Flying Cars and Drones Pose Policy Challenges for Managing and Regulating Low-Altitude Airspace (open access)

Flying Cars and Drones Pose Policy Challenges for Managing and Regulating Low-Altitude Airspace

This report discusses the possibility that flying cars may soon become a reality. Development and marketing efforts are bringing to the fore new policy and regulatory challenges regarding the control of low-altitude airspace, safety, noise, privacy, and landowner rights. They also are raising new questions about the appropriate roles of federal, state, and local authorities in regulating and managing these operations.
Date: July 23, 2018
Creator: Elias, Bart
System: The UNT Digital Library
What Happens If the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) Lapses? (open access)

What Happens If the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) Lapses?

This report provides a short overview of what would happen if the NFIP were not to be reauthorized by November 30, 2018, and allowed to lapse.
Date: July 31, 2018
Creator: Horn, Diane P.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The World Trade Organization (WTO): U.S. Participation at Risk? (open access)

The World Trade Organization (WTO): U.S. Participation at Risk?

This report discusses the possibility that the U.S. will withdraw from the World Trade Organization (WTO), after the Trump Administration expressed doubt over its value to the U.S. economy.
Date: July 31, 2018
Creator: Cimino-Isaacs, Cathleen D.
System: The UNT Digital Library
History of Use of U.S. Military Bases to House Immigrants and Refugees (open access)

History of Use of U.S. Military Bases to House Immigrants and Refugees

This report discusses the use of Goodfellow Air Force Base and Fort Bliss, both in Texas, to house migrant families trying to cross the border, as well as the historical use of military bases to house immigrants and refugees.
Date: July 26, 2018
Creator: Kapp, Lawrence & Torreon, Barbara Salazar
System: The UNT Digital Library
Potential WTO Implications of USDA's Proposed Response to Trade-Retaliation (open access)

Potential WTO Implications of USDA's Proposed Response to Trade-Retaliation

This report briefly discusses the World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments that are relevant to U.S. domestic support programs and how the newly-announced U.S. trade retaliation assistance program may or may not comply with those WTO commitments.
Date: July 27, 2018
Creator: Schnepf, Randy
System: The UNT Digital Library
National Flood Insurance Program Borrowing Authority (open access)

National Flood Insurance Program Borrowing Authority

This report evaluates the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) borrowing authority to receive loans from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, particularly in the context of major floods, and also discusses the current financial situation of the NFIP.
Date: July 31, 2018
Creator: Horn, Diane P.
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Apparent First in U.S. Law Enforcement Use of Unmanned Ground Vehicles (open access)

An Apparent First in U.S. Law Enforcement Use of Unmanned Ground Vehicles

This report discusses the use of a robot to kill an active shooter in Dallas, Texas on July 7, 2016, which has raised questions about what this might mean for how police use force in the future.
Date: July 26, 2016
Creator: James, Nathan
System: The UNT Digital Library
European Security and Islamist Terrorism (open access)

European Security and Islamist Terrorism

This report briefly discusses the current security climate in Europe, as well as policy considerations for the U.S. Over the last two years, European governments and the European Union (EU) have grown increasingly alarmed by the rise of the Islamic State terrorist organization, its ability to attract European citizens to join the fighting in the Syria-Iraq region, and its use of violent extremist propaganda to inspire others.
Date: July 18, 2016
Creator: Archick, Kristin & Belkin, Paul
System: The UNT Digital Library
Brazil in Crisis (open access)

Brazil in Crisis

This report examines the current political and economic climate in Brazil, which is in the midst of severe economic and political crises that are closely intertwined and unlikely to be resolved quickly.
Date: July 6, 2016
Creator: Meyer, Peter J.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Islamist Militant Threat in Bangladesh (open access)

The Islamist Militant Threat in Bangladesh

This report discusses the current security climate in Bangladesh in regards to terrorism. Bangladesh is attractive to jihadists because it is a politically destabilized Muslim majority nation that could offer inroads to both Burma, through the alienated Muslim Rohingya refugee group, or to neighboring India.
Date: July 21, 2016
Creator: Vaughn, Bruce
System: The UNT Digital Library
Security Cooperation and the FY2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) (open access)

Security Cooperation and the FY2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)

This report discusses provisions in the FY2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that have elevated ongoing debates over U.S. security sector assistance to foreign countries--and raised questions over whether the policy architecture is suited to meet current and emerging requirements.
Date: July 27, 2016
Creator: Rosen, Liana W.; Serafino, Nina M.; McInnis, Kathleen J. & Skorupski, Bolko J.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Turkey: Failed Coup and Implications for U.S. Policy (open access)

Turkey: Failed Coup and Implications for U.S. Policy

This report briefly examines the failed coup in Turkey and what it means for U.S. foreign policy. On July 15-16, 2016, elements within the Turkish military tried, but failed, to seize political power from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.
Date: July 19, 2016
Creator: Zanotti, Jim
System: The UNT Digital Library
Police Shootings and Federal Support for Law Enforcement Safety (open access)

Police Shootings and Federal Support for Law Enforcement Safety

This report discusses federal support for law enforcement safety in light of the recent shooting deaths of police officers in Dallas, Texas, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Date: July 19, 2016
Creator: James, Nathan
System: The UNT Digital Library
North American Leaders' Summit (open access)

North American Leaders' Summit

This report discusses the 10th annual North American Leaders' Summit (NALS), in which Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hosted President Barack Obama and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Date: July 5, 2016
Creator: Villarreal, M. A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Human Trafficking and Forced Labor: Trends in Import Restrictions (open access)

Human Trafficking and Forced Labor: Trends in Import Restrictions

This report discusses issues regarding a provision against forced labor in the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1307), which prohibited from import into the United States "all goods, wares, articles, and merchandise mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part in any foreign country by convict labor or/and forced labor or/and indentured labor under penal sanctions" (Section 307 of the Act).
Date: July 29, 2016
Creator: Rosen, Liana W.; Villarreal, M. A. & Feng, Ashley
System: The UNT Digital Library
U.S. Foreign Assistance as Colombia's Peace Talks on Cusp of Completion (open access)

U.S. Foreign Assistance as Colombia's Peace Talks on Cusp of Completion

This report discusses the ongoing peace process in Colombia and the potential effects for U.S. policy. On July 18, 2016, the Colombian Constitutional Court approved a plebiscite to allow Colombian voters to decide the fate of the peace accord under negotiation between the government of President Juan Manuel Santos and the country's largest insurgent group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Date: July 20, 2016
Creator: Beittel, June S.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Overview of U.S. Sanctions Regimes on Russia (open access)

Overview of U.S. Sanctions Regimes on Russia

This report discusses the U.S.-imposed sanctions on Russia for malicious cyber activity.
Date: July 11, 2017
Creator: Welt, Cory & Rennack, Dianne E.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Ongoing Section 232 Steel and Aluminium Investigations (open access)

Ongoing Section 232 Steel and Aluminium Investigations

This report discuses two investigations by the Department of Commerce related to Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 which allows the President to impose tariffs or quotas on imported goods if it is in the interest of national security. These investigations are being conducted on the steel and aluminium industries to determine whether the President can and whether he should impose import restrictions. Mixed reactions to the investigations and proposals are also discussed.
Date: July 28, 2017
Creator: Fefer, Rachel F.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Private Flood Insurance and the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) (open access)

Private Flood Insurance and the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP)

This report discusses the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and the requirements that private insurers must meet to satisfy the federal flood insurance requirements. It also discusses legislation in the 115th Congress related to flood insurance.
Date: July 31, 2018
Creator: Webel, Baird & Horn, Diane P.
System: The UNT Digital Library
National Flood Insurance Program Borrowing Authority (open access)

National Flood Insurance Program Borrowing Authority

This report evaluates the National Flood Insurance Program's (NFIP) borrowing authority to receive loans from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, particularly in the context of major floods, and discusses the current financial situation of the NFIP.
Date: July 31, 2018
Creator: Horn, Diane P.
System: The UNT Digital Library
NATO's 2018 Brussels Summit (open access)

NATO's 2018 Brussels Summit

This report discusses the meeting of leaders from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO's) 29 member states, scheduled to take place on hold a summit at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on July 11-12, 2018. Despite the heightened U.S.-European tensions, NATO officials say they expect the allies to announce new NATO initiatives in six main areas at the summit: enhancing collective defense and deterrence, defense spending and burdensharing, countering terrorism, enhancing NATO cooperation with the European Union, and NATO enlargement.
Date: July 5, 2018
Creator: Belkin, Paul
System: The UNT Digital Library
Australia and New Zealand React to China's Growing Influence in the South Pacific (open access)

Australia and New Zealand React to China's Growing Influence in the South Pacific

This report discusses rising concern over China's influence in the South Pacific and the response from Australia and New Zealand.
Date: July 26, 2018
Creator: Vaughn, Bruce
System: The UNT Digital Library
Broadband Data and Mapping (open access)

Broadband Data and Mapping

This report discusses the issue of broadband deployment data. Congress recognizes that more accurate broadband availability maps could help ensure that federal broadband programs target unserved areas of the country that are most in need of assistance.
Date: July 3, 2018
Creator: Kruger, Lennard G.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Pipeline Safety: Overdue Statutory Mandates (open access)

Pipeline Safety: Overdue Statutory Mandates

This report discusses the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration's (PHMSA) failure to fulfill key mandates of the Pipeline Safety, Regulatory Certainty, and Job Creation Act of 2011 (P.L. 112-90) and the PIPES Act of 2016 (P.L. 114-183).
Date: July 27, 2018
Creator: Parfomak, Paul W.
System: The UNT Digital Library