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The Economic Development Administration (EDA), targeted for elimination or major "reinvention" early in the 104th Congress, gained a new lease on life in the waning days of the 105th. Having been kept alive via appropriations bills since its last authorizing legislation expired in 1982, P.L. 105-393 reauthorized the EDA and its programs for 5 years

On March 19, 2001, the Senate began consideration of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill. The bill–S. 27 (Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2001)–was introduced on January 22, 2001 by Senators McCain, Feingold, Cochran et al. It features a ban on the raising of soft money by national parties, a ban on the spending of soft money by state and local parties on federal election-related activities (as defined), and a disclosure requirement for electioneering messages not regulated by federal election law, along with a ban on their funding from union or for-profit corporation treasuries. Another bill receiving considerable Senate attention is S. 22 (Open and Accountable Campaign Financing Act of 2001), introduced on January 22, 2001 by Senators Hagel, Landrieu et al. It features limits on soft money donations to national parties, increases in hard money contribution limits, and a requirement that broadcasters make information available on groups engaging in issue advocacy. This report provides a summary and comparison of these two measures, according to various categories.

Defining the married couple as a single tax unit under the federal individual income tax means that some married couples pay more income tax than they would as two unmarried singles (a marriage tax penalty) while other married couples pay less income tax than they would as two unmarried singles (a marriage tax bonus).

Tri-weekly student newspaper from Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas that includes local, state and campus news along with advertising.

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

Interview with Joseph B. Brown of Abilene, Texas, who is a World War Two veteran of the United States Marine Corps. In the interview, Mr. Brown recalls memories of growing up and his time in the Marines, particularly from training, being wounded, and working campaigns in the South Pacific.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In addition to the end of the Cold War and the resulting military force structure downsizing, three events have shaped the depot maintenance environment. First, the base realignment and closure process has reduced DOD's Cold War era infrastructure from 38 military depots to 19. Second, as recommended in various studies, DOD has increasingly relied on defense contractors for depot maintenance and related logistics activities. Third, depot maintenance personnel have been cut by 59 percent, the third highest percent of any category of DOD personnel. DOD has not effectively managed the restructuring of its depot maintenance and related programs. In its earlier and ongoing reviews of defense maintenance and related logistics issues, GAO has identified several management weaknesses in the areas of policy, planning, recapitalization, human capital issues, financial management, performance of maintenance programs, and meeting legislative requirements. As GAO's recent performance accountability report on defense issues notes, logistics activities represent a key management challenge. Maintenance is an important part of those activities, and DOD is at a critical point with respect to the future of its maintenance programs that is linked to its overall logistics strategic plan."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO contracted with KPMG Peat Marwick LLP to audit the financial statements of the Senate Restaurants Revolving Fund for fiscal years 2000 and 1999. KPMG found that the statements were fairly presented in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. Management fairly stated that internal controls safely guarded assets against loss from unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition; ensured material compliance with laws and regulations; and ensured that there were no material misstatements in the financial statements. KPMG found no reportable noncompliance with selected provisions of the laws and regulations it tested."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa has grown beyond a public health problem to become a humanitarian and developmental crisis. The Agency for International Development (AID) has contributed to the fight against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa by focusing on interventions proven to slow the spread of the disease. However, AID's ability to measure the impact of its activities on reducing transmission of HIV/AIDS is limited by (1) inconsistent use of performance indicators, (2) sporadic data collection, and (3) lack of routine reporting of results to headquarters. As part of its approach for allocating the 53 percent increase in funding for HIV/AIDS prevention activities in sub-Saharan Africa for fiscal year 2001, AID prepared a plan to expand monitoring and evaluation systems in countries designated as in need of significant increases in assistance. However, when implemented, the monitoring and evaluation requirements in the plan will not initially include all countries where AID missions and regional offices in sub-Saharan Africa implement HIV/AIDS programs. Further, the plan does not specify to whom these data will be reported or how the information will be used. Failure to address …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the non-profit and non-partisan Federal City Council's (FCC) proposal to use the current site of the Washington Convention Center for the National Museum of American Music (NMAM). The FCC proposal which is now in the conceptual stage anticipates that NMAM will be located at the existing Convention Center site and that it will be part of a major mixed-use complex that includes retail, entertainment, and performance venues. The total estimated cost for FCC's mixed-use proposal is $1.1 billion, with $172.5 million attributed to the music museum. The proposal estimates that the District would receive annual land rent of $13 million, equivalent to a seven-percent return on the estimated land value of $183 million. FCC spent $300,000 in federal appropriations on the project management services provided by the Smithsonian Institution. The District of Columbia has not yet considered any proposals for the use of the Convention Center site. The Mayor has established a task force to study the possible uses for the site, and it is developing a process to both solicit and evaluate independently generated proposals for the site."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report compares data on the number of registered voters for the 40 largest counties in the United States with estimates of voting age populations for those jurisdictions. GAO found that none of the counties have voter registration numbers that exceed the number of eligible voting age residents."

A weekly student newspaper from the Rice University in Houston, Texas that includes campus news and commentaries along with advertising.

An email chain between Charles C. Francis and Karl Rove about the positions that are being filled by gay and lesbian Republicans in the George Bush White House.

Weekly newspaper from Dallas, Texas that includes local, state, and national news and advertising of interest to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community.

Monthly newsletter discussing news and activities related to the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program, articles about weather and atmospheric phenomena, and other related topics.

The main goal of this study is to ensure sustainable management of wetland forests in the southeastern United States. The study is projected to measure soil, hydrology, and forest responses to several management scenarios across a complete forest cycle. From August 1997 to August 2000 the study has received funding as one of the Agenda 2020 projects, from the U.S. Department of Energy (Cooperative Agreement Number DE-FC07-97ID13551), the National Council of the Paper Industry for Air and Stream Improvement, and Westvac Corporation. Quarterly progress reports were submitted regularly to the Department and all project participants. This final report summarizes the project results and progress achieved during this 3-year period. Over the past three years all research objectives planned for this project were completed.

Non-destructive testing is a key component of optimized plant inspection and maintenance programs. Risk based inspection, condition based maintenance and reliability centered maintenance systems all require detection, location and sizing of defects or flaws by non-destructive methods. Internal damage of geothermal piping by corrosion and erosion-corrosion is an ongoing problem requiring inspection and subsequent maintenance decisions to ensure safe and reliable performance. Conventional manual ultrasonic testing to determine remaining wall thickness has major limitations, particularly when damage is of a random and localized nature. Therefore, it is necessary to explore alternative non-destructive methods that offer potential benefits in terms of accurate quantification of size, shape and location of damage, probability of detection, ability to use on-line over long ranges, and economics. A review of non-destructive methods and their applicability to geothermal piping was performed. Based on this, ongoing research will concentrate on long range guided wave and dynamic methods.

This document described a laboratory study designed to determine whether mercury is, in fact, reduced by bisulfite ion and ammonia and, if so, whether the reduced mercury is volatilized at the boiling point of water. The primary conclusions resulting from this study are that both bisulfite ion and ammonia are capable of reducing mercury in solution and that, when reduced, the mercury will all be volatilized and carried into the distillate.

The accumulation in groundwater of products from the radioactive decay of elements naturally found in rocks offers a potential for measuring the time that the groundwater has been contact with the rock. This dating method has an advantage over using decay products from the atmosphere in that the amount of decay products increases with age rather than decreases. However, different decay products accumulate at different rates and, thus, have a different potential usefulness in age determinations. The most useful decay product is helium, produced from uranium and thorium. The use of Ar-40 produced from potassium is limited because Ar-40 is abundant in meteoric water. Neon, xenon and krypton are useful with great difficulty because they are produced in extremely small quantities. In general, the potential for error increases when a long time is required to produce a small quantity of the dating nuclide.

The objective of this study was to examine the relative importance of pressure changes as a source of turbine-passage injury and mortality. Specific tests were designed to quantify the response of fish to rapid pressure changes typical of turbine passage, with and without the complication of the fish being acclimated to gas supersaturated water. We investigated the responses of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), chinook salmon (O. tshawytscha), and bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus) to these two stresses, both singly and in combination.

As part of this research effort, we developed a new methodology for projecting elderly traffic crash fatalities. This methodology separates exposure to crashes from crash risk per se, and further divides exposure into two components, the number of miles driven and the likelihood of being a driver. This component structure permits conceptually different determinants of traffic fatalities to be projected separately and has thorough motivation in behavioral theory. It also permits finer targeting of particular aspects of projections that need improvement and closer linking of projections to possible policy instruments for influencing them.

Over the last several years most of the sludge and liquid from the Liquid Low-Level Waste (LLLW) tanks at ORNL has been transferred and consolidated in the Melton Valley Storage Tanks (MVST). The contents of the MVST tanks at the time the sludge samples were collected for this report included the original inventory in the MVSTs along with the sludge and liquid from the Bethel Valley Evaporator Service Tanks (BVEST), Old Hydrofracture (OHF) tanks, and most of the Gunite and Associated Tanks (GAAT). During the spring and summer of 2000 the MVST composite sludge was sampled and characterized to validate the radiochemical content and to ensure regulatory compliance. This report only discusses the analytical characterization of the sludge from the MVST waste tanks (except for W-29 and W-30). The isotopic data presented in this report supports the position that fissile isotopes of uranium ({sup 233}U and {sup 235}U) and plutonium ({sup 239}Pu and {sup 241}Pu) were ''denatured'' as required by the administrative controls stated in the ORNL LLLW waste acceptance criteria (WAC). In general, the MVST sludge was found to be hazardous by RCRA characteristics based on total analysis of chromium, mercury, and lead. Also, the alpha activity due to …

Two 316L thermal convection loops (TCLs) containing several types of 316L specimens circulated mercury continuously for 2000 h at a maximum temperature of 300 C. Each TCL was fitted with a venturi-shaped reduced section near the top of the hot leg for the purpose of locally increasing the Hg velocity. Results suggest that an increase in velocity from about 1.2 m/min (bulk flow) to about 5 mmin (reduced section) had no significant impact on compatibility of 316L with Hg. In addition, various surface treatments such as gold-plating, chemical etching, polishing, and steam cleaning resulted in little or no influence on compatibility of 316L with Hg when compared to nominal mill-annealed/surface-ground material. A sensitizing heat treatment also had little/no effect on compatibility of 316L with Hg for the bulk specimen, although intergranular attack was observed around the specimen holes in each case. It was determined that carburization of the hole area had occurred as a result of the specimen fabrication process potentially rendering the specimens susceptible to corrosion by Hg at these locations. To avoid sensitization-related compatibility issues for SNS components, selection of low carbon grades of stainless steel and control of the fabrication process is recommended.