Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Rebuilding Iraq is a U.S. national security priority. As part of this effort, Congress appropriated $79 billon in emergency supplemental funds for fiscal year 2003 for military operations and Iraq's reconstruction, including humanitarian relief, peacekeeping, and economic and political reform. We have issued reports on similar programs to rebuild countries in the former Yugoslavia, the former Soviet Union, and other locations (see attachment III for a listing of previous GAO reports). Based on this work, we have developed short papers to help congressional decision-makers think about and prioritize the range of issues related to rebuilding Iraq."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Energy's (DOE) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, generates radioactive and hazardous wastes in the course of its research dealing with nuclear weapons. The laboratory's new Decontamination and Waste Treatment Facility is a $62 million complex that includes buildings designed for both temporarily storing waste and treating it for off-site disposal. Although construction was completed in 2001, the storage building did not begin operating until September 2002, and the treatment buildings remain unused to this day. GAO was asked to identify the cause of the delay in initiating storage and treatment operations at the facility, the effects of the delay in initiating treatment operations, and the steps taken to ensure that the latest estimated date for initiating treatment operations at the facility can be met."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Title XI of the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, as amended, is intended to help promote growth and modernization of the U.S. merchant marine and U.S. shipyards by enabling owners of eligible vessels and shipyards to obtain financing at attractive terms. The program has guaranteed more than $5.6 billion in ship construction and shipyard modernization costs since 1993, but has experienced several large-scale defaults over the past few years. One borrower, American Classic Voyages, defaulted on five loan guarantees in amounts totaling $330 million, the largest of which was for the construction of Project America cruise ships. Because of concerns about the scale of recent defaults, GAO was asked to (1) determine whether MARAD complied with key program requirements, (2) describe how MARAD's practices for managing financial risk compare to those of selected private-sector maritime lenders, and (3) assess MARAD's implementation of credit reform. We are currently considering a number of recommendations to reform the Title XI program. Because of the fundamental flaws we have identified, we question whether MARAD should approve new loan guarantees without first addressing these program weaknesses."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The weapons the Department of Defense (DOD) develops have no rival in superiority. How they are developed can be improved, without sacrificing the superiority of the outcome. GAO's reviews over the past 20 years have found consistent problems with weapon investments--cost increases, schedule delays and performance shortfalls--along with underlying causes, such as pressure on managers to promise more than they can deliver. The best practices of successful product developments offer a knowledge-based approach DOD can use to improve the way it develops new weapons. This report is new for GAO, and draws on its work in best practices for product development. GAO's goal for this report is to provide congressional and DOD decision makers with an independent, knowledge-based assessment of defense programs that identifies potential risks, and offers an opportunity for action when a program's projected attainment of knowledge diverges from the best practice. It can also highlight those programs that employ practices worthy of emulation by other programs. GAO plans to update and issue this report annually to the congressional defense committees."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO audited the financial statements of the Congressional Award Foundation for fiscal years 2002 and 2001 and the related statements of activities and cash flows."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Payment Reauthorization Act of 1994 (Pub. L. 103-373) requires the District of Columbia to submit to the Congress a performance accountability plan with goals for the upcoming year, and after the end of the fiscal year, a performance accountability report on the extent to which the District achieved the goals in the plan. The 1994 act further requires that GAO review and evaluate the District's performance accountability report."

Modeling coupled water-gas-rock interactions in unsaturated fractured rock requires conceptual and numerical model considerations beyond those developed for saturated porous media. This paper focuses on the integration of the geological and hydrological parameters into the calculation of reactive-transport parameters and the feedback of mineral precipitation/dissolution to flow and transport. These basic relations have been implemented in the reactive transport code TOUGHREACT (Xu et al., 2003) that couples equilibrium and kinetic water-gas-rock inter-actions with multiphase flow and aqueous and gaseous species transport. Simulation results are presented illustrating the effects of water-rock interaction accompanying the heating of unsaturated heterogeneous fractured tuff. Unknowns associated with modeling water-rock interaction in fractured unsaturated systems are the area of the fracture surface that is wetted and which fractures are active components of the overall flow system. The wetted fracture area is important not only to water-rock interaction but to flow and transport between fluids flowing in fractures and the adjacent matrix. The other unknown relations are those describing permeability and capillary pressure modification during mineral precipitation and dissolution. Here we discuss solely the relations developed for fractures and the fracture-matrix interface.

Bill introduced by the Texas House of Representatives relating to the payment of support for a child after the child's 18th birthday.

Bill introduced by the Texas House of Representatives relating to state policy and regulations regarding bison; providing penalties.

Bill introduced by the Texas House of Representatives relating to an exclusion from unemployment compensation chargebacks based on a separation from employment caused by certain disasters.

Bill introduced by the Texas House of Representatives relating to the exception of certain agricultural labor from unemployment compensation.

Bill introduced by the Texas Senate relating to authorizing certain hospital districts to pledge hospital system revenues and tax revenues to the payment of combination tax and revenue bonds and other obligations if the pledge is approved at an election, and related matters.

Bill introduced by the Texas House of Representatives relating to the creation of magistrates in Comal County.

Bill introduced by the Texas House of Representatives relating to the donation by a county of salvage and surplus property to a civic or charitable organization.

Bill introduced by the Texas House of Representatives relating to the composition of the First and Fourteenth courts of appeals districts.

Bill introduced by the Texas Senate relating to the settlement of certain claims against the Texas Department of Transportation.

Bill introduced by the Texas Senate relating to joint negotiation by physicians and health benefit plans.

Bill introduced by the Texas Senate relating to issuance of certain liability insurance by the Texas Medical Liability Insurance Underwriting Association.

Bill introduced by the Texas Senate relating to certain immunization programs.

Bill introduced by the Texas Senate relating to developing and coordinating certain agency services and activities involving mental health care for young children.

Bill introduced by the Texas Senate relating to limiting the liability of certain persons giving care, assistance, or advice during a disaster.

Bill introduced by the Texas House of Representatives relating to the designation of NASA Road 1 and Farm-to-Market Road 528 as the NASA Parkway.

Bill introduced by the Texas House of Representatives relating to nonprofit water supply and sewer service corporations in certain counties.

Bill introduced by the Texas House of Representatives relating to grating certain hospital districts the authority to issue certificates of obligation.