“Congress.gov is the official website for U.S. federal legislative information. The site provides access to accurate, timely, and complete legislative information for Members of Congress, legislative agencies, and the public. It is presented by the Library of Congress (LOC) using data from the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Office… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Legislation
IRS IG Audit Report – Affordable Care Act
Affordable Care Act: Accuracy of Responses to Exchange Requests for Income and Family Size Verification Information and Maximum Advance Premium Tax Credit Calculation. July 3, 2014, Reference Number: 2014-43-044. “As of March 31, 2014, the IRS received more than 27 million IFSV [Income and Family Size Verification] information requests and more than 11 million APTC requests. Our review of the… Continue Reading
Worthy Memorial for President and General Eisenhower Needed; Chronic Mismanagement Plagues Process
“The House Natural Resources Committee’s Majority oversight staff released a report [July 25, 2014] entitled “A Five-Star Folly: An Investigation into the Cost Increases, Construction Delays, and Design Problems That Have Been a Disservice to the Effort to Memorialize Dwight D. Eisenhower.” The current proposal for the Memorial, created by Frank Gehry’s architecture firm, has faced… Continue Reading
Cramming on Wireless Phone Bills: A Review of Consumer Protection Practices and Gaps
News release – Chairman John D. (Jay) Rockefeller, IV, Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, August 1, 2014 “Today’s hearing is about a practice known as “cramming,” where consumers get charged on their phone bills for goods and services they never agreed to purchase. The companies that put these bogus charges on phone bills know that consumers don’t… Continue Reading
Israel: Background and U.S. Relations
CRS – Israel: Background and U.S. Relations. Jim Zanotti, Specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs. July 22, 2014 “Periodic violence between Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip—including the Islamist group Hamas—and Israel’s military became a larger conflict on July 6-7, 2014. Israel began a ground operation in Gaza on July 17 with the stated objective of destroying tunnels used… Continue Reading
Survey Assesses How Uninsured Californians Fared After ACA Open Enrollment
“Last summer, just before the first open enrollment period under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) conducted a baseline survey of California’s uninsured nonelderly adult population. After the open enrollment period came to a close, we conducted a second survey with the same group of individuals who participated in the baseline… Continue Reading
Comparison of House & Senate Versions of the USA FREEDOM Act – CDT
“Today Senator Patrick Leahy introduced a new version of the USA FREEDOM Act. The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) supports the Senate version of the USA FREEDOM Act and urges Congress to pass the bill quickly without weakening it. This bill addresses many issues identified by CDT as problematic in the House version of the bill, and includes many key changes… Continue Reading
Surveillance Costs: The NSA’s Impact on the Economy, Internet Freedom & Cybersecurity
New America Foundation – “It has been over a year since The Guardian reported the first story on the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs based on the leaks from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, yet the national conversation remains largely mired in a simplistic debate over the tradeoffs between national security and individual privacy. It is time… Continue Reading
Free Exercise of Religion by Closely Held Corporations – CRS
Free Exercise of Religion by Closely Held Corporations: Implications of Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. Cynthia Brougher, Legislative Attorney. July 23, 2014 “One of the ongoing controversies related to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been the scope of exemption from certain health care coverage requirements, including the contraceptive coverage requirement. Though closely divided, the U.S. Supreme Court’s… Continue Reading
“Black Boxes” in Passenger Vehicles: Policy Issues
CRS – “Black Boxes” in Passenger Vehicles: Policy Issues – Bill Canis, Specialist in Industrial Organization and Business; David Randall Peterman, Analyst in Transportation Policy July 21, 2014. “An event data recorder (EDR) is an electronic sensor installed in a motor vehicle that records certain technical information about a vehicle’s operational performance for a few seconds immediately prior to… Continue Reading
Democratic House Staff Report on Fourth Anniversary of Dodd-Frank Act
Follow up to Report: Dodd-Frank Act Does Not End Too Big to Fail But Perpetuates It as Official Policy – today, the Democrat’s interpretation of the same subject – The Fourth Anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Protection Act of 2010, Democratic Staff Report Prepared for Democratic Members of the House Committee on Financial Services – The Honorable… Continue Reading
Report: Dodd-Frank Act Does Not End Too Big to Fail But Perpetuates It as Official Policy
“House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Patrick McHenry (R-NC) today released a committee staff report [prepared by the Republican Staff of the Committee on Financial Services] that concludes the Dodd-Frank Act did not end “too big to fail” as the law’s supporters claim, but actually had the… Continue Reading
