A statement of record issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the results of the financial statement audits of the General Services Administration (GSA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Department of Transportation (DOT)."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on 10 major Department of Education programs for (FY) 1996, focusing on: (1) the percentage of federal funding spent at the federal level and the uses of these funds; (2) the percentage of federal funding spent at the state level and the uses of these funds; and (3) the amount of time school personnel in a small number of school districts spent fulfilling federal administrative requirements for those programs for which the districts received funds."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO investigated issues related to the implementation of the U.S./North Korean Agreed Framework, focusing on the: (1) status of heavy fuel oil funding and the deliveries to North Korea undertaken pursuant to the Agreed Framework; and (2) controls in place to prevent the diversion of heavy fuel oil from heating and electricity generation to other purposes not specified in the Agreed Framework and any limitations in these controls that would allow North Korea to divert heavy fuel oil."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) administration of its health maintenance organization, TRICARE Prime, focusing on: (1) DOD's performance in scheduling appointments; and (2) possible reasons why Prime enrollees might not obtain appointments within the appointment timeliness goals."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the extent to which businesses used: (1) Empowerment Zone and Enterprise Community program's three tax incentives; and (2) three other tax incentives that are targeted to help businesses, including those in distressed areas."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) approval and oversight of private Medicare accreditation organizations, focusing on: (1) HCFA's criteria for approving accreditation organizations; (2) HCFA's ongoing oversight of accreditation organizations that have been granted deemed status; and (3) recent evaluations of accreditation organizations' performance."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO compared defense, nondefense, and total discretionary spending under five discretionary spending paths, focusing on: (1) the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates for the congressional budget resolution for fiscal year 2000; (2) the CBO baseline assuming that discretionary spending complies with the statutory caps through 2002 and grows with inflation thereafter (CBO capped baseline); (3) an alternative CBO baseline assuming that discretionary spending grows with inflation after 1999 and with no projection for emergencies; (4) the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Mid-Session Review estimate of discretionary spending under the President's budget without the Social Security and Medicare reforms proposed; and (5) the OMB baseline assuming that discretionary spending complies with the statutory caps through 2002 and grows with inflation thereafter (OMB capped baseline)."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on employer compliance with the white-collar exemptions under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), focusing on: (1) how many employees are covered by the white-collar exemptions and how the demographic characteristics of these employees have changed in recent years; (2) how the statutory and regulatory requirements have changed since the enactment of FLSA; (3) the major concerns of employers regarding the white-collar exemptions; (4) the major concerns of employees regarding the white-collar exemptions; and (5) the possible solutions to the issues of concern raised by employers and employees."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the proposed Computer Security Enhancement Act of 1999 (H.R. 2413), focusing on: (1) the urgent need to strengthen computer security across the federal government; (2) the current and future privacy concerns with any computer security legislation; (3) GAO's views on the proposed act; and (4) what can be done to further strengthen security program management at individual agencies as well as governmentwide leadership, coordination, and oversight."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed efforts to provide the public with information on physician performance, focusing on: (1) the issues involved in measuring and reporting on physician and physician group performance; (2) efforts to develop physician report cards; and (3) initiatives under way that may address impediments to measuring physician and physician group performance."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO published a Personnel Appeals Board study that examined the median time to promotion and rates of promotion of GAO banded employees for the five year period 1991-1995. GAO noted that: (1) there were some disparities based on race, gender and age, but that the causes of these differences were not readily apparent from the statistics alone; and (2) the Board has recommended that GAO further investigate the disparities to determine whether additional steps need to be taken to ensure equal opportunity for its employees."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO audited the expenditures of eight independent counsels for the 6 months ended March 31, 1999."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the International Monetary Fund's financial operations, focusing on the: (1) Fund's liquidity position as of April 30, 1999, including its experience with borrowed resources to meet its members' financing needs; (2) role of gold holdings in the Fund's operations; and (3) Fund's process for determining the amount of quota contributions required from its members."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Agriculture's (USDA) actions to ensure the year 2000 readiness of its high impact food assistance and food safety programs."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on state experiences with reserve funds for emergencies or other unpredictable funding needs and state practices that could be instructive in the emergency spending debate, particularly regarding how the federal government might budget for emergencies with surplus funds."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Agency for International Development's (AID) Initiative for Southern Africa program, focusing on the: (1) specific activities AID's Regional Center for Southern Africa conducted to implement the Initiative; (2) extent to which this regional program complements AID's bilateral programs in the region; and (3) challenges the Regional Center faces in implementing the Initiative."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) efforts to develop more mobile and deployable forces, focusing on: (1) how NATO determines its force requirements and each member's contribution to meeting those requirements; and (2) how NATO allies have responded to the need for increased mobility and deployability in their military forces."

DETOX is a catalyzed wet oxidation process that destroys organic materials in an acidic water solution of iron at 373 to 473 K. The solution can be used repeatedly to destroy great amounts of organic materials. Since the process is conducted in a contained vessel, air emissions from the process can be well controlled. The solution is also capable of dissolving and concentrating many heavy and radioactive metals for eventual stabilization and disposal. The Phase III effort for this project is fabrication, assembly, and installation of the DETOX demonstration unit, preparation of documentation and training to meet site requirements for operation, followed by system run-in and shakedown testing of the unit prior to demonstration testing. The Title III design was completed and the unit was fabricated according to standards set forth by OSHA, EPA, the American Petroleum Institute (i.e., chemical and petroleum industry standards), and the ASME B-313 Piping Code requirements as agreed to in preliminary design meetings with primary stakeholders. The unit was assembled in three modules and two trailers and then shipped to the TNX facility at the Savannah River Site in September and october of 1996. On-going site integration tasks were address while delays in installation arose …

The Delaware Basin Drilling Surveillance Program (DBDSP) is designed to monitor drilling activities in the vicinity of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). This program is based on Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requirements. The EPA environmental standards for the management and disposal of transuranic (TRU) radioactive waste are codified in 40 CFR Part 191 (EPA 1993). Subparts B and C of the standard address the disposal of radioactive waste. The standard requires the Department of Energy (DOE) to demonstrate the expected performance of the disposal system using a probabilistic risk assessment or performance assessment (PA). This PA must show that the expected repository performance will not release radioactive material above limits set by the EPA's standard. This assessment must include the consideration of inadvertent drilling into the repository at some future time.

Weekly newspaper from Rusk, Texas that includes local, state and national news along with extensive advertising.

Bulk structures of unstabilized ZrO{sub 2-x}, with x in the range of 0 {<=} x {<=} 0.44, at ambient pressure have been found to exist in three different structures. (monoclinic, tetragonal and cubic.). At ambient temperature and elevated pressures above 3.5 GPa, unstabilized zirconia at these same compositions is found as a fourth phase, the orthorhombic phase. Work done in this project has demonstrated that nanoscale zirconia particles containing the orthorhombic phase in addition to amorphous material can be produced through solgel methods. Extensive characterization of this material including recent high temperature x-ray diffraction work has indicated that the structure of the synthesized zirconia appears to be linked to the oxygen vacancy population in the material, and that water appears to be a critical factor in determining the type of material formed during synthesis. These results suggest that surface energy alone is not the controlling factor in determining crystal phase.

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Weekly newspaper from San Antonio, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from De Leon, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.