy issues captured the attention of the 106th Congress, and are expected to remain issues of concern to the 107th Congress-- federal financial assistance for dairy farmers; implementation by USDA of changes to federal farm milk pricing regulations; and regional debates over the market effects of dairy compacts.
Date: April 2, 2001
Creator: Chite, Ralph M.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Dairy Policy Issues (open access)

Dairy Policy Issues

Several dairy issues that were debated during the 108th Congress are expected to continue as issues of interest in the 109th Congress. Separate bills were introduced in the 108th Congress to extend authority for both the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) Program and the dairy forward pricing pilot program, and to address dairy producer concerns about the importation of milk protein concentrates.
Date: April 9, 2002
Creator: Chite, Ralph M.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Dairy Policy Issues (open access)

Dairy Policy Issues

Many dairy farmer groups are concerned that imports of milk protein concentrates (MPCs) are displacing domestic dairy ingredients and thus depressing farm milk prices. S.560 and H.R. 1160 would impose tariff rate quotas on certain MPCs, and S. 40 would prohibit the use of dry MPC in domestic cheese production. Dairy processor groups are opposed to these bills. A dairy producer group challenged the Customs Service classification of MPCs, but Customs ruled that current classifications are correct.
Date: April 18, 2003
Creator: Chite, Ralph M.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Agricultural Export and Food Aid Programs (open access)

Agricultural Export and Food Aid Programs

This report discusses projected agricultural imports and exports for FY2003, as well as legislation that deals with federal programs in support of agricultural exports and federal aid dedicated to farms and agricultural reform.
Date: April 17, 2003
Creator: Hanrahan, Charles E.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Pesticide Residue Regulation: Analysis of Food Quality Protection Act Implementation (open access)

Pesticide Residue Regulation: Analysis of Food Quality Protection Act Implementation

This report discusses the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 (FQPA) which amened the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), governing U.S. registration, sale, and use of pesticide products, and the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) under which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets allowable pesticide residue levels for food (tolerances).
Date: April 20, 2001
Creator: Schierow, Linda-Jo
System: The UNT Digital Library
Farm Commodity Payment Limits: Comparison of Proposals (open access)

Farm Commodity Payment Limits: Comparison of Proposals

This report discusses U.S. policy regard farm commodities. Greater public awareness of the size of commodity program payments reaching a comparatively small number of very large farms has focused the attention of Congress on payment limits. Limits on commodity program payments have been imposed since 1970. As part of the emergency economic assistance packages enacted each of the past three years, the payment limits have been doubled. In addition, a mechanism has been developed that allows farms to circumvent the limit on loan deficiency payments, namely commodity certificates
Date: April 26, 2002
Creator: Womach, Jasper
System: The UNT Digital Library
California Air Quality FIP - A Fact Sheet (open access)

California Air Quality FIP - A Fact Sheet

On April 10, 1995, President Clinton signed P.L. 104-6, which contained a provision that rescinds the Federal air quality implementation plan (FIP) for the South Coast, Ventura, and Sacramento areas of California.(1) As a result, the FIP issued by EPA has no further force and effect, and California will continue pursuing approval of its own State implementation plan (SIP) in lieu of the FIP. Promulgation of the FIP was perceived by some within the State as having a detrimental effect on California's industries and economy resulting from costly and burdensome air pollution control measures contained in the plan.
Date: April 13, 1995
Creator: Mayer, Susan L.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Global Climate Change: Selected Legal Questions About the Kyoto Protocol (open access)

Global Climate Change: Selected Legal Questions About the Kyoto Protocol

This report discusses the Kyoto Protocol and whether the United States is now legally bound by the Protocol, the legal implications of signing it, whether it could be implemented as an executive agreement without submission to the Senate, and whether the Protocol could be used as the legal basis for regulation of emissions even prior to ratification.
Date: April 10, 1998
Creator: Ackerman, David M.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Global Climate Change (open access)

Global Climate Change

This report discusses the effect of human activities on global climate change. Human activities, particularly burning of fossil fuels, have increased atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and other trace gases, including chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), methane, and nitrous oxide.
Date: April 2, 2003
Creator: Justus, John R. & Fletcher, Susan R.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Implementing Acid Rain Legislation (open access)

Implementing Acid Rain Legislation

This report discusses the broad-ranging provisions in Title IV of The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (P.L. 101-549), which raise myriad implementation issues, particularly with respect to the system of tradable "allowances."
Date: April 5, 1995
Creator: Parker, Larry
System: The UNT Digital Library
Global Climate Change: Market-Based Strategies to Reduce Greenhouse Gases (open access)

Global Climate Change: Market-Based Strategies to Reduce Greenhouse Gases

This report discusses global climate change and the possibility that human activities are releasing gases, including carbon dioxide (CO2), at rates that could affect global climate change.
Date: April 4, 2001
Creator: Parker, Larry
System: The UNT Digital Library
Global Climate Change: Market-Based Strategies to Reduce Greenhouse Gases (open access)

Global Climate Change: Market-Based Strategies to Reduce Greenhouse Gases

This report discusses global climate change and the market-based strategies to reduce greenhouse gases.
Date: April 1, 2003
Creator: Parker, Larry
System: The UNT Digital Library