A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is caused by an extremely stressful event and can develop after the threat of death or serious injury as in military combat. Experts predict that about 15 percent of servicemembers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan will develop PTSD. Efforts by VA to inform new veterans, including Reserve and National Guard members, about the expanded availability of VA health care services could result in an increased demand for VA PTSD services. GAO identified the approaches DOD uses to identify servicemembers at risk for PTSD and examined if VA has the information it needs to determine whether it can meet an increase in demand for PTSD services. GAO visited military bases and VA facilities, reviewed relevant documents, and interviewed DOD and VA officials to determine how DOD identifies servicemembers at risk for PTSD, and what information VA has to estimate demand for VA PTSD services."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "To encourage lenders to make student loans under the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP), the federal government guarantees lenders a statutorily specified rate of return--called lender yield. Some lenders may issue tax-exempt bonds to raise capital to make or purchase loans; loans financed with such bonds issued prior to 10/1/93 are guaranteed a minimum lender yield of 9.5% (hereafter called 9.5% loans). When the interest rate paid by borrowers is less than the lender yield, the government pays lenders the difference--a subsidy called special allowance payments. In light of the upcoming reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1965, we examined special allowance payments for 9.5% loans."

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This report provides a brief overview of the causes and effects of federal government shutdowns. This report provides a brief overview of the causes and effects of federal government shutdowns. When federal agencies and programs lack appropriated funding, they must cease operations, except in emergency situations. The failure of the President and Congress to reach agreement on funding measures has caused government shutdowns. It is necessary either to enact temporary funding legislation at the close of the fiscal year or to shut down the activities that are not funded at that time.

This report provides information aobut the Effects on Economic Recovery, Long-Term Growth, and the Stock Market on Dividend Tax Relief.

We have developed a set of modeled nuclear reaction cross sections for use in radiochemical diagnostics. Systematics for the input parameters required by the Hauser-Feshbach statistical model were developed and used to calculate neutron and proton induced nuclear reaction cross sections in the mass region of iodine and xenon (52 {<=} Z {<=} 54, 71 {<=} N {<=} 76).

Concerns about the price and supply of natural gas have deepened in recent years both nationally and in New England. Renewable energy (RE) technologies can directly hedge natural gas price risk by reducing the need to purchase variable-price natural gas-fired electricity generation, and replacing that generation with fixed-price renewable electricity supply. In addition to its direct contribution to price stability, an increasing number of studies show that renewable energy deployment can also put downward pressure on natural gas prices by reducing demand for gas among gas-fired generators. These gas price reductions are, in turn, expected to reduce electricity prices and--more importantly--directly reduce consumer natural gas bills. Many recent studies have found that this effect may be significant, substantially benefiting consumers. These studies are reviewed in the attached paper, published in the proceedings of a recent national energy conference. An important consideration is that--strictly speaking--this price reduction represents a consumer benefit that comes at the expense of producers; it therefore represents a wealth transfer, not a net gain in social welfare. That said, current concerns about the price and supply of natural gas suggest that policymakers may want to pursue actions that reduce the strain of high prices on consumer energy …

We have completed the design and testing of neutron scattering instrument detectors for powder diffractometers and single crystal diffractometers. These detectors meet the performance requirements for these types of instruments at the Department of Energy Spallation Neutron Source facility.

There is an increasing demand for an ironmaking process with lower capital cost, energy consumption and emissions than a blast furnace. It is the hypothesis of the present work that an optimized combination of two reasonable proven technologies will greatly enhance the overall process. An example is a rotary hearth furnace (RHF) linked to a smelter (e.g., AISI, HIsmelt). The objective of this research is to select promising process combinations, develop energy, materials balance and productivity models for the individual processes, conduct a limited amount of basic research on the processes and evaluate the process combinations. Three process combinations were selected with input from the industrial partners. The energy-materials and productivity models for the RHF, smelter, submerged arc furnace and CIRCOFER were developed. Since utilization of volatiles in coal is critical for energy and CO{sub 2} emission reduction, basic research on this topic was also conducted. The process models developed are a major product developed in this research. These models can be used for process evaluation by the industry. The process combinations of an RHF-Smelter and a simplified CIRCOFER-Smelter appear to be promising. Energy consumption is reduced and productivity increased. Work on this project is continuing using funds from other …

Appropriations are one part of a complex federal budget process that includes budget resolutions, appropriations (regular, supplemental, and continuing) bills, rescissions, and budget reconciliation bills. This Report is a guide to one of the 13 regular appropriations bills that Congress passes each year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Homeland Security.

The Administration's FY2005 request for international HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria programs totals about $2.8 billion, as compared with $2.4 billion appropriated for FY2004. The FY2005 request includes a large increase for the bilateral Global AIDS Initiative, headquartered at the Department of State, while the request for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria is $200 million, compared with $546.7 million appropriated in FY2004.