In the 107th Congress, S. 2797 (S.Rept. 107-222) would have provided $8.30 billion for EPA in FY2003. H.R. 5605 (H.Rept. 107- 740) would have provide $8.20 billion. Both bills would restore much of the water infrastructure funding but there was no final action by the end of Congress. Continuing resolutions funded at the same level as in FY2002. In the 108th Congress, P.L. 108-7 (H.J.Res. 2) provides EPA with $8.08 billion for FY2003.

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Appropriations are one part of a complex federal budget process that includes budget resolutions, appropriations (regular, supplemental, and continuing) bills, rescissions, and budget reconciliation bills. This report is a guide to one of the 13 regular appropriations bills that Congress passes each year. It is designed to supplement information provided by the House and Senate Commerce, Justice, State Appropriations Subcommittees.

In the 108th Congress, two work hours flexibility bills have been introduced: S. 317 by Senator Gregg and H.R. 1119 by Representative Biggert. Both bills deal with a compensatory time off option (comp time) — though the Gregg proposal is somewhat broader, projecting other changes in the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) as well. This report is limited to consideration of the issue of comp time.

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Weekly student newspaper from Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas that includes local, state and campus news along with advertising.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Financial Assistance Management Improvement Act of 1999 is one of the most recent in a series of efforts to reform the federal grants management system. The act seeks to improve the effectiveness and performance of Federal financial assistance programs; simplify application and reporting requirements; improve delivery of services to the public; and facilitate greater coordination among those responsible for delivering such services. GAO has a responsibility to evaluate the implementation of this Act by 2005 and will soon begin developing an approach and methodology for the study. This testimony describes the problems fostered by proliferation and fragmentation, which the Act addresses indirectly."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Recently, the Small Business Administration's (SBA) auditors withdrew their unqualified audit opinions on SBA's fiscal year 2000 and 2001 financial statements and issued disclaimers of opinion. The auditors also issued a disclaimer of opinion on SBA's fiscal year 2002 financial statements. This turn of events was primarily due to flaws in the way SBA accounted for its loan sales and for the remaining portfolio. There were also several other issues affecting SBA's fiscal year 2002 audit, including key internal control weaknesses and systems that did not substantially comply with the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act. The information GAO presents in this testimony, which is discussed in greater detail in our January 2003 report, Small Business Administration: Accounting Anomalies and Limited Operational Data Make Results of Loan Sales Uncertain (GAO-03-87), is intended to assist Congress in assessing the current status of financial accountability at SBA."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "DOD is in the midst of a major transformation effort including a number of initiatives to transform its forces and improve its business operations. DOD's legislative initiative would provide for major changes in the civiliean and military human capital management, make major adjustments in the DOD acquisition process, affect DOD's organization structure, and change DOD's reporting requirements to Congress, among other things. DOD's proposed National Security Personnel System (NSPS) would provide for wide-ranging changes in DOD's civilian personnel pay and performance management, collective bargaining, rightsizing, and a variety of other human capital areas. The NSPS would enable DOD to develop and implement a consistent DOD-wide civilian personnel system. This testimony provides GAO's preliminary observations on aspects of DOD's legislative proposal to make changes to its civilian personnel system and poses critical questions that need to be considered."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The way in which the federal government views the defense of the United States has dramatically changed since September 11, 2001. Consequently, the Department of Defense (DOD) is adjusting its Cold War strategic focus (of defending against massed combat forces) to better encompass defense against the asymmetric threats that small terrorist cells represent to U.S. territory. GAO was asked to review DOD's participation in domestic missions. This testimony represents our preliminary work in response to the request. It addresses (1) the primary differences in military and nonmilitary missions; (2) how DOD evaluates requests for nonmilitary missions; (3) how the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act impacts DOD's nonmilitary missions; (4) whether current management organizations, plans, and forces are adequate to support DOD's domestic missions; and (5) the impact of overseas and domestic missions on military personnel tempo. GAO is making no recommendations in this testimony."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The 109th Airlift Wing, New York Air National Guard, conducts supply missions for scientific research in the polar regions. Most unit members do not spend more than 30 consecutive days in the polar regions. Therefore, they are not eligible for hardship duty pay, which requires more than 30 consecutive days of duty in a designated hardship location. Congress considered legislation in 2002 to make an exception to the 30-day hardship duty pay threshold for polar duty. This legislation was not approved. In addition, the 109th Airlift Wing proposed designating polar duty as a hazardous duty. The Conference Report accompanying the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2003 directed GAO and DOD to conduct separate reviews of special and incentive pays for polar duty. GAO assessed DOD's rationale for hardship duty pay and the implications of making an exception to hardship duty pay. In addition, GAO assessed the 109th Airlift Wing's justification for hazardous duty pay for polar duty."

In this paper we classify hydrate deposits in three classes according to their geologic and reservoir conditions, and discuss the corresponding production strategies. Simple depressurization appears promising in Class 1 hydrates, but its appeal decreases in Class 2 and Class 3 hydrates. The most promising production strategy in Class 2 hydrates involves combinations of depressurization and thermal stimulation, and is clearly enhanced by multi-well production-injection systems. The effectiveness of simple depressurization in Class 3 hydrates is limited, and thermal stimulation (alone or in combination with depressurization) through single well systems seems to be the strategy of choice in such deposits.

The current congestion control mechanism used in TCP has difficulty reaching full utilization on high speed links, particularly on wide-area connections. For example, the packet drop rate needed to fill a Gigabit pipe using the present TCP protocol is below the currently achievable fiber optic error rates. HighSpeed TCP was recently proposed as a modification of TCP's congestion control mechanism to allow it to achieve reasonable performance in high speed wide-area links. In this research, simulation results showing the performance of HighSpeed TCP and the impact of its use on the present implementation of TCP are presented. Network conditions including different degrees of congestion, different levels of loss rate, different degrees of bursty traffic and two distinct router queue management policies were simulated. The performance and fairness of HighSpeed TCP were compared to the existing TCP and solutions for bulk-data transfer using parallel streams.

A series of time-lapse seismic cross well and single well experiments were conducted in a diatomite reservoir to monitor the injection of CO{sub 2} into a hydrofracture zone, using P- and S-wave data. During the first phase the set of seismic experiments were conducted after the injection of water into the hydrofrac-zone. The set of seismic experiments was repeated after a time period of 7 months during which CO{sub 2} was injected into the hydrofractured zone. The issues to be addressed ranged from the detectability of the geologic structure in the diatomic reservoir to the detectability of CO{sub 2} within the hydrofracture. During the pre-injection experiment, the P-wave velocities exhibited relatively low values between 1700-1900 m/s, which decreased to 1600-1800 m/s during the post-injection phase (-5 percent). The analysis of the pre-injection S-wave data revealed slow S-wave velocities between 600-800 m/s, while the post-injection data revealed velocities between 500-700 m/s (-6 percent). These velocity estimates produced high Poisson ratios between 0.36 and 0.46 for this highly porous ({approx} 50 percent) material. Differencing post- and pre-injection data revealed an increase in Poisson ratio of up to 5 percent. Both, velocity and Poisson estimates indicate the dissolution of CO{sub 2} in the …

The first Defense Waste Processing Facility high level radioactive waste glass melter was successfully operated for eight years. Recent failure of melter heaters and decrease in glass production necessitated its removal. Prior to removing the melter from the facility, a remote in situ visual inspection of the refractory and Inconel(TM) 690 components was performed. The vapor space and glass contact refractory blocks were in excellent condition, showing little evidence of spalling or corrosion. Inconel 690 top head components and lid heaters in the vapor space were also in good condition, considering the service. Upper electrodes experienced significant deflection, which probably resulted from extended operation in excess of 1150 degrees C. Condition of the melter components examined during the remote visual inspection is summarized in this paper.

Two cans containing plutonium bearing materials were found during radiography surveillance activities to be bulged. The cans had been stored in DOT 6M shipping containers at the Savannah River Site. The material in the first can (Item CZA96-179) was packaged can/bag/can configuration with the inner and outer cans being crimp sealed. The crimp sealed innermost can was clearly deformed from the radiography picture taken for surveillance purposes. This material had been stored in the shipping container since the mid 1970s. The second can (Item 50014440) contained plutonium bearing material of a different origin. The material had been repackaged at the Savannah River Site in the mid 1990's, and the repackaged can was stored in a 6M shipping drum. A special puncturing tool, which secured the can and allowed for a very controlled puncture of both outer and inner cans was used in a glovebox. The glovebox has a dry air system and an argon supply. The puncturing tool utilized a non-sparking punch and an argon purge. The cans were repackaged into filtered outer cans. A description of the puncturing tool, repackaging activities, and of the materials will be provided.

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We investigate radionuclide transport from a high-level nuclear waste repository to be situated in the unsaturated zone (UZ) at Yucca Mountain (YM), Nevada. Several radioactive solutes (that cover the range of sorption behavior) and colloids of various sizes are studied. The results of the study indicate the importance of the subsurface geology and site hydrology, i.e., the presence of faults (they dominate and control transport), fractures (the main migration pathways), and the relative distribution of zeolitic and vitric tuffs. The effects of the climatic conditions, diffusion, and sorption (for solutes) or infiltration (for colloids) onto the matrix are discussed. The influence of the colloid size on transport is also investigated.

This is the eleventh Quarterly Technical Report for DOE Cooperative Agreement No: DE-FC26-00NT40753. The goal of the project is to develop cost effective analysis tools and techniques for demonstrating and evaluating low NO{sub x} control strategies and their possible impact on boiler performance for boilers firing US coals. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is providing co-funding for this program. This program contains multiple tasks and good progress is being made on all fronts. During this quarter, FTIR experiments for SCR catalyst sulfation were finished at BYU and indicated no vanadium/vanadyl sulfate formation at reactor conditions. Poisoned catalysts were prepared and tested in the CCS. Poisoning with sodium produced a noticeable drop in activity, which was larger at higher space velocity. A computer code was written at BYU to predict conversion along a cylindrical monolithic reactor. This code may be useful for monolith samples that will be tested in the laboratory. Shakedown of the slipstream reactor was completed at AEP's Rockport plant. Ammonia was connected to the reactor. The measurement of O{sub 2} and NO{sub x} made by the CEMs corresponded to values measured by the plant at the economizer outlet. Excellent NO{sub x} reduction was observed in preliminary tests …

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