A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Tongass National Forest's revised forest plan, focusing on the: (1) process used by the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to modify the management direction in the 1997 plan and decide the appeals on the basis of the modified plan; (2) reasons the administration chose to use the process; and (3) reactions to the modifications and the process."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In 1994, the United States and other countries intervened militarily in Haiti to restore the democratically elected government that had been overthrown by the Haitian military several years earlier. During the last 6 years, the United States provided assistance to help Haiti establish its first civilian-controlled police and improve its judicial system. About $70 million in U.S. assistance helped Haiti recruit, train, organize, and equip a basic police force, including specialized units. However, despite these achievements, the police and judicial sector have displayed several weaknesses. The Haitian government's lack of a clear commitment to addressing the major problems of its police and judicial institutions has been the key factor affecting the success of the U.S. assistance provided to these institutions. The United States is reassessing several aspects of its relationship with Haiti because of concerns about how votes were counted in Haiti's May 2000 elections. The United States and Haiti have been unable to negotiate an agreement for continuing this assistance. At this time, any further aid to the Haitian Justice System should be linked to performance-related conditions."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report focuses on the default rate for student loans. Two major federal student loan programs, the Federal Direct Loan Program (FDLP) and the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP), together provided student borrowers with about 9 million loans totaling about $42.9 billion in fiscal year 1999. The most recent student loan default rate statistics for schools showed that, overall, the direct and guaranteed student loan programs had similar default rates: at 6.6 percent for FDLP and 6.7 percent for FFELP. The two programs had similar default rates when the comparisons focused on the type of school. FDLP has two types of loans, consolidated and nonconsolidated. Generally, borrowers with consolidated loans who used the standard payment plan had a lower default rate than did borrowers with nonconsolidated loans. However, when income contingent repayment plans were used, borrowers with consolidated loans had a higher default rate than did those with nonconsolidated loans. The Department of Education uses various procedures to ensure that loans are properly serviced and collected, including independent monitoring and external assessments of monitoring results."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments, focusing on: (1) the status of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) implementation of the requirements established by the 1990 amendments; and (2) views from state governments, local programs, industries that are regulated under the act, and environmental advocacy groups (collectively referred to as stakeholders) on the issues that have either helped or hindered the implementation of the 1990 amendments."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed Medicare payments for ambulance services in rural areas, focusing on: (1) the challenges faced by rural ambulance providers; (2) how the upcoming fee schedule will affect rural providers relative to their current situation; and (3) what factors have affected claim denial rates for ambulance services."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The United States has been providing assistance to Colombia since the early 1970s to help the Colombian National Police and other law enforcement agencies, the military, and civilian agencies reduce illegal drug production and trafficking. Recognizing that illegal drug activities are a serious problem, the Colombian government announced a counternarcotics plan known as Plan Colombia. This report reviews the U.S. counternarcotics efforts in Colombia. Although U.S.-provided assistance has enhanced Colombian counternarcotics capabilities, its usefulness has sometimes been limited because of long-standing problems in planning and implementation. For example, little progress has been made in launching a plan to have Colombia's National Police assume a larger role in managing the aerial eradication program, which requires costly U.S. contractor assistance. The governments of the United States and Colombia face continuing and new financial and management challenges in implementing Plan Colombia. The costs and activities needed to implement the plan are unknown at this time, and it will take years before any significant reduction in the drug trade is seen. Colombia must resolve problems with its political and economic stability and improve its management of counternarcotics funding in order …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO: (1) determined why some older persons do not use federal food relief programs; and (2) identified strategies that could be used to increase participation in these programs."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The accuracy of the 2000 decennial census depends in part on the proper functioning of 10 interrelated information systems, one of which is the Census Bureau's headquarters (HQ) processing system. The HQ processing system consists of 48 applications, all developed internally by the Bureau, that support various census operations, such as updating address files, creating a file of census responses, and preparing data for tabulation and dissemination. GAO found that the Bureau lacks effective, mature software and system development processes to control development of its HQ processing system applications."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "During fiscal year 1999, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) made several improvements to address financial management issues that GAO raised in earlier reports. However, serious internal control and financial weaknesses continue to undermine the agency's ability to manage operations and produce reliable financial information. These weaknesses affect IRS' ability to, (1) manage unpaid assessments, (2) disburse taxpayer refunds, (3) safeguard manual tax receipts and taxpayer information, (4) account for property and equipment, (5) account for appropriated funds, and (6) collect and report financial data. These problems resulted from, (1) deficient operational and financial systems, (2) inadequate internal controls, and (3) policies and procedures that were not being consistently followed. The improvements that have been made so far focus on ad hoc work-arounds intended to yield immediate results for the limited purpose of reporting reliable annual financial statement information, but they have not corrected underlying long-term systems deficiencies. In addition, IRS has been unable to develop and maintain reliable and timely cost/benefit information to evaluate the relative merits of its various tax collection and enforcement activities. Until IRS undertakes more systemic, short- and long-term corrections, it will …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Although the National Practitioner Data Bank is presently the nation's only central source of medical malpractice payment information, it is unclear whether all relevant data are being properly reported. GAO's review suggests that information in that data bank may not be as accurate, complete, or as timely as it should be. Inaccuracies in the way reported information was coded could confuse or mislead querying organizations about the severity of actions taken against practitioners. Also, duplicate reports overstate the amount of information that the databank has on a particular practitioner. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has not established criteria for the information that states and other entities must report when notifying the data bank of the disciplinary actions taken. Moreover, HRSA lacks procedures for ensuring that reporters adhere to the criteria established for medical malpractice reports, including inappropriate references to patients' names. Furthermore, the practitioner notification and dispute resolution processes have not ensured that inaccurate and erroneously reported information is removed from the data bank and not released to entities seeking information on specific practitioners. Finally, without an examination of its financial operations, HRSA has …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Farm Credit Administration (FCA) reviewed the Small Business Administration's (SBA) oversight of the Small Business Lending Companies (SBLC) program and determined that several areas could be strengthened. SBA officials said that the agency plans to take appropriate action on most of FCA's recommendations to improve the program. However, FCA expressed concern about the financial risk to SBA's loan portfolio associated with less favorable economic conditions. Such conditions could place upward pressure on SBA's 7(a) loan default rates. SBA needs to have access to information that accurately identifies risk in both individual loan and the total portfolio. The initial SBLC examination results have provided some information to aid in such risk identification, but a continued effort is needed."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO provided information on efforts to grant China membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO), focusing on: (1) the status of negotiations for China to join WTO; (2) the results of the negotiations as compared to U.S. objectives for these negotiations; and (3) trade and legal considerations about granting China permanent normal trade relations status."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) and Department of Defense's (DOD) shared health care resources, focusing on: (1) the benefits gained from sharing; (2) the extent to which VA and DOD are sharing health care resources; and (3) barriers and challenges VA and DOD face in their efforts to share health resources."

The Attribute Measurement System with Information Barrier (AMS/IB) specification is being developed in support of the Defense Threat Redcution Agency's (DTRA's) Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program for the Mayak Fissile Material Storage Facility. This document discusses the technologies available for attribute measurement, and advantages and disadvantages of alternatives.

This analysis is governed by the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) Analysis and Modeling Report Development Plan entitled ''Geochemical and Isotopic Constraints on Groundwater Flow Directions, Mixing and Recharge at Yucca Mountain'' (CRWMS M&O 1999a). As stated in this Development Plan, the purpose of the work is to provide an analysis of groundwater recharge rates, flow directions and velocities, and mixing proportions of water from different source areas based on groundwater geochemical and isotopic data. The analysis of hydrochemical and isotopic data is intended to provide a basis for evaluating the hydrologic system at Yucca Mountain independently of analyses based purely on hydraulic arguments. Where more than one conceptual model for flow is possible, based on existing hydraulic data, hydrochemical and isotopic data may be useful in eliminating some of these conceptual models. This report documents the use of geochemical and isotopic data to constrain rates and directions of groundwater flow near Yucca Mountain and the timing and magnitude of recharge in the Yucca Mountain vicinity. The geochemical and isotopic data are also examined with regard to the possible dilution of groundwater recharge from Yucca Mountain by mixing with groundwater downgradient from the potential repository site. Specifically, the …

This report describes the Section 301 process (including the related Special 301 and Super 301 processes) and examines questions that arise from its use. Section 301 is one of the principal means by whichthe United States attempts to combat unfair trading practices and enforce U.S. rights under trade agreements

The National People’s Congress (NPC), a unicameral legislature, is the People’s Republic of China (PRC)'s counterpart to the U.S. Congress. In recent years, there has been increasing interaction between the two legislatures. This report briefly considers recent developments in the NPC, describes how the NPC works, and discusses exchanges between the two congresses.

Battelle received five samples from Hanford waste tank 241-AP-101, taken at five different depths within the tank. No visible solids or organic layer were observed in the individual samples. Individual sample densities were measured, then the five samples were mixed together to provide a single composite. The composite was homogenized and representative sub-samples taken for inorganic, radioisotopic, and organic analysis. All analyses were performed on triplicate sub-samples of the composite material. The sample composite did not contain visible solids or an organic layer. A subsample held at 10?C for seven days formed no visible solids.

The Russian Duma, the lower house of the Russian Parliament approved ratification of the START II Treaty on April 14, 2000, after 7 years of debate and dissension. (The United States Senate approved ratification of the treaty in January 1996.) This report describes key concerns raised by Members of the Duma during their discussions of START II. These include concerns with treaty provisions, such as its ban on multiple warhead ICBMs and its warhead "downloading" provisions, and concerns with Russia's ability to maintain and finance its strategic nuclear forces in the future.

The A-Area Burning/Rubble Pits (731-A/1A) and Rubble Pit (731-2A) (ABRP) operable unit (OU) is located in the northwest portion of Savannah River Site (SRS), approximately 2.4 kilometers (1.5 miles) south of the A/M Area operations. Between 1951 and 1973, Pits 731-A and 731-1A were used to burn paper, plastics, wood, rubber, rags, cardboard, oil, degreasers, and solvents. Combustible materials were burned monthly. After burning was discontinued in 1973, Pits 731-A and 731-1A were also converted to rubble pits and used to dispose of concrete rubble, bricks, tile, asphalt, plastics, metal, wood products, and rubber until about 1978. When the pits were filled to capacity, there were covered with compacted clay-rich native soils and vegetation was established. Pit 731-2A was only used as a rubble pit until 1983 after which the area was backfilled and seeded. Two other potential source areas within the OU were investigated and found to be clean. The water table aquifer (M-Area aquifer) was also investigated.

The objective of this calculation is to evaluate the temperature-dependent effective thermal conductivities of a repository-emplaced invert steel set and surrounding ballast material. The scope of this calculation analyzes a ballast-material thermal conductivity range of 0.10 to 0.70 W/m {center_dot} K, a transverse beam spacing range of 0.75 to 1.50 meters, and beam compositions of A 516 carbon steel and plain carbon steel. Results from this calculation are intended to support calculations that identify waste package and repository thermal characteristics for Site Recommendation (SR). This calculation was developed by Waste Package Department (WPD) under Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) procedure AP-3.12Q, Revision 1, ICN 0, Calculations.

No work was performed; the two remaining Multi Annular Swirl Burner test campaigns are on hold pending selection of a new test facility (replacement for the shut down UTSI burner test facility) and identification of associated testing costs. The Second-Generation PFB Combustion Plant conceptual design prepared in 1987 is being updated to reflect the benefit of pilot plant test data and the latest advances in gas turbine technology. The updated plant is being designed to operate with 95 percent sulfur capture and a single Siemens Westinghouse (SW) 501G gas turbine. Using carbonizer and gas turbine data generated by Foster Wheeler (FW) and SW respectively, Parsons Energy and Chemicals Group prepared preliminary plant heat and materials based on carbonizer operating temperatures of 1700 and 1800 F and found the former to yield the higher plant efficiency. As a result, 1700 F has been selected as the preferred operating condition for the carbonizer. The previous first cut plant heat and material balance was refined and it predicts a 47.7% plant efficiency (HHV) with a net power output of 421.1 MWe. The latter includes a plant auxiliary load estimated to be 23.5 MWe or 5.26% of the gross plant power and a transformer …

The feasibility of chemically treating sediments from the Ft. Lewis, Washington, Logistics Center to develop a permeable barrier for dechlorination of TCE was investigated in a series of laboratory experiments.

A set of pickup measurements performed in August of 1999 (see Pbar note 618) indicated problems with the pickup sensitivity for frequencies above {approx}4.8 GHz. This note describes the effort made to determine if the problems with system performance were due to the design of the 4-8 GHz circuit board.