Under the Constitution, the Rules of the Senate, statutory law, and consistent Senate practices, an individual elected to the United States Senate during a session of Congress to succeed an appointed Senator may begin his or her term of office upon receipt by the Senate of "credentials" in proper form from the state, and by taking the constitutionally required oath of office in open Senate session. The appointed Senator who is being succeeded remains in the office until the new "Senator-elect" is qualified (i.e. is sworn in and seated as a "Senator" by the Senate). This report details the formal and informal rules in such cases.

The chemical stability, sulfur dioxide transport, ionic conductivity, and electrolyzer performance have been measured for several commercially available and experimental proton exchange membranes (PEMs) for use in a sulfur dioxide depolarized electrolyzer (SDE). The SDE's function is to produce hydrogen by using the Hybrid Sulfur (HyS) Process, a sulfur based electrochemical/thermochemical hybrid cycle. Membrane stability was evaluated using a screening process where each candidate PEM was heated at 80 C in 63.5 wt. % H{sub 2}SO{sub 4} for 24 hours. Following acid exposure, chemical stability for each membrane was evaluated by FTIR using the ATR sampling technique. Membrane SO{sub 2} transport was evaluated using a two-chamber permeation cell. SO{sub 2} was introduced into one chamber whereupon SO{sub 2} transported across the membrane into the other chamber and oxidized to H{sub 2}SO{sub 4} at an anode positioned immediately adjacent to the membrane. The resulting current was used to determine the SO{sub 2} flux and SO{sub 2} transport. Additionally, membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) were prepared from candidate membranes to evaluate ionic conductivity and selectivity (ionic conductivity vs. SO{sub 2} transport) which can serve as a tool for selecting membranes. MEAs were also performance tested in a HyS electrolyzer measuring current density versus …

This report discusses the Logan Act, which was intended to prohibit United States citizens without authority from interfering in relations between the United States and foreign governments.

This report provides an overview of the 2010 decennial census, and the Census Bureau that will attempt to count the total population of the United States. It discusses the possibility by some that have suggested excluding aliens, particularly those who are in the country unlawfully, from the census count, in part so that they would not be included in the data used to apportion House seats among the states and determine voting districts within them.

This report discusses about legislative goals for campaign finance reform. It further discusses about Political Speech, Mass Media and Communications and other issues.

We use the time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr effect (TRMOKE) to measure the local temperature and heat flow dynamics in ferromagnetic SrRuO3 thin films. After heating by a pump pulse, the film temperature decays exponentially, indicating that the heat flow out of the film is limited by the film/substrate interface. We show that this behavior is consistent with an effective boundary resistance resulting from disequilibrium between the spin and phonon temperatures in the film.

This report provides a table which lists supplemental appropriations for Agriculture. From FY1989 through FY2009, 39 appropriations, authorization, or farm disaster acts added approximately $68.7 billion in supplemental funding for U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs (excluding the Forest Service, which is funded annually under the Interior appropriations bill). Approximately $50.2 billion, or just under three-fourths of the total amount, was provided within the last 10 years.

Under the terms of the Federal Employees' Pay Comparability Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-509), pay for civilian federal employees is adjusted each year to keep the salaries of federal workers competitive with comparable occupations in the private sector. The annual increases in federal employee pay are based on changes in the cash compensation paid to workers in the private sector, as measured by the ECI. Under certain circumstances, the President may limit the annual increase in federal pay by executive order. Federal law also requires Social Security benefits and the pensions paid to retired federal employees to be adjusted each year. The COLAs for both Social Security and civil service pensions are based on the rate of inflation as measured by the CPI.

Daily publication of the U.S. Office of the Federal Register contains rules and regulations, proposed legislation and rule changes, and other notices, including "Presidential proclamations and Executive Orders, Federal agency documents having general applicability and legal effect, documents required to be published by act of Congress, and other Federal agency documents of public interest" (p. ii). Table of Contents starts on page iii.

This report discusses the trends driving global economic integration, sources of worker insecurity and policy approaches. There appears to be a range of views on the merits of each of these policy approaches and the extent to which they can be designed and implemented in a way that would reduce worker insecurity without undermining the benefits of globalization.

Recent neutron and x-ray scattering measurements show intrinsic localized modes (ILMs) in metallic uranium and ionic sodium iodide. Here, the role ILMs play in the behavior of these materials is examined. With the thermal activation of ILMs, thermal expansion is enhanced, made more anisotropic, and, at a microscopic level, becomes inhomogeneous. Interstitial diffusion, ionic conductivity, the annealing rate of radiation damage, and void growth are all influenced by ILMs. The lattice thermal conductivity is suppressed above the ILM activation temperature while no impact is observed in the electrical conductivity. This complement of transport properties suggests that ILMs could improve thermoelectric performance. Ramifications also include thermal ratcheting, a transition from brittle to ductile fracture, and possibly a phase transformation in uranium.

None

This report describes the relationship between the United States and the Sultanate of Oman, especially with respect to Oman's support of U.S. efforts toward peace in the Middle East, the U.S. free trade agreement with Oman, and Oman's relatively close relations with Iran, the last of which seems incongruous with the other positive aspects of Oman's relationship with the U.S.

This report will examine the application of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and the Communications Act to online behavioral advertising in more detail. It is likely that in many cases these laws could be held to apply to such activities and that these methods of data collection would be forbidden unless consent is obtained from one of the parties to the communication.

This report provides a history and analysis of the rum cover-over program and current legislative efforts to modify the program. The congressional debate on this legislation could also lead to debate on the broader issue of the cover-over program more generally.

None

This report documents testing funded by CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation and performed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in collaboration with Fauske and Associates, LLC (FAI) to determine the behavior of vessel spanning bubbles. The shear strengths of four samples of kaolin/water mixtures obtained by PNNL from FAI were measured and are reported here. The measured shear strengths of these samples were then used to determine how the Rassat correlation fit these new measurements or if a new correlation was needed. These results were then compared with previously reported data.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether a county or state must defend a district attorney in a civil lawsuit , and whether a district attorney may use assets forfeiture funds to pay for her defense in such a suit (RQ-0816-GA).

This report looks at instances of trafficking in persons (TIP) in Latin America. It looks at current legislation in the U.S. to combat this problem.

This report provides an introduction to U.S. Foreign Trade Zones (FTZ). The report discusses the details of the Trade Agreement Parity (TAP) proposal, the potential winners and losers under the TAP proposal, economic studies on the TAP proposal, and policy analysis on the TAP proposal.

This report reviews the ongoing programs that will affect the expected size and shape of the U.S. strategic nuclear force structure. It begins with an overview of this force structure during the Cold War, and summarizes the reductions and changes that have occurred since 1991. It then offers details about each category of delivery vehicle, focusing on their current deployments and ongoing and planned modernization programs. The report concludes with a discussion of issues related to decisions about the future size and shape of the U.S. strategic nuclear force.