A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Because of the significance of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) collections to overall federal receipts and, in turn, to the consolidated financial statements of the U.S. government, which GAO is required to audit, and Congress's interest in financial management at IRS, GAO audits IRS's financial statements annually to determine whether (1) the financial statements are reliable and (2) IRS management maintained effective internal controls. GAO also tests IRS's compliance with selected provisions of significant laws and regulations and its financial systems' compliance with the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996 (FFMIA)."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Department of Defense (DOD) obligations for service contracts rose from $82.3 billion in fiscal year 1996 to $141.2 billion in fiscal year 2005. DOD is becoming increasingly more reliant on the private sector to provide a wide range of services, including those for critical information technology and mission support. DOD must maximize its return on investment and provide the warfighter with needed capabilities and support at the best value for the taxpayer. GAO examined DOD's approach to managing services in order to (1) identify the key factors DOD should emphasize to improve its management of services and (2) assess the extent to which DOD's current approach exhibited these factors."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Health savings accounts (HSA) and the high-deductible health insurance plans that are eligible to be coupled with them are a new type of consumer-directed health plan attracting interest among employers and consumers. Employers and plan enrollees may contribute to tax-advantaged HSAs, and enrollees can use the accounts to pay for health care expenses. Because HSAs and HSA-eligible plans are new, there is interest in the experiences of plan enrollees, as well as in comparing the plan features and enrollee characteristics with those of traditional plans, such as preferred provider organization (PPO) plans. GAO reviewed (1) the financial features of HSA-eligible plans in comparison with those of traditional plans, (2) the characteristics of HSA-eligible plan enrollees in comparison with those of traditional plan enrollees, (3) HSA funding and use, and (4) enrollees' experiences with HSA-eligible plans. GAO analyzed data regarding HSA-eligible and traditional plans and enrollees from national employer health benefits surveys, three selected employers, and a national broker of health insurance. GAO compared Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data for tax filers reporting HSA contributions with corresponding data for all tax filers under 65 years old. GAO …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2003, violent conflict in Darfur, Sudan broke out between rebel groups, government troops, and government-supported Arab militias, known as the Janjaweed. The conflict has displaced about 2 million Darfurians and has so affected over 1.9 million others that they require assistance. Since October 2003, the U.S. government has provided humanitarian assistance in Darfur and supported African Union Mission in Sudan's (AMIS) efforts to fulfill a peace support mandate. This report reviews (1) U.S. humanitarian assistance provided to Darfur and the challenges that have been encountered and (2) African Union efforts to fulfill its mandate and challenges that have affected these efforts."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 phased out the government's control over fares and service and allowed market forces to determine the price and level of domestic airline service in the United States. The intent was to increase competition and thereby lead to lower fares and improved service. In 2005, GAO reported on the tenuous finances of some airlines that have led to bankruptcy and pension terminations, in particular among those airlines that predated deregulation (referred to as legacy airlines). The House Report accompanying the 2006 Department of Transportation (DOT) Appropriation Act expressed concern about airline pension defaults and charged GAO with analyzing the impact of reregulating the airline industry on reducing potential pension defaults by airlines. GAO subsequently agreed to address the pension issue within a broad assessment of the airline industry since deregulation. Specifically, GAO is reporting on, among other things, (1) broad airline industry changes since deregulation, (2) fare and service changes since deregulation, and (3) whether there is evidence that reregulation of entry and fares would benefit consumers or the airline industry, or save airline pensions. DOT agreed with the conclusions in …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has established a multibillion-dollar program--U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT)--to control and monitor the pre-entry, entry, visa status, and exit of foreign visitors. To deliver system and other program capabilities, the program relies extensively on contractors, some of whom are managed directly by US-VISIT and some by other agencies (including both DHS agencies, such as Customs and Border Protection, and non-DHS agencies, such as the General Services Administration). Because of US-VISIT's heavy reliance on contractors to deliver program capabilities, GAO was asked to determine whether DHS has established and implemented effective controls for managing and overseeing US-VISIT-related contracts."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2003, violent conflict in Darfur, Sudan, broke out between rebel groups and government troops and government-supported Arab militias. While few would dispute that many thousands of Darfur civilians have died, less consensus exists about the total number of deaths attributable to the crisis. Estimates by the Department of State (State) and other parties report death tolls up to about 400,000 for varying populations and periods of time between February 2003 and August 2005. Based on the views of experts convened by GAO and the National Academy of Sciences, interviews with estimate authors, and a review of relevant literature, this report (1) evaluates six Darfur death estimates, (2) identifies general challenges to estimating deaths in such crises, and (3) discusses measures to improve death estimates."

This report is part of the Web-at-Risk project. These policy and planning documents typically guide collection management within libraries and archives. Some familiar concepts and practices from collection development for non-digital materials easily transfer to collection development for web-based materials while some new concepts and unfamiliar practices are introduced. To effectively manage web collections, it is good practice to either create new policies and plans or modify existing collection policies and plans.

The 132-D-2 site (117-D Filter Building) and associated below-grade ductwork were decommissioned and demolished in two phases in 1985 and 1986, with a portion of the rubble left in situ beneath clean fill at least 1 m (3.3 ft) thick. Decommissioning included removal of contaminated equipment, including filters. Residual concentrations support future land uses that can be represented by a rural-residential scenario and pose no threat to groundwater or the Columbia River based on RESRAD modeling.

Decommissioning and demolition of the 132-D-3 site, 1608-D Effluent Pumping Station was performed in 1986. Decommissioning included removal of equipment, water, and sludge for disposal as radioactive waste. The at- and below-grade structure was demolished to at least 1 m below grade and the resulting rubble buried in situ. The area was backfilled to grade with at least 1 m of clean fill and contoured to the surrounding terrain. Residual concentrations support future land uses that can be represented by a rural-residential scenario and pose no threat to groundwater or the Columbia River based on RESRAD modeling.

The amounts of CO2 that would need to be injected intogeologic storage reservoirs to achieve a significant reduction ofatmospheric emissions are very large. A 1000 MWe coal-fired power plantemits approximately 30,000 tonnes of CO2 per day, 10 Mt per year(Hitchon, 1996). When injected underground over a typical lifetime of 30years of such a plant, the CO2 plume may occupy a large area of order 100km2 or more, and fluid pressure increase in excess of 1 bar(corresponding to 10 m water head) may extend over an area of more than2,500 km2 (Pruess, et al., 2003). The large areal extent expected for CO2plumes makes it likely that caprock imperfections will be encountered,such as fault zones or fractures, which may allow some CO2 to escape fromthe primary storage reservoir. Under most subsurface conditions oftemperature and pressure, CO2 is buoyant relative to groundwaters. If(sub-)vertical pathways are available, CO2 will tend to flow upward and,depending on geologic conditions, may eventually reach potablegroundwater aquifers or even the land surface. Leakage of CO2 could alsooccur along wellbores, including pre-existing and improperly abandonedwells, or wells drilled in connection with the CO2 storage operations.The pressure increases accompanying CO2 injection will give rise tochanges in effective stress that could cause …

None

This report documents the results of the weld development and abbreviated weld qualification efforts performed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for refractory metal and superalloy biaxial creep specimens. Biaxial creep specimens were to be assembled, electron beam welded, laser-seal welded, and pressurized at PNNL for both in-pile (JOYO reactor, O-arai, Japan) and out-of-pile creep testing. The objective of this test campaign was to evaluate the creep behavior of primary cladding and structural alloys under consideration for the Prometheus space reactor. PNNL successfully developed electron beam weld parameters for six of these materials prior to the termination of the Naval Reactors program effort to deliver a space reactor for Project Prometheus. These materials were FS-85, ASTAR-811C, T-111, Alloy 617, Haynes 230, and Nirnonic PE16. Early termination of the NR space program precluded the development of laser welding parameters for post-pressurization seal weldments.

The Coupled Atmosphere/Ocean Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPS) model (Hodur, 1997) was developed at the Naval Research Laboratory. COAMPS has been used at resolutions as small as 2 km to study the role of complex topography in generating mesoscale circulation (Doyle, 1997). The model has been adapted for use in the Atmospheric Science Division at LLNL for both research and operational use. The model is a fully, non-hydrostatic model with several options for turbulence parameterization, cloud processes and radiative transfer. We have recently modified the COAMPS code to include building and other urban surfaces effects in the mesoscale model by incorporating an urban canopy parameterization (UCP) (Chin et al., 2005). This UCP is a modification of the original parameterization of (Brown and Williams, 1998), based on Yamada's (1982) forest canopy parameterization and includes modification of the TKE and mean momentum equations, modification of radiative transfer, and an anthropogenic heat source. COAMPS is parallelized for both shared memory (OpenMP) and distributed memory (MPI) architecture.

This cleanup verification package documents completion of remedial action for the 600-259 waste site. The site was the former site of the Special Waste Form Lysimeter, consisting of commercial reactor isotope waste forms in contact with soils within engineered caissons, and was used by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to collect data regarding leaching behavior for target analytes. A Grout Waste Test Facility also operated at the site, designed to test leaching rates of grout-solidified low-level radioactive waste.

This report includes information regarding background and the United States policy response to terrorism and national security.

This is a report on the gangs in Central America.

This report discusses the organization, funding, and goals of the Freedom CAR and Fuel partnerships, and discusses legislation relevant to the partnerships.

None

None

None

None

None

This report addresses defense transformation from a Department of Defense (DOD) perspective.