A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Administrative Procedure Act established unique conditions for administrative law judges' (ALJ) hiring and employment to protect their decisional independence. However, the potential for a wave of retirements and other events have focused attention on how ALJs are hired and managed. In response to the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008, this report examines, among other things, (1) the process for hiring ALJs and selected agencies' observations of the process; (2) ALJs' retirement eligibility and retirement issues; (3) and agency managers' reported ALJ performance management practices and stakeholders' views of these practices. To address these objectives GAO reviewed relevant statutes, regulations, Office of Personnel Management (OPM) retirement-related data, and other program-related documents, and interviewed officials from OPM, ALJ professional associations, and the two largest federal agencies employing ALJs--the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)."

This report discusses about the Federal disability benefit programs that are primarily intended to provide a measure of income security to persons with disabilities by replacing some of the income lost due to their inability to work.

This report discusses significant policy challenges that congress faces in the region including assessing and responding to China's growing influence, promoting democracy and human rights, fighting terrorism and promoting trade.

The Energy Recovery Linac (ERL) project, now under construction at Brookhaven National Laboratory, requires two high power RF systems. The first RF system is for the 703.75 MHz superconducting electron gun. The RF power from this system is used to drive nearly half an Ampere of beam current to 2.5 MeV. There is no provision to recover any of this energy so the minimum amplifier power is 1 MW. It consists of 1 MW CW klystron, transmitter and power supplies, 1 MW circulator, 1 MW dummy load and a two-way power splitter. The second RF system is for the 703.75 MHz superconducting cavity. The system accelerates the beam to 54.7 MeV and recovers this energy. It will provide up to 50 kW of CW RF power to the cavity. It consists of 50 kW transmitter, circulator, and dummy load. This paper describes the two high power RF systems and presents the test data for both.

During the period August 2005 through October 2009, the UNLV Research Foundation (UNLVRF), a non-profit affiliate of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), in collaboration with UNLV’s Colleges of Science and Engineering; Boston University (BU); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL); and Sunlight Direct, LLC, has managed and conducted a diverse and comprehensive research and development program focused on light-emitting diode (LED) technologies that provide significantly improved characteristics for lighting and display applications. This final technical report provides detailed information on the nature of the tasks, the results of the research, and the deliverables. It is estimated that about five percent of the energy used in the nation is for lighting homes, buildings and streets, accounting for some 25 percent of the average home’s electric bill. However, the figure is significantly higher for the commercial sector. About 60 percent of the electricity for businesses is for lighting. Thus replacement of current lighting with solid-state lighting technology has the potential to significantly reduce this nation’s energy consumption – by some estimates, possibly as high as 20%. The primary objective of this multi-year R&D project has been to develop and advance lighting technologies to improve national energy conversion efficiencies; reduce heat load; …

We show that the bulk Dresselhauss (k{sup 3}) spin-orbit coupling term leads to an intrinsic spin-Hall effect in n-doped bulk GaAs, but without the appearance of uniform magnetization. The spin-Hall effect in strained and unstrained bulk GaAs has been recently observed experimentally by Kato et. al. [1]. We show that the experimental result is quantitatively consistent with the intrinsic spin-Hall effect due to the Dresselhauss term, when lifetime broadening is taken into account. On the other hand, extrinsic contribution to the spin-Hall effect is several orders of magnitude smaller than the observed effect.

Individual raw datastreams from instrumentation at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility fixed and mobile sites are collected and sent to the Data Management Facility (DMF) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for processing in near real-time. Raw and processed data are then sent approximately daily to the ARM Data Archive, where they are made available to users. For each instrument, we calculate the ratio of the actual number of data records received daily at the Archive to the expected number of data records. The results are tabulated by (1) individual datastream, site, and month for the current year and (2) site and fiscal year (FY) dating back to 1998.

On December 15-16, 2009, a 100-KE Reactor Core Removal Project Alternative Analysis Workshop was conducted at the Washington State University Consolidated Information Center, Room 214. Colburn Kennedy, Project Director, CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company (CHPRC) requested the workshop and Richard Harrington provided facilitation. The purpose of the session was to select the preferred Bio Shield Alternative, for integration with the Thermal Shield and Core Removal and develop the path forward to proceed with project delivery. Prior to this workshop, the S.A. Robotics (SAR) Obstruction Removal Alternatives Analysis (565-DLV-062) report was issued, for use prior to and throughout the session, to all the team members. The multidisciplinary team consisted ofrepresentatives from 100-KE Project Management, Engineering, Radcon, Nuclear Safety, Fire Protection, Crane/Rigging, SAR Project Engineering, the Department of Energy Richland Field Office, Environmental Protection Agency, Washington State Department of Ecology, Defense Nuclear Facility Safety Board, and Deactivation and Decommission subject matter experts from corporate CH2M HILL and Lucas. Appendix D contains the workshop agenda, guidelines and expectations, opening remarks, and attendance roster going into followed throughout the workshop. The team was successful in selecting the preferred alternative and developing an eight-point path forward action plan to proceed with conceptual design. Conventional Demolition …

This report articulates nine mechanisms by which the smart grid can reduce energy use and carbon impacts associated with electricity generation and delivery. The quantitative estimates of potential reductions in electricity sector energy and associated CO2 emissions presented are based on a survey of published results and simple analyses. This report does not attempt to justify the cost effectiveness of the smart grid, which to date has been based primarily upon the twin pillars of cost-effective operation and improved reliability. Rather, it attempts to quantify the additional energy and CO2 emission benefits inherent in the smart grid’s potential contribution to the nation’s goal of mitigating climate change by reducing the carbon footprint of the electric power system.

This report provides an overview of the hate crime debate, with background on current law and hate crime statistics, and a legislative history of hate crime prevention bills in recent Congresses. This report does not analyze the constitutional or other legal issues that often arise as part of the hate crime debate.

This report discusses whether the balance should tip more toward humanitarian immigration policies as a consequence of the humanitarian crises that resulted from the January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

This report describes the provisions of the North Atlantic Treaty and of the original Senate debate in 1949 pertinent to enlargement and the procedures that have been followed for each subsequent enlargement proposal. It also discusses what the Senate did with respect to the reunification of Germany in 1990 and the implications of that event for Germany's membership in NATO.

This report includes a table which provides access to names and contact information for CRS experts on policy concerns relating to research and development (R&D) to enhance homeland security.

This report discusses a fundamental problem of immigration control in which foreign nationals enter legally on a temporary basis and continue to stay after their visas expire.

This report analyzes the labor market experiences of those older workers who have involuntarily lost long-held jobs for reasons unrelated to their own performance (e.g., veteran factory workers at plants closed because of import competition, experienced information technology workers whose jobs have been outsourced to workers in other countries, and mid-level managers in positions eliminated through corporate restructuring). It examines current policies targeted at the reemployment of older displaced workers which, if successful, might lengthen their stay in the workforce.

A superconducting RF (SRF) Energy Recovery Linac (ERL) is currently under development at the Collider-Accelerator Department (C-AD) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). The major components from an RF perspective are (a) a 5-cell SRF ERL cavity, (b) an SRF photocathode electron gun, and (c) a drive laser for the photocathode gun. Each of these RF subsystems has its own set of RF performance requirements, as well as common requirements for ensuring correct synchronism between them. A low level RF (LLRF) control system is currently under development, which seeks to leverage both technology and experience gained from the recently commissioned RHIC LLRF system upgrade. This note will review the LLRF system requirements and describe the system to be installed at the ERL.

This report discusses about medicare and its spending that has been growing much faster than the general economy. It further discusses about congress's consideration on change on medicare expenditure by reducing provider payment.

None

This report contains intellectual property rights and different law such as: Patent Law, copyright law, and International IPR Protection.

This report contains the distinction between foreign and law enforcement intelligence that remain important when civil liberties and privacy rights of U.S. persons are involved.

The closing, reduction in scope, or expansion of military installations on domestic soil and overseas, the privatization of government-built military housing, the provision of benefits and medical care to eligible veterans, and the redeployment of military units to the United States from overseas garrisons have drawn congressional attention in recent sessions. The funds to support all of these activities are provided by the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act debated annually in both chambers.

This report provides an overview of Iraq's political transition from the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein to a plural polity that encompasses varying sects and ideological and political factions. This report also addresses ongoing governmental instabilities and their causes, as well as U.S. concerns about possible Iranian influence in Iraq as U.S. forces depart the country.

This report looks at inadequacies present in the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) which prevent the Center from adequately performing its duty. These inadequacies include issues with agency organization, lack of resources, and a focus on threats from Yemen over domestic threats.

This report discusses the Haiti earthquake disaster and various responses, ranging from the Haitian government's initial response to foreign humanitarian and financial aid.