The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA): Background, Legislation, and Policy Issues

[Excerpt] The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA; 5 U.S.C. §552) allows any person—individual or corporate, citizen or not—to request and obtain, without explanation or justification, existing, identifiable, and unpublished agency records on any topic. Pursuant to FOIA, the public has presumptive access to agency records unless the material falls within any of FOIA’s nine categories of exception. Disputes over the release of records requested pursuant to FOIA can be appealed administratively, resolved through mediation, or heard in court. This report provides background on FOIA, discusses the categories of records FOIA exempts from public release, and analyzes statistics on FOIA administration. The report also provides background on several legal and policy issues related to FOIA, including the release of controversial records, the growth in use of certain FOIA exemptions, and the adoption of new technologies to improve FOIA administration. The report concludes with an examination of potential FOIA-related policy options for the 113th Congress

U.S. Postal Service Workforce Size and Employment Categories, 1987-2007

[Excerpt] This report provides data from the past two decades on the size of the U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS’s) workforce, the number of persons employed by USPS by employment categories, and the number of persons employed by USPS under time-limited contracts. It also analyzes the most salient aspects of these employment data. USPS employs nearly 786,000 persons. Although USPS’s workforce size has changed relatively little from 20 years ago, it has dropped 12% in the past decade. The number of career employees declined 8.8% since 1987; however, the number of non-career employees increased 106.5%. Clerks, who staff retail counters at post offices and manually sort mail, dropped more than 31% since 1987. Rural mail delivery carriers, in contrast, grew 84.9%; and building and equipment maintenance personnel and vehicle maintenance personnel grew 28.7% and 14.9%, respectively. This report will be updated at the beginning of each new Congress

Former Presidents: Pensions, Office Allowances, and Other Federal Benefits

[Excerpt] The Former Presidents Act (FPA; 3 U.S.C. §102 note) charges the General Services Administration (GSA) with providing former Presidents a pension, support staff, office support, travel funds, and mailing privileges. The FPA was enacted to “maintain the dignity” of the Office of the President. The act provides the former President—and his or her spouse—certain benefits to help him respond to post-presidency mail and speaking requests, among other informal public duties often required of a former President. Prior to enactment of the FPA in 1958, former Presidents leaving office received no pension or other federal assistance. This report provides a legislative and cultural history of the Former Presidents Act. It details the benefits provided to former Presidents and their costs. Congress has the authority to reduce, increase, or maintain the pension and benefits provided to former Presidents of the United States. This report considers the potential effects of maintaining the FPA or amending the FPA in ways that might reduce or otherwise modify a former President’s benefits

Philadelphia's Workforce Development Challenge: Serving Employers, Helping Jobseekers and Fixing the System

Over the last four years, half a billion dollars in public funds were spent in Philadelphia in the name of workforce development -- helping residents get jobs or skills and employers find workers to sustain or expand their businesses.These services, which include training for workers and recruiting for employers, were funded largely by federal and state dollars at an annual cost that ranged from $118 million to$134 million. All of these services were free of charge to workers; most were free to employers. Had these efforts been part of city government last year, and they were not, they would have constituted its fifth biggest department, surpassed only by police, fire, prisons, and human services. Roughly 1 in 10 workingage Philadelphians have sought help at a workforce development center on an annual basis. Behind this system have been two nonprofit organizations, the Philadelphia Workforce Development Corporation, which allocates most of the money, and the Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board Inc., which sets general strategy. Both are led by city appointees and are accountable to state funding agencies. For years, the performance of the two organizations received little attention from local elected officials, and their complicated division of roles sometimes led to confusion and impasses. In recent years, unpublicized state audits have found isolated problems with their financial controls.That structure is now being changed, and a new strategy is being implemented. The development corporation and most functions of the investment board are to be combined under a single agency, Philadelphia Works Inc., which will formally take over by June 2012. This report examines the workforce development system's performance, operations and challenges over the past several years -- hard economic times in which increasing numbers of Philadelphians were looking for work. It is based on extensive interviews, a review of internal audits and reports, and a statistical comparison of the system's performance with that of similar, federally mandated programs in other region

Former Presidents: Pensions, Office Allowances, and Other Federal Benefits

[Excerpt] The Former Presidents Act (FPA; 3 U.S.C. § 102 note) charges the General Services Administration (GSA) with providing former Presidents a pension, support staff, office support, travel funds, and mailing privileges. The FPA was enacted to “maintain the dignity” of the Office of the President by giving a former President — and his or her spouse — certain benefits so that he would not have to enter unsuitable occupations after leaving office. Former Presidents currently receive a pension that is equal to pay for the head of an executive department (Executive Level I), which was $191,300 as of January 1, 2008. The FY2008 Consolidated Appropriations Act allocated$2,478,000 for pensions and GSA assistance to former Presidents. The President’s FY2009 budget requested $2,934,000 for expenditures for former Presidents. Pending House and Senate appropriations legislation recommends the requested amount. Prior to 1958, former Presidents leaving office received no pension or federal assistance. After leaving office, some former Presidents — including Ulysses S. Grant and Harry S Truman — struggled financially. In 1912, industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie unveiled a plan to pay$25,000 pensions to all future former Presidents and their widows. The pensions were to be funded by the Carnegie Foundation of New York. Some Members of Congress and the public suggested it was inappropriate for a private company to pay pensions to former Presidents. Legislation was introduced that year to grant public pensions to former Presidents, but none of the bills were reported from committee. William Howard Taft, the only former President who was then eligible for Carnegie’s offer, refused the pension. Since 1962, the U.S. Secret Service has provided protection to former Presidents because of their status as “visible national symbol[s].” Protection has subsequently been expanded to cover a former President’s wife until death or remarriage. Minor children of former Presidents who are under 16 years of age also receive protection. In 1994, the law was amended to limit U.S. Secret Service coverage to 10 years for any President, and his spouse, who left office after January 1, 1997. President George W. Bush will be the first former President affected by this statutory change. In the 110th Congress, Representative John Conyers introduced a bill (H.R. 5938) that would extend U.S. Secret Service Protection to a Vice President, his or her spouse, and family for up to six months after leaving office. Currently, Secret Service protection for a Vice President and his or her family is provided on an ad hoc basis. This report describes the benefits Presidents receive upon leaving office, details the history of the FPA, and analyzes some legislative options for the 110th Congress related to former Presidents

Integrin activation.

Integrin-mediated cell adhesion is important for development, immune responses, hemostasis and wound healing. Integrins also function as signal transducing receptors that can control intracellular pathways that regulate cell survival, proliferation, and cell fate. Conversely, cells can modulate the affinity of integrins for their ligands a process operationally defined as integrin activation. Analysis of activation of integrins has now provided a detailed molecular understanding of this unique form of "inside-out" signal transduction and revealed new paradigms of how transmembrane domains (TMD) can transmit long range allosteric changes in transmembrane proteins. Here, we will review how talin and mediates integrin activation and how the integrin TMD can transmit these inside out signals