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This report reviews recent efforts to limit youth access to cigarettes through enforcement of federal and state laws prohibiting tobacco sales to minors. Under the federal Synar Amendment, states must conduct compliance checks and enforce their minimum age-of-sale laws or risk losing block grant funds

This paper examines three reasonably distinct starting points from which a U.S. response to the 1992 U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change is being framed.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) was scheduled to sunset on September 30, 1997, but Congress approved ONDCP funding under the Treasury, Postal Appropriations Act, FY1998 (P.L. 105-61). Several measures have been introduced in the 105th Congress to reauthorize ONDCP. On October 21, 1997, the House passed H.R. 2610, as amended, the National Narcotics Leadership Act. On November 6, 1997, the Senate Judiciary Committee reported H.R. 2610, replacing the language of the House-passed version with a new version, the Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act. On July 29, 1998, the Senate approved an amendment (S. Amdt. 3367/Hatch and Biden) to the Treasury, Postal Appropriations Act, FY1999 (S. 2312/Campbell) that differs from the House-passed version of H.R. 2610.

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Historically, national commemorative observances were recommended by Congress through the legislative process. This practice was discontinued by the House of Representatives in January 1995, although the Senate continues to issue sense of the Senate resolutions recommending the establishment of commemoratives. It has now become standard practice for special observances to be designated by a proclamation issued by the President. This report is a chronological list of these proclamations for 1997 and 1998, indicating the proclamation number and its Federal Register citation

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This report provides an overview of FY1999 budget request for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Initially, the report is limited to the Administration’s budget request for HUD. The report is updated periodically as legislative action occurs on FY1999 appropriations for HUD and as action occurs on authorizing legislation to implement the budget proposals.

congressional appropriations decisions for an agency or program are based generally on the following three factors: the amount of funding provided previously, the President's request, and the policy preferences of Congress. The Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA, or the Results Act)

On February 25, 1998, the Supreme Court ruled that federal credit unions may not consist of more than one occupational group having a single common bond. On April 1, the House passed H.R. 1151 (H.Rept. 105-472), which grandfathers existing credit unions and sets standards for future multi-group credit unions.

This report reviews major banking and finance issues that are receiving congressional attention in the 2nd session of the 105th Congress. It will be updated periodically to reflect legislative developments. Relevant CRS products are referenced.

The 105 Congress is once again considering legislation pertaining to temporary alien workers, striving to balance the needs of U.S. employers with opportunities for U.S. workers. The largest category of these temporary alien workers are the H-1B nonimmigrants — professionals who work in specialty occupations. For the first time, the numerical limits on H-1B visas were reached prior to the end of FY1997, and the FY1998 ceiling was reached in May. Employers in “high tech” industries especially are urging Congress to eliminate the ceiling of 65,000, and legislation raising the H-1B ceiling as well as addressing other reforms has passed the Senate (S.1723).

Section 110 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA; Division C of P.L. 104-208) mandates the development of an automated entry/exit control system to create a record for every alien departing from the United States and match it with the record for the alien arriving at the United States. Section 110 also requires that this system identify nonimmigrants who overstay the terms of their admission through online computer searching and that this the system is established at all international ports of entry by September 30, 1998.

The nation’s health, wealth, and security rely on the supply and distribution of certain goods and services. The array of physical assets, processes and organizations across which these goods and services move are called critical infrastructures. Computers and communications, themselves critical infrastructures, are increasingly tying these infrastructures together.

The pending omnibus patent reform bills (S. 507 and H.R. 400) would reorganize the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) as a government corporation and enact several other patent law reforms including early publication (with exceptions) and patent term restoration. S. 507 consists of six titles; H.R. 400 contains five titles.

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Members of Congress are concerned about whether U.S. firms have provided technology or expertise to China for use in its ballistic missile program and whether a series of decisions by the Clinton Administration on satellite exports have facilitated legal or illegal transfers of missile-related technology to China. The New York Times reported in April 1998 that the Justice Department is conducting an ongoing criminal investigation into whether Loral Space and Communications (of New York), and Hughes Electronics (of Los Angeles) violated export control laws. The firms are alleged to have shared their findings with China on the cause of a Chinese rocket’s explosion while launching a U.S.-origin satellite in February 1996. In sharing their conclusions, the companies are said to have provided expertise that China could use to improve its ballistic missiles, including their guidance systems. This CRS report provides detailed background information, significant Congressional action, and a comprehensive chronology. The events summarized here, based on various open sources and interviews, pertain to various aspects of U.S. foreign and security policy.

"This report tracks the evolution and content of the Internet tax freedom bills" (p. i).

Report to Congress on the internet in the closing years of the twentieth century, including discussions on encryption, security, privacy, computer fraud, and more.

With enactment of P.L. 105-178 (H.R. 2400), the Transportation Equity Act for the 21 Century (TEA-21), Congress limited authority of the Department of Veterans st Affairs (VA) to grant service-connected compensation to veterans who, after the enactment date, claim that their smoking-related illnesses are traceable to tobacco use that began during their military service. P.L. 105-178's prohibition on most smokingrelated VA claims is the resolution of an issue with potentially explosive federal costs. Subsequent technical amendments included in P.L. 105-205, the Internal Revenue Service reform legislation, removed the implication that smoking may have been misconduct, and made other minor clarifications.

This report discusses the American Heritage Rivers Initiative, implemented in 1998 by President Bill Clinton. The Initiative designed 14 rivers as "American Heritage Rivers," and declared that each "will receive help over the next five years tapping federal resources to carry out their plans for revitalizing their rivers and riverfronts." This report also discusses the reactions from both supporters and detractors of the initiative, and related legislation and appropriations.

The National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR), originally the National Performance Review, was the Clinton-Gore Administration's interagency task force to reform and streamline the way the federal government works. It was the eleventh federal reform effort in the twentieth century. In creating NPR on March 3, 1993, President Clinton said: “Our goal is to make the entire federal government less expensive and more efficient, and to change the culture of our national bureaucracy away from complacency and entitlement toward initiative and empowerment.” Based on the President’s challenge, Vice President Gore set out to create a government that “works better, costs less, and gets results Americans care about.”

Biweekly, comprehensive compilation of decisions, reports, public notices, and other documents of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.