Texas Senate Bill 5 Video Available

The Texas Senate maintains video archives of its committee hearings and proceedings. The June 25th Senate Session containing Senator Wendy Davis' 11 hour filibuster is now available online.

Effects of Climate Change on Sub_Saharan Africa, South Asia and South East Asia

Turn Down the Heat: Climate Extremes, Regional Impacts, and the Case for Resilience is now available from the World Bank (A report for the World Bank by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Climate Analytics. Washington, DC:World Bank. License: Creative Commons Attribution—NonCommercial–NoDerivatives3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0.)The report makes a strong case "that climate change is a fundamental threat to economic development and the fight against poverty" in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and South East Asia and that there "can be no substitute for aggressive national emissions reduction targets."

2012 Revision of the World Population Prospects

Do you need world population data? The UN has released its online 2012 Revision of the World Population Prospects. Information is available from quick search images or from the left side bar which includes links under the broad topics of Data, Documentation, Methodology, Research, and Other Information.

New Mental Health Website

Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, announced the launch of MentalHealth.gov, an online resource providing information about mental health. The site includes information about "about the signs of mental illness, how individuals can seek help, and how communities can host conversations about mental health." Also included are videos from people sharing their stories about mental illness, recovery, and hope.

A companion piece, the SAMHSA Toolkit for Community Conversations About Mental Health, will be available soon through the SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration) website or store or MentalHealth.gov.

Public Access to Federally-Supported R&D Data and Publications: Planning Meetings

The National Academies recently held two meetings to solicit comments by interested stakeholders regarding public access to federally-supported research and development data and publications. The first meeting focused on scientific data while the second focused on scholarly publications. The agenda, archived webcast, written statements, PowerPoints, and transcripts of public comments are now available for both meetings at http://sites.nationalacademies.org/DBASSE/CurrentProjects/DBASSE_082378#.UZ5etPWO7Kc (scroll to the bottom).

Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-2013

On May 3, 2013 the Congressional Research Service published a report by Barbara Salazar Torreon listing "hundreds of instances in which the United States has used its Armed Forces abroad in situations of military conflict or potential conflict or for other than normal peacetime purposes." Its purpose is to serve as a rough survey for the time period 1798-2013 without "without reference to the magnitude of the given instance noted." As such, it is a good starting point for more extensive research.

Congressional Research Service reports on an extensive variety of topics are available to those with Rice access as part of ProQuest Congressional. Sources of free Congressional Research Service reports are listed on Fondren's Congress subject page.

Unemployment from a Child's Perspective

The Urban Institute, a nonpartisan economic and social policy research center arising in 1968 out of a blue-ribbon commission created by President Lyndon Johnson, released an issue brief In March 2013 by Julia Isaacs about how unemployment affects children. Unemployment from a Child's Perspective "provides estimates of children affected by unemployment by state and metropolitan area, considers the effects of parental job loss on child development, and reviews policies affecting the safety net for children of the unemployed."

New Report on Transitions to Alternative Vehicles and Fuels

The National Academies Press has published a new report that assesses the potential for reducing petroleum consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by 80% across the U.S. light-duty vehicles fleet by 2050 compared to 2005. Entitled Transitions to Alternative Vehicles and Fuels, the report analyzes scenarios that combine various fuel and vehicle pathways, "identifies barriers to implementation of these technologies and suggests policies to achieve the desired reductions." Both a free PDF and a reasonably priced paperback version of the report are available from the Academies' website.

New American Community Survey Bills

Representative Ted Poe (R-TX) and Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) are sponsoring two new bills limiting the reach of the American Community Survey. Representative Poe's bill, H.R.1078, seeks to make participation in the American Community Survey voluntary except with respect to certain basic questions. Senator Paul's bill, S.530, has similar wording. Poe explains the purpose of his bill on his website as does Senator Paul in a March 15, 2013 press release.

Terri Ann Lowenthal from The Census Project, an informal network of census stakeholder organizations, expresses strong concerns about the bills in her March 20, 2013 blog entry.

Impacts of Sequestration

With the threat of Sequestration cuts looming on March 1, many are wondering what the possible effects of Sequestration will be. The United States Senate Committee on Appropriations is conducting Sequestration hearings now and has made available letters from various government agencies discussing possible impacts. For more information, see The Impacts of Sequestration page.

Medigap: Spotlight on Enrollment, Premiums and Recent Trends

The Kaiser Family Foundation and the University of California at Los Angeles have released an analysis of Medigap plans designed to help with expenses not covered by Medicare. The study looks at national and state trends in enrollment and finds a variation across the country and within states regarding monthly premiums for identical plans. For more information access the study at http://www.kff.org/medicare/upload/8412.pdf .

President Obama's Plan to Reduce Gun Violence

President Obama's gun control plan called Now is the Time is available from the White House at http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/wh_now_is_the_time_full.pdf.

The Protection of Classified Information: The Legal Framework

When WikiLeaks published classified information, many wondered about the legalities involved. Legal background information is now available from a new Congressional Research Service report, The Protection of Classified Information: The Legal Framework by Legislative Attorney Jennifer K. Elsea. According to the summary, the report

provides an overview of the relationship between executive and legislative authority over national security information, and summarizes the current laws that form the legal framework protecting classified information, including current executive orders and some agency regulations pertaining to the handling of unauthorized disclosures of classified information by government officers and employees. The report also summarizes criminal laws that pertain specifically to the unauthorized disclosure of classified information, as well as civil and administrative penalties. Finally, the report describes some recent developments in executive branch security policies and legislation currently before Congress (S. 3454).

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* Understanding the Risks Inherent in Shadow Banking

Staff at the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank have published a paper exploring how shadow banking relates to systemic risk and the recent financial crisis. The paper, Understanding the Risks Inherent in Shadow Banking: A Primer and Practical Lessons Learned by David Luttrell, Harvey Rosenblum and Jackson Thies, is divided into two parts. "The first serves as a primer on shadow banking; the second provides a narrative of how the system froze during the financial crisis and pertinent lessons learned for the current reform effort." The paper explains shadow banking came about because technological advances opened up new avenues of credit. "The various other avenues of credit flow have been called the shadow banking system— so named because they intermediate credit with less transparency and regulation than in traditional banking. Shadow banks are at the center of our global market-based financial intermediation system, conducting maturity, liquidity, and credit transformation without explicit public sector credit guarantees or liquidity access."

Long-Term Implications of an Aging Population

The National Academies recently released a congressionally mandated study from the National Research Council about the long-term economic implications of the ratio of people aged 65+ to people aged 20-64 rising by 80%. Entitled Aging and the Macroeconomy: Long-Term Implications of an Older Population, the report offers "four practical approaches for preparing resources to support the future consumption of households and for adapting to the new economic landscape." A free pdf of the 239 page report is available from the Academies website as is a $49.00 paperback version. More information is available from the press release.

ACS Online Response Option

According to a Dec. 17, 2012 news release, in 2013 the Census Bureau will begin offering a secure online response option for the American Community Survey (ACS). Households sampled for the ACS will receive a package introducing the survey and providing a secure website to complete the survey which also includes new questions about computer and internet use. Alternative paper, telephone, and personal interviewing options are available for those not choosing the cost-effective secure website option.

Science.gov Celebrates 10th Birthday

According to a Dec. 5, 2012 press release, the U.S. Government's science information search and retrieval web portal has now been in service for 10 years. Science.gov was created in Dec. 2002 after "senior information managers representing 13 Federal agencies forged a consensus on how national science organizations could improve public access to the nation’s rich and diverse scientific research information" by partnering to create the web portal.

See the press release for more information. Also check out the "Cool Things" page to find odd facts and interesting history about the Science.gov Alliance members.

CBS News reported on Nov. 26, 2012 that during the Cold War the United States had considered detonating a nuclear device on the moon to send a message to the Soviet Union. Military officials rejected the idea because of possible harm to people on the Earth. The abstract for the unclassified 1959 report about the project, "A Study of Lunar Research Flights, Vol I," states:

Nuclear detonations in thc vicinity of the moon are considered in this report along with scientific information which might be obtained from such explosions. The military aspect is aided by investigation of space environment, detection of nuclear device testing, and capability of weapons in space.

International Banking Supervision

With headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, the Basel Committee, an international committee associated with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) aims to improve the quality of banking supervision worldwide. It holds an International Conference of Banking Supervisors (ICBS) every two years. On November 6, 2012 Mr. Wayne Byres, an Executive General Manager of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) who presently serves as Secretary General of the Basel Committee, gave the keynote address at its 6th Biennial Conference on Risk Management and Supervision. In his speech Mr. Byres discusses why the Basel III plan proposed by the committee is essential but not sufficient to secure a healthy banking system for the future. He stressed that "Basel III needs to be complemented by other measures to deliver the sort of financial stability outcomes" that the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors desire.

Highlights of Women’s Earnings in 2011

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released a report revealing in 2011 women who "who were full-time wage and salary workers had median usual weekly earnings of $684,about 82 percent of median earnings for male full-time wage and salary workers ($832)." The report goes on to say that in 1979, "the first year for which comparable earnings data are available,women earned 62 percent of what men earned." The report also provides detailed descriptions of the source of the data as well as an explanation of the concepts and definitions used since earnings differences can be influenced by many factors. The data is taken from the Current Population Survey (CPS) which the U.S. Census Bureau conducts monthly for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The Census Bureau surveys approximately 60,000 households each month and collects information on earnings from one-fourth of the CPS sample each month.