This report examines debates regarding what constitutes an "unfunded federal mandate" and the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995's (UMRA) implementation. It focuses on UMRA's requirement that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issue written cost estimate statements for federal mandates in legislation, its procedures for raising points of order in the House and Senate concerning unfunded federal mandates in legislation, and its requirement that federal agencies prepare written cost estimate statements for federal mandates in rules. It also assesses UMRA's impact on federal mandates and arguments concerning UMRA's future, focusing on UMRA's definitions, exclusions, and exceptions which currently exempt many federal actions with potentially significant financial impacts on nonfederal entities.

This report provides an overview of nanotechnology, the National Nanotechnology Initiative, possible reauthorization of the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-153), and appropriations issues.

This report has four sections. The first describes recent developments in weather and policy. The second provides an overview of the current USDA disaster assistance programs: federal crop insurance, NAP payments, and emergency disaster loans. The third section discusses the now expired disaster programs under the 2008 farm bill, specifically Supplemental Revenue, Assistance Payments Program (SURE), and four other smaller disaster programs. The fourth section briefly reviews the potential reauthorization of disaster programs proposed in both House and Senate versions of the 2013 farm bill. An appendix reviews the recent history of emergency supplemental farm disaster assistance and USDA administrative actions.

This report describes the current strategic context, the state of the campaign, next steps in the campaign, and what it would take to make campaign gains sustainable; and it offers questions that may be of help to Congress in providing oversight of further U.S. efforts in Afghanistan.

This report discusses the offshore areas of the Gulf of Mexico that provide a setting for domestic and international energy production, U.S. military training and border operations, trade and commerce, fishing, tourist attractions, and recreation.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "As part of verifying if farm and conservation program participants had incomes below statutory limits--making them eligible to receive certain 2009 and 2010 program payments--reviews of tax returns by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Farm Service Agency's (FSA) state offices varied in quality. GAO's review of 115 tax return files from selected state offices found that some files met agency guidance and had no apparent errors. Other files did not meet agency guidance or contained errors, resulting in some potentially improper payments to participants whose incomes exceeded the limits. For example, GAO found errors in 19 of the 22 tax return files it reviewed from FSA offices in two states; one of these errors led to a potentially improper payment of $40,000. FSA headquarters does not monitor state offices' reviews of tax returns to ensure that the offices are applying program guidance consistently and making accurate eligibility determinations, even though federal standards for internal control direct agencies to monitor and assess the quality of performance over time. Also, 2008 Farm Bill provisions requiring a distinction between farm and nonfarm income make it difficult for agency …

This report summarizes actions on FY2013 appropriations for EPA and presents the FY2013 enacted levels after the application of the across-the-board rescission and reductions triggered by sequestration,as reported in EPA's Operating Plan.

The purpose of this Process Development Plan is to summarize the objectives and plans for the technology development activities for an alternative path for disposition of the recycle stream that will be generated in the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant Low Activity Waste (LAW) vitrification facility (LAW Recycle). This plan covers the first phase of the development activities. The baseline plan for disposition of this stream is to recycle it to the WTP Pretreatment Facility, where it will be concentrated by evaporation and returned to the LAW vitrification facility. Because this stream contains components that are volatile at melter temperatures and are also problematic for the glass waste form, they accumulate in the Recycle stream, exacerbating their impact on the number of LAW glass containers. Approximately 32% of the sodium in Supplemental LAW comes from glass formers used to make the extra glass to dilute the halides to acceptable concentrations in the LAW glass, and reducing the halides in the Recycle is a key component of this work. Additionally, under possible scenarios where the LAW vitrification facility commences operation prior to the WTP Pretreatment facility, this stream does not have a proven disposition path, and resolving this gap becomes vitally important. …

Organometallic chemists have traditionally used catalysts with strong-field ligands that give low-spin complexes. However, complexes with a weak ligand field have weaker bonds and lower barriers to geometric changes, suggesting that they may lead to more rapid catalytic reactions. Developing our understanding of high-spin complexes requires the use of a broader range of spectroscopic techniques, but has the promise of changing the mechanism and/or selectivity of known catalytic reactions. These changes may enable the more efficient utilization of chemical resources. A special advantage of cobalt and iron catalysts is that the metals are more abundant and cheaper than those currently used for major industrial processes that convert unsaturated organic molecules and biofeedstocks into useful chemicals. This project specifically evaluated the potential of high-spin cobalt complexes for small-molecule reactions for bond rearrangement and cleavage reactions relevant to hydrocarbon transformations. We have learned that many of these reactions proceed through crossing to different spin states: for example, high-spin complexes can flip one electron spin to access a lower-energy reaction pathway for beta-hydride elimination. This reaction enables new, selective olefin isomerization catalysis. The high-spin cobalt complexes also cleave the C-O bond of CO2 and the C-F bonds of fluoroarenes. In each case, the …

This report presents a chronology of major federal agency actions related to environmental concerns following the decision of Massachusetts v. EPA; it particularly looks at actions of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In Massachusetts v. EPA, the Supreme Court held that greenhouse gases (GHGs), widely viewed as contributing to climate change, constitute "air pollutants" as that phrase is used in the Clean Air Act (CAA).

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