This report discusses the revision of U.S. immigration policy on agricultural guest workers that are coming from various perspectives, and several major bills have already been introduced in the 107th Congress.

This issue brief provides an overview of legislation to reauthorize the ESEA, ERDDIA, and NESA. Most of it will focus on the ESEA, since it is much larger in scale. We include a summary review of relevant legislation acted upon during the 106th Congress. This issue brief will be updated regularly to reflect current legislative activity. Other issue briefs and reports, listed at the end of this brief, provide more detailed information on individual programs or types of proposals and analyses of the issues being debated with respect to them.

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.

The report describes the authorization of funding for the Promoting Safe and Stable Families program (first created in 1993 under a different name) that has expired in the end of FY2001; thus, the 107th Congress acted to reauthorize this program and make some program changes (H.R. 2873, P.L. 107-133). P.L. 107-133 expands the definition of family preservation services under the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program to include infant safe haven programs; clarifies the meaning of family support to include services that “strengthen parental relationships and promote healthy marriages”; provides for reallocation of unused program funds; and states that, out of any discretionary funds appropriated for the Safe and Stable Families Program, 3.3% will be added to the existing $10 million setaside for Court Improvement Grants; 3.3% will be added to the existing $6 million reservation for evaluation, technical assistance, research and training; and 2% will be added to the existing set-aside for Indian tribes (1% of mandatory funds).

The House considers bills and resolutions on the floor under several different sets of procedures governing the time for debate and the opportunities for amendment. Some procedures allow 40 or 60 minutes for debate; others permit debate to continue until a majority of Members vote to end it. Some procedures prohibit most or all floor amendments; others allow Members to offer any amendments that meet the requirements of the House’s rules and precedents. Notwithstanding these differences, the rules, precedents, and practices of the House generally are designed to permit the majority to work its will in a timely manner. This report provides a brief overview of this procedure.

The conference report presents the formal legislative language on which the conference committee has agreed. The joint explanatory statement explains the various elements of the conferees’ agreement in relation to the positions that the House and Senate had committed to the conference committee.

This report discusses the scope and nature of the safety challenge associated with the Firestone tire recall, and summarizes NHTSA’s defect investigations process (as of the end of the 106th Congress) and several relevant actions that NHTSA has taken to date. Second, some of the key efforts of Ford Motor Company (Ford) and Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. (Firestone) to deal with this challenge and associated economic impacts of the reported tire failures, and the recall are summarized

Under the federal system in the United States, the states and localities traditionally have held the major responsibility for prevention and control of crime and maintenance of order. For most of the Republic’s history, “police powers” in the broad sense were reserved to the states under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution. Many still hold that view, but others see a string of court decisions in recent decades as providing the basis for a far more active federal role. Several bills are discussed in this report that address issues related to crime, juvenile justice, and school violence.

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This report presents an overview of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict. This is a clash between the principles of territorial integrity and self-determination that is occurring in the Caucasus, creating the longest inter-ethnic dispute in the former Soviet Union. The report includes the background and analysis of history, warfare and peace process in the region. The report discusses the Armenian and Azerbaijani perspective, the role and views of others (Iran, Turkey, Russia), as well as the U.S. policy regarding the conflict.

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The U.S. Army has begun an ambitious program intended to transform itself into a strategically responsive force dominant in all types of ground operations. As planned, its Objective Force will eventually meld all ongoing initiatives into a force based on a high-tech Future Combat System. This short report briefly describes the program and discusses issues of feasibility, viability, and affordability of potential interest to Congress.

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CRS Report for Congress entailing issues and legislative action in regards to K-12 teacher quality. Topics include, unionization, funding, tenure, etc..

This report examines various issues pertaining to foreign students in the United States. Since the Immigration Act of 1924, the United States has expressly permitted foreign students to study in U.S. institutions. Most foreign students are at least 18 years old and are enrolled in higher education programs. Foreign students are generally considered to enrich cultural diversity of the educational experience for U.S. residents as well as enhance the reputation of U.S. universities as world-class institutions. Concerns have arisen in recent years that have caused Congress to take a new look at the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) provisions that govern their admission.

This report discusses proposals for international tsunami early warning systems and examines U.S. policy regarding tsunamis.

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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 Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary and Related Agencies.

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This report addresses the current policy on immigration visa issuances and options for reassigning this function to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It opens with an overview of visa issuances, with sections on procedures for aliens coming to live in the United States permanently and on procedures for aliens admitted for temporary stays. An analysis of the grounds for excluding aliens follows. The report summarizes the debate on transferring visa issuance policy functions to homeland security and concludes with a discussion of the legislative proposals to reassign the visa issuance activities and to revise visa issuance policies.