Agricultural Trade Issues in the 106th Congress (open access)

Agricultural Trade Issues in the 106th Congress

Agricultural interests have been following trade policy developments against a backdrop of weak foreign demand and large world supplies of agricultural products. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that the value of U.S. agricultural exports fell between FY1996 (a record year) and FY1999 by almost $11 billion. USDA forecasts agricultural exports at $50.5 billion in FY2000 and $51.5 billion in FY2001. However, the projected agricultural trade surpluses for those years, of $11.5 billion and $12 billion, would be less than half the FY1996 surplus of $27.2 billion. Many agricultural groups and their supporters in Congress believe that the sector's future prosperity depends upon such U.S. trade policies as: 1) encouraging China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), with its binding rules and responsibilities; 2) exempting agriculture from U.S. unilateral economic sanctions; 3) fully using export and food aid programs; and 4) aggressively battling foreign-imposed barriers to the movement of U.S. farm products. A few U.S. farm groups are wary of such approaches.
Date: November 27, 2000
Creator: Becker, Geoffrey S.; Hanrahan, Charles E. & Jurenas, Remy
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Sugar Policy Issues (open access)

Sugar Policy Issues

None
Date: March 27, 2003
Creator: Jurenas, Remy
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Soil and Water Conservation Issues (open access)

Soil and Water Conservation Issues

None
Date: May 27, 2003
Creator: Zinn, Jeffrey A.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Dairy Policy Issues (open access)

Dairy Policy Issues

Several dairy issues that were debated during the 108th Congress are expected to continue as issues of interest in the 109th Congress. Separate bills were introduced in the 108th Congress to extend authority for both the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) Program and the dairy forward pricing pilot program, and to address dairy producer concerns about the importation of milk protein concentrates.
Date: September 27, 2002
Creator: Chite, Ralph M.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Global Climate Change (open access)

Global Climate Change

This report briefly reviews the status of climate science, international negotiations, and congressional activity focused specifically on climate change.
Date: March 27, 2002
Creator: Justus, John R. & Fletcher, Susan R.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Global Climate Change: Market-Based Strategies to Reduce Greenhouse Gases (open access)

Global Climate Change: Market-Based Strategies to Reduce Greenhouse Gases

This report discusses global climate change and the possibility that human activities are releasing gases, including carbon dioxide (CO2), at rates that could affect global climate change.
Date: August 27, 2002
Creator: Parker, Larry
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Global Climate Change: The Kyoto Protocol (open access)

Global Climate Change: The Kyoto Protocol

This report discusses the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that was completed December 11, 1997, committing the industrialized nations to specified, legally binding reductions in emissions of six “greenhouse gases.”
Date: October 27, 2004
Creator: Fletcher, Susan R.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Legislative Issues (open access)

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Legislative Issues

This report discusses the ongoing debate about whether or not to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) for energy development. The report discusses arguments for and against such development and focuses especially on related pieces of legislation that directly affects the future of the ANWR.
Date: June 27, 2002
Creator: Corn, M. Lynne; Gelb, Bernard A. & Baldwin, Pamela
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Mad Cow Disease: Agricultural Issues for Congress (open access)

Mad Cow Disease: Agricultural Issues for Congress

This report discuses lumber imports from Canada and provides a concise historical account of the dispute, summarizes the subsidy and injury evidence, and discusses the current issues and events.
Date: October 27, 2004
Creator: Becker, Geoffrey S.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act: Full Funding of State Formula (open access)

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act: Full Funding of State Formula

This report discusses Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which assists participating states to serve school-age children with disabilities. The state funding formula, which provides a foundation amount based on states’ FY1999 grants and allocates remaining amounts based on states’ shares of school-age children and of school-age poor children, authorizes a maximum allotment per disabled child served of 40% of the national average per pupil expenditure (APPE). Annual appropriations have never been sufficient to provide each state its maximum allotment; in FY2002, states will receive approximately 16.5% of the national APPE per disabled child served. Some advocates for the program have called upon the Congress to fully fund the formula. An estimated $18.2 billion would be required to provide states the maximum allotment allowed per disabled child served in FY2002, about 2.4 times more than the appropriation of $7.5 billion for FY2002.
Date: December 27, 2001
Creator: Apling, Richard N.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Environmental Protection Agency's FY2004 Budget (open access)

The Environmental Protection Agency's FY2004 Budget

For FY2004, the President’s budget requested $7.6 billion in budget authority for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), $448 million (or 6%) less than the $8.1 billion current funding level. The House approved $8.0 billion in H.R. 2861 (H.Rept. 108-235) on July 25. Senate action is anticipated in September. The request consisted of $3.1 billion for EPA operating expenses, $3.1 billion for assisting state and local governments, and $1.4 billion for cleaning up Superfund toxic waste sites. Wastewater infrastructure needs and the future of Superfund are prominent topics.
Date: August 27, 2003
Creator: Lee, Martin R.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Item Veto and Expanded Impoundment Proposals (open access)

Item Veto and Expanded Impoundment Proposals

In recent years conflicting budget priorities and divided political control have accentuated the institutional tensions between the executive and legislative branches inherent in the federal budget process. President Clinton, like his two predecessors, called for an item veto, or possibly expanded impoundment authority, to provide him with greater control over federal spending. This report provides a brief history of impoundment and discusses the debate surrounding the line item veto.
Date: November 27, 2002
Creator: McMurtry, Virginia A.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Budget FY2001: A Chronology with Internet Access (open access)

Budget FY2001: A Chronology with Internet Access

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 2000, covering the FY2001 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.
Date: December 27, 2000
Creator: Thomas, Pearl
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Appropriations for FY2001: District of Columbia (open access)

Appropriations for FY2001: District of Columbia

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 Appropriations.
Date: November 27, 2000
Creator: Boyd, Eugene
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
21st Century Community Learning Centers in P.L. 107-110: Background and Funding (open access)

21st Century Community Learning Centers in P.L. 107-110: Background and Funding

Most Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) programs, including the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) program, expired at the end of FY2000.1 Included in the No Child Left Behind Act is the reauthorization of the 21st CCLC, with, a new location (Title IV, Part B, 21st Century Schools), and several substantive changes. On December 13 and 18, 2001, respectively, the House and Senate adopted the conference version of H.R. 1, The No Child Left Behind Act. The President signed H.R. 1 into law (P.L. 107-110) on January 8, 2002. This report summarizes the major provisions of the reauthorized 21st CCLC program. The reauthorized program is structured as a formula grant program to states, in response to concerns that a program as large as the 21st CCLC could no longer be equitably administered as a competitive grant program. In addition, the reauthorized program formally endorses a focus for the 21st CCLC on after-school hours activities for children and youth.
Date: February 27, 2003
Creator: McCallion, Gail
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Federal Grants to State and Local Governments: Overview and Characteristics (open access)

Federal Grants to State and Local Governments: Overview and Characteristics

Each fiscal year, Congress appropriates funds for grants to state and local governments to further national goals and assist state and local government operations. Examples of goals include attaining minimum national standards and improving program effectiveness. The federal government provides grants for numerous substantive purposes, such as crime prevention, community development, and transportation. In FY2001, grants to state and local governments totaled $317 billion. Grants can be classified by the substantive purposes they address. This report, however, reviews the fundamental characteristics by which they can also be classified. Examples of grant characteristics include range of eligible activities, objectives, award process, and administrative requirements.
Date: November 27, 2002
Creator: Canada, Ben
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Industrial Competitiveness and Technological Advancement: Debate Over Government Policy (open access)

Industrial Competitiveness and Technological Advancement: Debate Over Government Policy

This report discusses the ongoing congressional interest in the pace of U.S. technological advancement due to its influence on U.S. economic growth, productivity, and international competitiveness. Because technology can contribute to economic growth and productivity increases, congressional interest has focused on how to augment private-sector technological development. Legislative activity over the past decade has created a policy for technology development, albeit an ad hoc one. Because of the lack of consensus on the scope and direction of a national policy, Congress has taken an incremental approach aimed at creating new mechanisms to facilitate technological advancement in particular areas and making changes and improvements as necessary.
Date: January 27, 2003
Creator: Schacht, Wendy H.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Electronic Commerce: An Introduction (open access)

Electronic Commerce: An Introduction

Electronic commercial transactions over the Internet, or “e-commerce,” have grown so fast over the last five years that many experts continue to underestimate its growth and development. Whether retail business-to-customer or business-to-business transactions, e-commerce shows no signs of slowing down. In turn, policymakers both in the United States and abroad are likely to face increasingly complex issues of security, privacy, taxation, infrastructure development and other issues in 2000 and beyond. This report will be updated periodically.
Date: June 27, 2000
Creator: McLoughlin, Glenn J.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Juvenile Justice Legislation: Overview and the Legislative Debate (open access)

Juvenile Justice Legislation: Overview and the Legislative Debate

None
Date: November 27, 2002
Creator: O'Bryant, JoAnne; Teasley, David & Cooper, Edith Fairman
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
SCHIP Financing Issues for the 108th Congress (open access)

SCHIP Financing Issues for the 108th Congress

None
Date: June 27, 2003
Creator: Kraut, Peter & Baumrucker, Evelyne P.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Freedom of Speech and Press: Exceptions to the First Amendment (open access)

Freedom of Speech and Press: Exceptions to the First Amendment

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press. . . .” This language restricts government both more and less than it would if it were applied literally. It restricts government more in that it applies not only to Congress, but to all branches of the federal government, and to all branches of state and local government. It restricts government less in that it provides no protection to some types of speech and only limited protection to others. This report provides an overview of the major exceptions to the First Amendment – of the ways that the Supreme Court has interpreted the guarantee of freedom of speech and press to provide no protection or only limited protection for some types of speech.
Date: August 27, 2003
Creator: Cohen, Henry
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Privacy Protection: Mandating New Arrangements to Implement and Assess Federal Privacy Policy and Practice (open access)

Privacy Protection: Mandating New Arrangements to Implement and Assess Federal Privacy Policy and Practice

None
Date: May 27, 2004
Creator: Relyea, Harold C.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Flag Protection: A Brief History and Summary of Recent Supreme Court Decisions and Proposed Constitutional Amendment (open access)

Flag Protection: A Brief History and Summary of Recent Supreme Court Decisions and Proposed Constitutional Amendment

This report is divided into two parts. The first gives a brief history of the flag protection issue, from the enactment of the Flag Protection Act in 1968 through current consideration of a constitutional amendment. The second part briefly summarizes the two decisions of the United States Supreme Court, Texas v. Johnson and United States v. Eichman, that struck down the state and federal flag protection statutes as applied in the context punishing expressive conduct.
Date: January 27, 2003
Creator: Luckey, John R.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Agriculture and Fast Track Trade Legislation (open access)

Agriculture and Fast Track Trade Legislation

The 107th Congress is expected to consider new "fast track" (or, Presidential trade promotion) authority, which could enable the Administration to submit trade agreements negotiated with foreign countries to Congress for consideration under expedited procedures. Many agricultural and food industry interests are among the export-oriented enterprises that support fast track authority, arguing that foreign trading partners will not seriously negotiate with an Administration that lacks it. However, some agricultural groups argue that fast track ultimately will lead to new agreements that deliver more benefits to foreign than to U.S. producers, at least in some commodity sectors.
Date: March 27, 2001
Creator: Becker, Geoffrey S. & Hanrahan, Charles E.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library