This report discusses the issue of U.S. economic assistance to sub-Saharan Africa, highlighting the importance of continued assistance in light of U.S. national security and also various U.S.-led efforts to promote reform amongst African citizens themselves. U.S. assistance finds its way to Africa through a variety of channels, including the USAID-administered DA program, food aid programs, and indirect aid provided through international financial institutions and the United Nations.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The current H1N1 pandemic highlights the threat posed to our nation by an influenza pandemic. The previous administration's Homeland Security Council (HSC) issued the Implementation Plan for the National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza (Plan) in May 2006 to help address a pandemic. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) was asked to (1) determine how the HSC and responsible federal agencies monitor the progress and completion of the Plan's action items; and (2) assess the extent to which selected action items have been completed. To do this, GAO interviewed officials from the HSC and the six federal agencies responsible for implementing most of the Plan, and analyzed a random sample of 60 action items. While this report does not assess the response efforts for the H1N1 pandemic, GAO continues to monitor the outbreak and the federal response."

Baylor University Center for Reservoir and Aquatic Systems Research (CRASR) has conducted a phased, comprehensive evaluation of Lake Whitney to determine its suitability for use as a regional water supply reservoir. The area along the Interstate 35 corridor between Dallas / Fort Worth Metroplex and the Waco / Temple Centroplex represents one of the fastest growth areas in the State of Texas and reliable water supplies are critical to sustainable growth. Lake Whitney is situated midway between these two metropolitan areas. Currently, the City of Whitney as well as all of Bosque and Hill counties obtain their potable water from the Trinity Sands aquifer. Additionally, parts of the adjoining McLennan and Burleson counties utilize the Trinity sands aquifer system as a supplement to their surface water supplies. Population growth coupled with increasing demands on this aquifer system in both the Metroplex and Centroplex have resulted in a rapid depletion of groundwater in these rural areas. The Lake Whitney reservoir represents both a potentially local and regional solution for an area experiencing high levels of growth. Because of the large scope of this project as well as the local, regional and national implications, we have designed a multifaceted approach that will …

The Savannah River Site (SRS) is currently storing plutonium materials in the K-Area Materials Storage (KAMS) facility. The materials are packaged per the DOE 3013 Standard and transported and stored in KAMS in Model 9975 shipping packages, which include double containment vessels sealed with dual O-rings made of Parker Seals compound V0835-75 (based on Viton{reg_sign} GLT). The outer O-ring of each containment vessel is credited for leaktight containment per ANSI N14.5. O-ring service life depends on many factors, including the failure criterion, environmental conditions, overall design, fabrication quality and assembly practices. A preliminary life prediction model has been developed for the V0835-75 O-rings in KAMS. The conservative model is based primarily on long-term compression stress relaxation (CSR) experiments and Arrhenius accelerated-aging methodology. For model development purposes, seal lifetime is defined as a 90% loss of measurable sealing force. Thus far, CSR experiments have only reached this target level of degradation at temperatures {ge} 300 F. At lower temperatures, relaxation values are more tolerable. Using time-temperature superposition principles, the conservative model predicts a service life of approximately 20-25 years at a constant seal temperature of 175 F. This represents a maximum payload package at a constant ambient temperature of 104 F, …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Under contract with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), states conduct surveys at nursing homes to help ensure compliance with federal quality standards. Over the past decade, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has reported on inconsistencies in states' assessment of nursing homes' quality of care, including understatement--that is, when state surveys fail to cite serious deficiencies or cite them at too low a level. In 2008, GAO reported that 9 states had high and 10 had low understatement based on CMS data for fiscal years 2002 through 2007. This report examines the effect on nursing home deficiency understatement of CMS's survey process, workforce shortages and training, supervisory reviews of surveys, and state agency practices. GAO primarily collected data through two Web-based questionnaires sent to all eligible nursing home surveyors and state agency directors, achieving 61 and 98 percent response rates, respectively."

This report was prepared to document the physical, chemical and radiological properties of plutonium oxide materials that were processed in the Plutonium Fuel Form Facility (PuFF) in building 235-F at the Savannah River Plant (now known as the Savannah River Site) in the late 1970s and early 1980s. An understanding of these properties is needed to support current project planning for the safe and effective decontamination and deactivation (D&D) of PuFF. The PuFF mission was production of heat sources to power Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) used in space craft. The specification for the PuO{sub 2} used to fabricate the heat sources required that the isotopic content of the plutonium be 83 {+-} 1% Pu-238 due to its high decay heat of 0.57 W/g. The high specific activity of Pu-238 (17.1 Ci/g) due to alpha decay makes this material very difficult to manage. The production process produced micron-sized particles which proved difficult to contain during operations, creating personnel contamination concerns and resulting in the expenditure of significant resources to decontaminate spaces after loss of material containment. This report examines high {sup 238}Pu-content material properties relevant to the D&D of PuFF. These relevant properties are those that contribute to the mobility of …

This report discusses the United States’ foreign food aid program. Agricultural development has been a component of the United States’ foreign aid program, but U.S. funding for such assistance has declined from about 20% of U.S. official development assistance (ODA) in 1980 to around 5% in 2007.

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This report considers FY2009 appropriations in regards to agricultural agencies. Moreover, the report examines the budget for these agencies and different versions of appropriations bills on the matter.

This report reviews the types of air emissions from livestock and poultry operations and their human health and environmental impacts. It then discusses provisions of several federal laws concerned with environmental impacts, beginning with the Clean Water Act, because protecting water resources has been the primary regulatory focus regarding livestock and animal operations.

This report provides a brief overview of the basic terminology and concepts used in the federal budget process.

This report presents the Implications for the United States related to China and the Global Financial Crisis.

This report discusses the development in global warming as a global issue. Topics include issues that have arisen regarding the ETS and considerations for cap-and-trade.

This report explores strategies to control greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and options to address the cost issue in four parts. First, the basic economic tradeoff between controlling the quantity of GHG emissions and the program's compliance costs is introduced and explained. Second, the five dimensions of the cost issue that have arisen so far in the climate change debate are identified and discussed. Third, a representative sample of proposed approaches to address cost concerns is compared and analyzed according to the five cost dimensions identified previously. Finally, the proposed options are summarized and opportunities to combine or merge different approaches are analyzed.

This report mainly discusses Background, Legislation, and Issues of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) . COPS was created by title I of the violent crime control and law enforcement act of 1994.

This report focuses on the efforts of regulators to restore market stability and will be updated as developments warrant.

DWPF is considering replacing irregularly shaped glass frit with spherical glass beads in the Slurry Mix Evaporator (SME) process to decrease the yield stress of the melter feed (a non-Newtonian Bingham Plastic). Pilot-scale testing was conducted on spherical glass beads and glass frit to determine how well the glass beads would transfer when compared to the glass frit. Process Engineering Development designed and constructed the test apparatus to aid in the understanding and impacts that spherical glass beads may have on the existing DWPF Frit Transfer System. Testing was conducted to determine if the lines would plug with the glass beads and the glass frit slurry and what is required to unplug the lines. The flow loop consisted of vertical and horizontal runs of clear PVC piping, similar in geometry to the existing system. Two different batches of glass slurry were tested: a batch of 50 wt% spherical glass beads and a batch of 50 wt% glass frit in process water. No chemicals such as formic acid was used in slurry, only water and glass formers. The glass beads used for this testing were commercially available borosilicate glass of mesh size -100+200. The glass frit was Frit 418 obtained from …

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This report outlines the science highlights, publications, and other happenings at EMSL in 4th quarter of FY08.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID)Cuba Program provides assistance to support human rights and promote nonviolent democratic change in Cuba. From 1996 through 2008, the program awarded $83 million in grants to nongovernmental organizations and universities. In 2006, GAO found weaknesses in program oversight that increased the risk of grantees' improperly using grant funds and failing to comply with U.S. laws. In 2008, misuse of grant funds at organizations with the program's two largest grants was detected. GAO was asked to examine (1) actions that USAID has taken since 2006, or plans to take, to improve its award and oversight of the Cuba Program's grants and (2) actions that USAID has taken in response to the recently detected misuses of grant funds. GAO analyzed USAID and grantee records, conducted limited reviews at five grantees, and interviewed agency and grantee officials."

This report discusses the reasons that Iran is considered a threat to U.S. security, including Iran's nuclear program, involvement with terrorist organizations, and involvement with neighboring countries' local governments. The report also discusses ways which the U.S. hopes to modify Iran's behavior with sanctions, and the effectiveness of these sanctions.

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This report discusses the phenomenon known as "midnight rulemaking," which refers to the uptick in activity from federal agencies at the end of a presidential administration.

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