Administering and Enforcing Federal Campaign Finance Laws
New maps showing graphic presentations of campaign finance for the Presidential, House, and Senate races in 2008.

The Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture, Land Resources, Water Resources, and Biodiversity in the United States
"The U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) today released "Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.3 (SAP 4.3): The Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture, Land Resources, Water Resources, and Biodiversity in the United States." The CCSP integrates the federal research efforts of 13 agencies on climate and global change. Today's report is one of the most extensive examinations of climate impacts on U.S. ecosystems. USDA is the lead agency for this report and coordinated its production as part of its commitment to CCSP."

Getting the Most Greenhouse Gas Reductions for Your Money
"The Committee on Energy and Commerce and its Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality are issuing a series of Climate Change Legislation Design White Papers as the next step in the legislative process leading to enactment of a mandatory, econony-wide climate change program...

This White Paper addresses different potential mechanisms for limiting the cost and maximizing the efficiency of a mandatory, comprehensive climate change program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60 to 80 percent by 2050."

HS5.120:D 18/CD
Technical Manual for Dam Owners: Impacts of Plants on Earthern Dams.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency, September 2005. (CD-Rom)
"The purpose of this Manual is to provide the dam owner, operator, inspector, dam safety regulator, engineer, and consultant with the fundamental understanding and technical knowledge associated with the potential detrimental impacts of tree and woody vegetation growth on the safety of earthen dams. In addition to objectives related to raising the knowledge level of detrimental effects of trees and woody vegetation growth on the safety of earthen dams, the contents will provide the user of this Manual with an understanding of the methods, procedures, and benefits of maintaining a growth of desirable ground covering vegetation on the embankments of earthen dams."

A Guide to Finding Business Information at the Library of Congress Guide to Business History Resources
"Researchers seeking historical information about an old company or an extinct firm have a fair bit of detective work to do. Some aids for such a search have been gathered together in the Business Reading Room reference collection and selected titles, primarily focusing on United States companies, are listed below. When available, links are included to online tables of contents, indexes, and lists of sources cited for those resources for which they are available. Links are also included to selected Internet resources relating to business history.

One should begin by searching for any works by or about the company in question in the Library of Congress online catalog, in the Main Card Catalog, and in appropriate bibliographies. Researchers should also consult standard indexes such as The New York Times Index, The Wall Street Journal Index, Business Periodicals Index, and the Social Science Index. In addition, researchers may consult several sets of company annual reports available on microfiche in Business Reference Services, including one covering the late 19th- and early 20th-centuries..."

HS5.120:F 65/3/CD
FloodOutreach Toolkit: What You Need to Know Abut Flooding and Flood Insurance.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Mangement Agency, July 2007. (CD-Rom)
A cd-rom product from the Federal Emergency Management Agency providing core materials about flooding and flood insurance. Included are "fact sheets, brochures, and talking point" to use as resource materials for individual use or outreach materials for distribution to the public.

Containing the Cost of a Cap-and-Trade Program for Carbon Dioxide Emissions
May 20, 2008, Testimony before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, United States Senate

Alternatives to Traditional Transportation Fuels 2006(Part I - Supplier Data)
"These tables represent the number of onroad alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) and hybrid vehicles made available by both the original equipment manufacturers and aftermarket vehicle conversion facilities for 2006 and projected for 2007. These data include gasoline-electric and diesel-electric hybrids which are published separately from electric fuel type categories because they fall outside the Energy Policy Act of 1992..."

Data on the Distribution of Federal Taxes and Household Income
"This page contains CBO's most recent estimates of federal effective tax rates (taxes as a percentage of income) across household income groups for the four largest sources of federal revenues--individual income taxes, social insurance (payroll) taxes, corporate income taxes, and excise taxes--as well as the total effective rate for the four taxes combined. The page also contains estimates of average before- and after-tax household income, counts of households, and shares of taxes, income, and households for each income group; information relating to the methodology used to construct the estimates; supplementary estimates for different household types; and a comparison of income and payroll taxes."

Fact Sheet: Expanding Economic Opportunities Through Free and Fair Trade
"Today, President Bush highlighted the importance of trade in promoting prosperity and freedom in the United States and around the world. At the White House, the President discussed a display of products from businesses that would benefit from trade liberalization, and urged Congress to approve our free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea. The companies represented at the White House have created jobs, increased prosperity, and proven that they can compete in the global market. In order for these and other U.S. businesses to continue growing, the government needs to keep working to reduce foreign trade barriers, enabling companies to compete on a level playing field."

FDA Announces Sentinel System to Monitor Medical Product Safety
"The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has unveiled plans for the Sentinel Initiative, a strategy to create and implement a national, integrated, electronic system for monitoring medical product safety.

The resulting "Sentinel System" will strengthen FDA's ability to track how drugs and medical products perform once they go on the market..."

EPA Hearing on National Ambient Air Quality Standards
"The Committee held holding a hearing titled, “EPA’s New Ozone Standards” at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, May 20, 2008, in 2154 Rayburn House Office Building.

The hearing examined the new ozone national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) and the process the Environmental Protection Agency used in setting them.

On March 12, 2008, EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson finalized updated NAAQS for ozone, a primary component of smog. The new ozone NAAQS are comprised of a revised primary standard to protect health and a revised secondary standard to protect the environment. In setting both standards, EPA Administrator Johnson did not accept the recommendations provided to him by EPA’s independent scientific review committee, the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC). With regard to the secondary standard, Administrator Johnson’s efforts to set a new standard were overruled by the White House."

2008 Defense Intelligence Strategy
"Defense intelligence is a critical component of the U.S. intelligence enterprise.
It has two missions: first, to respond to the unique policy, operational and acquisition requirements of the Department of Defense, and second, to respond to national intelligence missions assigned to the Department of Defense. It comprises the Under Secretary of Defense (Intelligence); national and defense intelligence agencies represented by the NGA, NSA, NRO and DIA; defense organizations such as DSS and CIFA; Service and agency intelligence, counterintelligence and security elements; and joint intelligence components, including those of the Joint Staff and the Combatant Commands..."

The National Security Council: An Organizational Assessment
"The National Security Council (NSC) was established by statute in 1947 to
create an inter-departmental body to offer confidential advice to the President on all aspects of national security policy. Currently, statutory members of the Council are the President, Vice President, the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of Defense; but, at the President’s request, other senior officials participate in NSC deliberations. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of National Intelligence are statutory advisers. In 2007, the Secretary of Energy was added to the NSC membership.

The President clearly holds final decision-making authority in the executive
branch. Over the years, however, the NSC staff has emerged as a major factor in the
formulation (and at times in the implementation) of national security policy.
Similarly, the head of the NSC staff, the National Security Adviser, has played
important, and occasionally highly public, roles in policymaking. This report traces
the evolution of the NSC from its creation to the present."

2008 Emergency Response Guidebook: A Guidebook for First Responders During the Initial Phase of a Dangerous Goods/Hazardous Transportation Incident
"The 2008 Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG2008) was developed jointly by
Transport Canada (TC), the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), the Secretariat of Transport and Communications of Mexico (SCT) and with the collaboration of CIQUIME (Centro de Información Química para Emergencias) of Argentina, for use by fire fighters, police, and other emergency services personnel who may be the first to arrive at the scene of a transportation incident involving dangerous goods. It is primarily a guide to aid first responders in quickly identifying the specific or generic hazards of the material(s) involved in the incident, and protecting themselves and the general public during the initial response phase of the incident."

Electronic Crime Scene Investigation: A Guide for First Responders, Second Edition
"This guide is intended to assist State and local law enforcement and other first responders who may be responsible for preserving an electronic crime scene and for recognizing, collecting, and safeguarding digital evidence. It is not all inclusive but addresses situations encountered with electronic crime scenes and digital evidence..."

FTC to Host Conference on Consumer Information and the Mortgage Market
"The Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Economics will host a conference on May 29 to highlight and assess the role of consumer information in the current mortgage crisis from an economic perspective.

Experts on real estate economics, information economics, consumer behavior, and consumer information policy will examine how consumer information and information regulation affect consumer choices, mortgage outcomes, and consumer welfare. For example, panelists will discuss the causes and effects of mortgage market product developments, the role of consumer information in mortgage choice and market outcomes, and the relationship between consumer information policy and the current mortgage crisis. They will also discuss strategies for ensuring that new consumer protection regulations, especially mandatory information disclosures, will provide the greatest possible long-run net benefit to consumers..."

Rising Food Prices and Global Food Needs:The U.S. Response
"Rising food prices are having impacts across the world, but especially among
poor people in low-income developing countries. Since 2000, a year of low food
prices, wheat prices in international markets have more than tripled, corn prices have doubled, and rice prices rose to unprecedented levels in March 2008. Such increases in food prices have raised concerns about the ability of poor people to meet their food and nutrition needs and in a number of countries have lead to civil unrest. More than 33 countries, most of which are in Sub-Saharan Africa are particularly affected by food prices increases. The World Bank has estimated that more than 100 million people are being pushed into poverty as a result of food-price escalation."

Gasoline Prices, 2008
Compiled by the Government Documents Librarian at the University of Michigan, this site is full of statistics on pump and crude oil prices, exchange rates, oil reserves, and company profits. In addition, numerous solutions for addressing the energy crisis are presented.

Comprehensive Health Insurance Insurance Proposal, 2007
"At your request, the staffs of our two organizations have collaborated on a preliminary analysis of a modified proposal for comprehensive health insurance based on S. 334, the “Healthy Americans Act,” which you introduced last year. That modified proposal includes various clarifications and changes that you have indicated you would like to examine as part of the consideration of that bill. Attachment A summarizes our understanding of your modified proposal.
The staffs of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) have worked closely together for the past several months to analyze your modified proposal; this collaboration reflects both the novelty of the undertaking and the intimate connection between the revenue and expenditure components of this proposal. We have summarized our conclusions in this joint letter; its purpose is to give you preliminary guidance regarding an approximate range of revenue and cost results that might be expected from your modified proposal. This joint letter does not constitute and should not be interpreted as a formal estimate of your proposal’s budgetary impact, which—for the purposes of scoring under the Congressional Budget Act—would ultimately be provided by CBO and would incorporate revenue estimates prepared by the JCT staff."

Nuclear Power’s Role in Generating Electricity
"At the request of the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on
Energy and Natural Resources, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) assessed the competitiveness of nuclear power when compared with other sources of new capacity to generate electricity, focusing on the possible effects of constraints on carbon dioxide emissions and the impact of EPAct incentives. In accordance with CBO’s mandate to provide objective, impartial analysis, this study makes no recommendations."

GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE: NATIONAL SECURITY IMPLICATIONS
"On March 30-31, 2007, the Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) and the Triangle Institute for Security Studies (TISS) held a colloquium on “Global Climate Change:
National Security Implications.” The 2-day event took place in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and was well attended by both academics and members of the U.S.
Government and the Armed Forces.

This edited volume is based on this event. It reflects, as closely as possible, the form and content of the conference. Each chapter is based on a conference
panel. The final chapter contains a keynote talk by General Paul Kern (USA-Ret.) and concluding remarks by Dr. Richard Weitz. The first seven chapters each contain three essays, a comment, and a discussion. The essays are not exact reproductions of the talks given at the conference. They remain true in spirit and length to the originals but have been adapted to be read..."

Census Atlas of the United States:Census 2000 Special Reports. United States Department of Commerce, 2007. *304.60973 Un3c
"The Census Atlas of the United States, the first comprehensive atlas of population and housing produced by the Census Bureau since the 1920s. The Census Atlas is a large-format publication about 300 pages long and containing almost 800 maps. Data from decennial censuses prior to 2000 support nearly 150 maps and figures, providing context and an historical perspective for many of the topics presented.

A variety of topics are covered in the Census Atlas, ranging from language and ancestry characteristics to housing patterns and the geographic distribution of the population. A majority of the maps in the Census Atlas present data at the county level, but data also are sometimes mapped by state, census tract (for largest cities and metropolitan areas), and for selected American Indian reservations. The book is modern, colorful, and includes a variety of map styles and data symbolization techniques."

U.S. Hispanic Population Surpasses 45 Million Now 15 Percent of Total
" The nation’s Hispanic population increased 1.4 million to reach 45.5 million on July 1, 2007, or 15.1 percent of the estimated total U.S. population of 301.6 million.
National and state estimates by race, Hispanic origin, sex and age released today by the U.S. Census Bureau also show that the Hispanic population exceeded 500,000 in 16 states.
Hispanics remained the largest minority group, with blacks (single race or multiracial) second at 40.7 million in 2007. The black population exceeded 500,000 in 20 states. Blacks were the largest minority group in 24 states, compared with 20 states in which Hispanics were the largest minority group.
Blacks were followed by Asians, who totaled 15.2 million; American Indians and Alaska Natives, who totaled 4.5 million; and Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders, with 1 million. The population of whites (single race and not of Hispanic origin) totaled 199.1 million (See Table 1 [Excel]).
With a 3.3 percent increase between July 1, 2006, and July 1, 2007, Hispanics were the fastest-growing minority group. Asians were the second fastest-growing minority group, with a 2.9 percent population increase during the period. The white population grew by 0.3 percent during the one-year period.

Overall, the nation’s minority population reached 102.5 million in 2007 — 34 percent of the total. California had a minority population of 20.9 million — 20 percent of the nation’s total, Texas had a minority population of 12.5 million — 12 percent of the U.S. total."

Alternative Energy Fuels and Advanced Vehicle Data Center
"The Alternative Fuels and Advanced Vehicles Data Center (AFDC, formerly known as the Alternative Fuels Data Center) provides a wide range of information and resources to enable the use of alternative fuels (as defined by the Energy Policy Act of 1992), in addition to other petroleum reduction options such as advanced vehicles, fuel blends, idle reduction, and fuel economy."

Real Petroleum Prices
"Real Petroleum Prices are computed by dividing the nominal price in a given month by the ratio of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in that month to the CPI in some "base" period. The Real Petroleum Prices spreadsheet and charts are updated every month so that the current month is the base period in the monthly price series. Consequently, all real prices are expressed in "current" dollars and any current month price may be compared directly with any past or projected real prices."

2007 Wiretap Report (For the Period January 1 Through December 31, 2007)"A total of 2,208 intercepts authorized by federal and state courts were completed in 2007, an increase of 20 percent compared to the number terminated in 2006. The number of applications for orders by federal authorities fell less than 1 percent to 457. The number of applications reported by state prosecuting officials grew 27 percent to 1,751, with 24 states providing reports, 1 more than in 2006. Installed wiretaps were in operation an average of 44 days per wiretap in 2007, compared to 40 days in 2006. The average number of persons whose communications were intercepted decreased from 122 per wiretap order in 2006 to 94 per wiretap order in 2007. The
average percentage of intercepted communications that were incriminating was 30 percent in 2007, compared to 20 percent in 2006."

Iraq Reconstruction Five Years On
Graph illustrating five years of Iraq reconstruction funding and costs.

Follow-Up Healthcare Inspection VA’s Role in Ensuring Services for Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom Veterans after Traumatic Brain Injury Rehabilitation
"In a July 2006 report, the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG), Office of Healthcare Inspections (OHI) described the health status of and services provided for a group of service members and veterans who had received inpatient rehabilitative care in VA facilities for traumatic brain injury (TBI) sustained during or after tours of duty in Iraq or Afghanistan. At the request of the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, the OIG conducted a follow-up assessment to determine the extent to which the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) maintains involvement with these same individuals to ensure that their health care needs are met..."

Deploying Federal Civilians to the Battlefield:Incentives, Benefits, and Medical Care
Report of the House Committee on Armed Services, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation. April 2008.
"Our government has asked many federal civilian volunteers to serve in Iraq or
Afghanistan. With the current plans to develop corps of more readily deployable active and reserve civilians, agencies will need a substantial number of personnel for future stability and reconstruction missions, including those in a non-permissive security environment. The committee sought to understand how well the government fulfills its obligation to support and adequately compensate those who are asked to take these assignments. Are support and compensation commensurate with the risks these personnel face in combat zones?"

EPA: Significant Changes Proposed for Lead Emissions, Monitoring
"EPA proposed a significant reduction in the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for lead emissions May 1. The Agency proposes to move the standard from the 1.5 micrograms per cubic meter of air it has been since 1978 to a range of 0.10 to 0.30 micrograms per cubic meter. EPA also proposes to revise various elements of the standard to provide increased protection for children and other at-risk populations against an array of adverse health effects, most notably, effects on the developing nervous system."