A statement of record issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Unfunded Mandate Reform Act of 1995 (UMRA) was enacted to address concerns expressed by state and local governments about federal statutes and regulations that require nonfederal parties to expend resources to achieve legislative goals without being provided funding to cover the costs. Over the past 10 years, Congress has at various times considered legislation that would amend various aspects of UMRA. This testimony is based on GAO's report, Unfunded Mandates: Analysis of Reform Act Coverage (GAO-04-637, May 12, 2004). Specifically, this testimony addresses (1) the process used to identify federal mandates and what are federal agencies' roles, (2) statutes and rules that contained federal mandates under UMRA, and (3) statutes and rules that were not considered mandates under UMRA but may be perceived to be "unfunded mandates" by certain affected parties."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "U.S. agriculture generates more than $1 trillion per year in economic activity and provides an abundant food supply for Americans and others. Since the September 11, 2001, attacks, there are new concerns about the vulnerability of U.S. agriculture to the deliberate introduction of animal and plant diseases (agroterrorism). Several agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Department of Defense (DOD), play a role in protecting the nation against agroterrorism. GAO examined (1) the federal agencies' roles and responsibilities to protect against agroterrorism, (2) the steps that the agencies have taken to manage the risks of agroterrorism, and (3) the challenges and problems that remain."

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 15 U.S.C § 77e, regulating the sale of unregistered securities, preempts section 74.401(a) of the Texas Property Code to the extent section 74.401(a) requires the comptroller to sell at public sale an unclaimed security that is not a registered, marketable security.

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For thirty years, dependence on oil has been a significant problem for the United States. Oil dependence is not simply a matter of how much oil we import. It is a syndrome, a combination of the vulnerability of the U.S. economy to higher oil prices and oil price shocks and a concentration of world oil supplies in a small group of oil producing states that are willing and able to use their market power to influence world oil prices. Although there are vitally important political and military dimensions to the oil dependence problem, this report focuses on its direct economic costs. These costs are the transfer of wealth from the United States to oil producing countries, the loss of economic potential due to oil prices elevated above competitive market levels, and disruption costs caused by sudden and large oil price movements. Several enhancements have been made to methods used in past studies to estimate these costs, and estimates of key parameters have been updated based on the most recent literature. It is estimated that oil dependence has cost the U.S. economy $3.6 trillion (constant 2000 dollars) since 1970, with the bulk of the losses occurring between 1979 and 1986. However, …

During the 2nd half of Year I, we continued the development of the microporous ceramic layer as a transition layer for the deposition of the carbon molecular sieve membrane on the stainless steel substrate offered by Pall Corp. Based upon the positive result from the feasibility study conducted in the 1st half of Year I, our activities in this period focused on eliminating the high pore size peak and the minimization of defect. A microporous ceramic layer with 40A pore size and <1% initial flow have been successfully prepared. Further, this modified membrane has demonstrated excellent thermal stability, <1% initial flow after the 5 thermal cycles. In addition we began the CMS layer deposition on the AccuSep with the ceramic transition layer. The CMS membranes fired at the low temperature range demonstrate an excellent hydrogen permeance, up to >5 m{sup 3}/m{sup 2}/hr/bar, with the selectivity of {approx}20 for H{sub 2}/N{sub 2}. The extremely high permeance is indicative of the extremely thin CMS membrane layer, which becomes possible as a result of the uniform and defect free transition layer. This could be an ideal membrane for hydrogen recovery applications where the hydrogen permeance is the primary concern. Presently we are actively …

A new method to implement low-noise collision operators in particle-in-cell simulations is presented. The method is based on the fact that relevant collision operators can be included naturally in the Lagrangian formulation that exemplifies the particle-in-cell simulation method. Numerical simulations show that the momentum and energy conservation properties of the simulated plasma associated with the low-noise collision operator are improved as compared with standard collision algorithms based on random numbers.

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The purpose of this report is to identify and document the nuclear safety design requirements that are specific to structures, systems, and components (SSCs) of the repository that are important to safety (ITS) during the preclosure period and to support the preclosure safety analysis and the license application for the high-level radioactive waste (HLW) repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The scope of this report includes the assignment of nuclear safety design requirements to SSCs that are ITS and does not include the assignment of design requirements to SSCs or natural or engineered barriers that are important to waste isolation (ITWI). These requirements are used as input for the design of the SSCs that are ITS such that the preclosure performance objectives of 10 CFR 63.111 [DIRS 156605] are met. The natural or engineered barriers that are important to meeting the postclosure performance objectives of 10 CFR 63.113 [DIRS 156605] are identified as ITWI. Although a structure, system, or component (SSC) that is ITS may also be ITWI, this report is only concerned with providing the nuclear safety requirements for SSCs that are ITS to prevent or mitigate event sequences during the repository preclosure period.

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Since congressional passage of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) in August 2002 (P.L. 107-210), the U.S.-Chile free trade agreement (FTA) has been implemented and negotiations were concluded on the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA). Implementing legislation may be introduced in the first session of the 109th Congress. Other important U.S.-Latin America trade initiatives include FTA negotiations with three Andean countries and Panama, and the ongoing but slowed talks on the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Congress defined trade negotiation objectives in TPA and trade agreements are enacted only after Congress passes implementing legislation. This report supports the congressional role in trade policy by providing an analytical overview of U.S.-Latin American trade data and trends.

The U.S. Department of Energy's mission is to protect the Columbia River and the public living in communities surrounding the Hanford Site while cleaning up and shrinking the Site. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is contributing to the cleanup mission and protection of the Columbia River and public. This booklet summarizes work PNNL performed directly for DOE. Work done for Hanford contractors and the Waste Treatment Plant is summarized in the other booklets in this series.

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This report includes information regarding U.S. relations with Libya as well as other Libyan foreign relations and government.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory managed a variety of technical and scientific efforts to support Fluor Hanford's work in cleaning up the Hanford Site. Work done for other Hanford contractors, the Waste Treatment Plant, and directly for the U.S. Department of Energy is summarized in the other booklets in this series.

In 2004, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory provided analyses, reviews, testing, and new tools to assist CH2M HILL Hanford Group, Inc. in accomplishing their River Protection Project objectives. These objectives are safe storage, retrieval, and treatment of radioactive waste from Hanford's tanks, closure of tanks, and disposal of treated wastes.

In support of the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP), Battelle conducted tests on mixing specific wastes within the plant, removing troublesome materials from the waste before treatment, and determining if the final waste forms met the established criteria. In addition, several Battelle experts filled full-time positions in WTP's Research and Testing and Process and Operations departments.

This report is on Climate Change: Summary and Analysis of the Climate Stewardship Act (S. 342 and H.R. 759).

This report provides information about the Civilian Nuclear Waste Disposal.The nuclear waste policy act of 1982 calls for disposal of spent nuclear fuel in a deep geologic repository.

This report is a guide to the Interior and related agencies appropriations bill, including funds for the Department of the Interior (DOI), except for the Bureau of Reclamation, and for some agencies or programs within three other departments - Agriculture, Energy, and Health, and Human Services.

Event horizons and closed time-like curves cannot exist in the real world for the simple reason that they are inconsistent with quantum mechanics. Following ideas originated by Robert Laughlin, Pawel Mazur, Emil Mottola, David Santiago, and the speaker it is now possible to describe in some detail what happens physically when one approaches and crosses a region of space-time where classical general relativity predicts there should be an infinite red shift surface. This quantum critical physics provides a new perspective on a variety of enigmatic astrophysical phenomena including supernovae explosions, gamma ray bursts, positron emission, and dark matter.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory supports Bechtel Hanford, Inc., in identifying and applying new technologies to clean up contaminated sites on the land bordering the Columbia River where nine nuclear reactors operated. During fiscal year 2004, PNNL screened more than 100 different technologies for potential application to site clean up.

This report examines various options for strengthening FDA's ability to protect the public.