This report analyzes four key aspects of US and Iranian strategic competition--sanctions, energy, arms control, and regime change. Its primary focus is on the ways in which the sanctions applied to Iran have changed US and Iranian competition since the fall of 2011. This escalation has been spurred by the creation of a series of far stronger US unilateral sanctions and the European Union’s imposition of equally strong sanctions, both of which affect Iran’s ability to export, its financial system, and its overall economy.

The Tibetan Policy Act of 2002 (TPA) is a core legislative measure guiding U.S. policy toward Tibet. Its stated purpose is "to support the aspirations of the Tibetan people to safeguard their distinct identity." Among other provisions, the TPA establishes in statute the State Department position of Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues and defines the Special Coordinator's "central objective" as being "to promote substantive dialogue" between the government of the People's Republic of China and Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, or his representatives. The Special Coordinator is also required, among other duties, to "coordinate United States Government policies, programs, and projects concerning Tibet"; "vigorously promote the policy of seeking to protect the distinct religious, cultural, linguistic, and national identity of Tibet"; and press for "improved respect for human rights."

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) is an independent bipartisan agency within the executive branch established by the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007. The Board is comprised of four part-time members and a full-time chairman, all appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. On June 5, 2013, the British newspaper The Guardian published the first of a series of articles based on unauthorized disclosures of classified documents by Edward Snowden, a contractor for the National Security Agency ("NSA"). The article described an NSA program to collect millions of telephone records, including records about purely domestic calls. Over the course of the next several days, there were additional articles regarding this program as well as another NSA program referred to in leaked documents as "PRISM." These disclosures caused a great deal of concern both over the extent to which they damaged national security and over the nature and scope of the surveillance programs they purported to reveal. In response to the congressional and presidential requests, the Board immediately initiated a study of the 215 and 702 programs and the operation of the FISA court. This Report contains the results of the Board's 215 program study as well as our analysis and recommendations regarding the FISC's operation.

The House Rules and Manual contains the fundamental source material for parliamentary procedure used in the House of Representatives: the Constitution of the United States; applicable provisions of Jefferson's Manual; Rules of the House (as of the date of this preface); provisions of law and resolutions having the force of Rules of the House; and pertinent decisions of the Speakers and other presiding officers of the House and Committee of the Whole interpreting the rules and other procedural authority used in the House of Representatives. The rules for the One Hundred Fifteenth Congress were adopted on January 3, 2017, when the House agreed to House Resolution 5. In addition to a series of changes to various standing rules, House Resolution 5 included separate free-standing orders constituting procedures to be followed in the One Hundred Fifteenth Congress. Explanations of the changes to the standing rules appear in the annotations following each rule in the text of this Manual.