CRS Reports

Corporate Tax Reform: Issues for Congress

This report provides an overview of corporate tax issues and discusses potential reforms in the context of these issues, with particular attention to some of the recent research concerning large behavioral responses and their implications for revenue and distribution.

Oct 31, 2007

Terrorism Risk Insurance Legislation in 2007: Issue Summary and Side-by-Side

Oct 25, 2007

Religion and the Workplace: Legal Analysis of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as It Applies to Religious Organizations

Oct 25, 2007

Health Care Fraud and Abuse Laws Covering Medicare and Medicaid: An Overview

Oct 24, 2007

Cuba’s Political Succession: From Fidel to Raúl Castro

Oct 23, 2007

Analysis of the Proposed Tax Exclusion for Canceled Mortgage Debt Income

Oct 16, 2007

Federal Indian Education Programs: Background and Issues

Oct 9, 2007

Child Support Enforcement Program Incentive Payments: Background and Policy Issues

Oct 5, 2007

Senate Rules Changes in the 110th Congress Affecting Restrictions on the Content of Conference Reports

Oct 3, 2007

Safe Drinking Water Act: Selected Regulatory and Legislative Issues

Oct 2, 2007

Navy CG(X) Cruiser Program: Background, Oversight Issues, and Options for Congress

Sep 20, 2007

Terrorism in Southeast Asia

Sep 11, 2007

A Nonrepudiating Patent Licensee’s Right To Seek Declaratory Judgment of Invalidity or Noninfringement of the Licensed Patent: MedImmune v. Genentech

According to earlier precedent of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, a suit filed by a patent licensee in good standing, seeking to declare the underlying patent invalid, unenforceable, or not infringed, is non-justiciable under the Declaratory Judgment Act because there is no actual controversy between the licensee and licensor. The Federal Circuit had asserted that a license agreement eliminates any “reasonable apprehension” that the nonrepudiating licensee will be sued for infringement and thus federal courts must dismiss such declaratory judgment actions for lack of subject matter jurisdiction under Article III of the U.S. Constitution. In MedImmune v. Genentech (549 U.S. __, No. 05-608, decided January 9, 2007), the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the jurisdictional rule adopted by the Federal Circuit, holding to the contrary that a patent licensee need not materially breach its license agreement (for example, by ceasing royalty payments to the patent holder) before it may bring suit to obtain a judgment that the underlying patent is invalid, unenforceable, or not infringed, in situations where the licensor-patentee has implicitly or explicitly threatened to sue for patent infringement if the licensee did not pay the demanded royalties. Payment of royalties under such “coercive” circumstances does not eliminate the jurisdiction of the federal courts to entertain declaratory judgment actions from patent licensees in good standing, the Court explained. Notably, this decision is limited to the procedural issue of whether federal courts have subject matter jurisdiction over these types of claims; the Supreme Court declined to express an opinion on the merits of the arguments made by the licensor-patentee in the case for denying declaratory relief to the licensee. This report provides a summary and analysis of the Supreme Court’s opinion in MedImmune and discusses its potential ramifications on patent law.

Aug 30, 2007

Former Speakers of the House: Office Allowances, Franking Privileges, and Staff Assistance

Aug 28, 2007

Restitution in Federal Criminal Cases: A Sketch

Aug 22, 2007

Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected (MRAP) Vehicles: Background and Issues for Congress

Aug 21, 2007

Restitution in Federal Criminal Cases

Aug 17, 2007

Seafood Marketing: Combating Fraud and Deception

Aug 8, 2007

An Abridged Sketch of Extradition To and From the United States

Extradition is the formal surrender of a person by a State to another State for prosecution or punishment. Extradition to or from the United States is a creature of treaty. The United States has extradition treaties with over a hundred of the nations of the world, but there are many with whom it does not. This is an overview of those treaties and of the procedures followed in this country in response to an extradition request or to request extradition from another country. This is an abridged version of CRS Report 98-958, Extradition To and From the United States: Overview of the Law and Recent Treaties, by Charles Doyle, without the footnotes and citations to authority found in the longer report.

Aug 6, 2007

Congress’s Contempt Power: A Sketch

This report outlines the source of the contempt power, reviews major developments in the case law, and analyzes the procedures associated with each of the three different types of contempt proceedings.

Aug 1, 2007

Reform of U.S. International Taxation: Alternatives

Jul 31, 2007

Information Security and Data Breach Notification Safeguards

Jul 31, 2007

Gangs in Central America

Jul 27, 2007

Congress’s Contempt Power: Law, History, Practice, and Procedure

Jul 24, 2007

The Kaesong North-South Korean Industrial Complex

Jul 19, 2007

Farm and Food Support Under USDA’s Section 32 Program

Jul 9, 2007

The Palestinian Territories: Background and U.S. Relations

Jul 5, 2007

Pay Discrimination Claims Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act: A Legal Analysis of the Supreme Court’s Decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Inc.

This report discusses Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Inc., a recent case in which the Supreme Court considered the timeliness of a sex discrimination claim filed under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

Jun 28, 2007

The Carbon Cycle: Implications for Climate Change and Congress

Jun 25, 2007

Missing and Exploited Children: Background, Policies, and Issues

Jun 19, 2007

“No Confidence” Votes and Other Forms of Congressional Censure of Public Officials

S.J.Res. 14 of the 110th Congress, submitted on May 24, 2007, has been described as proposing a vote of no confidence in Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. This report discusses the possible significance of action by Congress or either House to adopt a resolution expressing “no confidence” in a cabinet official or other official in the executive branch of the federal government. It examines the legal issues that could be raised by resolutions of this kind and discusses the relation of such action both to votes of no confidence in systems of parliamentary government and to congressional action to censure or otherwise express disapprobation of public officials. It also describes known instances in which action to express a lack of confidence in, or impose another form of censure on, public officials have been attempted in Congress.

Jun 11, 2007

National Continuity Policy: A Brief Overview

Jun 8, 2007

Chemical Regulation in the European Union: Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals

Jun 7, 2007

Central Bank Independence and Economic Performance: What Does the Evidence Show?

Keeping an economy growing over the long run at rates sufficient to provide full employment for labor and capital with low inflation or a stable price level has been an important goal for economic policy. Money and monetary policy have figured importantly in achieving this goal. Currently, it is argued, central bank independence is important to achieving this end. Many small factors contribute to central bank independence, and so the literature does not yield a consistent definition of it. Rather, the emphasis is on three aspects of independence, the degree to which (1) the governing board of the central bank is isolated from the political process; (2) central banks can refuse to finance government budget deficits; and (3) price stability has primacy as the ultimate goal of central bank activity. Various indices of central bank independence have been compiled and used in empirical work to see how closely independence is related to such important performance characteristics of an economy as the rate of inflation, the growth of output, investment, and real interest rates. For industrial countries, central bank independence indices embodying definitions (2) and (3) appear to be closely related to low inflation and low variability of inflation without having any effect on output and its variability, investment, and real interest rates. In particular, factor (2) seems to be driving the results, and the various measures of factor (1) have a negligible effect, a finding that the authors tend to neglect. Since the Federal Reserve cannot directly finance the U.S. government, factor (2) is not an issue for Congress. However, the results obtained with an index embodying (3) are of relevance to the conduct of monetary policy in the United States. These results may be used to support efforts to redefine the objective of monetary policy to focus it exclusively on price stability. Critics of these studies point to three major methodological problems and one empirical problem. First, causation may be opposite to that posited. The desire for economic stability, for example, may lead to independent central banks. Thus, causation should run the other way around (or it may run in both directions). Second, central bank independence may arise because an important and influential constituency in a democratic society favors low inflation. Thus, the ultimate reason why inflation is low in some countries is the strength of important constituencies who favor low inflation. And these studies fail to measure this pressure. In a sense, they have captured only the proximate reason for low inflation, not the ultimate reason. Third, questions have been raised about the way that the authors transform non-numeric characteristics of independence into quantitative results. Finally, the data on which some of these empirical estimates are based are tainted in the sense that the samples commingle observations from the fixed and flexible exchange rate periods. The performance of central banks is quite different in each regime regardless of how its stated objective reads. This report will be updated periodically.

Jun 6, 2007

Expedited or ”Fast-Track” Legislative Procedures

Jun 5, 2007

Legislative Branch: FY2008 Appropriations

Jun 5, 2007

Defense Acquisition: Overview, Issues, and Options for Congress

Jun 4, 2007

Veterans and Homelessness

May 31, 2007

Honduran-U.S. Relations

This report examines current political and economic conditions in Honduras as well as issues in Honduran-U.S. relations.

May 31, 2007

Legal Services Corporation: Background and Funding

May 23, 2007

Grants Information for Constituents

May 21, 2007

U.S.-Funded Assistance Programs in China

This report discusses United States foreign operations appropriations for the People’s Republic of China (PRC), which primarily support democracy-related programs, particularly rule of law training, and support Tibetan communities. The U.S. Congress has played a leading role in providing funding for such programs, which has grown from $10 million in FY2002 to $23 million in FY2006. Major funding areas include legal training, legal aid, criminal defense, labor rights, and non-governmental organization (NGO) development in China, monitoring human rights conditions in the PRC from outside China, and preserving Tibetan culture.

May 18, 2007

The Supreme Court’s Climate Change Decision: Massachusetts v. EPA

May 18, 2007

Immigration Fraud: Policies, Investigations, and Issues

May 17, 2007

Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program: Issues and Reform Proposals in the 110th Congress

May 16, 2007

Africa Command: U.S. Strategic Interests and the Role of the U.S. Military in Africa

May 16, 2007

Financial Services and General Government (FSGG): FY2008 Appropriations

May 11, 2007

Wildfire Funding

This report briefly describes the three categories of federal programs for wildfire protection. One is to protect the federal lands managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service (FS), and by the U.S. Department of the Interior, whose wildfire programs are coordinated by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). A second category assists state and local governments and communities in protecting nonfederal lands; these programs are used to reduce wildland fuels, to otherwise prepare for fire control, to contain and control wildfires, and to respond after severe wildfires have burned. A third category of federal programs supports fire research, fire facilities, and improvements in forest health. The last section of this report discusses the impact of high and rising wildfire costs.

May 7, 2007

FDA’s Authority to Ensure That Drugs Prescribed to Children Are Safe and Effective

May 1, 2007

Veto Override Procedure in the House and Senate

Apr 30, 2007