This report discusses the history of the use of offsetting rescissions to pay for supplemental appropriations to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Disaster Relief Fund (DRF) from FY1990 through FY2013.

This report discusses funding and policy issues regarding the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is responsible for ensuring the safety of foods, drugs, medical devices, cosmetics, and other products.

The Low-Activity Waste Process Technology Program anticipated that grouting will be used for disposal of low-level and transuranic wastes generated at the Idaho Nuclear Technology Engineering Center (INTEC). During fiscal year 2000, grout formulations were studied for transuranic waste derived from INTEC liquid sodium-bearing waste and for projected newly generated low-level liquid waste. Additional studies were completed using silica gel and other absorbents to solidify sodium-bearing wastes. A feasibility study and conceptual design were completed for the construction of a grout pilot plant for simulated wastes and demonstration facility for actual wastes.

The Tanks Focus Area (TFA) continues to work closely with the Office of River Protection (ORP) to better understand the chemistry involved with the retrieval, transport, and pretreatment of nuclear wastes at Hanford. Since a private contractor is currently responsible for the pretreatment and immobilization activities in this remediation effort, the TFA has concentrated on saltcake dissolution and waste transport at the request of the ORP. Researchers at Hanford have performed a series of dissolution experiments on actual saltcake samples. Staff members at Mississippi State University (MSU) continue to model the dissolution results with the Environmental Simulation Program (ESP), which is used extensively by ORP personnel. Several ways to improve the predictive capabilities of the ESP were identified. Since several transfer lines at Hanford have become plugged, TFA tasks at AEA Technologies, Florida International University (FIU), MSU, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) are investigating the behavior of the supernatants and slurries during transport. A combination of experimental and theoretical techniques is used to study the transport chemistry. This effort is expected to develop process control tools for waste transfer. The results from these TFA tasks were presented to ORP personnel during the FY 2000 Saltcake Dissolution and Feed Stability …