A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Homeland Security, through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), awards grants to fire departments and other organizations for equipment, staffing, and other needs. As of July 2009, FEMA had received about 25,000 and 22,000 applications for its fiscal years 2007 and 2008 fire grant programs, respectively, and had awarded more than 5,000 grants in both years. GAO was congressionally directed to review the application and award process for these grants. This report addresses the (1) extent to which FEMA has met statutory and program requirements for distributing the grant funds; (2) actions FEMA has taken to provide assistance to grant applicants and involve the fire service community in the grant process; and (3) extent to which FEMA has ensured that its grant process is accessible, clear, and consistent with requirements, including its grant guidance. GAO analyzed relevant laws and interviewed 36 randomly selected grant applicants to obtain their views, but the results are not generalizable."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "As required by Congress, the U.S. Postal Service (Service) has issued three fundraising stamps--also called semipostals--which are sold at a higher price than First-Class stamps, with the difference distributed to designated federal agencies for specific causes. The proceeds from the three stamps are to fund breast cancer research, assistance to families of emergency relief personnel killed or permanently disabled in the terrorist attacks of September 11, and services to children exposed to domestic violence. Of the three stamps, the Breast Cancer Research stamp is the only semipostal currently being sold. GAO has issued three prior reports on semipostals. To provide Congress updated information, GAO examined (1) the amount of money that has been raised through the sale of semipostals, and (2) how the designated federal agencies have used the proceeds and reported the results."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In creating the Valles Caldera National Preserve from a unique parcel of land in north-central New Mexico, and by creating the Valles Caldera Trust as a wholly owned government corporation to manage the preserve, the Valles Caldera Preservation Act of 2000 established a 20-year public-private experiment to operate the preserve without continued federal funding. The Trust is charged with achieving a number of goals, including becoming financially self-sustaining by the end of fiscal year 2015. This report, GAO's second and last mandated by the Preservation Act, examines (1) the Trust's progress since 2000; (2) the extent to which the Trust has fulfilled certain of its obligations as a government corporation; and (3) the challenges the Trust faces to achieve the Preservation Act's goals. GAO analyzed documents, financial records, and other Trust information and interviewed current and former members of the Trust's Board and staff, as well as representatives of local interest groups and stakeholders."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Randolph-Sheppard and Javits-Wagner-O'Day (JWOD) are two federal programs that provide employment for persons with disabilities through federal contracts. In 2006, participants in the two programs had contracts with the Department of Defense (DOD) worth $465 million annually to provide dining services at military dining facilities. The 2007 National Defense Authorization Act directed GAO to study the two programs. This report examines (1) differences in how the Randolph-Sheppard and JWOD programs provide food services for DOD and (2) differences in how contracts are awarded, prices are set, and program beneficiaries (i.e. persons with disabilities) are compensated. GAO interviewed program officials, conducted a survey of states with Randolph-Sheppard programs, and reviewed eight Randolph-Sheppard and six JWOD contracts."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is responsible for, among other things, the security of cargo containers shipped to the United States. In fiscal year 2008, 611 ports shipped a total of 9.8 million containers to the country. The 9/11 Commission Act (9/11 Act) requires 100 percent of U.S.-bound cargo containers to be scanned by 2012, and CBP has begun implementing the Secure Freight Initiative (SFI) to address this requirement. GAO was requested to assess CBP's efforts to implement the 9/11 Act requirement. This report addresses (1) CBP's progress at the initial ports participating in the SFI program, (2) CBP plans to implement SFI, (3) the extent to which CBP has estimated costs and conducted a cost-benefit analysis of 100 percent scanning, and (4) any challenges to integrating 100 percent scanning with existing container security programs. GAO reviewed operating procedures for the SFI ports and analyzed cost data. GAO also visited six of the seven original SFI ports and spoke to officials from CBP, foreign governments, and private industry."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Labor (DOL) Black Lung Benefits Program provides medical and income assistance to coal miners who suffer total disability or death due to lung disease caused by coal dust. To provide insight into DOL's administration of the Black Lung Benefits Program, GAO is reporting on (1) how long it takes to process and resolve black lung benefits claims; (2) at what rate and for what reasons black lung claims and appeals are denied by DOL; and (3) what barriers, if any, confront miners or their survivors in pursuing their claims. GAO collected and analyzed black lung claims and appeals data and interviewed officials at relevant federal agencies, national organizations, and selected local organizations at two sites."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Following the shutdown of a nuclear power plant a significant radioactive waste hazard remains until the waste is removed and the plant site decommissioned. In 1999, GAO reported that the combined value of the owners' decommissioning funds was insufficient to ensure enough funds would be available for decommissioning. GAO was asked to update its 1999 report and to evaluate the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) analysis of the owners' funds and its process for acting on reports that show insufficient funds."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Electric power plants burn fuels that can produce harmful emissions, such as carbon dioxide, mercury, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur dioxide, which can pose human health and environmental risks. To assess the potential risks of meeting future electricity demand, congressional committees asked GAO to (1) report on the Energy Information Administration's (EIA's) national and regional projections of such emissions by 2020, and (2) determine how the projections would change using alternative assumptions about future economic growth and other factors that advisers in these fields recommended. GAO also assessed the potential effects of future electricity demand on water demand and supply."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) relies on a global network of DOD and non-DOD infrastructure so critical that its unavailability could have a debilitating effect on DOD's ability to project, support, and sustain its forces and operations worldwide. DOD established the Defense Critical Infrastructure Program (DCIP) to assure the availability of mission-critical infrastructure. GAO was asked to evaluate the extent to which DOD has (1) incorporated aspects of DCIP into its exercises in the Transportation Defense Sector and (2) developed DCIP training standards departmentwide and made installation personnel aware of existing DCIP expertise. GAO examined a nonprojectable sample of 46 critical assets representing the four military services, five combatant commands, and selected installations within five defense sectors. GAO reviewed relevant DOD DCIP guidance and documents and interviewed cognizant officials regarding DCIP exercises, training, and awareness."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Each year, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) within the Department of Transportation (DOT) receives about 3,000 consumer complaints regarding interstate moving companies: some involve egregious offenses, such as holding goods hostage. Over the years, Congress and GAO have raised concerns about the adequacy of FMCSA's oversight of the industry. As requested, GAO reviewed the (1) extent to which states have used authority in the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) to take federal enforcement action against interstate movers and challenges in using that authority; (2) extent and timeliness of FMCSA's progress in its consumer protection efforts; and (3) advantages and disadvantages of options for enhancing consumer protection in the industry. GAO analyzed applicable laws and regulations; interviewed government, moving industry, and consumer protection officials; surveyed state regulatory agencies and state attorneys general; and analyzed consumer protection models."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In general, a fusion center is a collaborative effort to detect, prevent, investigate, and respond to criminal and terrorist activity. Recognizing that fusion centers are a mechanism for information sharing, the federal government--including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Program Manager for the Information Sharing Environment (PM-ISE), which has primary responsibility for governmentwide information sharing and is located in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence--is taking steps to partner with fusion centers. In response to Congressional request, GAO examined (1) the status and characteristics of fusion centers and (2) to what extent federal efforts help alleviate challenges the centers identified. GAO reviewed center-related documents and conducted interviews with officials from DHS, DOJ, and the PM-ISE, and conducted semistructured interviews with 58 state and local fusion centers. The results are not generalizable to the universe of fusion centers. Data are not available on the total number of local fusion centers."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The failure by the District of Columbia's Commission on Mental Health Services to provide community-based mental health services, as required by a 1974 court ruling, prompted a judge to appoint a receiver to carry out the court's order. Control of mental health services is scheduled to be returned to the Commission in April 2001. Although the transitional receiver is developing a plan to enhance the Commission's ability to comply with the court ruling, many challenges must be overcome. For example, the District must change its hospital-based system of care to one that considers the needs of the individual within a framework of a community-based provider responsible for all aspects of mental health and supportive services needs. Many interested mental health providers and patient care advocacy groups believe that a solid foundation is being laid for community-based mental health services. However, success will depend on the Commission's ability to improve management processes and coordinate with other agencies that provide care to the mentally ill."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Some states have taken advantage of the flexibility that Congress built into the Medicaid program by devising schemes that inappropriately boost the federal share of program expenditures. These schemes were adding billions of dollars a year to federal Medicaid costs without the states paying their statutorily specified share of program costs. Moreover, some of the federal funds were being spent for non-Medicaid purposes. After hearing about these financing schemes, Congress passed the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Benefits Improvement and Protection Act of 2000 (BIPA). In response, the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) issued regulations in January 2001 to curtail financing schemes involving excessive payments to local government providers for which a separate upper payment limit did not exist. However, less than a month after the revised upper payment limit regulation became effective, HCFA decided to amend the regulation to shorten the time some states were allowed to comply with it. This reversal resulted in the approval of new financing schemes for several states that had pending proposals mimicking the schemes identified last year. The transition periods were of varying lengths, depending on how long a state …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Veterans Health Administration, the Department of Transportation, and the Office of Student Financial Assistance have begun to use results- oriented performance agreements to align agency expectations with organizational goals. Each agency developed and implemented agreements that reflected their specific organizational priorities, structures, and cultures. GAO identified the following five common emerging benefits: (1) better alignment of results-oriented goals with daily operations, (2) collaboration across organizational boundaries, (3) opportunities to use performance information to improve federal programs, (4) results-oriented basis for individual accountability, and (5) continuity of program goals during leadership transitions. The three agencies' experiences show that effective implementation of performance agreements can encourage communication about progress towards agency goals. Their experiences also indicate that performance information should be provided to executives and managers in a timely fashion and in a useful format."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Small businesses often have serious difficulty finding skilled employees, upgrading the skills of their existing employees, and identifying strategies to meet future workforce needs. The Workforce Investment Act of 1998 seeks to address these workforce development issues and give federal training programs a greater employer focus. Although these problems are common throughout the country, small businesses in some areas have joined with business and trade organizations, community colleges, and other public and private groups to form workforce development networks--often referred to as workforce consortia. This new approach offers small businesses access to various workforce development activities in which they might otherwise be unable to participate. Limited information exists on the outcome of workforce consortia at the sites GAO reviewed. There were no systematic efforts to evaluate overall consortium effectiveness, but there were isolated attempts to monitor participation rates and assess the impact of specific activities on job retention and future earnings."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "At the direction of the House Committee on National Security, the Army began developing the Army Workload and Performance System (AWPS) in 1996. This automated system was intended to address a number of specific weaknesses highlighted in several GAO and Army studies since 1994 regarding the Army's inability to support its civilian personnel requirements by using an analytically based workload forecasting system. Army's May 2002 report on AWPS does not provide Congress with adequate information to assess the Army's progress in implementing the system. Specifically, the 2002 plan does not include (1) a detailed summary of all costs that the Army has incurred, or the expenditures that it anticipates in the future, to develop and implement the system; (2) a list of the milestones that the Army has, or has not, achieved in the previous year and a list of milestones that are projected for the future; and (3) an evaluation of how well the system has performed to date in fulfilling its primary function--that is, of matching manpower needs with depot workloads. Although the Army has begun developing an interface between AWPS and the Logistics …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In response to long-standing concerns, HUD initiated efforts to improve the administration of its programs in 1997, and Congress passed the Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act (QHWRA) in 1998. The act contains over 80 reforms that affect two key rental housing assistance programs: the low-rent housing program (also referred to as public housing) and the Housing Choice Voucher program (formerly Section 8). According to many housing agencies, implementing these reforms challenged their ability to address their core mission of providing safe, decent, and sanitary rental units for low-income residents. In particular, some small agencies that manage properties with relatively few rental units have contended that some reforms have little relevance to their operations and pose a significant burden because of the agencies' limited staff and financial resources. In response to a Congressional request, GAO compared housing agencies by size in terms of (1) the impact of recent housing reforms on their ability to administer HUD programs, (2) the agencies' performance as measured by HUD, and (3) the differences in the technical assistance that the agencies require. To carry out its work, GAO surveyed a statistical …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "For the past 6 years, since GAO began auditing the consolidated financial statements of the U.S. government (CFS), GAO has been unable to express an opinion on them because of material weaknesses in internal control and financial reporting. Contributing to GAO's inability to express an opinion has been the federal government's lack of adequate systems, controls, and procedures to properly prepare its consolidated financial statements. The purpose of this report is to discuss in greater detail weaknesses in financial reporting procedures and internal control over the process for preparing the CFS that GAO identified and to recommend improvements to address those weaknesses."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The federal government is the nation's largest energy consumer. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) establishes high-performance federal building requirements that include reducing energy use and managing storm water runoff. The Department of Energy (DOE), General Services Administration (GSA), Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are implementing and, in turn, helping other agencies to implement EISA requirements. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) provides funding that some agencies can use to carry out EISA high-performance federal building requirements. This report, required by EISA, addresses (1) what implementing agencies are doing to direct and assist other agencies in meeting key EISA high-performance federal building requirements, (2) how implementing agencies are planning to use Recovery Act funds to meet key requirements, and (3) what challenges implementing and other agencies might face. To do this, GAO reviewed legal materials, guidance, draft energy data, and other documents and interviewed agency officials and stakeholders. DOE and GSA generally agreed with the report's findings and conclusions and provided written comments. OMB neither agreed nor disagreed with the report and provided …

The Infrared Thermometer (IRT) is a ground-based radiation pyrometer that provides measurements of the equivalent blackbody brightness temperature of the scene in its field of view. The downwelling version has a narrow field of view for measuring sky temperature and for detecting clouds. The upwelling version has a wide field of view for measuring the narrowband radiating temperature of the ground surface.

This project was a collaborative effort between Dr Teresa Burns and Dr John Larese to study the physisorption of polar molecules on ionic substrates. The work will be completed at both Coastal Carolina University and Brookhaven National Laboratory. The goals of the research are: 1) to provide detailed thermodynamic information about dipolar molecules adsorbed on ionic substrates, critical to accurately modeling the systems of interest using a spin-1 Ising model; 2) to study the structure of the adsorbed layer from the gas phase, experimentally verifying the application of the model to these systems; 3) to extend the modeling studies and structural measurements to systems adsorbed from the liquid phase. The systems will be studied using thermodynamic techniques, e.g., adsorption isotherm both from the gas and liquid phase, and x-ray structural measurements. This project will strengthen the physical science research efforts at CCU, and hence in South Carolina.

Previous Bechtel National, Incorporated (BNI)-sponsored studies have targeted optimizing sodium permanganate for the selective oxidation of chromium from washed Hanford tank sludges (Rapko et al. 2004; Rapko et al. 2005). The recommendation from previous work was that contact with sodium permanganate in a minimally caustic solution, i.e., 0.1 to 0.25 M [OH-] initially, provided maximum Cr dissolution while minimizing concomitant Pu dissolution. At the request of BNI, further work on oxidative alkaline leaching was performed.

It is well known that U-6wt.% Nb (U-14at.% Nb) alloy has a microstructure containing martensitic phases supersaturated with Nb that can be obtained by rapid quenching the alloy from {gamma} (bcc)-field solid solution to room temperature. The high cooling rate forces the {gamma}-phase solid solution to transform to variants of the low-temperature {alpha} (orthorhombic) phase in which Nb is forced to retain in the supersaturated solid solution. However, the crystal lattice of supersaturated solution formed by rapid quenching is in unstable conditions and is severely distorted since the solubility of Nb in the {alpha} phase at room temperature is nearly zero under an equilibrium condition. Two variant phases, a monoclinic distortion of {alpha} phase that is designated as {alpha}{double_prime} martensite and a tetragonal distortion of {gamma} phase that is designated as {gamma}{sup o} phase, can form in the as-quenched alloy, as shown in Fig. 1. We have learned from our previous TEM studies on the low-temperature aging of a water-quenched U6Nb (WQ-U6Nb) alloy that there are two possible transformation pathways for phase decomposition of the alloy supersaturated with 14 at.% of Nb upon aging at temperatures below 200 C, i.e., (1) supersaturated solid solution {alpha}{double_prime} {yields} spinodal decomposition {yields} {alpha}{sub …

A subcritical facility driven by an electron accelerator is planned at the Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology (KIPT) in Ukraine for medical isotope production, materials research, training, and education. The conceptual design of the facility is being pursued through collaborations between ANL and KIPT. As part of the design effort, the high-fidelity analyses of various target options are performed with formulations to reflect the realistic configuration and the three dimensional geometry of each design. This report summarizes the results of target design optimization studies for electron beams with two different beam profiles. The target design optimization is performed via the sequential neutronic, thermal-hydraulic, and structural analyses for a comprehensive assessment of each configuration. First, a target CAD model is developed with proper emphasis on manufacturability to provide a basis for separate but consistent models for subsequent neutronic, thermal-hydraulic, and structural analyses. The optimizations are pursued for maximizing the neutron yield, streamlining the flow field to avoid hotspots, and minimizing the thermal stresses to increase the durability. In addition to general geometric modifications, the inlet/outlet channel configurations, target plate partitioning schemes, flow manipulations and rates, electron beam diameter/width options, and cladding material choices are included in the design optimizations. The …