This report addresses legal issues after the United States signed the Kyoto Protocol to the UnitedNations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The protocol is not yet in effect internationally and cannot be legally binding on the U.S. unless and until the Senate gives its advice and consent.

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.

This report discusses key issues in U.S.-Philippine relations and developments in Philippine politics, economics, society, and foreign relations. Global terrorism concerns have brought the United States and the Republic of the Philippines (RP) closer together, but they also have produced some bilateral tensions and highlighted weaknesses in Philippine economic, political, and military institutions. The RP faces terrorist threats through alleged cooperation among three groups — Jeremiah Islamiah (JI), the main Southeast Asian Islamic terrorist organization with ties to Al Qaeda; Abu Sayyaf, a small, violent Muslim separatist group which operates in Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago in the southern Philippines; and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), an armed separatist group with alleged ties to both JI and Abu Sayyaf. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has strongly supported the U.S.-led war on terrorism.

This report discusses policy options for Congress regarding gas prices. The high price of gasoline was an important consideration during the debate on major energy legislation, which ended August 8 as the President signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005, H.R. 6 (P.L. 109-58). However, prices continued to surge, spiking at the end of August when Hurricane Katrina shut down refining operations in the Gulf of Mexico. The continuing crisis renewed attention to some issues that were dropped or compromised in the debate over P.L. 109-58. A large number of factors combined to put pressure on gasoline prices, including increased world demand for crude oil and U.S. refinery capacity inadequate to supply gasoline to a recovering national economy. The war and continued violence in Iraq added uncertainty and a threat of supply disruption that added pressure particularly to the commodity futures markets.

This report provides an overview of madrasas, their role in the Muslim world, and issues related to their alleged links to terrorism. The report also addresses the findings of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the “9/11 Commission”) and issues relevant to the second session of the 109th Congress.

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.

This report is intended to provide a summary of legislative attempts to address issues of energy development and preservation in the Refuge from the 95th Congress through the 110th Congress, with emphasis on the 107th through 110th Congresses.

This report examines key uncertainties in CO2 pipeline requirements for carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) by contrasting hypothetical pipeline scenarios in one region of the United States. The report summarizes the key factors influencing CO2 pipeline configuration for major power plants in the region, and illustrates how the viability of different sequestration sites may lead to enormous differences in pipeline costs.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether section 1305.003(14) of the Texas Occupations Code exempts from state licensing requirements all persons performing electrical work for a private industrial business, even if a person is not an employee of the private industrial business (RQ-0233-GA)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether a professional engineer may prepare all plans and specifications for a public building described in Occupations Code section 1051.703(a) without engaging the services of a licensed architect (RQ-0360-GA)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether the wealth-reduction provisions of chapter 41 of the Texas Education Code apply to that portion of local property tax revenues attributable to a school district’s tax rate in excess of $1.50 per $100 valuation (RQ-0562-JC)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether the divestiture in section 12.152(b) of the Utilities Code applies to an interest under section 12.053(b)(1)(B) (RQ-0575-JC)

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Farm Service Agency (FSA) within the Department of Agriculture provides financial assistance to farmers and ranchers who are unable to obtain commercial credit at reasonable rates and terms. FSA provides direct government-funded loans and repayment guarantees on farm loans made by commercial lenders. During the 1990s, GAO issued a series of reports highlighting the substantial financial risk associated with FSA's farm loan programs and multibillion-dollar portfolio. GAO recently reviewed FSA's farm loan programs to determine the outstanding principal owed on direct and guaranteed farm loans at the end of fiscal year 2000 and the losses incurred by FSA on direct and guaranteed farm loans in the same year. GAO found that FSA had more than $16.6 billion in outstanding farm loans as of September 2000. Farm loan losses incurred by FSA during fiscal year 2000 totalled about $486 million. Both figures represent a significant decrease when compared to figures for earlier years."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "From fiscal years 1997 through 2000, the number of individual and business tax returns filed electronically increased from 23 million to 41 million. During the same period, the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) expenditures for submission processing grew from $795 million to $924 million, an increase of 16 percent. Because it costs less to process an electronic return than a paper return, a growth in processing costs seemed improbable. Interviews with IRS officials and an analysis of relevant documentation identified several factors that limited the impact of electronic filing. Specifically, (1) the overall number of individual and business tax returns filed increased, and the resources needed to process that increase partially offset the resources saved by processing more electronic returns; (2) the number of the most costly to process individual income tax returns filed on paper essentially stayed the same; and (3) the number of individual income tax returns filed on paper and received during the peak filing period stayed relatively the same, and peak processing needs drive the resources needed to process individual paper returns. Although electronic filing increased, so did the demands placed on paper …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "When shipments of dangerous goods (hazardous chemical substances that could endanger public safety or the environment, such as flammable liquids or radioactive materials) are not properly packaged and labeled for air transport, they can pose significant threats because there is little room for error when something goes wrong in flight. To better understand the risks posed by improper ("undeclared") air shipments, we assessed what is known about their nature and frequency, what key mechanisms are in place to prevent their occurrence, and what the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Postal Service do to enforce federal regulations for shipping dangerous goods by air."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Rising prescription drug costs have contributed to rising employer health plans premiums in recent years. Most federal employees, retirees, and their dependents participating in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), administered by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), are enrolled in plans that contract with pharmacy benefit managers (PBM) to administer their prescription drug benefits. GAO was asked to examine how pharmacy benefits managers participating in the federal program affect health plans, enrollees, and pharmacies. GAO examined the use of PBMs by three plans representing about 55 percent of the 8.3 million people covered by FEHBP plans. For example, GAO surveyed 36 retail pharmacies on prices that a customer without third party coverage would pay for 18 high-volume or high-expenditure drugs and compared these prices to prices paid by the plans and PBMs."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In 2001, Medicare's outpatient expenditures for blood clotting factor used to treat the estimated 1,100 beneficiaries with hemophilia totaled about $105 million, or more than 2 percent of total Medicare spending on outpatient drugs. Earlier work by GAO indicated that Medicare's payment for certain outpatient drugs is substantially higher than providers' acquisition costs. Concerns have been raised about Medicare's payment for blood clotting factor. GAO was asked to compare provider costs of purchasing clotting factor with Medicare's payment for it and to identify costs to providers associated with delivering clotting factor."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) plays a critical role in supporting America's military forces worldwide. DLA relies on software-intensive systems to support its work. An important determinant of the quality of software-intensive systems, and thus DLA's mission performance, is the quality of the processes used to acquire these systems. DLA lacks mature software acquisition processes across the agency, as seen in the wide disparity in the rigor and discipline of processes between the two systems GAO evaluated. DLA also lacks a software process improvement program to effectively strengthen its corporate software acquisition processes."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Among the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) many tools to collect outstanding taxes is its ability to use the property of a taxpayer as security for an outstanding tax debt. IRS exercises this power when it files a federal tax lien against the property of a taxpayer. As part of its tax collection activities, IRS reported filing more than 548,000 tax liens against taxpayer property in fiscal year 2003. Since a lien encumbers taxpayer property, IRS's ability to file a lien is a powerful tool in enforcing the tax laws. With this power, however, comes the responsibility to ensure that liens are released timely once taxpayers satisfy their tax debt. The Internal Revenue Code (IRC) addresses timeliness by requiring IRS to release liens within 30 days of the tax debt's satisfaction. If IRS fails to timely release federal tax liens, taxpayers can suffer undue hardship and burden. Because federal tax liens appear on commercial credit reports, (1) businesses may be unable to obtain necessary credit because lenders may assume they are bad credit risks, (2) individuals may miss an opportunity to buy a home or an automobile because they …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), which is operated by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), is responsible for, among other things, designing nuclear weapons. Over the past decade, we have documented numerous security, safety, and project management weaknesses at NNSA's nuclear weapons complex, including LANL. In particular, LANL has experienced a series of high-profile security incidents that have drawn attention to the laboratory's inability to account for and control classified information and maintain a safe work environment. In July 2004, LANL's director declared a suspension--or stand-down--of laboratory operations to address immediate concerns, including the loss of classified computer disks. During the stand-down, laboratory teams identified more than 3,400 security and safety issues. As a result of systemic management concerns, and the fact that the laboratory contractor--the University of California--did not adequately address these problems, the Department of Energy (DOE) decided in 2003 to allow other organizations to compete for the management contract at LANL. The University of California, which had been the exclusive management and operating contractor since the 1940s, was replaced in June 2006 by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, (LANS). LANS is a consortium of …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO provided information on the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program, focusing on the characteristics of tax properties and their residents."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The expanding implementation of health information technology (IT) and electronic health information exchange networks raises concerns regarding the extent to which the privacy of individuals' electronic health information is protected. In April 2004, President Bush called for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop and implement a strategic plan to guide the nationwide implementation of health IT. The plan is to recommend methods to ensure the privacy of electronic health information. GAO was asked to describe HHS's efforts to ensure privacy as part of its national strategy and to identify challenges associated with protecting electronic personal health information. To do this, GAO assessed relevant HHS privacy-related initiatives and analyzed information from health information organizations."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "U.S. companies adversely affected by unfair imports may seek a number of relief measures, including antidumping (AD) duties. The Department of Commerce (Commerce) classifies China as a nonmarket economy (NME) and uses a special methodology that is commonly believed to produce AD duty rates that are higher than those applied to market economies. Commerce may stop applying its NME methodology if it finds that China warrants designation as a market economy. In light of increased concern about China's trade practices, the conference report on fiscal year 2004 appropriations requested that GAO review efforts by U.S. government agencies responsible for ensuring free and fair trade with that country. In this report, the last in a series, GAO (1) explains the NME methodology, (2) analyzes AD duties applied to China and compares them with duties applied to market economies, and (3) explains circumstances in which the United States would stop applying its NME methodology to China and evaluates the potential impact of such a step. Commerce agreed with our findings, commenting that our report provides timely and helpful information on the NME methodology and its application to China."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Corporate failures and accounting scandals led to changes in legislation governing U.S. securities markets, which resulted in increased workload demands on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). As a result, Congress provided SEC with substantial budgetary increases to obtain more resources to help fulfill the agency's mission. GAO was asked to review SEC's strategic workforce planning efforts to efficiently and effectively utilize its resources. This report discusses (1) the progress SEC has made toward developing a strategic human capital plan and (2) whether SEC uses effective strategic workforce planning principles for acquiring, developing, and retaining staff."