Risk and Needs Assessment in the Criminal Justice System (open access)

Risk and Needs Assessment in the Criminal Justice System

This report provides information on the use of risk and needs assessment in the criminal justice system. It starts with an overview of risk and needs assessment and a discussion of some critiques. The report concludes with a discussion of the issues policymakers might consider if they debate legislation to expand the use of risk and needs assessment in the federal prison system.
Date: July 24, 2015
Creator: James, Nathan
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Sanctuary Jurisdictions and Criminal Aliens: In Brief (open access)

Sanctuary Jurisdictions and Criminal Aliens: In Brief

This report examines the interplay between the federal government -- i.e., Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) -- and state and local jurisdictions in enforcing immigration law, with a specific focus on noncitizens who have been convicted of a crime. It briefly outlines the evolution of the cooperation among law enforcement agencies, then discusses current administrative efforts to involve state and local law enforcement, and explores major programs and federal resources available to those agencies that cooperate with ICE to enforce immigration law.
Date: July 24, 2015
Creator: Kandel, William A. & Seghetti, Lisa
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Social Security: The Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) (open access)

Social Security: The Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO)

None
Date: July 24, 2015
Creator: unknown
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Texas Register, Volume 40, Number 30, Pages 4753-4858, July 24, 2015 (open access)

Texas Register, Volume 40, Number 30, Pages 4753-4858, July 24, 2015

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 Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents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.
Date: July 24, 2015
Creator: Texas. Secretary of State.
Object Type: Journal/Magazine/Newsletter
System: The Portal to Texas History
Balance Billing in Private Health Insurance Plans (open access)

Balance Billing in Private Health Insurance Plans

This report is on Balance Billing in Private Health Insurance Plans.
Date: July 23, 2015
Creator: Uberoi, Namrata K.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Condition of Texas Pavements: Pavement Management Information Systems Annual Report, 2012-2015 (open access)

Condition of Texas Pavements: Pavement Management Information Systems Annual Report, 2012-2015

Annual report describing the condition of Texas pavements based on distress ratings and ride quality measurements from the Pavement Management Information System (PMIS) during fiscal years 2012-2015. "The report includes the percentage of lane miles in 'Good' or better condition, trends for the major highway systems (IH, US, SH and FM) and pavement types (ACP, CRCP and JCP), trends for pavement distress types and maintenance level of service information" (p. ii).
Date: July 23, 2015
Creator: Texas. Department of Transportation.
Object Type: Report
System: The Portal to Texas History
Medicare, Observation Care, and the Two-Midnight Rule (open access)

Medicare, Observation Care, and the Two-Midnight Rule

None
Date: July 23, 2015
Creator: unknown
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Residential Energy Tax Credits: Overview and Analysis (open access)

Residential Energy Tax Credits: Overview and Analysis

None
Date: July 23, 2015
Creator: unknown
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
The U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW): Issues in the U.S. Ratification Debate (open access)

The U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW): Issues in the U.S. Ratification Debate

None
Date: July 23, 2015
Creator: Blanchfield, Luisa
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
U.S. Agricultural Trade with Cuba: Current Limitations and Future Prospects (open access)

U.S. Agricultural Trade with Cuba: Current Limitations and Future Prospects

This report reviews the current state of agricultural trade between the United States and Cuba. It identifies key impediments to expanding bilateral trade in agricultural products and key provisions in the law to which these obstacles are anchored, and also considers the potential consequences for trade in agricultural goods if bilateral trade were returned to a more normal footing. It also summarizes several of the bills introduced in the 114th Congress that propose to remove specific restrictions that impede trade in agricultural goods or that seek to lift the embargo on Cuba entirely.
Date: July 23, 2015
Creator: McMinimy, Mark A.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
U.S.-Kenya Relations: Current Political and Security Issues (open access)

U.S.-Kenya Relations: Current Political and Security Issues

None
Date: July 23, 2015
Creator: unknown
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Defense Spending and the Budget Control Act Limits (open access)

Defense Spending and the Budget Control Act Limits

This report discusses the Budget Control Act, which sets limits on defense spending between fiscal years 2012 and 2021 and possible measures to avoid a sequester. The current debate in Congress has centered on whether to adjust the BCA defense caps upward; move base budget spending to accounts designated for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) that are not subject to spending limits; reduce the defense spending in the Administration's request to comply with BCA revised caps; or use some combination of these approaches.
Date: July 22, 2015
Creator: Belasco, Amy
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Department of Defense Contractor and Troop Levels in Iraq and Afghanistan: 2007-2014 (open access)

Department of Defense Contractor and Troop Levels in Iraq and Afghanistan: 2007-2014

This report provides background information for Congress on troop and contractor levels in the Department of Defense (DOD) in support of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Date: July 22, 2015
Creator: Peters, Heidi M.; Schwartz, Moshe & Kapp, Lawrence
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
FY2016 National Defense Authorization Act: Selected Military Personnel Issues (open access)

FY2016 National Defense Authorization Act: Selected Military Personnel Issues

This report provides a brief synopsis of sections in H.R. 1735 that pertain to selected personnel policy. These include major military retirement reforms, end strengths, compensation, health care, and sexual assault, as well as less prominent issues that nonetheless generate significant public interest. This report focuses exclusively on the annual defense authorization process.
Date: July 22, 2015
Creator: Jansen, Don J.; Kamarck, Kristy N.; Kapp, Lawrence & Torreon, Barbara Salazar
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
House Office of Congressional Ethics: History, Authority, and Procedures (open access)

House Office of Congressional Ethics: History, Authority, and Procedures

This report describes the history and rationale behind the creation of the House Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), its operations, and its relationship with the House Committee on Ethics, and potential options available for Congress if further amendments to the House ethics process are desired.
Date: July 22, 2015
Creator: Straus, Jacob R.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Laws Affecting the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program (open access)

Laws Affecting the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program

This report tracks legislative changes to the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program. It includes brief discussions of how Congress has changed FEHB through legislative action, including restrictions on the use of federal funds; changing the formula for determining the government's share of FEHB premiums; expanding eligibility for the program; and implementing policies that affect the relationship between Medicare and FEHB.
Date: July 22, 2015
Creator: Blom, Kirstin B. & Cornell, Ada S.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Mexico: Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking Organizations (open access)

Mexico: Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking Organizations

This report provides background on drug trafficking and organized crime inside Mexico: it identifies the major DTOs, and it examines how the organized crime "landscape" has been significantly altered by fragmentation.
Date: July 22, 2015
Creator: Beittel, June S.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
War Funding and the Budget Control Act: In Brief (open access)

War Funding and the Budget Control Act: In Brief

This report provides a brief overview of the war funding and the budget control act.
Date: July 22, 2015
Creator: Belasco, Amy
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Airline Passenger Rights: The Federal Role in Aviation Consumer Protection (open access)

Airline Passenger Rights: The Federal Role in Aviation Consumer Protection

This report examines aviation consumer protections following the 1978 elimination of most governmental control regarding airline business practices. It explains the roles of Congress and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) in protecting airline consumers, and discusses some major passenger rights issues and related laws and regulations.
Date: July 21, 2015
Creator: Tang, Rachel Y.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
GAO Bid Protests: Trends and Analysis (open access)

GAO Bid Protests: Trends and Analysis

This report is one of two providing Congress with background on the GAO bid-protest process. It analyzes trends in bid protests filed with GAO, why companies protest, the impact bid protests have on acquisitions, the most common grounds for GAO to sustain a protest, and trends in bid protests filed against DOD.
Date: July 21, 2015
Creator: Schwartz, Moshe & Manuel, Kate M.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
North Korea: U.S. Relations, Nuclear Diplomacy, and Internal Situation (open access)

North Korea: U.S. Relations, Nuclear Diplomacy, and Internal Situation

This report covers the overall U.S.-North Korea relationship, with an emphasis on nuclear diplomacy. Negotiations over North Korea's nuclear weapons program have occupied the past three U.S. administrations, even as some analysts anticipated a collapse of the isolated authoritarian regime. North Korea has been the recipient of over $1 billion in U.S. aid (though none since 2009) and the target of dozens of U.S. sanctions.
Date: July 21, 2015
Creator: Chanlett-Avery, Emma; Rinehart, Ian E.; Nikitin, Mary Beth & Park, Sungtae
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Primer on WIC: The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (open access)

A Primer on WIC: The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children

The report reviews the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and the services and products they provide to women and their infants or children. The report discusses what requirements must be met for WIC and who is eligible to sign up for aid.
Date: July 21, 2015
Creator: Aussenberg, Randy Alison & Kortrey, Julia E.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
U.S. Agency for International Development: An Overview (open access)

U.S. Agency for International Development: An Overview

None
Date: July 21, 2015
Creator: unknown
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID): Background, Operations, and Issues (open access)

U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID): Background, Operations, and Issues

This report provides background information on the institutional makeup and operations of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the leading international humanitarian and development arm of the U.S. government. It then discusses in greater depth several aspects of the agency that might be of particular congressional interest.
Date: July 21, 2015
Creator: Tarnoff, Curt
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library