Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports and Issue Briefs articles from September 2005

Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports and Issue Briefs archives from September 2005

Organization and mission of the emergency preparedness and response directorate: issues and options for the 109th Congress.
September 1, 2005... Summary On July 13, 2005, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Michael Chertoff released an assessment of departmental functions known as the second stage review, or 2SR. The recommended changes, planned for implementation on...

Background.(Organization and Mission of the Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate: Issues and Options for the 109th Congress)
September 1, 2005... The Administration Proposal. Shortly after his confirmation on February 15, 2005, as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Michael Chertoff initiated a study, referred to as the Second Stage Review (2SR), of the mission and...

Issue discussion, questions and responses.(Organization and Mission of the Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate: Issues and Options for the 109th Congress)
September 1, 2005... The final report issued by the former Inspector General for DHS (Clark Kent Ervin) at the end of the 108th Congress included the following assessment: "Integrating its many separate components into a single, effective, efficient, and economical...

Summary of options for Congress.(Organization and Mission of the Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate: Issues and Options for the 109th Congress)
September 1, 2005... The 2SR process has, from the Administration's perspective, identified shortcomings that arguably require reorganizations and realignments of federal emergency preparedness and response functions. This section summarizes some of the options...

Conclusion.(Organization and Mission of the Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate: Issues and Options for the 109th Congress)(Brief article)
September 1, 2005... The Homeland Security Act of 2002 established the statutory framework for DHS and its components, including EPR. From enactment of the HSA in 2002 to the present, changes have taken place with regard to the mission of EPR. Elements identified...

Appendix A: acronym glossary.(Organization and Mission of the Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate: Issues and Options for the 109th Congress)(List)
September 1, 2005... Appendix A: Acronym Glossary Acronym Meaning 2SR Second stage review CDC Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CEM Comprehensive emergency management COG Continuity of government CONPLAN...

Appendix B: evolution of federal emergency authorities.(Organization and Mission of the Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate: Issues and Options for the 109th Congress)
September 1, 2005... From the early years of the republic to 1950, Congress enacted legislation that directed federal disaster relief. Laws that were unique to each disaster authorized the amount of funds to be distributed, the type of federal equipment to be sent,...

Hurricane Katrina: the response by the Internal Revenue Service.
September 1, 2005... Summary After Hurricane Katrina, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced several tax relief measures to aid affected individuals and businesses. They cover a range of subjects, from postponing deadlines for paying taxes and filing...

The macroeconomic effects of Hurricane Katrina.
September 1, 2005... Summary Hurricane Katrina will have substantial and long-term effects on the economies of southern Louisiana and Mississippi. But, given that those two states account for just 2% of total U.S. gross domestic product, the effects on the...

Federal food assistance: Hurricane Katrina.
September 1, 2005... Summary The Agriculture Department has effectively waived most eligibility and benefit rules governing food assistance programs for those affected by Hurricane Katrina, making them automatically eligible for maximum benefits. It also is...

Regulatory waivers and extensions pursuant to Hurricane Katrina.
September 1, 2005... Summary Federal agencies have waived a number of regulatory requirements and extended the deadlines for certain reports and applications to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina and to ease the economic effects of the storm. Most of the...

Federal affirmative action law: a brief history.
September 1, 2005... Summary Affirmative action remains a focal point of public debate as the result of legal and political developments at the federal, state, and local levels. In recent years, federal courts have reviewed minority admissions programs to...

U.S.-India bilateral agreements in 2005.
September 1, 2005... Summary On July 18, 2005, President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh issued a Joint Statement resolving to establish a "global partnership" between the United States and India through increased cooperation on numerous...

Tax policy options after Hurricane Katrina.
September 1, 2005... Summary The damage from Hurricane Katrina raises at least four issues that might be addressed by tax policy. The first issue is that the effect of the disaster, particularly given the potential impact on energy prices, might contract...

Hurricane Katrina: insurance losses and national capacities for financing disaster risk.(Statistical data)
September 1, 2005... Summary On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Gulf of Mexico coast with high velocity winds, storm surge, heavy rain, flooding, coastal erosion, hail, and tornadoes. The storm caused deaths, injuries, property and...

Repairing and reconstructing disaster-damaged roads and bridges: the role of Federal-Aid highway assistance.
September 1, 2005... Summary When Hurricane Katrina swept across the Gulf of Mexico coast and into Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, its winds, storm surge, and flooding did significant damage to the road and bridge infrastructure in the coastal areas of...

The use of federal troops for disaster assistance: legal issues.
September 1, 2005... Summary Hurricane Katrina has raised questions concerning the President's legal authority to send active duty military forces into a disaster area and the permissible functions the military can perform to protect life and property and...

H.R. 3768: the Katrina Emergency Tax Relief Act of 2005.
September 1, 2005... Summary On September 15, 2005, the House and Senate passed different versions of a bill that contains tax provisions intended to assist the victims of Hurricane Katrina. H.R. 3768, the Katrina Emergency Tax Relief Act of 2005, was passed...

Hurricane Katrina-related immigration issues and legislation.
September 1, 2005... Summary The devastation and displacement caused by Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast region of the United States has very specific implications for foreign nationals who lived in the region. Whether the foreign national is a legal...

Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act: legal requirements for federal and state roles in declarations of an emergency or a major disaster.
September 1, 2005... Summary The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, P.L. 93-288, as amended, 42 U.S.C. [subsection] 5121-5206, and implementing regulations in 44 C.F.R. [subsection] 206.31-206.48, provide the statutory framework...

Issues raised by Hurricane Katrina: a focus on education and training.
September 1, 2005... Summary It is estimated that more than 400,000 elementary/secondary school children have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina. In addition, it is estimated that approximately 30 institutions of higher education (IHEs) in these areas have...

Federal civil rights statutes: a primer.
September 1, 2005... Summary This report provides a brief summary of selected federal civil rights statutes, including the Civil Rights Act, the Equal Pay Act, the Voting Rights Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Fair Housing Act, Title IX of...

Campaign finance reform: regulating political communications on the Internet.
September 1, 2005... Summary The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA) amended the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) to include a new term, "federal election activity," in order to expand the scope of federal campaign finance regulation. The...

Hurricane Katrina: DOD disaster response.(Department of Defense)(Statistical data)
September 1, 2005... Summary The issue that has received the most attention in post-Katrina discussions is the speed of rescue and relief operations. The Department of Defense's (DOD's) Northern Command began its alert and coordination procedures before...

Hurricane Katrina: the public health and medical response.
September 1, 2005... Summary Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in late August 2005, causing catastrophic wind damage and flooding in several states, and a massive dislocation of victims across the country. The storm is one of the worst natural disasters...

Border security: apprehensions of "Other Than Mexican" aliens.(Statistical data)
September 1, 2005... Summary The United States Border Patrol (USBP) within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is charged with securing our nation's borders between official ports of entry (POE). As the USBP discharges its mission it encounters...

Congress and the courts: current policy issues.
September 1, 2005... Summary Federal courts, like Congress and the presidency, are important forums for resolving the political, economic, and social conflicts that characterize American society. From the beginnings of the republic, when federal courts handed...

Constitutional authority: broad features.(Congress and the Courts: Current Policy Issues)
September 1, 2005... Whether it is enacting minimum wage, health, or other laws, Congress derives its policymaking authority from two key parts of the Constitution: Article I and the Fourteenth Amendment. Article I, Section 8, grants Congress the right to legislate...

The Court as referee and umpire.(Congress and the Courts: Current Policy Issues)
September 1, 2005... The Referee Role The Supreme Court serves as both referee between the two national elective branches and as the umpire of federal-state relations. Ever since the Court claimed the power of judicial review in 1803 and struck down an act of...

The terrorist threat and federalism.(Congress and the Courts: Current Policy Issues)
September 1, 2005... As the nation confronts an ongoing terrorist threat against the homeland, it is uncertain whether the Supreme Court's recent tendency to defer to state sovereignty will continue. "Whenever you see a national emergency, federalism disappears,"...

Statutory interpretation.(Congress and the Courts: Current Policy Issues)
September 1, 2005... It is the conventional view that the Supreme Court is the ultimate arbiter of constitutional law, and this is often the case; but Congress, like the President, is also involved in constitutional interpretation. Neither of the three national...

Legislative checks on the judiciary.(Congress and the Courts: Current Policy Issues)
September 1, 2005... Decisions of the Supreme Court can have profound effects on Congress and its Members. Cases involving the redistricting of House seats, the line-item veto, and term limits for lawmakers are recent examples. If the court arouses the ire of...

Advice and consent--judicial nominees.(Congress and the Courts: Current Policy Issues)
September 1, 2005... Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution states that the President "shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint... Judges of the Supreme Court." The founders opposed lodging the power to appoint solely...

Other contemporary developments.(Congress and the Courts: Current Policy Issues)
September 1, 2005... Several other significant points are important to note about the contemporary confirmations process. Most judicial nominations are approved by the Senate, roughly an 85% approval rate for the period extending from the late 1970s to the late...

A new judicial front opens: the "nuclear" or "constitutional" option.(Congress and the Courts: Current Policy Issues)
September 1, 2005... The frustration level over judicial nominees has risen exceptionally high in today's Senate, largely over filibusters against a relatively small number (10 judges blocked, 204 confirmed in the President's first term) of Bush nominations. Senate...

Summary observations.(Congress and the Courts: Current Policy Issues)
September 1, 2005... Battles over judicial nominations are not a new development. Recall that the decision in Marbury v. Madison was triggered by President Thomas Jefferson's directive to Secretary of State James Madison to withhold granting an officially-signed...

Immigration policy on expedited removal of aliens.
September 1, 2005... Summary Expedited removal, an immigration enforcement strategy originally conceived to operate at the borders and ports of entry, is being expanded, raising a set of policy, resource, and logistical questions. Expedited removal is a...

Border security and the southwest border: background, legislation, and issues.
September 1, 2005... Summary Border security has emerged as an area of public concern, particularly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Although recent public concerns pertaining to border security may be attributed to the threat of potential...

Introduction.(Border Security and the Southwest Border: Background, Legislation, and Issues)
September 1, 2005... Border security has emerged as an area of concern for many, particularly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Although recent concerns pertaining to border security may be attributed to the threat of potential terrorists coming into...

Differences between the southwest and northern borders.(Border Security and the Southwest Border: Background, Legislation, and Issues)(Brief article)
September 1, 2005... The U.S. border with Mexico is approximately 2,000 miles long and is comprised of six Mexican and four U.S. states. (2) It features large tracts of desert land where temperatures average more than 100 degrees for part of the year, includes...

Context of overall United States-Mexico relations.(Border Security and the Southwest Border: Background, Legislation, and Issues)
September 1, 2005... Importance of Mexico and the Bilateral Relationship Sharing a 2,000-mile common border and extensive interconnections through the Gulf of Mexico, the United States and Mexico are so intricately linked together in a multiplicity of ways that...

Monitoring the border (17).(Border Security and the Southwest Border: Background, Legislation, and Issues)(Brief article)
September 1, 2005... Prior to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), many federal agencies and subagencies were responsible for some aspects of border security. Today, DHS is the primary agency that has border security-related responsibilities....

Monitoring the border at ports of entry (19).(Border Security and the Southwest Border: Background, Legislation, and Issues)
September 1, 2005... In 1789, Congress passed legislation that authorized the collection of duties on imported goods. (20) In a subsequent piece of legislation, Congress established the U.S. Customs Service, which was charged with collecting duties at U.S. ports of...

Monitoring the border between ports of entry (70).(Border Security and the Southwest Border: Background, Legislation, and Issues)
September 1, 2005... While the federal inspections process was codified by Congress in the 1700s and 1800s, it was 1924 when Congress recognized the need for enforcement measures to stem illegal entries between ports of entry and passed legislation that formally...

Interior enforcement.(Border Security and the Southwest Border: Background, Legislation, and Issues)
September 1, 2005... The Bureau of Immigration and Custom Enforcement's (ICE) is the investigative arm of DHS. ICE is charged with immigration and customs-related investigations in the interior of the country, which includes enforcing policy initiatives aimed at...

Selected ICE issues.(Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
September 1, 2005... Some of the major issues facing ICE stem from the growing number of illegal aliens present in the United States. While the issues discussed below are not specifically unique to the southwest border region, the southwest border receives a great...

Selected crosscutting issues.(Border Security and the Southwest Border: Background, Legislation, and Issues)
September 1, 2005... While each of the areas above have presented specific policy issues, there are other issues that transcend subject area and apply to the entirety of border security on the southwest border. Systems Integration and Interoperability The...

Appendix A: legislation affecting the southwest border.(Border Security and the Southwest Border: Background, Legislation, and Issues)
September 1, 2005... Since 1993, Congress has passed legislation that authorized and appropriated funding to increase border personnel at and along the southwest border. Congress has also passed legislation that was aimed at strengthening resources and technology...

Arrest and detention of material witnesses: federal law in brief and section 12 of the USA PATRIOT and Terrorism Prevention Reauthorization Act (H.R. 3199).
September 1, 2005... Summary Witnesses at Congressional oversight hearings alleged that the authority to arrest and hold material witnesses until their appearance at federal criminal proceedings (including grand jury proceedings) had been abused following...

Daylight Saving Time.(Column)
September 1, 2005... Summary Currently, Daylight Saving Time (DST) is observed in the United States from 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday in April until 2:00 a.m. on the last Sunday in October. With the enactment of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (P.L 109-58),...