This report provides a brief overview of the history of the negotiations regarding reunification of the island of Cyprus and a description of some of the issues involved in those talks.

This report discusses a potential negotiated end to the conflict in Afghanistan, prompted by Afghan government negotiations with the Taliban, the June 2018 ceasefire, and possible U.S.-Taliban talks.

This report provides an overview of mutual legal assistance treaties (MLATs) in general and a sketch of the terms of the U.S.-Russia MLAT in particular.

This report discusses the use of chemical weapons (CW). Despite being banned under the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), has become a growing international concern in the past several years.

This report examines the current political state of Afghanistan at length, discussing the political background, security policy, and regional relations.

This report first reviews the basics of international tax rules. It then discusses the various action items organized into Action Item 1, which relates to the digital economy and proposes standards only with respect to VATS; Action Items 2-5, 7, and 8-10, items related primarily to profit shifting; Action Item 5, which relates to harmful tax practices; Action Item 6, regarding tax treaties; and Action Items 11-15, which are primarily administrative in nature.

This report provides a summary and analysis of the current state of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) in the United States and current legislation and funding related to the CCS process and the regulation of air pollution and greenhouse gases.

This report provides information on environmental damage and restoration activities related to the Deepwater Horizon spill. An overview of how the RESTORE Act is being implemented and a discussion of multiple funding sources and plans to recover and restore the Gulf Coast environment are discussed. Further, potential issues for Congress related to this restoration initiative are presented.

This report analyzes U.S. and international sanctions against Iran and provides some examples, based on open sources, of companies and countries that conduct business with Iran.

This report provides summaries of each provision of the Obamacare Repeal Reconciliation Act of 2017 (ORRA).

This report first provides a brief overview of Senate rules as they pertain to committee actions. The report then provides tables that summarize selected, key features of each committee's rules in regard to meeting day, hearing and meeting notice requirements, scheduling of witnesses, hearing quorum, business quorum, amendment filing requirements, proxy voting, polling, nominations, investigations, and subpoenas. In addition, the report looks at selected unique provisions some committees have included in their rules in the miscellaneous category. The tables represent only a portion of each committee's rules, and provisions of the rules that are substantially similar to or essentially restatements of the Senate's Standing Rules are not included. This report will be not be updated further during the 115th Congress.

This report discusses the U.S. export control system and initiatives to reform the export control system. Topics covered include the dual-use system, military export controls, nuclear controls, and President Obama's export control initiative.

The combination of Charter, Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC), and Bright House Networks (BHN) would create a single entity providing cable television and broadband access service to 23.9 million customers in 41 states, making it the nation’s second-largest cable television operator and broadband access provider. At the federal level, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) must approve the transactions before they can close.This report describes recent trends in the television industry, the events leading up to the proposed transactions, and the criteria and process of regulatory review.

This report addresses the two primary components of the concurrent receipt program: Combat-Related Compensation(CRSC) and Concurrent Retirement and Disability Payments(CRDP). It reviews the possible legislative expansion of the program to additional populations and provides several potential options for Congress to consider.

This report gives an overview of the background and current developments of the Democratic Republic of Congo

This report provides an overview of the key issues for Congress related to Egypt and U.S. foreign aid to Egypt. The United States has provided significant military and economic assistance to Egypt since the late 1970s. Successive U.S. Administrations have routinely justified aid to Egypt as an investment in regional stability, built primarily on long-running cooperation with the Egyptian military and on sustaining the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty.

This report serves as a primer on the European Union (EU) and provides a brief description of U.S.-EU relations that may be of interest in the 114th Congress. The EU is a political and economic partnership that represents a unique form of cooperation among sovereign countries, comprising 28 member states, including most of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe; the group has helped to promote peace, stability, and economic prosperity throughout the European continent.

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This report discusses the nature of multiemployer defined benefit (DB) pension plans, and issues regarding their financial solvency. DB pension plans are sponsored by more than one employer and maintained as part of a collective bargaining agreement.

This report provides information on the types of data that may be collected in a typical personnel security background investigation. In a July 9, 2015, news release on the cyber-intrusions of its systems, OPM "concluded with high confidence that sensitive information, including the Social Security Numbers (SSNs) of 21.5 million individuals, was stolen from the background investigation databases." This report is not an official statement of the data that was compromised in the OPM breach.

This report provides information on the use of risk and needs assessment in the criminal justice system. It starts with an overview of risk and needs assessment and a discussion of some critiques. The report concludes with a discussion of the issues policymakers might consider if they debate legislation to expand the use of risk and needs assessment in the federal prison system.

This report examines the interplay between the federal government -- i.e., Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) -- and state and local jurisdictions in enforcing immigration law, with a specific focus on noncitizens who have been convicted of a crime. It briefly outlines the evolution of the cooperation among law enforcement agencies, then discusses current administrative efforts to involve state and local law enforcement, and explores major programs and federal resources available to those agencies that cooperate with ICE to enforce immigration law.

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This report discusses the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which is a nonreciprocal trade preference program that provides duty-free treatment to U.S. imports of certain products from eligible sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries.