The Fong-Swan theorem shows that each irreducible Brauer character of a p-solvable group can be lifted to an ordinary irreducible character, though the lift need not be unique. It has been conjectured that the number of lifts of the Brauer character is bounded above by the vertex subgroup Q. This conjecture has been proven in a number of situations, including when G is odd, or when Q is abelian, or when Q is normal, or when Q is a Sylow p-subgroup of G. We will discuss these proofs and some related issues, including the behavior of the lifts with respect to normal subgroups.