Monthly newsletter from the Texas State Office of the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) discussing news and activities of the FSA, funding opportunities, and other information related to farming and agriculture in Texas.

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

This report discusses This report provides a comprehensive overview of the various legal issues related to whether, and under what circumstances, a debtor may discharge a student loan in bankruptcy. The report begins by providing general background on bankruptcy law and the principles governing the discharge of outstanding debt. In so doing, the report explains how and why the Bankruptcy Code generally makes student loans nondischargeable absent an "undue hardship." The report then describes the various legal standards that courts have applied when determining whether a particular debtor is entitled to an undue hardship discharge. The report closes by describing various potential considerations for Congress, including ways in which Congress could alter the Bankruptcy Code's current treatment of student loans.

This report identifies and briefly summarizes the 21 budget reconciliation measures enacted into law during the period covering 1980, when reconciliation procedures were first used by both chambers, through 2017.

This report discusses options available to students whose colleges close before completion of their degree to complete their degrees and finance their education at another institution. Types of financial assistance discussed are federal loan discharges, educational benefit programs refunds, future legibility status for loans and financial aid, and tax considerations.

This report discusses the proposed FY2019 general U.S. budget and its plans for government reorganization and federal workforce reform.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate recognizing the Stop the Bleed campaign.

This report report provides a comparative analysis of how the use of the e-"Dear Colleague" system in the House of Representatives has changed between the 111th Congress (2009-2010) and the 113th Congress (2013-2014). This report provides an overview of the data and methodology used to evaluate "Dear Colleague" letter usage, discusses the characteristics and purpose of "Dear Colleague" letters, and discusses questions for Congress and observations on the use of "Dear Colleague" letters as a form of internal communications.

This report provides descriptions of selected health care-related provisions that are scheduled to expire during the 115th Congress, first session (i.e., during calendar year [CY] 2017). It focuses on portions of law that are time limited and will lapse once a statutory deadline is reached absent further legislative action.

This report discusses laws that govern the legality or possible repercussions of leaking government information of various types to the press.

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, Ken Paxton, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether the proposed Upper San Saba River Management Plan unlawfully delegates legislative power to a private entity (RQ-0124-KP).

This report discusses current issues regarding the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which is an independent federal agency charged with regulating interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable. The mission of the FCC is to ensure that the American people have available--at reasonable cost and without discrimination--rapid, efficient, nation- and world-wide communication services, whether by radio, television, wire, satellite, or cable.

This report discusses free trade agreements (FTAs) that have enforceable labor provisions, grouped into four model types. It outlines the provisions for each and identifies two types of labor enforcement issues: (1) those that relate to the FTA provisions themselves, including their definitions and their enforceability, and (2) those that relate to executive branch responsibilities, such as resource availability and determining dispute settlement case priorities. This report does not address other labor issues in the various free trade agreements, including cooperative consultation and capacity-building provisions.

This report provides an overview of the situation in Ukraine, two years after the February 2014 collapse of the Kremlin-supported government of President Viktor Yanukovych. Following the collapse, there was an emergence of a pro-Western, pro-reform government and an energized public generally anxious to lessen Moscow's influence, committed to addressing the need for serious reform and determined to draw closer to Europe and the United States.

This report discusses the firefighting activities that are traditionally the responsibility of states and local communities. The report also talks about the funding for firefighters, which is provided mostly by state and local governments. However, during the 106th Congress, many in the fire community asserted that local fire departments require and deserve greater support from the federal government.

This report covers the recent history of Azerbaijan and the purposes for U.S. assistance, according to the Obama Administration. Azerbaijan has been a useful ally since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, granting over-flight rights to the U.S. and approving numerous landings in their civilian airport.

The cadmium shim arms in the NBSR undergo burnup during reactor operation and hence, require periodic replacement. Presently, the shim arms are replaced after every 25 cycles to guarantee they can maintain sufficient shutdown margin. Two prior reports document the expected change in the 113Cd distribution because of the shim arm depletion. One set of calculations was for the present high-enriched uranium fuel and the other for the low-enriched uranium fuel when it was in the COMP7 configuration (7 inch fuel length vs. the present 11 inch length). The depleted 113Cd distributions calculated for these cores were applied to the current design for an equilibrium low-enriched uranium core. This report details the predicted effects, if any, of shim arm depletion on the shim arm worth, the shutdown margin, power distributions and kinetics parameters.

In this study, we evaluate the possibility of monitoring soil moisture variation using tomographic ground penetrating radar travel time data through Bayesian inversion, which is integrated with entropy memory function and pilot point concepts, as well as efficient sampling approaches. It is critical to accurately estimate soil moisture content and variations in vadose zone studies. Many studies have illustrated the promise and value of GPR tomographic data for estimating soil moisture and associated changes, however, challenges still exist in the inversion of GPR tomographic data in a manner that quantifies input and predictive uncertainty, incorporates multiple data types, handles non-uniqueness and nonlinearity, and honors time-lapse tomograms collected in a series. To address these challenges, we develop a minimum relative entropy (MRE)-Bayesian based inverse modeling framework that non-subjectively defines prior probabilities, incorporates information from multiple sources, and quantifies uncertainty. The framework enables us to estimate dielectric permittivity at pilot point locations distributed within the tomogram, as well as the spatial correlation range. In the inversion framework, MRE is first used to derive prior probability density functions (pdfs) of dielectric permittivity based on prior information obtained from a straight-ray GPR inversion. The probability distributions are then sampled using a Quasi-Monte Carlo (QMC) …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO found that for the 2008 to 2010 time frame covered by this review, the participating judges' share of normal cost was, on average, about 41 percent of the Judicial Survivors' Annuities System (JSAS) total normal costs, and the federal government's share of normal cost was about 59 percent of JSAS total normal costs. The federal government's share of JSAS normal costs increased over the years included in GAO's review, from approximately 53 percent in plan year 2008, to 61 percent in plan year 2009, and to approximately 64 percent in plan year 2010. The increase was a result of (1) less favorable actual economic and demographic outcomes over this period than predicted by the actuarial assumptions and (2) changes in actuarial assumptions regarding future economic and demographic outcomes."

This grant focused on atomistic studies of the dynamics of grain boundaries in metals performed largely using molecular dynamics simulations. One of the foci of this period was on the appropriate thermodynamics � in particular the grain boundary stiffness. We worked with a group of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University to make a comparison between grain growth simulations using our grain boundary thermodynamics data and experiments. A separate focus of the supported research looked at shear-driven grain boundary migration. The major focus of our work during this grant was a detailed consideration of the atomic mechanisms associated with grain boundary migration.

This report is a compilation of the work that has been done on the grant DE-EE0002805 entitled ?Finite Volume Based Computer Program for Ground Source Heat Pump Systems.? The goal of this project was to develop a detailed computer simulation tool for GSHP (ground source heat pump) heating and cooling systems. Two such tools were developed as part of this DOE (Department of Energy) grant; the first is a two-dimensional computer program called GEO2D and the second is a three-dimensional computer program called GEO3D. Both of these simulation tools provide an extensive array of results to the user. A unique aspect of both these simulation tools is the complete temperature profile information calculated and presented. Complete temperature profiles throughout the ground, casing, tube wall, and fluid are provided as a function of time. The fluid temperatures from and to the heat pump, as a function of time, are also provided. In addition to temperature information, detailed heat rate information at several locations as a function of time is determined. Heat rates between the heat pump and the building indoor environment, between the working fluid and the heat pump, and between the working fluid and the ground are computed. The heat …

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This report reviews the rules and procedures used in the committees of the Texas House of Representatives.

This report provides details of FY2011, FY2012, and FY2013 funding for OAA authorized activities, as well as for other aging services programs administered by ACL under other statutory authorities.