A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In response to a January 2003 GAO report that identified significant anomalies in the Small Business Administration's (SBA) disaster loan accounts and raised serious concerns about its ability to account for loan sales and estimate program costs, SBA conducted an extensive analysis to identify causes of the anomalies and implemented a number of corrective actions. In light of SBA's actions, GAO undertook a follow-up review to (1) describe the nature of the deficiencies SBA identified, (2) determine whether its corrective actions resolved the deficiencies, and (3) assess whether its procedures provide a reasonable basis for future credit estimates."

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High-level nuclear waste produced from fuel reprocessing operations at the Savannah River Site (SRS) requires pretreatment to remove {sup 137}Cs, {sup 90}Sr and alpha-emitting radionuclides (i.e., actinides) prior to disposal. Separation processes planned at SRS include caustic side solvent extraction, for {sup 137}Cs removal, and ion exchange/sorption of {sup 90}Sr and alpha-emitting radionuclides with an inorganic material, monosodium titanate (MST). The predominant alpha-emitting radionuclides in the highly alkaline waste solutions include plutonium isotopes {sup 238}Pu, {sup 239}Pu and {sup 240}Pu. This paper provides a summary of data acquired to measure the performance of MST to remove strontium and actinides from simulated waste solutions. These tests evaluated the influence of ionic strength, temperature, solution composition and the oxidation state of plutonium.

In the spring of 2002, Argonne National Laboratory founded the Laboratory Computing Resource Center, and in April 2003 LCRC began full operations with Argonne's first teraflops computing cluster. The LCRC's driving mission is to enable and promote computational science and engineering across the Laboratory, primarily by operating computing facilities and supporting application use and development. This report describes the scientific activities, computing facilities, and usage in the first eighteen months of LCRC operation. In this short time LCRC has had broad impact on programs across the Laboratory. The LCRC computing facility, Jazz, is available to the entire Laboratory community. In addition, the LCRC staff provides training in high-performance computing and guidance on application usage, code porting, and algorithm development. All Argonne personnel and collaborators are encouraged to take advantage of this computing resource and to provide input into the vision and plans for computing and computational analysis at Argonne. Steering for LCRC comes from the Computational Science Advisory Committee, composed of computing experts from many Laboratory divisions. The CSAC Allocations Committee makes decisions on individual project allocations for Jazz.

The purpose of this work is to improve the efficiency of green sand foundries so that they may continue to compete as the most cost-effective method of fabrication while meeting tightening constraints on near-net shape manufacturing. In order to achieve this objective, the study is divided into two major components. The first component concentrated on identifying which processes control surface finish on the castings and which provide potential reductions in variations. The second component identified metrological methods that effectively discern between the geometry of bulk material versus surface finish in order to more accurately determine the quality of a part. The research resulted in the determination of an empirical relationship relating pouring parameters to dimensional variation, with an R2 value of greater than 0.79. A significant difference in variations obtained from vertical vs. horizontal molding machines was also noticed. When analyzed separately, however, the resulting empirical relationships for horizontal and vertical machines had reduced R2 values, probably due to the reduced data sets. Significant parameters when considering vertical and horizontal molding machines together included surface roughness, pattern type, iron type, pouring rate, copper content, amount of Western Bentonite, and permeability.

The purposes of this analysis are: (1) Categorize (as Category 1, Category 2, or Beyond Category 2) internal event sequences that may occur before permanent closure of the repository at Yucca Mountain. (2) Categorize external event sequences that may occur before permanent closure of the repository at Yucca Mountain. This includes examining DBGM-1 seismic classifications and upgrading to DBGM-2, if appropriate, to ensure Beyond Category 2 categorization. (3) State the design and operational requirements that are invoked to make the categorization assignments valid. (4) Indicate the amount of material put at risk by Category 1 and Category 2 event sequences. (5) Estimate frequencies of Category 1 event sequences at the maximum capacity and receipt rate of the repository. (6) Distinguish occurrences associated with normal operations from event sequences. It is beyond the scope of the analysis to propose design requirements that may be required to control radiological exposure associated with normal operations. (7) Provide a convenient compilation of the results of the analysis in tabular form. The results of this analysis are used as inputs to the consequence analyses in an iterative design process that is depicted in Figure 1. Categorization of event sequences for permanent retrieval of waste from …

This report provides a brief summary of the Economic Issues Surrounding the Estate and Gift Tax who provides a backstop to the individual income tax and appropriately target assets.

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The United States has been interested in helping Kyrgyzstan to enhance its sovereignty and territorial integrity, increase democratic participation and civil society, bolster economic reform and development, strengthen human rights, prevent weapons proliferation, and more effectively combat transnational terrorism and trafficking in persons and narcotics. The United States has pursued these interests throughout Central Asia, with special strategic attention to oil-rich Kazakhstan and regional-power Uzbekistan, and somewhat less to Kyrgyzstan. The significance of Kyrgyzstan to the United States increased after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

After several years of negotiations, Taiwan joined the World Trade Organization (WTO), the international organization that sets rules for most international trade, on January 1, 2002. China fought to allow Taiwan to join the WTO only as a “separate customs territory” and only after China obtained membership (which it did in December 2001). Trade and investment relations between China and Taiwan have boomed in recent years; China has replaced the United States as Taiwan’s export market. However, political tensions between China and Taiwan remain high. In an effort to further boost U.S.-Taiwan economic ties (and to lessen Taiwan’s growing economic dependency on the mainland), some Members of Congress have indicated support for a U.S.-Taiwan free trade agreement (FTA). This report will be updated as events warrant.

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The annual consideration of appropriations bills by Congress is a part of a complex set of budget processes that also encompasses the consideration of budget resolutions, revenue and debt-limit legislation, other spending measures, and reconciliation bills. This report is a guide to one of the regular appropriations bills that Congress considers each year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Homeland Security.

Renewable energy is derived from resources that are generally not depleted by human use, such as the sun, wind, and water movement. This report discusses various aspects of policy regarding renewable energy including tax credits and budget legislation.

Congress considered a variety of tax issues over the course of 2004. Some of these were relatively narrow, applying to particular sectors or activities: energy taxation, charitable giving and charities, Internet taxation, tax shelters, and a variety of expiring tax benefits that apply to particular investments or activities. More prominent, however, were two more general issues that were the focus of tax policy deliberations for much of the year: domestic and international business taxation; and the extension of temporary tax cuts for individuals that were initially enacted in 2001 and in 2003.

The military retirement system includes benefits for retirement after an active or reserve military career, disability retirement, and survivor benefits for eligible survivors of deceased retirees.

This report describes the broad framework of U.S. assistance programs and policies in the former Soviet Union and then focuses on the foreign operations FREEDOM Support Act (FSA) account which, encompassing all U.S. objectives in the region, has often been the means by which Congress has expressed its views and sought to influence policy.

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Report on the mentorship programs aimed at disadvantaged youth, including program issues, evaluations, funding, history, and more.

American agricultural employers have long utilized foreign workers on a temporary basis, regarding them as an important labor resource. At the same time, the relatively low wages and adverse working conditions of such workers have caused them to be viewed as a threat to domestic American workers. Some have argued that foreign guest workers compete unfairly with U.S. workers — both in terms of compensation that they are willing to accept and by making it somewhat more difficult for domestic workers to organize and to bargain with management. To mitigate any “adverse effect”for the domestic workforce, a system of wage floors was developed that applies, variously, both to alien and citizen workers: i.e., the adverse effect wage rate (AEWR). This report deals with one element of immigration (i.e., namely the H-2A workers). It introduces the adverse effect wage rate, it examines the concerns out of which it grew, and it explains at least some of the problems that have been encountered in giving it effect.