In the past few years, many states have filed complaints against the tobacco industry in state court to recover Medicaid costs paid by the states to treat their citizens for tobacco related illnesses. The states are also attempting to recover other damages, such as punitive damages, against the tobacco industry. For various reasons, the states have hired private attorneys to assist the state Attorneys General in prosecuting these cases. In most cases, the retention of private counsel has included a fee agreement specifying the amount of compensation that these attorneys will receive for their services. These agreements are not uniform among the states, but most tend to provide some form of contingency fee arrangement. Some of these states have developed a sliding scale contingency fee schedule which varies with the amount of time spent on the litigation and whether a trial has begun. This report briefly summarizes the different fee agreements that the states have with private counsel.

This report discusses the global climate change policy and proposals to allow credit for early actions to reduce emissions.

This is a select chronology of, and a finding guide for information on, congressional and presidential actions and documents related to major budget events in calendar year 1998, covering the FY1999 budget. Brief information is provided for the President’s budget, congressional budget resolutions, appropriations measures (regular, continuing, supplementals, and rescissions), budget reconciliation, House and Senate votes, line-item vetoes, publications, testimony, charts, and tables.

This report discusses the functional categories, which provide a broad statement of budget priorities and facilitate the analysis of trends in related programs regardless of the type of financial transaction or agency organization.

Federal government spending involves a multi-step process in which budget authority is enacted and obligated, and outlays are generated. Budget authority is enacted in law; it provides federal agencies the legal basis to incur obligations. Obligations, which reflect such activities as employing personnel, entering into contracts, and submitting purchase orders, establish financial liabilities of the federal government. Outlays are payments that liquidate these obligations. This multi-step process can be illustrated as a spending pipeline

Updated projections released on July 15 by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) indicate budget surpluses rising from $63 billion (0.9% of GDP) in FY1998 to more than $100 billion (1.3% to 1.5% of GDP) from FY2002 through FY2005 and over $200 billion (1.8% to 1.9%) from FY2006 through FY2008.1

Appropriations are one part of a complex federal budget process that includes budget resolutions, appropriations (regular, supplemental, and continuing) bills, rescissions, and budget reconciliation bills. This report is a guide to one of the 13 regular appropriations bills that Congress passes each year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on the District of Columbia.

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This is a directory of approximately 150 government agencies designed to assist congressional staff in contacting agencies of the legislative branch, cabinet departments and other executive branch agencies and boards and commissions. This directory contains names of congressional liaison officers, addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and occasionally e-mail addresses. It is regularly updated each spring.

This report provides information and analysis for use by Members of Congress as they deliberate on the Japanese response to the Gulf crisis and, perhaps more important, what it may mean for future U.S.-Japanese relations. The first chapter briefly reviews Japanese government actions in response to the crisis, from August 1990 to February 1991. A second section examines in detail the various factors and constraints that affected Japanese policy. The final section offers conclusions and examines implications of the episode for future U.S.-Japanese relations. Published sources for the report are cited in footnotes.

There is a wide range of arguments regarding the Clinton Administration's proposal to spend about $2 billion in FY 1995 on developing an advanced theater missile defense (TMD) system. Arguments also center on whether or not interpretations of the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty allow for development and deployment of Advanced Antimissile Systems.

Appropriations are one part of a complex federal budget process that includes budget resolutions, appropriations (regular, supplemental, and continuing) bills, rescissions, and budget reconciliation bills. This report is a guide to one of the 13 regular appropriations bills that Congress passes each year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Military Construction Appropriations.

This report discusses federal tax subsidies for alcohol transportation fuels, as well as legislative actions underway to repeal, extend, or reduce them.

This report focuses on the R&D programs. It divides the programs into four categories: energy resources R&D, science, national security R&D, and environmental quality R&D. Those categories, which approximate the way DOE has divided up its programs, are set up to keep similar research activities together.(1) R&D funding is concentrated in the first three. The report gives a description of the programs within each category including their research objectives and the activities where significant budget changes were requested for FY1999. It then describes the request, and congressional appropriation and authorization action. There follows a discussion of issues about the FY1999 request that are emerging during congressional consideration of the budget.

Congress is focusing on problems with security at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) national security facilities, especially the nuclear weapon laboratories. Problems include espionage from within the labs and protection of nuclear material and facilities from outside attack. This report describes the main components of DOE’s security system and reviews current efforts to address shortcomings.

The principal focus of this report is on the foreign policy ramifications of the Asian financial crisis and U.S. options for addressing them. This report tracks and analyzes the efforts of the most seriously affected Asian countries to deal with their economic and financial problems, and their interaction with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the United States, and other major sources of financial support and policy advice. It also addresses the implications of the crisis for such U.S. interests as regional stability and the prevention of conflict, trade liberalization, and U.S. regional and global leadership, and discusses the principal factors that could influence the duration and severity of the crisis. A final section considers options for Congress in the context of various criticisms of the IMF’s stabilization programs and the operations of the Fund itself.

The United States and Japan are at odds over economic policy, particularly trade policy. There is a wide perception in the United States that Japanese trade restrictions contribute to the U.S. trade deficit and cost the United States high-wage jobs.

Under the World Trade Organization (WTO), the United States may use the dispute settlement mechanism to resolve certain trade problems with Japan. As compared with the mechanism under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the WTO offers expanded coverage and nearly automatic approval for panel requests and reports.

Very low levels of dissolved oxygen (hypoxia) in bottom-water "dead zones" are natural phenomena, but can be intensified by certain human activities. The largest hypoxic area affecting the United States is in the northern Gulf of Mexico near the mouth of the Mississippi River, but there are others as well.

News in February 1997 that scientists in Scotland had succeeded in cloning an adult sheep ignited a worldwide debate. Of concern are the ethical and social implications of the potential application of cloning to produce human beings. In response to concerns about the potential application of cloning to produce humans, actions were taken by the Administration and Congress.

Congress, federal agencies, and affected mid-Atlantic states are seeking to better understand Pftesteria piscicida, a recently identified species of dinoflagellate algae that appears to have harmful effects on both fish and human health, and to determine how best to mitigate its impacts. While individual states seek to address concerns, Congress and federal agencies are considering how best to assist state efforts. Issues of likely interest to Congress include water quality management, agriculture and its possible role in the problem, human health effects, and impacts on fisheries.

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As a result of a series of laws enacted in 1983, 1985 and 1990, Social Security is considered to be “off-budget” for federal budget purposes. While the meaning of this might seem obvious — that Social Security is not to be considered as part of the federal budget — many people are perplexed by the continued use of aggregate budget figures that include Social Security’s receipts and expenditures.

The 105th Congress adjourned without passing any legislation affecting solid waste management. Changes to the Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) cleanup program and bills to exempt from hazardous waste management requirements certain wastes generated by remediation of old waste sites had been considered possible until late in the second session. The House passed changes to the LUST program (H.R. 688) on April 23, 1997. A comparable Senate bill (S. 555) was ordered reported, amended, September 23, 1998; but it never came to the floor.