Agricultural Trade Issues in the 107th Congress (open access)

Agricultural Trade Issues in the 107th Congress

The 107th Congress is considering trade issues with implications for the U.S. agricultural sector. Trade in agricultural commodities and food products affects farm income and rural employment, and it also generates economic activity beyond the farm gate. With agricultural export sales the equivalent of one-quarter of farm income, some policymakers view U.S. efforts to develop market opportunities overseas as vital to the sector’s financial health. Decisions taken by the Bush Administration, and actions taken by Congress, thus will affect the outlook for agricultural trade.
Date: March 13, 2002
Creator: Hanrahan, Charles E.; Becker, Geoffrey S. & Jurenas, Remy
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Sugar Policy Issues (open access)

Sugar Policy Issues

None
Date: April 13, 2001
Creator: Jurenas, Remy
Object Type: Report
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: June 13, 2003
Creator: Chite, Ralph M.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Agroterrorism: Threats and Preparedness (open access)

Agroterrorism: Threats and Preparedness

Although U.S. intelligence agencies have not identified any terrorist acts targeting agricultural production (i.e., agroterrorism) in the United States to date, the events of September 11, 2001 have awakened the nation to their possibility. Some experts estimate that a single agroterrorist attack using a highly contagious livestock disease could cost between $10 billion and $30 billion to the U.S. economy. This report addresses the use of biological weapons against agriculture, rather than the threat of terrorists using agricultural inputs for other purposes. It also focuses more on agricultural production than food processing and distribution.
Date: August 13, 2004
Creator: Monke, Jim
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Farm Program Spending: What's Permitted Under the Uruguay Round Agreements (open access)

Farm Program Spending: What's Permitted Under the Uruguay Round Agreements

This report discusses farm income and commodity price support proposals that might succeed the programs due to expire in 2002. A key question being asked of virtually every new proposal is how it will affect U.S. commitments under the 1994 Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (URAA), which commitsthe United States to spend no more than $19.1 billion annually on domestic farm supports most likely to distort trade. The URAA spells out the rules for countries to determine whether their policies are potentially trade distorting, and to calculate the costs.
Date: March 13, 2001
Creator: Becker, Geoffrey S.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Global Climate Change (open access)

Global Climate Change

This report discusses different perspectives used to consider issues related to the global climate change and issues related to the 1992 U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and the 1997 Kyoto Agreement.
Date: August 13, 2001
Creator: Justus, John R. & Fletcher, Susan R.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Global Climate Change: A Survey of Scientific Research and Policy Reports (open access)

Global Climate Change: A Survey of Scientific Research and Policy Reports

This report is intended to guide the reader through U.S. global climate change policy from the passage of the National Climate Program Act of 1978 (P.L. 95-367) through the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, where the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) was opened for signatures. It offers a summary of scientific research on global climate change and related U.S. policy and identifies what many consider to be important milestones in the international policy debate on global climate change.
Date: April 13, 2000
Creator: Morrissey, Wayne A.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Endangered Species: Difficult Choices (open access)

Endangered Species: Difficult Choices

This report discusses issues debated in the 107th Congress while is considering various proposals to amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA). Major issues in recent years have included changing the role of science in decision-making, changing the role of critical habitat, reducing conflicts with Department of Defense activities, incorporating further protection for property owners, and increasing protection of listed species, among others. In addition, many have advocated including significant changes to ESA regulations made during the Clinton Administration in the law itself.
Date: March 13, 2003
Creator: Buck, Eugene H.; Corn, M. Lynne & Baldwin, Pamela
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR): Controversies for the 108th Congress (open access)

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR): Controversies for the 108th Congress

This report discusses the ongoing debate about whether or not to approve energy development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Current law forbids energy leasing in the Refuge. This report addresses several legislative options on the issue, as well as policymakers' arguments for and against development, especially in the wake of increasing terrorism since 2000-2001.
Date: June 13, 2003
Creator: Corn, M. Lynne; Gelb, Bernard A. & Baldwin, Pamela
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Spending Pipeline: Stages of Federal Spending (open access)

The Spending Pipeline: Stages of Federal Spending

None
Date: June 13, 2003
Creator: Heniff, Bill, Jr.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Agricultural Marketing Assistance Loans and Loan Deficiency Payments (open access)

Agricultural Marketing Assistance Loans and Loan Deficiency Payments

Marketing assistance loans for the major crops were designed to facilitate orderly marketing by providing short-term financing so that farmers could pay their bills right after harvest and spread their sales over the entire marketing year. However, the persistence of very low commodity prices transformed the loan program into a major vehicle of farm income support. Marketing loan program benefits (primarily loan deficiency payments, LDPs) to farmers amounted to about $5.9 billion in 1999, and will exceed $6.5 billion in 2000. Such levels of use and high costs have revealed several administrative problems and given rise to several policy issues. Some policy makers have favored broadening the scope and enhancing the benefits of the program to achieve greater farm income support. Anticipated adverse market impacts have discouraged adoption of these proposals to date. A persistent policy issue is the payment limitation on marketing loan gains.
Date: December 13, 2000
Creator: Womach, Jasper
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Airport Improvement Program (open access)

Airport Improvement Program

This issue brief discusses the Airport Improvement Program and its complement, the Passenger Facility Charge (PFC). After a brief history of federal support for airport construction and improvement, the report describes AIP funding, its source of revenues, funding distribution, the types of projects the program funds, AIP and PFC policy issues, and the allowable use of AIP funds for airport security purposes.
Date: June 13, 2003
Creator: Kirk, Robert S.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Population Assistance and Family Planning Programs: Issues for Congress (open access)

Population Assistance and Family Planning Programs: Issues for Congress

None
Date: February 13, 2003
Creator: Nowels, Larry
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Continuing Appropriations Acts: Brief Overview of Recent Practices (open access)

Continuing Appropriations Acts: Brief Overview of Recent Practices

This report provides information on the history of continuing resolutions; the nature, scope, and duration of CRs during the last 30 years; the various types of CRs that have been enacted; and an overview of those instances when budget authority has lapsed and a funding gap has resulted.
Date: January 13, 2003
Creator: Streeter, Sandy
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act: Reauthorization and Appropriations (open access)

The Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act: Reauthorization and Appropriations

Congressional Research Service (CRS) report entailing information about reauthorization and appropriations of the Sade and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act. Topics include, state grants, national programs, appropriations and funding history, the Gun Free School Act, etc..
Date: March 13, 2003
Creator: Cooper, Edith Fairman
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Lumber Imports from Canada: Issues and Events (open access)

Lumber Imports from Canada: Issues and Events

This report provides a concise historical account of the dispute, summarizes the subsidy and injury evidence, and discusses the current issues and events regarding lumber imports from Canada.
Date: August 13, 2002
Creator: Gorte, Ross W. & Grimmett, Jeanne
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Child Pornography: Constitutional Principles and Federal Statutes (open access)

Child Pornography: Constitutional Principles and Federal Statutes

The Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996, P.L. 104-208, 110 Stat. 3009- 26, added a definition of “child pornography” that include visual depictions of what appears to be a minor engaging in explicit sexual conduct, even if no actual minor was used in producing the depiction. On April 16, 2002, in Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, the Supreme Court held this provision unconstitutional to the extent that it prohibited pictures that were not produced with actual minors. (This case is discussed under “Section 2256,” below.) In response to Ashcroft, bills were introduced in the House and Senate that would continue to ban some child pornography that was produced without an actual minor; on June 25, 2002, the House passed one such bill: H.R. 4623, 107th Congress.
Date: November 13, 2002
Creator: Cohen, Henry
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Missing and Exploited Children: Overview and Policy Concerns (open access)

Missing and Exploited Children: Overview and Policy Concerns

This report presents an overview of two national incidence studies prepared by Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) to determine annually the number of reported missing and recovered children in the nation. It also discusses the AMBER Alert System created to help recover reported missing children, legislation introduced in the 108th Congresses to address the missing children issue, and questions that remain regarding concerns about missing children. S. 151, the Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to End the Exploitation of Children Today (PROTECT) Act, which was signed into law (P.L. 108-21) by the President on April 30, 2003, contains provisions related to missing and exploited children.
Date: May 13, 2003
Creator: Cooper, Edith Fairman
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Treatment of "Battlefield Detainees" in the War on Terrorism (open access)

Treatment of "Battlefield Detainees" in the War on Terrorism

None
Date: January 13, 2005
Creator: Elsea, Jennifer K.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Privacy Protection for Customer Financial Information (open access)

Privacy Protection for Customer Financial Information

None
Date: June 13, 2003
Creator: Murphy, M. Maureen
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): Statutory Language and Recent Issues (open access)

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): Statutory Language and Recent Issues

This report summarizes the major provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and also discusses selected recent issues, including ten ADA Supreme Court cases.
Date: December 13, 2001
Creator: Jones, Nancy Lee
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Guide to Major Congressional and Presidential Awards (open access)

A Guide to Major Congressional and Presidential Awards

This report is designed to help congressional offices obtain information about major awards given by Congress and the President. It lists details about the establishment, criteria, selection process, and presentation of each of the major presidential and congressional awards: Congressional Award, Congressional Gold Medal, Medal of Honor, Presidential Citizens Medal, and Presidential Medal of Freedom. Brief entries are provided for additional awards made by the President including two new military medals for service in the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT): the GWOT Expeditionary Medal and the GWOT Service Medal. Contact information for the organization responsible for making the award and for more data about an award is provided. References to CRS products on awards are also given.
Date: June 13, 2003
Creator: Salazar, Barbara A.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Tracking Current Federal Legislation and Regulations: A Guide to Basic Sources (open access)

Tracking Current Federal Legislation and Regulations: A Guide to Basic Sources

This report introduces selected basic sources that are useful in obtaining background information or specific facts on the status of federal legislative or regulatory initiatives. It includes telephone, online, and media sources are included, as well as pertinent directories, such as those of organizations that track areas of interest. Annotations describing each source's contents and organization are included so that researchers can select those that most closely fit their needs. Internet addresses usually provide information about the items, rather than access to them.
Date: February 13, 2003
Creator: Davis, Carol D.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Tracking Current Federal Legislation and Regulations: A Guide to Basic Sources (open access)

Tracking Current Federal Legislation and Regulations: A Guide to Basic Sources

This report introduces selected basic sources that are useful in obtaining background information or specific facts on the status of federal legislative or regulatory initiatives. It includes telephone, online, and media sources are included, as well as pertinent directories, such as those of organizations that track areas of interest. Annotations describing each source's contents and organization are included so that researchers can select those that most closely fit their needs. Internet addresses usually provide information about the items, rather than access to them.
Date: January 13, 2005
Creator: Davis, Carol D.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library