A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2010, states required about 2 percent of all districts to use Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) funds for early intervening services to address the overrepresentation of racial and ethnic groups in special education. Based on definitions states individually developed to measure this overrepresentation-- referred to in IDEA as significant disproportionality--356 districts were required to provide services. Half of these districts were clustered in five states and 73 were in Louisiana alone. States have used flexibility provided by Education to develop their own definitions of significant disproportionality and GAO's analysis of 16 selected states found wide variation in definitions. Further, GAO found that the way some states defined overrepresentation made it unlikely that any districts would be identified and thus required to provide early intervening services. Nebraska and Louisiana illustrate differing outcomes that can result from different state definitions. In Nebraska, one of 21 states that did not require any districts to provide services in 2010-11, racial and ethnic groups must be identified for special education at a rate three times higher than for other groups for 2 consecutive years. In contrast, racial and ethnic …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO identified nine leading practices to promote successful data-driven performance reviews--referred to as quarterly performance reviews--at the federal level."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The KC-46 program 2012 estimates for cost, schedule, and performance are virtually the same as last year's, with the contractor running very close to the planned budget and schedule. Development work is more than one-fourth complete and a successful preliminary design review was held on schedule in April 2012. In response to a prior GAO recommendation, the program now has fully implemented metrics to measure the progress toward its key performance parameters and expects to meet these requirements. There are two areas of concern regarding program cost: first, both the contractor and government estimate the cost of development will exceed the contract ceiling price of $4.9 billion (although government liability is capped at that ceiling); and second, the contractor has already allocated about 80 percent of the management reserves budget, primarily for identified, yet unresolved, development risks, with the bulk of work--about 5 years--remaining. GAO maintains that significant use of these funds early in a program may indicate problems. The program has not yet evaluated how the significant use of these funds early could impact future milestones."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Departments of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Defense (DOD) have undertaken a number of patchwork efforts over the past 15 years to achieve interoperability (i.e., the ability to share data) of records between their information systems; however, these efforts have faced persistent challenges. The departments' early efforts to achieve interoperability included enabling DOD to electronically transfer service members' electronic health information to VA; allowing clinicians at both departments viewable access to records on shared patients; and developing an interface linking the departments' health data repositories. As GAO reported, however, several of these efforts were plagued by project planning and management weaknesses, inadequate accountability, and poor oversight, limiting their ability to realize full interoperability."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Management challenges within the Department of Interior's Office of the Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs (Indian Affairs), such as fragmented administrative structures and frequent turnover in leadership, continue to hamper efforts to improve Indian education. For example, incompatible procedures and lack of clear roles for the Bureau of Indian Education and the Indian Affairs' Deputy Assistant Secretary for Management (DAS-M), which provides administrative functions to BIE, such as human resources and acquisitions, contribute to delays in schools acquiring needed materials and resources. According to BIE officials, some DAS-M staff are not aware of the necessary procedures and timelines to meet schools' needs. For instance, delays in contracting have occasionally affected BIE's ability to provide services for students with disabilities in a timely manner. A study commissioned by Indian Affairs to evaluate the administrative support structure for BIE and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)--also under Indian Affairs--concluded that organizations within Indian Affairs, including DAS-M, BIA, and BIE, do not coordinate effectively and communication among them is poor. Similarly, preliminary results from GAO's work suggest that lack of consistent leadership within DAS-M and BIE hinders collaboration between the two …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) agencies responded to the Combating Autism Act of 2006 (CAA) by establishing some new autism activities and continuing others. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) created a new initiative to address specific directives in the CAA. Through this initiative, HRSA expanded its existing training programs by requiring grantees to include training specific to autism. It also established new autism research grants and funded new state grants to improve services for children with autism. HRSA awards its autism grants under the authority of the CAA. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continued their autism activities--some of which were undertaken in response to the Children's Health Act of 2000--but did not create new programs as a direct result of the CAA. NIH continued to fund, expand, and coordinate autism research through its Autism Centers of Excellence and autism-specific grants and contracts. CDC continued to fund its regional centers of excellence for autism epidemiology and other activities, such as an awareness campaign. HHS's Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC)--reauthorized by the CAA--assumed additional responsibilities …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In September 2012, GAO reported that many large procurement agencies were in the early stages of implementing strategic sourcing and had achieved limited results. For example, in fiscal year 2011, the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Energy, and Veterans Affairs accounted for 80 percent of the $537 billion in federal procurement spending, but reported managing about 5 percent of that spending, or $25.8 billion, through strategic sourcing efforts. These agencies reported savings of $1.8 billion--less than one-half of 1 percent of federal procurement spending. Further, most of these agencies' strategic sourcing efforts did not address their highest spending areas--including some information technology (IT)-related services--which may provide opportunities for additional savings. While strategic sourcing may not be suitable for all procurements, leading companies strategically manage about 90 percent of their procurements and report annual savings of 10 percent or more. When strategic sourcing contracts were used, federal agencies generally reported achieving savings between 5 and 20 percent."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins ""

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Medicare Program: CMS has not met GAO's criteria to have the Medicare program removed from the High-Risk List. For example, although CMS has made progress in measuring and reducing improper payment rates in different parts of the program, it has yet to demonstrate sustained progress in lowering the rates. Because the size of Medicare relative to other programs leads to aggregate improper payments that are extremely large, continuing to reduce improper payments in this program should remain a priority for CMS. Further, CMS should complete some actions required by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) that were designed to improve the integrity of the program, such as determining which providers must post surety bonds to help in recovering payments for fraudulent billing, using fingerprint screening for high-risk providers, issuing a final regulation that requires providers to disclose additional information, and establishing core elements for provider compliance programs."

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Well ER-20-11 was drilled for the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Site Office in support of the Nevada Environmental Management Operations Underground Test Area (UGTA) Activity at the Nevada National Security Site (formerly Nevada Test Site), Nye County, Nevada. The well was drilled in September 2012 as part of the Central and Western Pahute Mesa Corrective Action Unit Phase II drilling program. Well ER-20-11 was constructed to further investigate the nature and extent of radionuclidecontaminated groundwater encountered in two nearby UGTA wells, to help define hydraulic and transport parameters for the contaminated Benham aquifer, and to provide data for the UGTA hydrostratigraphic framework model. The 44.5-centimeter (cm) surface hole was drilled to a depth of 520.0 meters (m) and cased with 34.0-cm casing to 511.5 m. The hole diameter was then decreased to 31.1 cm, and the borehole was drilled to a total depth of 915.6 m. The hole was completed to allow access for hydrologic testing and sampling in the target aquifer, which is a lava-flow aquifer known as the Benham aquifer. The completion casing string, set to the depth of 904.3 m, consists of a string of 6⅝-inch (in.) stainless-steel casing hanging from a …

The STAYSL PNNL software suite provides a set of tools for working with neutron activation rates measured in a nuclear fission reactor, an accelerator-based neutron source, or any neutron field to determine the neutron flux spectrum through a generalized least-squares approach. This process is referred to as neutron spectral adjustment since the preferred approach is to use measured data to adjust neutron spectra provided by neutron physics calculations. The input data consist of the reaction rates based on measured activities, an initial estimate of the neutron flux spectrum, neutron activation cross sections and their associated uncertainties (covariances), and relevant correction factors. The output consists of the adjusted neutron flux spectrum and associated covariance matrix, which is useful for neutron dosimetry and radiation damage calculations.

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Development of a nanostructured synthetic carbons materials that have been synthesized by thermal-decomposition of aromatic rich polyether such as poly(ether ether ketone) (PEEK) is reported. These polymers based nanostructured carbons efficacious for gas adsorption and storage and have Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area of more than 3000 m2/g, and with average pore diameter of < 2nm. Surface-area, pore characteristics, and other critical variables for selecting porous materials of high gas adsorption capacities are presented. Analysis of the fragments evolved under various carbonization temperatures, and the correlation between the activation and carbonization temperatures provides a mechanistic perspective of the pore evolution during activation. Correlations between gas (N2 and H2) adsorption capacity and porous texture of the materials have been established. The materials possess excellent hydrogen storage properties, with hydrogen storage capacity up to 7.4 wt% (gravimetric) and ~ 45 g H2 L-1 (volumetric) at -196oC and 6.0 MPa.

Weekly newspaper from Palacios, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Edna, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

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Semi-weekly newspaper from Carthage, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

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This report first describes how pertinent rules and practices regulate the daily sessions of Congress and their adjournments and recesses, including discussion of the "legislative day." It then develops a corresponding discussion for the annual sessions of Congress, which addresses, among other things, the use of "pro forma sessions." The report clarifies certain situations in which terms may simultaneously apply in different ways in relation to the daily session and to the annual session. Finally, the report notes some of the most important implications of the occurrence of sessions, adjournments, and recesses in relation to such matters as presidential action on legislation, recess appointments by the President, the operation of statutory expedited procedures ("fast track" procedures), and "lame duck" (post-election) sessions.

This report discusses the federal financial reporting -- defined here as the process of recording retrospective executive department-level financial and performance information -- may provide both a snapshot of the government's financial health at a given moment in time, as well as an accounting of its financial performance over a given time frame.

This report opens with brief legislative histories of "comprehensive immigration reform" (CIR) in the 109th and 110th Congresses. A comparative overview of key CIR provisions in the three bills that received floor action in the 109th and 110th Congresses follows. In addition to a narrative discussion of how the bills addressed the main provisions of CIR, the report provides a table that presents a comparative summary of the key features of the bills. The report concludes with observations contrasting the 2006-2007 period with the context of today's CIR debate. The report also provides an appendix that summarizes the three major CIR bills.