International Investment Agreements, and More from CRS
The international agreements that constitute the infrastructure of international trade and investment are spotlighted in an informative new report from the Congressional Research Service.
“In the absence of an overarching multilateral framework on investment, bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and investment chapters in free trade agreements (FTAs), collectively referred to as ‘international investment agreements,’ have emerged as the primary mechanism for promoting a rules-based system for international investment,” the new report explains.
“Presently, there are over 3,000 BITs globally. The United States has concluded 47 BITs, 41 of which have entered into force.” These treaties were tabulated by CRS and presented along with other little-known data on the subject in U.S. International Investment Agreements: Issues for Congress, April 29, 2013.
Other new or newly updated CRS reports obtained by Secrecy News include the following.
Mountaintop Mining: Background on Current Controversies, April 29, 2013
National Park System: Establishing New Units, April 25, 2013
The Administrative Process by Which Groups May Be Acknowledged as Indian Tribes by the Department of the Interior, April 26, 2013
Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) Reform: An Overview of Proposals to Reduce the Growth in SSDI Rolls, April 29, 2013
Conventional Prompt Global Strike and Long-Range Ballistic Missiles: Background and Issues, April 26, 2013
The bootcamp brought more than two dozen next-generation open-source practitioners from across the United States to Washington DC, where they participated in interactive modules, group discussions, and hands-on sleuthing.
Fourteen teams from ten U.S. states have been selected as the Stage 2 awardees in the Civic Innovation Challenge (CIVIC), a national competition that helps communities turn emerging research into ready-to-implement solutions.
The Fix Our Forests Act provides an opportunity to speed up the planning and implementation of wildfire risk reduction projects on federal lands while expanding collaborative tools to bring more partners into this vital work.
Public health insurance programs, especially Medicaid, Medicare, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), are more likely to cover populations at increased risk from extreme heat, including low-income individuals, people with chronic illnesses, older adults, disabled adults, and children.