Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether section 623.011 of the Transportation Code provides the Texas Department of Transportation with discretion to decide whether to issue a permit authorizing an oversize or overweight motor vehicle to operate on public roads (RQ-0487-JC)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether subsection (c) and (d)(4) of Local Government Code section 242.001 authorize a county and a municipality to agree to a “hybrid” mix of regulations related to plats and subdivisions of land (RQ-0492-JC)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a 1999 amendment to article XVI, section 65 of the Texas Constitution, which removed the staggered terms for certain county offices, substantively affects offices created after that date (RQ-0488-JC)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a hotel, motel, or dormitory is within the meaning of “domicile” for the purposes of Transportation Code section 522.022 (RQ-0490-JC)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a county may require prospective contractors to submit affidavits disclosing their business relationships with officers and employees of the county and county entities (RQ-0491-JC)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a constable who has not been issued a permanent peace officer license under chapter 1701 of the Occupations Code is a peace officer for purposes of article 2.12(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (RQ-0501-JC)

This report discusses the current legislative jurisdictions of House and Senate committees with responsibility over terrorism, homeland security, and the agencies affected by the proposed new department.

Read and Stevens has proposed the evaluation of the waterflood potential from the Cherry Canyon formation in the NE Lea Field in lea County, New Mexico. Much of the development in this area is approaching primary recovery limitations; additional recovery of remaining oil reserves by waterflood needs to be evaluated. The Cherry Canyon formation is composed of fine grained sandstone, containing clay material which results in high water saturation, and also has the tendency to swell and reduce reservoir permeability--the ability of fluid to flow through the rock pores and fractures. There are also abundant organic materials that interfere with obtaining reliable well logs. These complications have limited oil in place calculations and identification of net pay zones, presenting a challenge to the planned waterflood. Core analysis of the Cherry Canyon should improve the understanding of existing well logs and possibly indicate secondary recovery measures, such as waterflood, to enhance field recovery. Lacking truly representative core to provide accurate analyses, Read and Stevens will obtain and preserve fresh core. The consulting firm of T. Scott Hickman and Associates will then collaborate on special core analyses and obtain additional well logs for a more detailed analysis of reservoir properties. The log …

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im Bank) uses tied air to support U.S. exporters facing foreign competitors. Tied aid is government-to-government concessional financing of public sector capital projects in developing countries that is linked to the procurement of goods and services from the donor country. Through the Tied Aid Capital projects fund, Ex-Im Bank may provide financing to support the negotiations and policing of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) tied aid rules and to match foreign aid offers to level the playing field for U.S. exporters. Under the tied aid program legislation, the Department of the Treasury has the authority to direct and control the use of Ex-Im Bank's Tied Aid Capital Projects Fund. This allows Treasury to veto individual tied aid proposals. Ex-Im Bank and Treasury have agreed on a set of broadly stated principles for decisions on the Tied Aid Capital Projects Fund. Although Ex-Im Bank and Treasury both seek to help U.S. exporters, they have different missions and perspectives. Treasury takes a strategic approach to financing tied aid. Ex-Im Bank takes a transactional approach, placing emphasis on helping U.S. exporters by matching …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Floyd D. Spence National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001 requires GAO to review various aspects of the Department of Defense (DOD) policy that allows Defense Working Capital Fund activities to carry over a 3-month level of work from one fiscal year to the next. The DOD 3-month carryover standard applies to all DOD activity groups except for the contract portion of the Air Force depot maintenance activity group, for which DOD established a 4.5-month carryover standard because of the additional administrative functions associated with awarding contracts. Reported carryover balances for fiscal years 2000 and 2001 were inaccurate and, therefore, the balances were not reliable for decision-making or budget review purposes. The reported carryover balances were not accurate due to (1) faulty assumptions used in calculating work-in-process and (2) records not accurately reflecting work that was actually completed by year-end. As a result, the amount of carryover reported by the Air Force was understated by tens of millions of dollars and customers' funds were idle that could have been used for other purposes during the fiscal year. Even though the carryover was understated, Air …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act of 1976 and the Staggers Rail Act of 1980 gave freight railroads increased freedom to price their services according to market conditions. A number of shippers are concerned that freight railroads have used these pricing freedoms to unreasonably exercise their market power in setting rates for shippers with fewer alternatives to rail transportation. This report updates the rate information in GAO's 1999 report (RCED-99-93) using selected commodities and with effective competitive transportation alternatives. From 1997 through 2000, rail rates generally decreased, both nationwide and for many of the specific commodities and markets that GAO examined. However, rail rates for some commodities and distance categories--such as wheat moving long distances and coal moving short distances--have stayed about the same or increased. In other instances, such as wheat moving medium distances, rail rates stayed about the same or decreased. Overall, the proportion of rail shipments above the Surface Transportation Board's statutory jurisdictional threshold for considering rate relief actions--where railroad revenues for the shipment exceed 180 percent of variable costs--stayed relatively constant at 30 percent from 1997 through 2000. However, the proportion …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Endangered Species Act of 1973 was enacted to conserve plant and animal species facing extinction as well as their habitats. The act requires that at-risk species that may be candidates for listing and conservation efforts be identified and listed as threatened or endangered, critical habitat that requires special management be identified, proposed projects that could harm the listed species be mitigated, and plans to improve the status of listed species until they no longer need protection be developed and implemented. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) established an endangered species program within its ecological services program to implement the requirements of the act. The Service budgets separately allocates its endangered species program funds by distinct subcategories corresponding to the program areas of recovery, consultation, candidate conservation, listing, and landowner incentives. The Service maintains these allocations by program area as it distributes funds from headquarters to its regional offices and again as the regional offices distribute funds to their field offices. GAO's survey results showed that in fiscal year 2001, of the total time field staff spent on specific endangered species program activities, consultation accounted …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Agencies are increasingly moving to an electronic environment rather than paper records. Because electronic records provide comprehensive documentation of essential government functions and provide information necessary to protect government and citizen interests, their proper management is essential. Further, the preservation of significant documents and other records is crucial for the historical record. Responsibility for the government's electronic records lies with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). NARA completed an assessment of the current federal record keeping environment in 2001 which concluded that although agencies are creating and maintaining records appropriately, most remain unscheduled, and records of historical value are not being identified and provided to NARA for archival preservation. Although NARA plans to improve its guidance and to address technology issues, its plans do not address the low priority generally given to records management programs, nor the issue of systematic inspections. Recognizing the limitations of its technical strategies to support preservation, management, and sustained access to electronic records, NARA is planning to design, acquire, and manage an advanced electronic records (ERA) system. However, NARA is behind schedule for the ERA system, largely because of flaws …

This report discusses the Export-Import Bank (Ex-In Bank), the chief U.S. government agency that helps finance American exports of manufactured goods and services with the objective of contributing to the employment of U.S. workers.

This report is intended to assist Congress as it considers options for consequence management legislation. It provides information on federal policies that would be implemented in the event that terrorist attacks in an attempt to answer the question: Based on experiences gained thus far, should Congress consider changes in federal consequence management policies to address the effects of possible future attacks? The report explores two types of issues--selected administrative issues pertinent to the delivery of assistance, and selected policy issues about the assistance provided.

The report begins with background on the geography and history of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). It also discusses the most common legislative issues, such as energy development, and provides an extensive review of the resources of the 1002 area, including the current status, regulations, and potential effects of development of those resources.A glossary is included to define the key terms and acronyms.

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This Report is categorized into four categories: (I) Background, (II) Description of the Restructuring Program, (III) Implementation of the Restructuring Program and (IV) Conclusion.

This report is categorized into four categories: (I) Passenger Rail Service Deficits Prior to Amtrak, (II) Original Expectations for Amtrak: Administration, (III) Early Returns on Amtrak's Progress Toward Profitability, (IV) Have the Original Pre-Conditions for Amtrak Profitability Been Met?