Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery With Daily Postings Since 2002
Via Emily Carr – Andrew Weber‘s news: The Library of Congress launched Congress.gov in beta two years ago. Today, I’m happy to announce we officially removed the beta label. That’s roughly three years quicker than Gmail took to remove its beta label, but we won’t give you the option of putting it back on Congress.gov. URLs that …
CRS – Systemically Important or “Too Big to Fail” Financial Institutions. Marc Labonte, Specialist in Macroeconomic Policy. September 19, 2014. “Although “too big to fail” (TBTF) has been a perennial policy issue, it was highlighted by the near-collapse of several large financial firms in 2008. Financial firms are said to be TBTF when policy makers judge that their failure would …
CRS – The Effect of Firm Bankruptcy on Retiree Benefits, with Applications to the Automotive and Coal Industries. Carol Rapaport, Analyst in Health Care Financing, September 22, 2014. “Benefits for retired employees are of particular interest to policy makers because of the growing number of retirees and forecasts indicating that some future retirees may not have the necessary financial …
Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-2014. Barbara Salazar Torreon, Information Research Specialist, September 15, 2014. “The following list reviews hundreds of instances in which the United States has used military forces abroad in situations of military conflict or potential conflict to protect U.S. citizens or promote U.S. interests. The list does not include covert …
“2014 is a mid-term election year. All 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are contested, as well as 36 of the 100 U.S. Senate seats. Gubernatorial elections will be held in 36 states and three territories, along with many state and local races. Voting rules vary from state to state, but NOW is the time to make …
“Loan guarantees made in the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA’s) guarantee program for single-family mortgages from 1992 to 2013 are now projected to generate small costs over their lifetimes rather than the significant savings that were recorded in the federal budget at the time the guarantees were made—a deterioration that stems largely from the sharp downturn …
“In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the release of the Warren Commission Report, the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) makes the complete report and 26 hearing volumes available on GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys). The Commission was created by President Lyndon Johnson and chaired by Chief Justice Earl Warren to investigate President Kennedy’s assassination. …
ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: The Corps Needs to Take Steps to Identify All Projects and Studies Eligible for Deauthorization, GAO-14-699: Published: Aug 21, 2014. Publicly Released: Sep 22, 2014. BUREAU OF PRISONS: Management of New Prison Activations Can Be Improved, GAO-14-709: Published: Aug 22, 2014. Publicly Released: Sep 22, 2014. CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION BUREAU:Some Privacy and Security Procedures for Data Collections …
Gallup: “Americans’ trust in each of the three branches of the federal government is at or near the lows in Gallup’s trends, dating back to the early 1970s. Americans’ trust in the legislative branch fell six percentage points this year to a new low of 28%. Trust in the executive branch dropped eight points, to …
Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act – Title I: Management of Information Technology Within Federal Government – (Sec. 101) Modifies the current framework governing the management of information technology (IT) within the federal government to require presidential appointment or designation of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) in the following federal agencies: Department of Agriculture (USDA), Department of …
CRS – Social Security Reform: Legal Analysis of Social Security Benefit Entitlement Issues. Emily M. Lanz, Legislative Attorney; Thomas J. Nicola, Legislative Attorney. September 17, 2014 “Calculations indicating that the Social Security program will not be financially sustainable in the long run under the present statutory scheme have fueled the current debate regarding Social Security reform. This report addresses selected …
CRS – Legislative Actions to Repeal, Defund, or Delay the Affordable Care Act, C. Stephen Redhead, Specialist in Health Policy; Janet Kinzer, Information Research Specialist. September 12, 2014. “Congress is deeply divided over implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), the health reform law enacted in March 2010. Since the ACA’s enactment, lawmakers opposed to specific provisions …
