Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports

Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a research agency of Congress and writes reports at Congress' request. These short reports (usually 10-40 pages long) cover recent topics of concern. This week brings us reports on Iran, Twitter, taxes, and much more. Although these reports are in the public domain, there is no freely-available central database available to the public. To get a copy of a CRS report, you can request it from your senator or representative. These reports were discovered by OpenCRS and Secrecy News:

• Social Networking and Constituent Communications: Member Use of Twitter During a Two-Month Period in the 111th Congress
• Metropolitan Transportation Planning
• Veterans Health Care: Project HERO Implementation
• Al Qaeda and Affiliates: Historical Perspective, Global Presence, and Implications for U.S. Policy
• The Rum Excise Tax Cover-Over: Legislative History and Current Issues
• Membership of the 111th Congress: A Profile
• Asian Pacific Americans in the United States Congress
• African-American Members of the United States Congress: 1870-2009
• Budget Enforcement Procedures: Senate Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) Rule
• Business Investment and Employment Tax Incentives to Stimulate the Economy
• Campaign Finance Policy After Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission: Issues and Options for Congress
• Central Asia: Regional Developments and Implications for U.S. Interests
• Climate Change and the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS): Looking to 2020
• Constitutionality of Excluding Aliens from the Census for Apportionment and Redistricting Purposes
• CRS Issue Statement on Veterans' Benefits
• Cuba: Issues for the 111th Congress
• Federal Employee Benefits and Same-Sex Partnerships
• Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund Expenditures
• Immigration: Terrorist Grounds for Exclusion and Removal of Aliens
• Insurance and Financial Regulatory Reform in the 111th Congress
• Iran: Regional Perspectives and U.S. Policy
• Iraq: Politics, Elections, and Benchmarks
• Nonstrategic Nuclear Weapons
• Nuclear Arms Control: The Strategic Offensive Reductions
• Potential Farm Sector Effects of 2009 H1N1 "Swine Flu": Questions and Answers
• Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA): Selected Regulatory and Legislative Issues
• Strategic Arms Control After START: Issues and Options
• Temporary Protected Status: Current Immigration Policy and Issues
• The Debt Limit: History and Recent Increases
• The Unemployment Trust Fund (UTF): State Insolvency and Federal Loans to States
• Unauthorized Alien Students, Higher Education, and In-State Tuition Rates: A Legal Analysis
• Water Infrastructure Funding in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
• Yemen: Background and U.S. Relations

Interested in historical CRS reports? If you are here at the Boulder campus, check out the LexisNexis Congressional database, which has reports dating back to 1916.

Not on campus but still want access to additional reports? The library has a guide linking to various additional sources of CRS reports.

Space Shuttle Endeavour Launched Today

Space shuttle Endeavour launched at 4:14 a.m. EST today from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, after being delayed by one day because of clouds. Endeavour's mission is to "deliver a third connecting module - the Tranquility node - to the International Space Station and a seven-windowed cupola to be used as a control room for robotics." You can keep track of the space shuttle's progress on this web page of NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration).

NASA's web site provides a variety of information about current and past space shuttle missions, including these web pages:

• STS-130 Mission Information: the mission of the crew aboard Endeavour, and profiles of its six crew members.
  
• Space Shuttle Overview: a description of the shuttle's structure
• Space Shuttle Mission Archives: photos and information about U.S. space shuttle missions dating back to 1981.

And although this doesn't come from NASA, I thought I'd draw your attention to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report that we recently included on our blog's weekly CRS list:

• The Future of NASA: Space Policy Issues Facing Congress
  (January 14, 2010)

For additional resources on NASA and space shuttle missions, take a look at our guide to Space and Astronomy.

GAO Reports

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is often called the investigative arm of Congress. This week GAO investigated the Troubled Asset Relief Program, NASA, highway research, biomonitoring, and other topics. If you would like to know more about the GAO, check out the library's guide.

Reports

Troubled Asset Relief Program: Treasury Needs to Strengthen Its Decision-Making Process on the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility. GAO-10-25, February 5.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-25
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d1025high.pdf

Highway Research: The Second Strategic Highway Research Program Addresses the Four Required Areas, but Some Anticipated Research Was Not Funded. GAO-10-248, February 5.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-248
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d10248high.pdf

Littoral Combat Ship: Actions Needed to Improve Operating Cost Estimates and Mitigate Risks in Implementing New Concepts. GAO-10-257, February 2.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-257
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d10257high.pdf

NASA: Assessments of Selected Large-Scale Projects. GAO-10-227SP, February 1.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-227SP
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d10227sphigh.pdf


Testimony

Biomonitoring: EPA Could Make Better Use of Biomonitoring Data, by John Stephenson, director, natural resources and environment, before the Subcommittee on Superfund, Toxics and Environmental Health, Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. GAO-10-419T, February 4.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-419T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d10419thigh.pdf

NASA: Key Management and Program Challenges, by Cristina Chaplain, director, acquisition and sourcing management, before the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, House Committee on Science and Technology. GAO-10-387T, February 3.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-387T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d10387thigh.pdf

Correspondence

Defense Acquisitions: Observations on the Department of Defense Service Contract Inventories for Fiscal Year 2008. GAO-10-350R, January 29.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-350R

2011 Budget of the U.S. Government Now Online

President Obama's Budget of the United States Government for fiscal year 2011 is now available on FDsys (Federal Digital System), the Government Printing Office's upgraded, more user-friendly version of GPO Access. You can download the 2010 budget from this same location.

On the FDsys web page for the 2011 budget, issued by the Office of Management and Budget, you can download separate files for the full Budget, Analytical Perspectives, Appendix, Historical Tables, or the Public Budget Database. FDsys gives you the option of downloading these documents in their entirety or just downloading separate sections within them.

Want more resources about the U.S. government's budget? Take a look at our guide.

New Food Distribution Method Launched in Haiti

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has introduced a new, coupon-based food distribution program in Haiti, where 2 million people are still estimated to need food (see "Coupons Feed Chaos in Efforts to Feed Haitians" in the New York Times).

The program offers women colored and dated vouchers that they can exchange for 25-kilogram (55-pound) rice rations at one of 16 centers in Port-au-Prince. The World Food Programme web site explains that "WFP is targeting primarily female heads of household, as women are usually the first to be pushed out of line if people get hungry and desperate at food distributions. The women are the ones who get the coupons to collect food for the family and they alone are allowed into the distribution compound." You can read more about the coupon program in this UN New Centre article. For a description of the logistical details of distributing food in Haiti, take a look at this story by Adventist Development and Relief Agency International--one of WFP's partner relief organizations for food distribution in Haiti. The article is posted on the web site of ReliefWeb, which is a good source for information about relief efforts in Haiti.

For additional resources about food distribution, take a look at our guide to Foreign Relations and International Aid.

Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports

Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a research agency of Congress and writes reports at Congress' request. These short reports (usually 10-40 pages long) cover recent topics of concern. This week brings us reports on arms sales, influenza, the Congressional Review Act, and other topics. Although these reports are in the public domain, there is no central database available to the public. To get a copy of a CRS report, you can request it from your senator or representative. These reports were discovered by OpenCRS and Secrecy News:

• Terrorist Attacks on Commercial Airlines: Federal Criminal Prohibitions
• Project BioShield: Authorities, Appropriations, Acquisitions, and Issues for Congress
• Charitable Contributions for Haiti’s Earthquake Victims
• U.S. and South Korean Cooperation in the World Nuclear Energy Market: Major Policy Considerations
• Argentina’s Defaulted Sovereign Debt: Dealing with the ‘Holdouts’
• Honey Bee Colony Collapse Disorder
• A U.S.-centric Chronology of the International Climate Change Negotiations
• Afghanistan: Politics, Elections, and Government Performance
• Federal Research and Development Funding: FY2010
• Guam: U.S. Defense Deployments
• Guantanamo Detention Center: Legislative Activity in the 111th Congress
• Iran's Nuclear Program: Status
• North Korea: Terrorism List Removal
• Private Security Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan: Legal Issues
• State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs: FY2010 Budget and Appropriations
• The Federal Budget: Current and Upcoming Issues
• The U.S. Postal Service's Financial Condition: Overview and Issues for Congress
• U.S. Periods of War
• Uruguay: Political and Economic Conditions and U.S. Relations

Interested in historical CRS reports? If you are here at the Boulder campus, check out the LexisNexis Congressional database, which has reports dating back to 1916.

Not on campus but still want access to additional reports? The library has a guide linking to various additional sources of CRS reports.