Congressional Record


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House Practice


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FEMA's Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program


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This is a print on demand edition of a hard to find publication. Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM), as federal law and a program activity, began in 1997. Congress established a pilot program, which FEMA named ¿Project Impact,¿ to test the concept of investing prior to disasters to reduce the vulnerability of communities to future disasters. Contents of this report: (1) Overview of Pre-Disaster Mitigation: Program Purposes; (2) PDM Legislative and Appropriations History; (3) Mitigation Funding and Studies: Post-Katrina Funding; (4) Issues for Congressional Consideration: The Pace and Breadth of PDM Funding Distribution; Terrorism and Pre-Disaster Mitigation; Methods of Awarding PDM Funds; Allocations vs. Competition. Charts and tables.







Concurrent Resolution on the Budget


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Reining in the Imperial Presidency


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Documents the various abuses that occurred during the Bush Admin. relating to the House Judiciary Committee¿s review and jurisdiction, and to develop a comprehensive set of recommendations to prevent the recurrence of these or similar abuses in the future. Contents: Preface: ¿Deconstructing the Imperial Presidency,¿ which describes and critiques the key war power memos that gave rise to the concept of broad-based, unreviewable, and secret presidential powers in time of war. Also describes specific abuses of the Imperial Presidency relating to Judiciary Comm. inquiries. Includes a comprehensive set of 47 policy recommendations designed to respond to the abuses and excesses of the Bush Imperial Presidency.










Globalizing Torture


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Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Central Intelligence Agency embarked on a highly classified program of secret detention and extraordinary rendition of terrorist suspects. The program was designed to place detainee interrogations beyond the reach of law. Suspected terrorists were seized and secretly flown across national borders to be interrogated by foreign governments that used torture, or by the CIA itself in clandestine 'black sites' using torture techniques. This report is the most comprehensive account yet assembled of the human rights abuses associated with secret detention and extraordinary rendition operations. It details for the first time the number of known victims, and lists the foreign governments that participated in these operations. It shows that responsibility for the abuses lies not only with the United States but with dozens of foreign governments that were complicit. More than 10 years after the 2001 attacks, this report makes it unequivocally clear that the time has come for the United States and its partners to definitively repudiate these illegal practices and secure accountability for the associated human rights abuses.




Returning Home from Iraq and Afghanistan


Book Description

Nearly 1.9 million U.S. troops have been deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq since October 2001. Many service members and veterans face serious challenges in readjusting to normal life after returning home. This initial book presents findings on the most critical challenges, and lays out the blueprint for the second phase of the study to determine how best to meet the needs of returning troops and their families.