Report that provides background information on the U.S. Navy's CG(X) program as it existed prior to its proposed cancellation.

Report that discusses Pakistan's efforts to produce fissile material and other issues related to nuclear proliferation and improving its nuclear arsenal. It also discusses the steps Pakistan has taken to increase international confidence in its nuclear security.

Report that provides background on the development of intelligence satellites and identifies the roles various agencies play in their management and use. Issues surrounding the current policy and proposed changes are discussed, followed by a discussion of legal considerations.

Report that addresses the challenges in removing debris resulting from a "major disaster" or "emergency" declared by the President, as well as the role of federal agencies in debris removal.

Report that discusses the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 as it applies to projects for which federal funding to recover from or prepare for a disaster has been requested by local, tribal, or state grant applicants.

Report that provides background on the current effort to develop industrial-scale, competitive technology to produce biofuels from cellulosic feedstocks.

Report that discusses the Department of Defense (DOD) policy via the Defense Utilization and Marketing Service (DRMS) for disposing of government equipment and supplies considered surplus or deemed unnecessary to the agency's currently designated mission. The report focuses on DRMS background, as well as the most recent DRMS policy modifications.

Report concerning the current federal budget process, including criticisms of that process. Information is provided regarding the current horizons used in the budget process, including already existing long-term components; the rationale for increased focus on long term budgeting; general challenges to long-term budgeting; and an analysis of general proposals that have been made to increase the focus of long-term budgeting in the budget process.

This report analyzes relevant provisions in enacted legislation and selected pending bills relating to the U.S. Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a facility in which alleged enemy belligerents are detained.

Report describing the structure and responsibilities of the Committee on the Budget in the House of Representatives.

Report that provides an estimate of the initial impact of the changing oil prices on the nation's merchandise trade deficit.

Report that discusses the process of naming Navy ships, which have traditionally been chosen and announced by the Secretary of the Navy. Congress in recent years has proposed, and sometimes passed, legislation regarding the naming of specific ships.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Federally funded employment and training programs play an important role in helping job seekers obtain employment. The Departments of Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services (HHS) largely administer these programs. GAO's objectives were to determine: (1) whether the number of federal employment and training programs and funding for them have changed since our 2003 report, (2) what kinds of outcome measures the programs use and what is known about program effectiveness, (3) the extent to which the programs provide similar services to similar populations, (4) the extent to which duplication may exist among selected large programs, and (5) what options exist for increasing efficiencies among these programs. To address these objectives, GAO searched federal program lists, surveyed federal agency officials, reviewed relevant reports and studies, and interviewed officials in selected states."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since 2001, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has been working to develop an Electronic Records Archive (ERA) to preserve and provide access to massive volumes and all types of electronic records. However, in acquiring this system, NARA has repeatedly revised the program schedule and increased the estimated costs for completion from $317 million to $567 million. NARA is to manage this acquisition using, among other things, earned value management (EVM). EVM is a project management approach that, if implemented appropriately, provides objective reports of project status and unbiased estimates of anticipated costs at completion. GAO was asked to (1) assess whether NARA is adequately using EVM techniques to manage the acquisition and (2) evaluate the earned value data to determine ERA's cost and schedule performance. To do so, GAO compared agency and contractor documentation with best practices, evaluated earned value data to determine performance trends, and interviewed cognizant officials."

This report discusses Unemployment Compensation for Ex-Servicemembers (UCX), which provides income support while former active duty military personnel or reservists released from active duty search for work. The report addresses funding for this service, who is entitled to UCX benefits, and Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC08) and the Extended Benefits (EB) payments, which a servicemember receives when regular unemployment benefits are exhausted.

Report that details the Obama Administration's proposed Fiscal Year 2010 defense budget requests for F-35 program funding and outlines the issues that Congress must consider when deciding whether to approve, reject, or modify the administration's funding requests.

Report that looks at Japan-U.S. relations since WWII. The report focuses on some problems which can be addressed by Congress, including the earthquake and tsunami which hit Japan in March, 2011, the Futenma Marine Air Station in Okinawa, bilateral trade, and economic issues resulting from the recent credit crisis and related economic recession.

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This report provides the overview and issues of the Help America Vote Act and elections reform.

The ability to effectively mix, sample, certify, and deliver consistent batches of high level waste (HLW) feed from the Hanford double shell tanks (DSTs) to the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) presents a significant mission risk with potential to impact mission length and the quantity of HLW glass produced. The Department of Energy's (DOE's) Tank Operations Contractor (TOC), Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) is currently demonstrating mixing, sampling, and batch transfer performance in two different sizes of small-scale DSTs. The results of these demonstrations will be used to estimate full-scale DST mixing performance and provide the key input to a programmatic decision on the need to build a dedicated feed certification facility. This paper discusses the results from initial mixing demonstration activities and presents data evaluation techniques that allow insight into the performance relationships of the two small tanks. The next steps, sampling and batch transfers, of the small scale demonstration activities are introduced. A discussion of the integration of results from the mixing, sampling, and batch transfer tests to allow estimating full-scale DST performance is presented.

Vitrification technology has been selected to treat high-level waste (HLW) at the Hanford Site, the West Valley Demonstration Project and the Savannah River Site (SRS), and low activity waste (LAW) at Hanford. In addition, it may potentially be applied to other defense waste streams such as sodium bearing tank waste or calcine. Joule-heated melters (already in service at SRS) will initially be used at the Hanford Site's Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) to vitrify tank waste fractions. The glass waste content and melt/production rates at WTP are limited by the current melter technology. Significant reductions in glass volumes and mission life are only possible with advancements in melter technology coupled with new glass formulations. The Next Generation Melter (NGM) program has been established by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's), Environmental Management Office of Waste Processing (EM-31) to develop melters with greater production capacity (absolute glass throughput rate) and the ability to process melts with higher waste fractions. Advanced systems based on Joule-Heated Ceramic Melter (JHCM) and Cold Crucible Induction Melter (CCIM) technologies will be evaluated for HLW and LAW processing. Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), DOE's tank waste contractor, is developing and evaluating these systems in cooperation with …

Health physicists from the CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company collaborated with Berkeley Nucleonics Corporation to modify the SAM 940 isotope identifier instrument to be used for nuclear waste remediation. These modifications coupled with existing capabilities of the SAM 940 have proven to be invaluable during remediation activities, reducing disposal costs by allowing swift remediation of targeted areas that have been identified as having isotopes of concern (IOC), and eliminating multiple visits to sites by declaring an excavation site clear of IOCs before demobilizing from the site. These advantages are enabled by accumulating spectral data for specific isotopes that is nearly 100 percent free of false positives, which are filtered out in 'real time.'

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Richland Operations Office (RL) has adopted the 2015 Vision for Cleanup of the Hanford Site. This vision will protect the Columbia River, reduce the Site footprint, and reduce Site mortgage costs. The CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company's (CHPRC) Waste and Fuels Management Project (W&FMP) and their partners support this mission by providing centralized waste management services for the Hanford Site waste generating organizations. At the time of the CHPRC contract award (August 2008) slightly more than 9,000 m{sup 3} of waste was defined as 'no-path-forward waste.' The majority of these wastes are suspect transuranic mixed (TRUM) wastes which are currently stored in the low-level Burial Grounds (LLBG), or stored above ground in the Central Waste Complex (CWC). A portion of the waste will be generated during ongoing and future site cleanup activities. The DOE-RL and CHPRC have collaborated to identify and deliver safe, cost-effective disposition paths for 90% ({approx}8,000 m{sup 3}) of these problematic wastes. These paths include accelerated disposition through expanded use of offsite treatment capabilities. Disposal paths were selected that minimize the need to develop new technologies, minimize the need for new, on-site capabilities, and accelerate shipments of transuranic (TRU) waste to …

Demonstrating that a waste form produced by a given immobilization process is chemically and physically durable as well as compliant with disposal facility acceptance criteria is critical to the success of a waste treatment program, and must be pursued in conjunction with the maturation of the waste processing technology. Testing of waste forms produced using differing scales of processing units and classes of feeds (simulants versus actual waste) is the crux of the waste form qualification process. Testing is typically focused on leachability of constituents of concern (COCs), as well as chemical and physical durability of the waste form. A principal challenge regarding testing immobilized low-activity waste (ILAW) forms is the absence of a standard test suite or set of mandatory parameters against which waste forms may be tested, compared, and qualified for acceptance in existing and proposed nuclear waste disposal sites at Hanford and across the Department of Energy (DOE) complex. A coherent and widely applicable compliance strategy to support characterization and disposal of new waste forms is essential to enhance and accelerate the remediation of DOE tank waste. This paper provides a background summary of important entities, regulations, and considerations for nuclear waste form qualification and disposal. Against …