A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "On December 9, 2002, GAO convened a governance and accountability forum to discuss challenges facing regulators, the accounting profession, and boards of directors and management of public companies in effectively implementing the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and related regulatory actions to improve public confidence in U.S. corporate governance and accountability systems. Major accountability breakdowns recent years, exacerbated in the last 2 years by the unprecedented massive breakdowns and bankruptcy of Enron and WorldCom, have contributed to the decline in investor confidence in U.S. capital markets. The forum focused on the four interrelated areas of corporate governance, the financial reporting model, the accounting profession, and regulation and enforcement that the accountability breakdowns have surfaced as critical areas to be strengthened. Addressing these challenges will involve the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors. In general, there must be the proper incentives, transparency, and accountability mechanisms in place to ensure the effectiveness of any system. As a result, these overarching principles were considered in connection with the issues discussed. Forum participants included individuals from federal and state government, the private sector, standards setting and oversight bodies, and a variety of …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Some economists predict that by 2030, the United States could experience a labor shortage of 35 million workers. As the shortage approaches, one option available is to encourage people to work beyond traditional retirement ages, especially because people who are age 55 or older will constitute nearly a third of the poppulation. Accordingly, increasing demands will be made on the workforce development system to help ensure that older workers are provided opportunities to help address the anticipated labor shortage. Concerned that the existing workforce development system may not meet the needs of older workers, the Subcommittee's Ranking Minority Member asked GAO to determine the extent that older workers are enrolled in federal employment and training programs, what services are provided, and how performance measures affect such services."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO and other budget experts have discussed that the current time horizons and content of the federal budget could be enhanced to more comprehensively reflect the government's commitments or signal emerging problems. GAO was asked to (1) provide information on the range and nature of responsibilities, programs, and activities that may explicitly or implicitly expose the government to future spending and (2) present and discuss options for increasing the attention paid to these items in the budget and budget process. GAO recommends that OMB report annually on fiscal exposures. Where possible, OMB should report the estimated costs-"exposure level"-of certain activities in the Program and Financing schedules of the budget. In a few select areas, the ultimate objective might be to include costs directly in the budget when doing so would enhance up-front control of spending. Congress may wish to consider exploring options for improving the budgetary information and the attention given to fiscal exposures. If more explicit congressional consideration is desired, as estimates improve, Congress may wish to develop budget process mechanisms that prompt more deliberation."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Although environmental liabilities resulting from federal programs and activities represent the third largest category of the federal government's liabilities, the current cash- and obligation-based budget does not provide information on estimated cleanup costs before waste-producing assets are purchased. As a result, policymakers do not have the opportunity to weigh the full costs of a proposal with their judgment of its benefits. The Chairman of the House Committee on the Budget asked GAO to examine and report on various ways budgeting might be improved for environmental cleanup costs, including some of the benefits, limitations, and challenges associated with each."

Understanding the near-field fate of parent chemicals and their decay products in the atmosphere provides essential information for the development of remote chemical sensors. To elucidate the near-field fate of candidate chemical signatures, selected gas phase compounds were introduced into atmospheres of varying humidity, temperature and incident light flux. These atmospheres were maintained in an environmental wind tunnel for periods typical of near-field transport scenarios. The range of humidity and temperature into which the compounds were emitted encompassed arid, temperate, and tropical values. Simulated sunlight exposure was used to evaluate the impact of time of release on signature composition. The rates of compound decay and evolution of transformation products under the various environmental conditions were monitored in real time. A Fourier transform infrared spectrometer and a gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer were used to determine chemical concentration, evaluate detectability, and identify potential interferences to the detection capability. Specifically, this report describes the initial system function tests with pinacolyl alcohol and methyl iodide and subsequent atmospheric fate experiments with methylphosphonic dichloride and thionyl chloride. Test system function was evaluated using pinacolyl alcohol because as a relatively non-reactive compound, it served as a negative control for the system. Methyl iodide is a compound known …

This report discusses enacted legislation as well as other proposed bills to show the scope of options considered by the 107th Congress. Many of these approaches will likely be considered again by the 108th Congress as it deals with issues raised by the legislation, including affordability, populations impacted, gaps in coverage and state participation.

This report of the EnvironMentors Project (TEP) for the period February 1994 through December 1998, provides a summary of activities at our program sites and of our overall organizational accomplishments. Notably, the EnvironMentors Project matched 506 teens from under-resourced neighborhoods in Washington (DC), Trenton (NJ), and Baltimore (MD) with mentors, engaged more than 1,600 members of the public in informative discussions of environmental research, and presented interactive environmental education lessons to approximately 5,700 elementary and middle school children.

With the Nation's coal-burning utilities facing the possibility of tighter controls on mercury pollutants, the U.S. Department of Energy is funding projects that could offer power plant operators better ways to reduce these emissions at much lower costs. Sorbent injection technology represents one of the simplest and most mature approaches to controlling mercury emissions from coal-fired boilers. It involves injecting a solid material such as powdered activated carbon into the flue gas. The gas phase mercury in the flue gas contacts the sorbent and attaches to its surface. The sorbent with the mercury attached is then collected by the existing particle control device along with the other solid material, primarily fly ash. During 2001 ADA Environmental Solutions (ADA-ES) conducted a full-scale demonstration of sorbent-based mercury control technology at the Alabama Power E.C. Gaston Station (Wilsonville, AL). This unit burns a low-sulfur bituminous coal and uses a hot-side electrostatic precipitator (ESP) in combination with a COHPAC baghouse to collect fly ash. The majority of the fly ash is collected in the ESP with the residual being collected in the COHPAC baghouse. Activated carbon was injected between the ESP and COHPAC units to collect the mercury. Short-term mercury removal levels in excess …

This report covers PTTC's technical progress during the 1st half of FY99, and illustrates its increasing impact on the independent oil and gas producing industry.

In this work we describe two object-oriented cluster search algorithms, which can be applied to a network of an arbitrary structure. First algorithm calculates all connected clusters, whereas the second one finds a path with the minimal number of connections. We estimate the complexity of the algorithm and infer that the number of operations has linear growth with respect to the size of the network.

The overall goal of this research was to develop effective biosurfactant production for enhanced oil recovery in the United States.

This report provides FY2002 spending and FY2003 outlook of HIV/AIDS International programs.

This report provides information to policymakers considering a new, smaller, or larger agricultural guestworker program and examines selected labor market, social, and demographic characteristics of the agricultural labor force in the United States for each year from 1996 through 2001.

Soils offer the potential to sequester large quantities of carbon from the atmosphere for decades to millennia and so may ameliorate the anthropogenic influence of fossil fuel release. However changes in climate can drastically affect the soil's ability to store carbon through changes mineralogy on time scales of human interest. It is essential to understand the major controls on soil carbon dynamics before we attempt to manage sequestration to control atmospheric CO{sub 2} buildup. Models of the terrestrial carbon cycle often use clay content to parameterize soil carbon turnover. Evidence from volcanic soils suggests that soil mineralogy is a major control on a soil's ability to store carbon, because different types of minerals have widely varying abilities to physically and chemically isolate soil organic matter from decomposition, however volcanic soils represent only a small percentage of the earth's soils. The relationship between precipitation and soil carbon storage is also complex and poorly constrained. Significantly, precipitation changes predicted as a result of atmospheric CO{sub 2} doubling include increased rainfall throughout California. We utilized {sup 14}C, {delta}{sup 13}C, and the total organic carbon, iron, and aluminum contents to address the question of the importance of mineralogy and climate on carbon storage in …

This report examines various issues pertaining to foreign students in the United States. Since the Immigration Act of 1924, the United States has expressly permitted foreign students to study in U.S. institutions. Most foreign students are at least 18 years old and are enrolled in higher education programs. Foreign students are generally considered to enrich cultural diversity of the educational experience for U.S. residents as well as enhance the reputation of U.S. universities as world-class institutions. Concerns have arisen in recent years that have caused Congress to take a new look at the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) provisions that govern their admission.

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As part of the research supported by U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Hydropower Turbine System (AHTS) Program, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) conducted a study where age-0 and age-1 chinook salmon, as well as several other types of fish, were released into a submerged water jet to quantify injuries caused by shear stresses and turbulence (Neitzel et al. 2000). The fish releases were videotaped. These videotape records were digitized and analyzed using new methods to identify the injury mechanisms and the stresses involved. Visible external injuries sustained by fish in this study generally occurred during the initial contact with the jet and not during the tumbling that occurred after the fish fully entered the turbulent flow. The inertial stresses of tumbling, however, may cause temporary or even permanent vestibular and neurological injuries. Such injuries can result in disorientation and loss of equilibrium, which are life threatening in the ''natural'' environment. Operculum injuries predominated at moderate water jet speeds (12 and 15 m {center_dot} s{sup -1}). At the highest speed, eye, operculum, isthmus, and gill injuries were equally common, and disorientation was most common. Bruising and descaling were relatively rare, especially for age-0 fish. Age-0 fish were less susceptible …

This report summarizes major provisions of federal law and offers a chronology of key legislative and judicial actions which govern financial activity of federal election campaigns. The laws are based on two principal statutes: the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) of 1971, as amended in 1974, 1976, 1979, and 2002, and the Revenue Act of 1971.

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In recent years conflicting budget priorities and divided political control have accentuated the institutional tensions between the executive and legislative branches inherent in the federal budget process. President Clinton, like his two predecessors, called for an item veto, or possibly expanded impoundment authority, to provide him with greater control over federal spending. This report provides a brief history of impoundment and discusses the debate surrounding the line item veto.

CRS Report for Congress entailing information about state grant formulas regarding the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA). Topics include, characteristics of state formula grants, IDEA State Grant Formulas, funding, etc..

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