Advanced search Help
Clear all search criteria
Only 2/3! You are seeing results from the Public Collection, not the complete Full Collection. Sign in to search everything (see eligibility).
-
COVID-19--Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Online Purchasing in Response to the Coronavirus Disease 2019
From the Objective: "Our objectives were to address the following questions: (1) What criteria did FNS [Food and Nutrition Service] use to approve States and retail food stores to accept SNAP [Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program] benefits through online transactions during COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019]? (2) What risks has FNS identified during the transition to allow SNAP benefits online? (3) What controls does FNS have to ensure retail food stores meet online transaction program requirements?"
United States. Department of Agriculture. Office of the Inspector General
2021-08
-
COVID-19--Oversight of the Emergency Food Assistance Program-Interim Report
From the Objective: "One of the four objectives of our ongoing inspection was to determine what risks FNS [Food and Nutrition Service] identified related to the safe and efficient distribution of USDA-food assistance provided to States during the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic. Specifically: (a) did FNS accept any risk related to the safe distribution of food assistance without implementing an offsetting internal control?; and (b) what controls did FNS establish to manage risks it did not accept?"
United States. Department of Agriculture. Office of the Inspector General
2021-08
-
COVID-19: Improvements Needed in Guidance and Stakeholder Engagement for Immigration Courts, Report to Congressional Addressees
From the Highlights: "Each year, EOIR [Executive Office for Immigration Review] issues decisions for hundreds of thousands of cases of foreign nationals charged as removable under U.S. immigration law. Approximately 500 immigration judges at 66 immigration courts nationwide determine whether these individuals are removable from the U.S. and, if so, whether they are eligible for any requested relief from removal. During the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic, EOIR faced unprecedented challenges adapting its operations to continue its mission. GAO [Government Accountability Office] was asked to review EOIR's management of court operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. This report examines, among other things, (1) EOIR's modifications to court operations and related guidance and (2) EOIR's engagement with court stakeholders."
United States. Government Accountability Office
2021-08
-
Global Food Security: Improved Monitoring Framework Needed to Assess and Report on Feed the Future's Performance, Report to the Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies, House Committee on Appropriations
From the GAO (Government Accountability Office) Highlights: "The United Nations reported that nearly 690 million people in the world were undernourished as of 2019, and estimated that food insecurity could worsen due to COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019]. In response to the Global Food Security Act of 2016, FTF [Feed the Future] agencies monitor and report the progress of their global food security assistance and developed a process to graduate FTF target countries from the initiative. GAO was asked to review U.S. global food security assistance. This report evaluates, among other things, USAID's [U.S. Agency for International Development] monitoring and public reporting of FTF's progress and assessment of countries' potential to graduate from FTF. GAO reviewed FTF documents and data, and interviewed representatives of USAID, FTF partner agencies, and other stakeholders, including implementing partners from four sample countries selected based on factors such as geographic diversity and amount of food security funding."
United States. Government Accountability Office
2021-08
-
Debt, Tech and Tension: Addressing COVID-19's Global Fault Lines
From the Document: "We would expect a pandemic crisis to be a catalyst for global change. Yet the specific cascading effects that flow from COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] remain largely undefined. It's not for lack of opportunity. In a flurry of recent diplomatic meetings, leaders of Western nations have set out their plans for dealing with the immediate pandemic crisis and, in their words, 'building back a better world'. If words were deeds, we would be well on the way to that better world. In May 2021, G7 [Group of Seven] foreign and development ministers delivered an 87-paragraph, 12,000+ word statement pronouncing on an exceptionally wide waterfront of issues. Finance ministers and central bank governors followed shortly thereafter with a relatively more restrained 20-paragraph statement. But G7 leaders ramped up the output again with a 25-page, 70-paragraph communiqué following their summit in June. Days later, the same leaders joined with NATO partners and issued another 79- paragraph, 14,000+ word declaration. A good deal of the focus has been on what we have long known: viruses and climate change constitute serious threats to humankind. Sadly, both are now irreversible and will require adaptation. Failure to take mitigating actions on these years ago provide an object lesson in both our national and international institutional shortcomings and the damage that can result. [...] Divided into three sections, this paper suggests that three other cascading risks from the pandemic merit collective actions: rising global debt, growing technological vulnerability and increased great-power tensions."
Canadian Global Affairs Institute
Mank, Randolph
2021-08
-
Proposal for Longterm COVID-19 Control: Universal Vaccination, Prophylactic Drugs, Rigorous Mitigation, and International Cooperation
From the Introduction: "Four successive waves of COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] have buffeted the United States for the past year and a half. With each wave, we have bet on different measures to push us through: First, public health measures, then drugs and treatments, and now, with our fifth wave, we hold out hope for vaccine-led recovery. But from the outset, we have underestimated this virus and its ability to maneuver the public health battleground; it is escaping the best defenses we are able to muster and finding new avenues of attack. In this paper, I propose a multimodal strategy for long-term COVID control, one that sets up multiple barriers of protection so that we are able to not only contain SARS-CoV-2 [severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2] and eliminate COVID-19 as a major life-threatening disease, but also return to a new social and economic life. The strategy uses the best of what we have on hand today--a rapidly growing arsenal of vaccines and antiviral drugs and public health measures-- with an eye towards future improvements and developments."
Brookings Institution. Global Economy and Development
Haseltine, William A.
2021-08
-
(U) Audit of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security's Process to Verify That Purchased Protective Equipment Complied with Performance and Contractual Requirements [Redacted]
From the Highlights: "(U) The Department of State (Department) Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS), Office of Physical Security Programs, Defensive Equipment and Armored Vehicle Division (DEAV), directs the development of standards, policies, and procedures related to Special Protective Equipment (SPE), including body armor. The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) sets standards that define minimum performance requirements for body armor. (U) The Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted this audit to determine whether DS's internal control processes and activities were sufficient to verify that procured body armor complied with contractual requirements and NIJ standards. This audit focused on body armor items acquired by DS during FY 2019 and FY 2020."
United States. Department of State. Office of the Inspector General
2021-08
-
2021 Annual Report on Implementation
From the Commission Background: "The digital connectivity that has brought economic growth, technological dominance, and an improved quality of life to nearly every American has also created a strategic dilemma. The United States now operates in a cyber landscape that requires a level of data security, resilience, and trustworthiness that neither the U.S. government nor the private sector alone is currently equipped to provide. Moreover, shortfalls in agility, technical expertise, and unity of effort, both within the U.S. government and between the public and private sectors, are growing. For more than 20 years, nation-states and non-state actors have leveraged cyberspace to subvert American power, American security, and the American way of life. The perpetrators of these cyberattacks exploited weaknesses in both systems and strategy and assessed that their forays damaged the United States without triggering any significant retaliation. American restraint was met with unchecked predation. The U.S. Cyberspace Solarium Commission (CSC) was established in the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 to address these challenges and 'develop a consensus on a strategic approach to defending the United States in cyberspace against cyber attacks of significant consequences.' To meet its mandate, the CSC produced a final report, published in March 2020, outlining a strategic approach and 82 recommendations for the U.S. government. [...] This assessment is intended to review the implementation of the recommendations made by the Commission over the course of the previous year."
United States. Cyberspace Solarium Commission
2021-08
-
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services: Actions Needed to Address Pending Caseload, Report to Congressional Requesters
From the Highlights: "USCIS [U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services] is the federal agency charged with adjudicating applications and petitions for immigration benefits, such as humanitarian relief, naturalization, and employment authorization. GAO [Government Accountability Office] was asked to review issues related to USCIS's caseload. This report examines (1) what USCIS data indicate about its caseload, including its pending caseload, and factors affecting it; (2) how USCIS monitors its case processing operations, including efforts to reduce its pending caseload; and (3) the extent to which USCIS has implemented workforce planning strategies to address its pending caseload. GAO analyzed USCIS documentation and data for fiscal year 2015 through the second quarter of fiscal year 2020 and interviewed officials from USCIS program offices, directorates, and eight field locations and from three external stakeholder organizations. GAO also analyzed USCIS processing time data for seven types of applications and petitions, selected based on various factors, including volume of pending caseload and benefit category. [...] GAO is making six recommendations, including that USCIS develop performance measures for monitoring the timeliness of its case processing for certain forms, develop a long-term workforce plan, and identify the resources necessary to address its pending caseload. DHS concurred with five recommendations and did not concur with the recommendation that USCIS develop a long-term workforce plan. GAO continues to believe that such a plan would help USCIS better address its workforce challenges."
United States. Government Accountability Office
2021-08
-
DOD Fraud Risk Management: Actions Needed to Enhance Department-Wide Approach, Focusing on Procurement Fraud Risks, Report to Congressional Requesters
From the Highlights: "GAO [Government Accountability Office] was asked to review issues related to DOD's fraud risk management. DOD obligated $421.8 billion in fiscal year 2020 on contracts. GAO has long reported that DOD's procurement processes are vulnerable to waste, fraud, and abuse. In 2018, DOD reported to Congress that from fiscal years 2013- 2017, over $6.6 billion had been recovered from defense-contracting fraud cases. In 2020, the DOD Office of Inspector General reported that roughly one-in-five of its ongoing investigations are related to procurement fraud. This report assesses the steps DOD took in fiscal year 2020 (1) to combat departmentwide fraud risks and (2) to conduct a fraud risk assessment and ensure that DOD's component organizations reported procurement fraud risks."
United States. Government Accountability Office
2021-08
-
Security and Management of Mobile Devices
From the Executive Summary: "The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) deploys nearly 4,600 smartphones and more than 150 tablets to its employees and contractor personnel to support its business operations and communications. Although these mobile devices offer opportunities to improve business productivity, they also introduce the risk of cyber threats that could compromise sensitive FDIC data. The FDIC must implement proper controls to ensure that it effectively manages its inventory of mobile devices and the associated expenditures. [...] The audit objective was to determine whether the FDIC had established and implemented effective controls to secure and manage its mobile devices. [...] The audit found that the FDIC had not established or implemented effective controls and practices to secure and manage its mobile devices in three of the nine areas assessed because the controls and practices did not comply with relevant Federal or FDIC requirements and guidance."
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Office of Inspector General
2021-08
-
State Strategies to Increase COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake in Rural Communities
From the Document: "Access to health care is a common challenge for rural and frontier communities due to provider shortages, insufficient broadband Internet availability, geographic location, among other issues. The COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic has exacerbated many of these barriers. Rural residents often travel longer distances to receive the COVID-19 vaccine than people in other areas, and they generally lack access to public transportation. Rural residents may also struggle to receive critical public health information due to unreliable access to the Internet and other technology equipment, such as smartphones and computers. During the pandemic, additional challenges surfaced including a lack of trust in the government and concern about the COVID-19 vaccine's safety. The fast-paced nature of the pandemic spurred new and changing information with misinformation spreading as quickly as reliable news, undercutting science and public policies, especially related to COVID-19 prevention measures like the vaccine. Governors have the authority to pull together stakeholders and the ability to address the long-standing and emerging issues impeding vaccine confidence, access and uptake in rural communities. Because trusted messengers (outlined in Figure 2) are vital to increasing confidence, Governors might consider convening state experts and local partners to establish a strong foundation of trust. They may also allocate resources to build on existing programs and processes and create new, sustainable strategies that will both improve vaccination rates as the pandemic continues and prepare future public health initiatives."
National Governors' Association
LeBlanc, Michelle; Ruane, Kelsey; Fairbanks, Mollie . . .
2021-08
-
Report of the Scientific Task Force on Preventing Pandemics
From the Executive Summary: "No one wants to endure another pandemic the likes of COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019]. Yet, the likelihood of another such pandemic occurring may be greater than ever. How to prevent the next pandemic was the core question addressed in the following report. The Scientific Task Force on Preventing Pandemics convened by the Harvard Global Health Institute and the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health evaluated the latest research on what forces contribute to pathogen spillover, what actions are warranted to curtail this risk, and what more we must learn to make wiser investments directed at forestalling another pandemic. The report contains key findings and recommendations for research and action to inform pandemic prevention. The task force found that evidence strongly establishes spillover of viruses from wildlife into people, sometimes via livestock, as the root cause of pandemic risk. Spillover of the viruses currently understood to have pandemic potential occurs from land use change, and in particular the destruction of tropical forests, expansion of agricultural lands, especially near human settlements, livestock and farmed wildlife intensification, and wild animal hunting and trade."
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment; Harvard Global Health Institute
Alimi,Yewande; Bernstein, Aaron; Epstein, Jonathan . . .
2021-08
-
U.S. Postal Service: Further Analysis Could Help Identify Opportunities to Reduce Injuries Among Non-Career Employees, Report to Congressional Requesters
From the Highlights: "From fiscal year 2016 through 2018, USPS [United States Postal Service] saved an estimated $6.6 billion by increasing its use of non-career employees; this increase is an important accomplishment given USPS's financial challenges. Compared to career employees, noncareer employees are compensated less and USPS has more flexibility in setting their schedules. GAO [Government Accountability Office] was asked to review the effects of USPS's increased use of non-career employees. This report examines the rates of non-career employees: (1) turnover and (2) injuries, as well as factors and costs associated with each and USPS's efforts to manage these issues."
United States. Government Accountability Office
2021-08
-
Impacts of COVID-19 on Women's Social and Economic Outcomes: An Updated Review of the Evidence
From the Abstract: "In an updated review on the gendered social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] crisis, we examine 49 studies identified by our search criteria between January and March 2021. This review included peer-reviewed papers, pre-prints and working papers that met specific search terms, contained empirical analyses and complete information on the study methodology, and included findings on the gendered social and economic impacts of the pandemic in low- and middle-income contexts. This collection of evidence largely confirms previous findings that in many arenas, women are bearing the greatest burdens of the crisis. Evidence continues to mount that woman [sic] have faced greater employment and income losses, have shouldered the majority of increases in unpaid care work, and have endured increased levels of violence. Gaps remain regarding the impacts on women agricultural workers and women entrepreneurs and, importantly, intrahousehold poverty and food insecurity. New evidence largely confirms however, that women are disproportionately and negatively impacted by the pandemic and policy responses must be sensitive to this reality."
Center for Global Development; University of California, San Diego. Center on Gender Equity and Health
O'Donnell, Megan; Bourgault, Shelby; McDougal, Lotus . . .
2021-08
-
U.S. Agency for International Development 2021 Climate Readiness Plan: In Response to Executive Order 14008
From the Summary: "The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) recognizes the urgency of leveraging our expertise, experience, and partnerships to confront the climate crisis, which threatens to reverse years if not decades of hard-won development gains by exacerbating global inequities, increasing food and water scarcity, threatening lives and livelihoods, and contributing to conflict. With this new Climate Readiness Plan (CRP), USAID is revitalizing its approach to climate change adaptation, resilience, and risk mitigation across the Agency's programs and operations and is also committing to ambitious mitigation targets and new adaptation actions in alignment with Biden-Harris Administration priorities, multilateral climate objectives, and the newest climate science. USAID's approach to climate action includes both mitigation and adaptation."
United States. Agency for International Development
2021-08
-
Department of Veterans Affairs 2021 Climate Adaptation Plan
From the Executive Summary: "The United States (U.S.) Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) Climate Action Plan (CAP) outlines VA's response to the projected impacts of climate change to the department with the goal of ensuring sustained operations to support the uninterrupted delivery of benefits and services and VA's 'Fourth Mission.' VA is generating this plan in response to the requirements in section 211 of Executive Order (EO) 14008, signed January 27, 2021, which places greater emphasis on taking a government wide approach to the climate crisis. VA will continue its effort to identify mission critical functions at risk from the impacts of a changing climate. As impacts are further identified by the best available science, VA will incorporate climate change adaptation and resilience across agency programs and the management of federal procurement, real property, public lands and waters and financial programs. Mitigation of known risks are incorporated into the agency's normal business operations to the extent practicable. This plan draws on VA's ongoing efforts and establishes a pathway for expanding climate adaptation and resilience opportunities across all agency missions and roles. Efforts described in this plan will also be incorporated into the VA governance process. The plan identifies five vulnerabilities tied to management function and decision points, five priority adaptation actions, efforts to enhance climate literacy and actions to enhance climate resilience of facilities, supplies and services. It focuses on VA's physical infrastructure, resources, supply chain and the effects of climate change on the health of VA employees and the Veterans its serves."
United States. Department of Veterans Affairs
2021-08
-
How the Criminal Justice System's COVID-19 Response Has Provided Valuable Lessons for Broader Reform: Looking to the Future
From the About this Brief: "To better understand the challenges that the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic has created within the criminal justice system and how the various sectors of the system have adapted to those challenges, the Priority Criminal Justice Needs Initiative conducted a series of panel workshops with representatives of different sectors within the system. The Priority Criminal Justice Needs Initiative is a joint effort managed by the RAND Corporation in partnership with the Police Executive Research Forum, RTI International, and the University of Denver on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice's National Institute of Justice. Panels focused on law enforcement, the court system, institutional corrections, community corrections, victim services providers, and community organizations. This brief presents key lessons learned and recommendations offered by panel workshop participants."
RAND Corporation
Jackson, Brian A., 1972-; Vermeer, Michael J.D.; Woods, Dulani . . .
2021-07-31?
-
Europe: Fact Sheet on Parliamentary and Presidential Elections [July 30, 2021]
From the Introduction: "This report provides a map of parliamentary and presidential elections that have been held or are scheduled to hold at the national level in Europe in 2021, and a table of recent and upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections at the national level in Europe. It includes dates for direct elections only, and excludes indirect elections."
Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service
Plagakis, Sofia
2021-07-30
-
Diplomacy with North Korea: A Status Report [Updated July 30, 2021]
From the Background: "In 2018, following two years of a steadily escalating crisis that threatened to erupt into military conflict, Trump and Kim defused tensions. Departing from the bottom-up approaches undertaken by previous administrations, their diplomatic efforts relied on summits and leader-to-leader communication. Trump and Kim exchanged more than 25 letters and held three meetings: in Singapore (June 2018); Hanoi(February 2019); and Panmunjom, on the inter-Korean border(June 2019).The U.S.-DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] diplomacy was complemented--and at certain points facilitated--by increased diplomacy between North and South Korea. President Biden has indicated that he will seek to return to a more traditional diplomatic approach that emphasizes working-level talks. [...] If U.S.-DPRK talks restart, Members of Congress could debate the merits of the Biden Administration's apparent aim to push in the near term for incremental dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear program in step with gradual sanctions relief, rather than trying for earlier and/or more extensive DPRK denuclearization concessions. The possibility of sanctions relief is complicated by, among other factors, U.S. legal requirements to address a range of security, regional stability, human rights, and governance issues before sanctions can be suspended or altogether terminated. U.S. sanctions on North Korea target not just weapons development but also human rights abuses, money laundering, weapons trade, international terrorism, and cyber operations. Members may also debate whether and how to push the Administration to more effectively shield humanitarian aid from the impact of sanctions."
Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service
Manyin, Mark E.; Chanlett-Avery, Emma; Nikitin, Mary Beth Dunham . . .
2021-07-30
-
New START Treaty: Central Limits and Key Provisions [Updated July 30, 2021]
From the Introduction: "The United States and Russia signed the New START [Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty] Treaty on April 8, 2010. This treaty replaced the 1991 Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty (START), which expired, after 15 years of implementation, on December 5, 2009. The U.S. Senate provided its advice and consent to ratification of New START on December 22, 2010, by a vote of 71-26. The Russian parliament, with both the Duma and Federation Council voting, did so on January 25 and January 26, 2011. The treaty entered into force on February 5, 2011, after Secretary of State Clinton and Foreign Minister Lavrov exchanged the instruments of ratification. New START also superseded the 2002 Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (known as the Moscow Treaty), which lapsed in 2012. New START provided the parties with seven years to reduce their forces. Both parties completed their required reductions by February 5, 2018."
Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service
Woolf, Amy F.
2021-07-30
-
Failure to Protect: How Tech Giants Fail to Act on User Reports of Antisemitism
From the Introduction: "This report shows how social media companies fail to act on anti-Jewish hate on their platforms. As a result of their failure to enforce their own rules, social media platforms like Facebook have become safe places to spread racism and propaganda against Jews. Our research concludes that the platforms are failing to remove hateful and antisemitic content even after it is specifically reported and flagged. Our methodology sidesteps debates about algorithms and claims by the companies about automated hate removal that they refuse to have independently verified. Instead, we measured the effectiveness of the platforms' opposition to antisemitism by assessing what they do with user reports of anti-Jewish hatred. CCDH [Center for Countering Digital Hate] researchers, using the platforms' own reporting tools, reported hundreds of examples of clear, grotesque antisemitism to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok over a six-week period in 2021. We found that the platforms acted on fewer than 1 in 6 reported examples of antisemitism. The posts that we reported for this analysis received up to 7.3 million impressions. Facebook and Twitter showed the poorest rate of enforcement action."
Center for Countering Digital Hate
2021-07-30
-
Debt Limit in 2021 [Updated July 30, 2021]
From the Document: "Debt limit episodes [hyperlink]--which can be defined as starting when the statutory limit on federal debt restricts some of the U.S. Treasury's normal debt operations and ending when new legislation to modify the limit is enacted--have been a recurrent federal fiscal feature in the past two decades. Since 2002, the debt limit has been modified 18 times. [hyperlink] The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019 (P.L. [Public Law] 116-37), enacted in August 2019, suspended the debt limit through July 31, 2021. Recent debt limit episodes share similarities, although the issue in 2021 has a few unique characteristics. First, the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic remains a source of economic uncertainty, and the fiscal responses it spurred have accelerated the pace of federal debt accumulation. Second, the U.S. Treasury sharply increased its cash balances in 2020 to accommodate those fiscal responses. Third, since 2015, Bipartisan Budget Acts that adjusted statutory caps on discretionary spending imposed by the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA; P.L. 112-25) also suspended the debt limit. The expiration of those discretionary spending caps at the end of FY2021 rendered moot the need for legislation to modify them. Thus, the legislative vehicle used for the past few debt limit modifications is unavailable in 2021."
Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service
Austin, D. Andrew
2021-07-30
-
Nicaragua in Brief: Political Developments in 2021, U.S. Policy, and Issues for Congress [July 30, 2021]
From the Overview: "Increasing government crackdowns in Nicaragua against the opposition, journalists, and government critics in 2021 have elevated international concerns, including among Members of Congress, about political developments and the human rights situation in the country. President Daniel Ortega, who was inaugurated to his third consecutive and fourth overall five-year term as president on January 10, 2017, is a polarizing figure both at home and abroad for what many characterize as his increasingly authoritarian rule and recent oppressive actions. General elections, including for the presidency and the National Assembly, are scheduled to be held on November 7, 2021; Ortega appears unlikely to carry out electoral and human rights reforms recommended by the international community before that time. In the absence of such reforms, elections are likely to assure his party's continuance in power and lead the domestic opposition and international community to contest their legitimacy."
Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service
Taft-Morales, Maureen
2021-07-30
-
Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, 52nd Quarterly Report to the United States Congress
From the Executive Summary: "This report summarizes SIGAR's [Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction] oversight work and updates developments in four major areas of reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan from April 1 to June 30, 2021. During this reporting period, SIGAR issued 12 audits, evaluations, and other products assessing U.S. efforts to build the Afghan security forces, improve governance, facilitate economic and social development, and combat the production and sale of narcotics. In this period, SIGAR criminal investigations resulted in two criminal informations, two guilty pleas, one sentencing, $179,708 in restitutions, and $11.9 million in civil settlements."
United States. Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction
2021-07-30
-
Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate: H.R. 3948, Greater Supervision in Banking Act of 2021
This is the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Cost Estimate as ordered reported by the House Committee on Financial Services on June 23, 2021. From the Bill Summary: "H.R. 3948 would amend the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 to require Global Systemically Important Banks (GSIBs) to submit an annual report to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve containing a description of the activities and goals of the company. It would also require the Board of Governors to post those reports on its website. CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 3948 would decrease revenues by $3 million over the 2021- 2031 period."
United States. Congressional Budget Office
2021-07-30
-
Public Law 117-31: Emergency Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2021
From the Document: "An Act Making emergency supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2021, and for other purposes."
United States. Government Publishing Office
2021-07-30
-
COVID States Project: A 50-State COVID-19 Survey Report #58: High Public Support for Mandating Vaccines
From the Document: "In this report, we update our assessment of public support for vaccine mandates, both nationally and across the 50 states, based on our June/July survey wave. A few key takeaways follow: [1] Overall, public support for federal, state, and local governments requiring that everyone be vaccinated remains very strong, ranging from 61% to 70%, depending on the specific type of mandate. [2] Public support for such mandates has increased since April/May, both overall and in specific circumstances, like for getting on an airplane and returning to school or a university. [3] These over-time increases in support emerge across nearly all partisan and demographic subgroups we investigated. [4] Majorities of respondents in nearly all (45+) or all states and the District of Columbia approve of all four types of vaccine mandates we consider."
Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.); Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy; Harvard Medical School . . .
Baum, Matthew A., 1965-; Ognyanova, Katherine; Lazer, David . . .
2021-07-30
-
COVID-19 Vaccination: Selected U.S. Data Sources Updated July 29, 2021
From the Document: "The sources below can help congressional staff track the progress of the U.S. Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination campaign at the national, state, and local levels. Sources were selected for having commonly cited and frequently requested data. This list is not intended to be comprehensive. Because different resources use different methodologies, readers should check websites' notes and caveats, and use caution when comparing data across sources or geographies."
Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service
Cornell, Ada S.; Napili, Angela
2021-07-29
-
U.S. Capitol Police: Brief Background [Updated July 29, 2021]
From the Document: "The U.S. Capitol Police [USCP] is a department within the legislative branch with security, protection, and administrative responsibilities. The USCP is responsible for law enforcement and security within the Capitol Complex, including the U.S. Capitol building, the Capitol Visitor Center, Capitol grounds, the House and Senate office buildings, the U.S. Botanic Garden, Capitol Police buildings, Library of Congress buildings, and adjacent grounds. The USCP performs these roles in coordination with the House and Senate Sergeants at Arms. The House and Senate Sergeants at Arms are charged with maintaining order in their chambers, and they each perform a number of law enforcement, security-related, decorum, and protocol duties. The House and Senate have each had an elected Sergeant at Arms since 1789."
Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service
Brudnick, Ida A.
2021-07-29
