This report provides facts and statistics about Social Security that are frequently requested by Members of Congress and their staffs. It includes information about Social Security taxes and benefits, the program's impact on its recipients' incomes, federal tax receipts, federal spending and the economy, administrative information, and selected facts about Medicare.

Nearly all the matter encountered on Earth is either a solid, liquid, or gas. Yet plasma-the fourth state of matter-comprises more than 99 percent of the visible universe. Understanding the physical characteristics of plasmas is important to many areas of scientific research, such as the development of fusion as a clean, renewable energy source. Lawrence Livermore scientists study the physics of plasmas in their pursuit to create fusion energy, because plasmas are an integral part of that process. When deuterium and tritium are heated to the extreme temperatures needed to achieve and sustain a fusion reaction (about 100 million degrees), the electrons in these light atoms become separated from the nuclei. This process of separation is called ionization, and the resulting collection of negatively charged free electrons and positively charged nuclei is known as a plasma. Although plasmas and gases have many similar properties, plasmas differ from gases in that they are good conductors of electricity and can generate magnetic fields. For the past decade, x-ray laser interferometry has been used in the laboratory for measuring a plasma's index of refraction to determine plasma density. (The index of refraction for a given material is defined as the wavelength of light …

The Kuwait National Seismic Network (KNSN) began operation in 1997 and consists of nine three-component stations (eight short-period and one broadband) and is operated by the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research. Although the region is largely believed to be aseismic, considerable local seismicity is recorded by KNSN. Seismic events in Kuwait are clustered in two main groups, one in the south and another in the north. The KNSN station distribution is able to capture the southern cluster within the footprint of the network but the northern cluster is poorly covered. Events tend to occur at depths ranging from the free surface to about 20 km. Events in the northern cluster tend to be deeper than those in south, however this might be an artifact of the station coverage. We analyzed KNSN recordings of nearly 200 local events to improve understanding of seismic events and crustal structure in Kuwait, performing several analyses with increasing complexity. First, we obtained an optimized one-dimensional (1D) velocity model for the entire region using the reported KNSN arrival times and routine locations. The resulting model is consistent with a recently obtained model from the joint inversion of receiver functions and surface wave group velocities. Crustal structure …

This report discusses the history and current status of federal student loan programs. Specifically, the report focuses on the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) and the William D. Ford Direct Loan (DL). Moreover, the report highlights differences in the two programs such as that the FFEL is financed by private lenders, while the DL is financed by the federal government.

This report provides an overview of the issues and legislation of the immigration policy for intracompany transfers (L Visa). Concerns are growing that the visa category that allows executives and managers of multinational corporations to work temporarily in the United States is misused.

This report provides the policy considerations related to guest worker programs on immigration.

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This report provides a summary of the statutory history of the automated entry and exit data system, which was renamed the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) Program by the Bush Administration. It also discusses other laws that affect the implementation of the system and provides an analysis of the documentary requirements under current law. The report also discusses efforts to implement the program and selected issues associated with its development and implementation.

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This report provides a brief overview of Mexico's political history from 1910 to 2006, with an emphasis on electoral reforms and elections. The report demonstrates that Mexico has evolved from long-term domination by a single party to alternation and effective competition among the three major parties.

This report discusses the Bush administration's "Charitable Choice" agenda aimed at expanding the ability of faith-based organizations to provide federally funded social services.

A program to resolve the issues associated with potential vapor space corrosion and liquid/air interface corrosion in the Type III high level waste tanks is in place. The objective of the program is to develop understanding of vapor space (VSC) and liquid/air interface (LAIC) corrosion to ensure a defensible technical basis to provide accurate corrosion evaluations with regard to vapor space and liquid/air interface corrosion. The results of the FY05 experiments are presented here. The experiments are an extension of the previous research on the corrosion of tank steel exposed to simple solutions to corrosion of the steel when exposed to complex high level waste simulants. The testing suggested that decanting and the consequent residual species on the tank wall is the predominant source of surface chemistry on the tank wall. The laboratory testing has shown that at the boundary conditions of the chemistry control program for solutions greater than 1M NaNO{sub 3}{sup -}. Minor and isolated pitting is possible within crevices in the vapor space of the tanks that contain stagnant dilute solution for an extended period of time, specifically when residues are left on the tank wall during decanting. Liquid/air interfacial corrosion is possible in dilute stagnant solutions, …

This collaborative research project between Georgia State University (Prof. Elliott) and Oklahoma University (Profs. Elmore and Engle) is aimed at understanding further the measurement of the timing of geologic processes causing diagenetic events (e.g. burial metamorphism, thrust sheet burial, basinwide fluid migration, contact metamorphism) through combined application of paleomagnetic analyses and K-Ar age determination of illite. These diagnenetic events are known to heat rocks to temperatures sufficient to form crude oil and natural gas. Thus, improved knowledge of the timing of diagenetic events lead to improved burial history models for the exploration of crude oil and natural gas (e.g. Pevear, 1999). Our principal working hypothesis is that the authigenesis of magnetic mineral phases results also from the conversion of smectite to illite and the ages of these diagenetic events can be constrained by comparing the ages of chemical remanent magnetizations (CRMs) to independently measurements of K-Ar age of diagenetic illite. In this study, we have tested the hypothesized connection between smectite to illite (i.e clay diagenesis) and remagnetization by conducting K-Ar dating of authigenic illites in units in Scotland and Montana (e.g., Elliott et al., 2006a; Elliott et al., 2006b).

This research has two main objectives: (1) On one side is the development of computational tools to evaluate alloy properties, using the information contained in thermodynamic functions to improve the ability of classic potentials to account for complex alloy behavior. (2) On the other hand, to apply the tools so developed to predict properties of alloys under irradiation. Atomistic simulations of alloys at the empirical level face the challenge of correctly modeling basic thermodynamic properties. In this work we develop a methodology to generalize many-body classic potentials to incorporate complex formation energy curves. Application to Fe-Cr allows us to predict the implications of the ab initio results of formation energy on the phase diagram of this alloy.

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This report contains the new developments and oversight issues for Congress on the United States military overseas basing.

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This report provides an outline of the complex current law governing the funding of single-employer defined benefit pension plans. It describes reporting and disclosure requirements that apply to plans. This report also includes an illustration of the effect on a hypothetical plan sponsor's plan contribution and funded ratio of the credit balance approach used in current law versus the Administration proposal.

This report summarizes the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) proposed changes to the particulate matter (PM) National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) and includes comparisons with previous (1997) and current promulgated and proposed standards.

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The United States spends a large and growing share of national income on health care. In 2005, health spending is expected to approach $1.9 trillion and account for more than 15% of gross domestic product. This report contains information on the background of the healthcare industry in the United States, key issues for Congress in this policy area, and three policy directions to consider: changing health care, changing federal programs, and changing tax policy.