This report discusses the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in the Energy Policy and Consevation Act, which was authorized to help prevent a repetition of the economic dislocation caused by the 1973-1974 Arab oil embargo. The Government Accountability Office recently observed that the proportion of crude oil grades in the SPR has been growing less compatible with the heavier grades of crude oil that U.S. refineries have been upgrading to handle. This finding has raised questions about the SPR's effectiveness during a long-term oil disruption involving heavy oil.

This report provides background information regarding political violence and the peace process in Northern Ireland. It includes further information about the devolved government and recurrent crises (1999-2002, 2003-2007 and 2008-2010), implementation of police reforms, recent events and ongoing challenges, relevant U.S. policy, and recent legislation.

This report discusses the Earthquake in Chile, the current condition, the response from Chilean government, international humanitarian response, as well as the U.S. humanitarian response. The report provides background information on Chile and U.S. relations and policy issues.

This report examines the ways in which the Senate has handled the 160 Supreme Court nominations the President has sent to the Senate. As the purpose of this report is to examine the forms taken by Senate proceedings on these 160 nominations, it treats each nomination as a separate case. It is not couched in terms of the smaller number of different individuals nominated or the ultimate outcome the confirmation process may have had for each individual.

This report is a review of the Community Development Fund (CDF) account's funding history from FY2000 to FY2014, as well as current funding in FY2015. It includes a discussion of the three primary components of the CDF account: CDBG formula grants; CDBG-related set-asides and earmarks; and CDBG-linked supplemental and special appropriations.

This report, in a question and answer format, discusses some challenges facing the cellulosic biofuels community, including feedstock supply estimates, and potential legislative options to address cellulosic biofuels production uncertainty for the Renewable Fuel Standard.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has established a mechanism for partnership that integrates the high-performance computing capabilities of the National Labs, the network and cyber technology expertise of leading information technology companies, and the long-term research vision of leading academic cyber programs. The Cyber Science and Security Center is designed to be a working partnership among Laboratory, Industrial, and Academic institutions, and provides all three with a shared R&D environment, technical information sharing, sophisticated high-performance computing facilities, and data resources for the partner institutions and sponsors. The CSSC model is an institution where partner organizations can work singly or in groups on the most pressing problems of cyber security, where shared vision and mutual leveraging of expertise and facilities can produce results and tools at the cutting edge of cyber science.

This report discusses the causes of funding gaps and shutdowns of the federal government, processes that are associated with shutdowns, and how agency operations may be affected by shutdowns. The report concludes with a discussion of potential issues for Congress.

This report analyzes the provisions of the Sandy Recovery Improvement Act of 2013. In general, these provisions amend the Stafford Act with a stated goal of improving the efficiency and quality of disaster assistance provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

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This report discusses concerns congress attempts to address in regards to commercial filming and photography on federal lands.

his report explores the significance and state of U.S.-Japan economic ties; how the ties have changed over time; and what the possible options for managing the relationship might be.

This report is categorized into four categories: (I) CERCLA and EPCRA, (II) Enforcement against AFO's, (III) Congressional Interest, and (IV) Policy Issue.

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This report discusses the "Sense of" resolutions, which are considered under the normal legislative processes of each chamber applicable to any other legislative vehicle.

Hydrogen storage systems based on the readily reversible adsorption of H{sub 2} in porous materials have a number of very attractive properties with the potential to provide superior performance among candidate materials currently being investigated were it not for the fact that the interaction of H{sub 2} with the host material is too weak to permit viable operation at room temperature. Our study has delineated in quantitative detail the structural elements which we believe to be the essential ingredients for the future synthesis of porous materials, where guest-host interactions are intermediate between those found in the carbons and the metal hydrides, i.e. between physisorption and chemisorption, which will result in H{sub 2} binding energies required for room temperature operation. The ability to produce porous materials with much improved hydrogen binding energies depends critically on detailed molecular level analysis of hydrogen binding in such materials. However, characterization of H{sub 2} sorption is almost exclusively carried by thermodynamic measurements, which give average properties for all the sites occupied by H{sub 2} molecules at a particular loading. We have therefore extensively utilized the most powerful of the few molecular level experimental probes available to probe the interactions of hydrogen with porous materials, namely …

The 54th International Conference on Electron, Ion and Photon Beam Technology and Nanofabrication, 2010, held at the Egan Convention Center and Hilton in Anchorage, Alaska, June 1 to 4, 2010 was a great success in large part because financial support allowed robust participation from students. The conference brought together 444 engineers and scientists from industries and universities from all over the world to discuss recent progress and future trends. Among the emerging technologies that are within the scope of EIPBN is Nanofabrication for Energy Sources along with nanofabrication for the realization of low power integrated circuits. Every year, EIPBN provides financial support for students to attend the conference.The students gave oral and poster presentations of their research and many published peer reviewed articles in a special conference issue of the Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology B. The Department of Energy Office of Basic Energy Sciences supported 20 students from US universities with a $15,000.

This report provides background information on the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV) and it discusses the Army's proposed replacement to the Vietnam-era M-113 personnel carriers, which are still in service in a variety of support capacities in Armored Brigade Combat Teams (ABCTs).

This report examines why there is no longer any foreign interest in the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) program and how the Army's study to revise overall tactical wheeled vehicle requirements might affect the JLTV program.

This report gives a brief overview of US Tsunami Programs such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) which supports three main categories of activities namely; 1) Warning, such as activities of the Tsunami Warning Center and DART network. 2) mitigation and 3) research.

This report discusses the current debate over "net neutrality." While there is no single accepted definition of "net neutrality," most agree that any such definition should include the general principles that owners of the networks that compose and provide access to the Internet should not control how consumers lawfully use that network, and they should not be able to discriminate against content provider access to that network.

This report discusses the idea that all Americans should be able to afford access to the telecommunications network; this is commonly called the "universal service concept" and can trace its origins back to the 1934 Communications Act.

This report is categorized into six categories: (I) Introduction, (II) FOIA History, (III) The George W. Bush Administration, (IV) 110TH Congress Legislative Reform Efforts, (V) The Obama Administration, and (VI) FOIA and the 111th Congress.