Examines the extent to which commuter rail agencies rely on Amtrak for access to infrastructure and services. This book also examines: issues that commuter rail agencies would face if Amtrak abruptly ceased to provide them with services and infrastructure

Weather-related events have cost the nation billions of dollars in damages over the past decade. Many of these losses are borne by private insurers and by two federal insurance programs the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which insures properties against flooding, and the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC), which insures crops against drought or other weather disasters. This book: describes how climate change may affect future weather-related losses; determines past insured weather-related losses; and, determines what major private insurers and federal insurers are doing to...

What are Asian American and Pacific Islander subgroups' educational attainment and household income levels? What challenges, if any, Asian American and Pacific Islander students face in pursuing and completing their post-secondary education? This book answers these questions.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a national plan in June 2006 for sectors - such as public health, energy and transportation - to enhance the protection of critical infrastructure. This book determines if these plans address key aspects of cyber security, including cyber assets, key vulnerabilities, and recovery plans.

Examines the rationale for and resources of federal and state programs that provide natural catastrophe insurance. This book looks at the extent to which Americans living in catastrophe-prone areas of the United States are uninsured and underinsured, and the types and amounts of federal payments to such individuals since the 2005 hurricanes.

Pandemic influenza poses a threat to public health at a time when the United Nations' World Health Organization (WHO) has said that infectious diseases are spreading faster than at any time in history. The last major influenza pandemic occurred from 1918 to 1919. Estimates of deaths worldwide if a similar pandemic were to occur have ranged between 30 million and 384 million people. Individual countries and international organisations have developed and begun to implement a strategy for forestalling (that is, containing, delaying, or minimising the impact of) the onset of a pandemic....

Intends to present a cumulative supplement to the published third edition text that includes a variety of relevant decisions from 1 January to 31 December 2007.

Congress granted financial regulators flexibility to establish their own compensation systems and required certain agencies to seek to maintain comparability with each other in pay and benefits to help the agencies overcome impediments to recruiting and retaining employees and avoid competing for the same employees. In response to a request, this book reviews: how the performance-based pay systems of 10 financial regulators are aligned with six key practices for effective performance management systems; the actions these agencies have taken to assess and implement comparability in pay and...

In 2006, consumers paid over $36 billion in fees associated with checking and savings accounts, raising questions about consumers' awareness of their accounts' terms and conditions. The author was asked to review: trends in the types and amounts of checking and deposit account fees since 2000; how federal banking regulators address such fees in their oversight of depository institutions; and, the extent that consumers are able to obtain account terms and conditions and disclosures of fees upon request prior to opening an account. The author analyzed fee data from private data vendors,...

Concerns have been raised about the public sector's capacity to meet the rising cost of providing its retirees with promised pension and other post-employment benefits, such as retiree health care. State and local retiree benefits are not subject, for the