A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Over the next several years, implementation of the Department of Defense's (DOD) Integrated Global Presence and Basing Strategy will result in the realignment of U.S. forces and the construction of new facilities costing billions of dollars at installations overseas. The Senate and House reports accompanying the fiscal year 2004 military construction appropriation bill directed GAO to monitor DOD's overseas master plans and to provide congressional defense committees with assessments each year. The Senate report accompanying the fiscal year 2007 military construction appropriation bill directed GAO to review DOD's master planning effort for Guam as part of these annual reviews. This report, first, examines how the overseas plans have changed and the extent to which they address the challenges faced by DOD and, second, assesses the status of DOD's planning effort and the challenges associated with the buildup of military forces and infrastructure on Guam."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) has had problems with tracking and identifying inventory for many years, most recently in Operation Iraqi Freedom. One of several tools DOD is using to address these inventory problems is radio frequency identification (RFID). RFID technology consists of passive or active tags that are attached to equipment and supplies that are shipped from one location to another. Although DOD did not begin official implementation of passive RFID technology until January 1, 2005, DOD has been using active RFID technology since the early 1990s and began developing policy and pilot testing passive RFID in 2003. As of January 1, 2007, all commodities, excluding bulk commodities, are to have passive RFID tags. Full implementation of passive RFID is estimated to cost hundreds of millions of dollars. This report (1) provides information on the status of passive RFID implementation, (2) addresses the extent to which DOD has developed a strategic approach for implementing passive RFID, and (3) highlights challenges DOD recognizes it faces in implementing passive RFID and any plans developed by DOD to mitigate these challenges."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since the early 1990s, the General Services Administration (GSA) and the federal judiciary (judiciary) have been carrying out a multibillion-dollar courthouse construction initiative. In downtown Los Angeles, California, one of the nation's busiest federal district courts (L.A. Court), the federal judiciary has split its district, magistrate, and bankruptcy judges between two buildings--the Spring Street Courthouse and the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building and Courthouse. In 2000 the judiciary requested and GSA proposed building a new courthouse in downtown Los Angeles in order to increase security, efficiency, and space. In response, Congress authorized and appropriated about $400 million for the project. GAO was asked to provide information on the construction of the L.A. courthouse. This report answers: (1) What is the status of the construction of a new federal courthouse in Los Angeles? (2) What effects have any delays in the project had on its costs and court operations? (3) What options are available for the future of the project? GAO reviewed project planning and budget documents, visited the key sites in Los Angeles, and interviewed GSA and judiciary officials. In its comments, the judiciary indicated that …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "To better assist veterans with service-connected disabilities seeking employment, in 2005, the Departments of Labor (Labor) and Veterans Affairs (VA) signed an agreement to coordinate employment services for disabled veterans. Around the same time, VA rolled out a redesigned employment program for these veterans, known as the Five-Track program, which also established an employment coordinator position and job resource labs. To help Congress understand the status of these initiatives, GAO was asked to provide information on (1) the progress in implementing the 2005 agreement and challenges to implementation, (2) the status of implementation of VA's Five-Track program and challenges posed by recently returning veterans, and (3) the role of employment coordinators and job resource labs in serving veterans. To obtain this information, GAO interviewed Labor and VA officials and national veterans' service organizations, and conducted site visits in five states."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Social Security Administration (SSA) spends about $1 billion annually to support its information technology (IT) needs. Given the size and significance of the agency's ongoing and future investments in IT, it is crucial that the agency manages these investments wisely. Accordingly, GAO was requested to determine whether SSA's investment management approach is consistent with leading investment management best practices. To accomplish this, GAO used its IT investment management framework and associated methodology, with a focus on the framework's Stages 2 and 3, which are based on the investment management provisions of the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 1972, Congress enacted the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) to protect the nation's coastlines from growing demands associated with residential, recreational, commercial, and industrial uses. The act encourages coastal states and territories to develop programs to manage and balance economic development and coastal protection. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) administers the program and provides financial and technical assistance to participating states. GAO was asked to provide information on (1) NOAA's methodology for awarding CZMA grants to the states, (2) the extent to which NOAA has processes for ensuring that grants are used in a manner that is consistent with the CZMA, and (3) the extent to which NOAA's state program evaluations and performance measurement system enable the agency to assess the effectiveness of the National Coastal Zone Management Program. GAO reviewed relevant laws, regulations, and documents and interviewed NOAA and the 34 state coastal program officials."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "With credit card penalty rates and fees now common, the Federal Reserve has begun efforts to revise disclosures to better inform consumers of these costs. Questions have also been raised about the relationship among penalty charges, consumer bankruptcies, and issuer profits. GAO examined (1) how card fees and other practices have evolved and how cardholders have been affected, (2) how effectively these pricing practices are disclosed to cardholders, (3) the extent to which penalty charges contribute to cardholder bankruptcies, and (4) card issuers' revenues and profitability. Among other things, GAO analyzed disclosures from popular cards; obtained data on rates and fees paid on cardholder accounts from 6 large issuers; employed a usability consultant to analyze and test disclosures; interviewed a sample of consumers selected to represent a range of education and income levels; and analyzed academic and regulatory studies on bankruptcy and card issuer revenues."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Nonprofit hospitals qualify for federal tax exemption from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) if they meet certain requirements. Since 1969, IRS has not specified that these hospitals have to provide charity care to meet these requirements, so long as they engage in activities that benefit the community. Many of these activities are intended to benefit the approximately 47 million uninsured individuals in the United States who need financial and other help to obtain medical care. Previous studies indicated that nonprofit hospitals may not be defining community benefit in a consistent and transparent manner that would enable policymakers to hold them accountable for providing benefits commensurate with their tax-exempt status. GAO was asked to examine (1) IRS's community benefit standard and the states' requirements, (2) guidelines nonprofit hospitals use to define the components of community benefit, and (3) guidelines nonprofit hospitals use to measure and report the components of community benefit. To address these objectives, GAO analyzed federal and state laws; the standards and guidance from federal agencies and industry groups; and 2006 data from California, Indiana, Massachusetts, and Texas. GAO also interviewed federal and state officials, …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Distance education--offering courses by Internet, video, or other forms outside the classroom--is a fast growing part of postsecondary education. GAO was asked to review the state of distance education at Minority Serving Institutions, which are schools that serve high percentages of minority students, including Blacks, Hispanics, and American Indians. Under Titles III and V of the Higher Education Act, these schools are eligible for grants that can be used for expanding their technology, including distance education. GAO's review focused on (1) the use of distance education at Minority Serving Institutions, (2) key factors influencing these schools' decisions about whether or not to offer distance education, and (3) steps the Department of Education could take, if any, to improve monitoring efforts of technological progress under Titles III and V programs."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed high school interscholastic athletics, focusing on the: (1) number of uninsured high school students in the United States and the extent to which the lack of health insurance poses a barrier to participation in high school athletic programs; and (2) strategies school districts have developed to provide health insurance and health care to high school sports participants."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "To enhance Head Start's contribution to the school readiness of children from low-income families, the 1998 amendments to the Head Start Act provided for updating the Head Start performance standards to ensure that when children leave the program, they have the basic skills needed to start school. Head Start's performance standards for education and early childhood development require that the programs' curricula support each child's cognitive and language development, including emergent literacy skills. In preschool children, cognitive and language development refers to the fundamental abilities needed to reason and to speak a language. Skills in emergent literacy are the precursors to reading, such as learning the letters of the alphabet. The curriculum Head Start programs use must meet the definition for a written curriculum in Head Start's performance standards. Programs have the option of developing their own curriculum, using a curriculum developed locally or by the state education agency, and adopting or adapting a model developed by an educational publisher. Programs also may use teacher mentoring and individual child assessment to help implement the curriculum. As reauthorization of Head Start approached, Congress asked us to answer …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In 2001, the Department of the Treasury made 764 million payments valued at $549 billion to beneficiaries of federal programs, primarily programs administered by the Social Security Administration. Of these payments, 76 percent were made using electronic funds transfers (EFTs), potentially saving the government millions of dollars in costs associated with disbursing paper checks. In 1996, Congress passed legislation which required that federal payments except tax refunds be made electronically as of January 1999. The act also required that each person affected by this mandate have access to an account at a financial institution at a reasonable cost and with certain consumer protections. To meet this requirement, Treasury developed the Electronic Transfer Account (ETA). Most recipients of federal benefits have their payments deposited electronically. The number of recipients using EFT climbed steadily throughout the 1990s, rising from around half to more than three-quarters of all beneficiaries. Treasury and the Social Security Administration (SSA) have undertaken activities to increase the use of direct deposit, including developing marketing material and directly notifying check recipients of the advantages of using EFT, particularly safety and convenience. Although information describing the …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In 1998, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and its international partners--Canada, Europe, Japan, and Russia--began on-orbit assembly of the International Space Station, envisioned as a permanently orbiting laboratory for conducting scientific research under nearly weightless conditions. Since its inception, the program has experienced numerous problems, resulting in significant cost growth and assembly schedule slippages. Following the loss of Columbia in February 2003, NASA grounded the U.S. shuttle fleet, putting the immediate future of the space station in doubt, as the fleet, with its payload capacity, has been key to the station's development. If recent discoveries about the cause of the Columbia's disintegration require that the remaining shuttles be redesigned or modified, delays in the fleet's return to flight could be lengthy. In light of these uncertainties, concerns about the space station's cost and progress have grown. This report highlights the current status of the program in terms of on-orbit assembly and research; the cost implications for the program with the grounding of the shuttle fleet; and identifying significant program management challenges, especially as they relate to reaching agreements with the international partners."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Exon-Florio amendment to the Defense Production Act authorizes the President to suspend or prohibit foreign acquisitions, mergers, or takeovers of U.S. companies if (1) there is credible evidence that a foreign controlling interest might threaten national security and (2) legislation, other than Exon-Florio and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, does not adequately or appropriately protect national security. The President delegated the authority to review foreign acquisitions of U.S. companies to an interagency group, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. The Committee initiates investigations only when it cannot identify potential mitigation measures in the review period to resolve national security issues arising from the acquisitions or when it needs time beyond the 30-day review to negotiate potential mitigation measures and the companies involved are not willing to request withdrawal of their notification. The Committee's process for implementing Exon-Florio contains the following weaknesses that may have limited effectiveness: (1) the Committee has not established interim protections before allowing withdrawal when concerns were raised and the acquisition had already been completed (2) agreements between the Committee and companies contained nonspecific language that may make …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Congress established the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im) to encourage U.S. exports. Congress has directed Ex-Im to consider the economic impact of its work and not to fund activities that will adversely affect U.S. industry. In this context, GAO reviewed (1) Ex-Im's policies and procedures for determining economic impact, (2) the extent to which Ex-Im appropriately identifies and analyzes projects that could cause adverse economic impact, and (3) the extent to which Ex-Im's process is transparent. To conduct this work, GAO reviewed Ex-Im's procedures, data on projects applicable for the economic impact process, and detailed economic impact analyses. GAO also interviewed Ex-Im and reviewing agency officials and industry representatives."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Basel II, the new risk-based capital framework based on an international accord, is being adopted by individual countries. It includes standardized and advanced approaches to estimating capital requirements. In the United States, bank regulators have finalized an advanced approaches rule that will be required for some of the largest, most internationally active banks (core banks) and proposed an optional standardized approach rule for non-core banks that will also have the option to remain on existing capital rules. In light of possible competitive effects of the capital rules, GAO was asked to examine (1) the markets in which banks compete, (2) how new capital rules address U.S. banks' competitive concerns, and (3) actions regulators are taking to address competitive and other potential negative effects during implementation. Among other things, GAO analyzed data on bank products and services and the final and proposed capital rules; interviewed U.S. and foreign bank regulators, officials from U.S. and foreign banks; and computed capital requirements under varying capital rules."

This technical bulletin documents measured peak equipment load data from 39 laboratory spaces in nine buildings across five institutions. The purpose of these measurements was to obtain data on the actual peak loads in laboratories, which can be used to rightsize the design of HVAC systems in new laboratories. While any given laboratory may have unique loads and other design considerations, these results may be used as a 'sanity check' for design assumptions.

The goal of this project was to answer the following questions concerning response to a future anthrax release (or suspected release) in a building: 1. Based on past experience, what rules of thumb can be determined concerning: (a) the amount of sampling that may be needed to determine the extent of contamination within a given building; (b) what portions of a building should be sampled; (c) the cost per square foot to decontaminate a given type of building using a given method; (d) the time required to prepare for, and perform, decontamination; (e) the effectiveness of a given decontamination method in a given type of building? 2. Based on past experience, what resources will be spent on evaluating the extent of contamination, performing decontamination, and assessing the effectiveness of the decontamination in abuilding of a given type and size? 3. What are the trade-offs between cost, time, and effectiveness for the various sampling plans, sampling methods, and decontamination methods that have been used in the past?

A new energetic particle-induced Geodesic Acoustic Mode (EGAM) is shown to exist. The mode frequency, mode structure, and mode destabilization are determined non-perturbatively by energetic particle kinetic effects. In particular the EGAM frequency is found to be substantially lower than the standard GAM frequency. The radial mode width is determined by the energetic particle drift orbit width and can be fairly large for high energetic particle pressure and large safety factor. These results are consistent with the recent experimental observation of the beam- driven n=0 mode in DIII-D. The new mode is important since it can degrade energetic particle confinement as shown in the DIII-D experiments. The new mode may also affect the thermal plasma confinement via its interaction with plasma micro-turbulence.

The ocean/atmosphere interface is the major conduit for the entry of atmospheric CO2 into oceanic carbon pools that can lead to sequestration or recycled release. The surface layers of the temperate and tropical oceans are often too oligotrophic to result in significant primary production that might lead to carbon sequestration. However, nutrient-rich river plumes can alter the primary production schemes of oligotrophic ocean basins, resulting in increased phytoplankton biomass and carbon fixation. The ultimate goal of this proposal is to understand these carbon cycling processes in major river plumes from the molecular processes involved in biological DIC uptake to contribution to basin-wide production and potential sequestration. Our research efforts include a field component to answer the questions raised concerning DIC in plumes entering ocean basins and an intensive genomics approach to understanding these processes on the cellular level using genomic fragments obtained from plume biota. This project is actually composed of 3 separate PI-initiated projects, including projects at the University of South Florida (USF) College of Marine Science, the University of Puerto Rico, and The Ohio State University. This report concerns research conducted at The Ohio State University and studies performed in collaboration with USF. In order to understand what …

The 182-F Reservoir was a rectangular-shaped concrete basin consisting of two sections divided by a concrete wall. The reservoir provided reserve water from the Columbia River for reactor cooling water and raw water for the 100 Area and had a storage capacity of 94.6 million liters (25 million gallons). The 182-F Reservoir was later used as a landfill for decontaminated rubble from buildings that were decommissioned in the 100-F Area. The results of the 182-F Reservoir evaluation showed that residual contaminant concentrations do not preclude any future uses and allow for unrestricted use of shallow zone soils. The results also showed that residual contaminant concentrations are protective of groundwater and the Columbia River.

Stable operation of a cylindrical Hall thruster (CHT) has been achieved using a hot wire cathode, which functions as a controllable electron emission source. It is shown that as the electron emission from the cathode increases with wire heating, the discharge current increases, the plasma plume angle reduces, and the ion energy distribution function shifts toward higher energies. The observed effect of cathode electron emission on thruster parameters extends and clarifies performance improvements previously obtained for the overrun discharge current regime of the same type of thruster, but using a hollow cathode-neutralizer. Once thruster discharge current saturates with wire heating, further filament heating does not affect other discharge parameters. The saturated values of thruster discharge parameters can be further enhanced by optimal placement of the cathode wire with respect to the magnetic field.

An important long-term objective of advanced nuclear fuel cycle (AFC) technologies is to provide improvement in the long-term management of radioactive waste. Compared to a once-thru fuel cycle, it is possible to generate far less waste, and potentially easier waste to manage, with advanced fuel cycles. However, the precise extent and value of these benefits are complex and difficult to quantify. This document presents a status report of efforts within AFCI Systems Analysis to define and quantify the AFC benefits to geologic disposal, development of cooperative efforts with the US repository program, and participation with international evaluations of AFC impacts on waste management. The primary analysis of repository benefits is conducted by ANL. This year repository impact evaluations have included: (1) Continued evaluation of LWR recycle benefits in support of scenario analysis. (2) Extension of repository analyses to consider long-term dose reductions. (3) Developing the opportunity for cooperation with the U.S. repository program. (4) International cooperation with OECD-NEA.

This program plan articulates the five-year goals and objectives for the Science and Technology (S and T) Program within the Department of Energy's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM). The S and T Program is intended to reduce the cost of the proposed Yucca Mountain repository and enhance the understanding of the processes affecting its performance through the application of new scientific understanding and technology. While the design for the proposed repository will provide a safe and effective disposition of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level waste (HLW), it is unreasonable to assume the science and technology supporting the repository today will remain unchanged over the more than 50 years that the repository will be in operation. In fact, continuous improvement in operations and enhanced knowledge of the disposal process is expected to a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) license holder. therefore, it is prudent to support an effort within OCRWM to assure that the proposed repository will be able to use advanced technology that becomes available in the future to reduce cost to the taxpayer and utility ratepayer. As a separate office within OCRWM, the S and T Program supports the proposed Yucca Mountain repository operations and transportation activities; …