Conservation spending under various federal agricultural statutes has increased since the early 1980s, and the mix of activities that are funded has changed during this time period. These funds have become an increasingly important source of income to farmers. This report examines conservation program funding since FY1983 in the context of both changing conservation policies and programs, and other farm program sources of income to farmers. This report will be updated if events warrant. Conservation Spending in Agriculture: Trends and Implications

This report describes more than 35 print, electronic, and Internet sources of information on financial support, and lists a few of the current general guides to writing grant proposals.

“Secret” or “closed door” sessions of the House of Representatives and Senate are held periodically to discuss business, including impeachment deliberations, deemed to require confidentiality and secrecy. Authority for the two chambers to hold these sessions is implied by Article I, section 5, of the Constitution. Both the House and the Senate have supplemented this clause through rules and precedents.

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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 the information provided by the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Agriculture Appropriations.

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 the information provided by the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations.

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A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on federal offenders who were ordered to pay criminal fines and victim restitution, focusing on: (1) the percentage of offenders who were ordered to pay fines or restitution in fiscal year (FY) 1997 and those who were not; (2) differences across judicial circuits and districts in the percent of offenders who were ordered to pay fines or restitution and those who were not; and (3) officials' opinions about possible reasons for those differences."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the general and application controls that support key automated financial systems maintained and operated by the Bureau of Public Debt (BPD). GAO also followed up on the corrective actions BPD took in response to GAO's previous recommendations on improving BPD's financial system controls."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) participation in the International Nuclear Regulators Association, focusing on: (1) the Association's activities since it was created; (2) U.S. costs to support NRC's participation in the Association; (3) the views of NRC's commissioners and others on the benefits of the Association; and (4) other groups and activities that promote nuclear safety and the extent to which these groups duplicate the work of the Association."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed how well kinship care is serving foster children, focusing on the: (1) quality of care that children in kinship care receive compared with that received by other foster children, as measured by a caseworker's assessment of a caregiver's parenting skills, the extent to which a foster child is able to maintain contact with familiar people and surroundings, and a caregiver's willingness to enforce court-ordered restrictions on parental visits; (2) frequency with which state child welfare agencies pursue various permanent living arrangements and the time children in kinship care have spent in the system compared with other foster children; and (3) recent state initiatives intended to help ensure that children in kinship care receive good quality foster care and are placed in permanent homes in a timely manner."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the electric power industry's vulnerability to year 2000 problems and the reported status of the industry's year 2000 readiness."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed federal oversight of depository institutions' Internet banking activities, focusing on: (1) the risks posed by Internet banking and the extent of any industrywide Internet banking-related problems; (2) the methods used by regulators to track depository institutions' plans to provide Internet banking services; (3) how regulators examined Internet banking activities; and (4) the extent to which regulators examined firms providing Internet banking support services to depository institutions."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Department of Justice's (DOJ) and selected U.S. Attorneys' Offices' implementation of the False Claims Act guidance, focusing on: (1) the status of DOJ's work groups efforts and the initiative-specific guidance they prepared; (2) DOJ's efforts to assess U.S. Attorneys' compliance with the guidance; (3) the implementation of the guidance at selected U.S. Attorneys' Offices; and (4) state hospital associations' concerns regarding DOJ's use of the False Claims Act."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) estimate for the cost to operate the International Space Station after assembly is completed, focusing on: (1) whether any space station-related costs are not included in NASA's estimate; (2) the level of uncertainty in the cost estimate for operations, especially with regard to the potential impact of changes in Russian participation; and (3) how NASA funding requirements will be reduced by sharing costs with international partners or through commercial use and operations."

Report of the Texas State Auditor's Office related to the Teacher Retirement System's (System) fiscal year 1999 financial statements, which are materially correct in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.

A groundwater quality assessment plan was prepared for waste management area S-SX at the Hanford Site. Groundwater monitoring is conducted at this facility in accordance with Title 40, Code of Federal Regulation (CFR) Part 265, Subpart F [and by reference of Washington Administrative Code (WAC) 173-303-400(3)]. The facility was placed in assessment groundwater monitoring program status after elevated waste constituents and indicator parameter measurements (i.e., chromium, technetium-99 and specific conductance) in downgradient monitoring wells were observed and confirmed. A first determination, as allowed under 40 CFR 265.93(d), provides the owner/operator of a facility an opportunity to demonstrate that the regulated unit is not the source of groundwater contamination. Based on results of the first determination it was concluded that multiple source locations in the waste management area could account for observed spatial and temporal groundwater contamination patterns. Consequently, a continued investigation is required. This plan, developed using the data quality objectives process, is intended to comply with the continued investigation requirement. Accordingly, the primary purpose of the present plan is to determine the rate and extent of dangerous waste (hexavalent chromium and nitrate) and radioactive constituents (e.g., technetium-99) in groundwater and to determine their concentrations in groundwater beneath waste management …

Research carried out at ORNL has led to the development of solid state thin-film rechargeable lithium and lithium-ion batteries. These unique devices can be fabricated in a variety of shapes and to any required size, large or small, on virtually any type of substrate. Because they have high energies per unit of volume and mass and because they are rechargeable, thin-film lithium batteries have potentially many applications as small power supplies in consumer and special electronic products. Initially, the objective of this project was to develop thin-film battery powered products. Initially, the objective of this project was to develop thin-film battery powered transdermal electrodes for recording electrocardiograms and electroencephalograms. These ''active'' electrode would eliminate the effect of interference and improve the reliability in diagnosing heart or brain malfunctions. Work in the second phase of this project was directed at the development of thin-film battery powered implantable defibrillators.

This report provides an overview of the wind resource, economics and operation of the recently installed wind turbines in conjunction with diesel power for the Naval Air Landing Field (NALF), San Clemente Island (SCI), California Project. The primary goal of the SCI wind power system is to operate with the existing diesel power plant and provide equivalent or better power quality and system reliability than the existing diesel system. The wind system is also intended to reduce, as far as possible, the use of diesel fuel and the inherent generation of nitrogen-oxide emissions and other pollutants. The first two NM 225/30 225kW wind turbines were installed and started shake-down operations on February 5, 1998. This report describes the initial operational data gathered from February 1998 through January 1999, as well as the SCI wind resource and initial cost of energy provided by the wind turbines on SCI. In support of this objective, several years of data on the wind resources of San Clemente Island were collected and compared to historical data. The wind resource data were used as input to economic and feasibility studies for a wind-diesel hybrid installation for SCI.

The Chemical Technology (CMT) Division is a diverse technical organization with principal emphases in environmental management and development of advanced energy sources. The Division conducts research and development in three general areas: (1) development of advanced power sources for stationary and transportation applications and for consumer electronics, (2) management of high-level and low-level nuclear wastes and hazardous wastes, and (3) electrometallurgical treatment of spent nuclear fuel. The Division also performs basic research in catalytic chemistry involving molecular energy resources, mechanisms of ion transport in lithium battery electrolytes, and the chemistry of technology-relevant materials. In addition, the Division operates the Analytical Chemistry Laboratory, which conducts research in analytical chemistry and provides analytical services for programs at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and other organizations. Technical highlights of the Division's activities during 1998 are presented.

This report reviews and summarizes studies performed to characterize the products and processes involved in the corrosion of natural glasses. Studies are also reviewed and evaluated on how well the corrosion of natural glasses in natural environments serves as an analogue for the corrosion of high-level radioactive waste glasses in an engineered geologic disposal system. A wide range of natural and experimental corrosion studies has been performed on three major groups of natural glasses: tektite, obsidian, and basalt. Studies of the corrosion of natural glass attempt to characterize both the nature of alteration products and the reaction kinetics. Information available on natural glass was then compared to corresponding information on the corrosion of nuclear waste glasses, specifically to resolve two key questions: (1) whether one or more natural glasses behave similarly to nuclear waste glasses in laboratory tests, and (2) how these similarities can be used to support projections of the long-term corrosion of nuclear waste glasses. The corrosion behavior of basaltic glasses was most similar to that of nuclear waste glasses, but the corrosion of tektite and obsidian glasses involves certain processes that also occur during the corrosion of nuclear waste glasses. The reactions and processes that control basalt …

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This report documents the development and use of the most recent version (Version 1.5) of the Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Transportation (GREET) model. The model, developed in a spreadsheet format, estimates the full fuel-cycle emissions and energy associated with various transportation fuels and advanced vehicle technologies for light-duty vehicles. The model calculates fuel-cycle emissions of five criteria pollutants (volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter with diameters of 10 micrometers or less, and sulfur oxides) and three greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide). The model also calculates total energy consumption, fossil fuel consumption, and petroleum consumption when various transportation fuels are used. The GREET model includes the following cycles: petroleum to conventional gasoline, reformulated gasoline, conventional diesel, reformulated diesel, liquefied petroleum gas, and electricity via residual oil; natural gas to compressed natural gas, liquefied natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, methanol, Fischer-Tropsch diesel, dimethyl ether, hydrogen, and electricity; coal to electricity; uranium to electricity; renewable energy (hydropower, solar energy, and wind) to electricity; corn, woody biomass, and herbaceous biomass to ethanol; soybeans to biodiesel; flared gas to methanol, dimethyl ether, and Fischer-Tropsch diesel; and landfill gases to methanol. This report also presents the …

This report summarizes progress through Phase 2 of the probabilistic seismic hazards analysis (PSHA) for the Santa Barbara Channel being carried out by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) for the Minerals Management Service (MMS) of the US Department of the Interior. The purpose of the PSHA is to provide a basis for development by MMS of regulations governing evaluation of applications to re-license existing oil platforms in federal waters within the Channel with respect to seismic loading. The final product of the analysis will be hazard maps of ground motion parameters at specified probability levels of exceedence. This report summarizes the characterization of local earthquake sources within the Channel and onshore areas of the Western Transverse Ranges, development of a ground motion attenuation model for the region, and presents preliminary hazard results at three selected sites.