This report explains the steps in the legislative process of the conference reports.

This report briefly summarizes the process of amendments between the House of Representatives and the Senate, which occurs if the House and Senate approve differing versions of a measure. An exchange of amendments between the houses resolves these differences.

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 Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents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.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the challenges facing the District of Columbia in addressing the year 2000 problem, focusing on: (1) the District of Columbia's progress in fixing its information systems; and (2) the risks it now faces."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on: (1) the number and characteristics of self-employed taxpayers who receive social security credit for self-employment earnings when they are delinquent in paying the self-employment taxes on those earnings; (2) why self-employed taxpayers who have not paid their self-employment taxes are allowed to receive social security credit; and (3) any potential actions that could enhance the collection of self-employment taxes."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Energy's (DOE) efforts to create jobs for displaced former Soviet Union scientists through its Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention program, focusing on: (1) the costs to implement the program for fiscal years 1994-98, including the amount of funds received by weapons scientists and institutes; (2) the extent to which the program's projects are meeting their nonproliferation and commercialization objectives; and (3) DOE's Nuclear Cities Initiative."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society of the United States of America for the year ended December 31, 1997, focusing on whether the audit report complied with the financial reporting requirements of the law."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the American Ex-Prisoners of War Incorporated, for the fiscal year ended August 31, 1998, focusing on whether the audit report complied with the financial reporting requirements of the law."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on how the federal share of states' Medicaid spending would be affected if an alternate formula, known as the Equitable Federal Medical Assistance Percentage formula, replaced the existing Federal Medical Assistance Percentage formula, focusing on: (1) calculating the matching percentages; (2) how federal funding for each state would be altered by the formula; and (3) the assumptions described in the bill proposing the switch to the alternate formula."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War 1861-1865 for the fiscal year ended August 31, 1997, focusing on whether the audit report complied with the financial reporting requirements of the law."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the American Gold Star Mothers, Incorporated, for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1998, focusing on whether the audit report complied with the financial reporting requirements of the law."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the American National Theatre and Academy for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1997, focusing on whether the audit report complied with the financial reporting requirements of the law."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the American Legion for the year ended December 31, 1997, focusing on whether the audit report complied with the financial reporting requirements of the law."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the Blue Star Mothers of America, Incorporated, for the fiscal year ended August 31, 1997, focusing on whether the audit report complied with the financial reporting requirements of the law."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the American Chemical Society for the year ended December 31, 1997, focusing on whether the audit report complied with the financial reporting requirements of the law."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the Big Brother/Big Sister of America for the fiscal year ended March 31, 1997, focusing on whether the audit report complied with the financial reporting requirements of the law."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the travel and training activities of employees of the Public Buildings Service (PBS), focusing on PBS': (1) limits on expenditures and obligations for travel and training; (2) off-site events sponsored by PBS' Central Office and National Capital Region (NCR); (3) trips taken by staff in the Commissioner's office; and (4) employees attending management training programs."

Preliminary results from the postirradiation examinations of microplates irradiated in the RERTR-1 and -2 experiments in the ATR have shown several binary and ternary U-MO alloys to be promising candidates for use in aluminum-based dispersion fuels with uranium densities up to 8 to 9 g/cm{sup 3}. Ternary alloys of uranium, niobium, and zirconium performed poorly, however, both in terms of fuel/matrix reaction and fission-gas-bubble behavior, and have been dropped from further study. Since irradiation temperatures achieved in the present experiments (approximately 70 C) are considerably lower than might be experienced in a high-performance reactor, a new experiment is being planned with beginning-of-cycle temperatures greater than 200 C in 8-g U/cm{sup 3} fuel.

Sputtered thin film and multilayer x-ray mirrors are made routinely at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) for the APS users. Precise film growth control and characterization are very critical in fabricating high-quality x-ray mirrors. Film thickness calibrations are carried out using in situ and ex situ spectroscopic ellipsometry, interferometry, and x-ray scattering. To better understand the growth and optical properties of different thin film systems, we have carried out a systematic study of sputtered thin films of Au, Rh, Pg Pd, Cu, and Cr, using in situ ellipsometry. Multiple data sets were obtained in situ for each film material with incremental thicknesses and were analyzed with their correlation in mind. We found that in situ spectroscopic ellipsometry as a surface-sensitive tool can also be used to probe the growth and morphology of the thin film system. This application of in situ spectroscopic ellipsometry for metal thin film systems will be discussed.

The reality of {Sigma} hypernuclei has been the subject of intense concern among experimenters and theoreticians for more than 20 years. The possible existence of {Sigma} hypernuclei was first suggested by a pioneering experiment on a {sup 9}Be target at the CERN PS. There were reported to be two narrow ({Gamma} < 8 MeV) peaks in the continuum region. This finding was quite unexpected since the widths of {Sigma} states were believed to be large due to the strong conversion process. It is obvious that if such relatively long-lived systems were confirmed unambiguously by experiment, their masses and widths provide important constraints on the {Sigma}N effective interaction and its relation to the {Lambda}N and NN interactions. Since the {Sigma} carries isospin, the role of isospin and isospin conservation in hadronic reactions could be explored. This report stimulated a number of subsequent experiments at the BNL-AGS and KEK, along with further experiments with a specially created short kaon beam at the CERN PS. Experimental data were reported for different targets at different momenta and at different conditions. Various tagging techniques were employed to suppress backgrounds, but always at the expense of a reduction in statistical quality. Because of problems with resolution …

A dislocation dynamics (DD) model for plastic deformation, connecting the macroscopic mechanical properties to basic physical laws governing dislocation mobility and related interaction mechanisms, has been under development. In this model there is a set of critical reactions that determine the overall results of the simulations, such as the stress-strain curve. These reactions are, annihilation, formation of jogs, junctions, and dipoles, and cross-slip. In this paper we discuss these reactions and the manner in which they influence the simulated stress- strain behavior in fcc and bcc metals. In particular, we examine the formation (zipping) and strength of dipoles and junctions, and effect of jogs, using the dislocation dynamics model. We show that the strengths (unzipping) of these reactions for various configurations can be determined by direct evaluation of the elastic interactions. Next, we investigate the phenomenon of hardening in metals subjected to cascade damage dislocations. The microstructure investigated consists of small dislocation loops decorating the mobile dislocations. Preliminary results reveal that these loops act as hardening agents, trapping the dislocations and resulting in increased hardening.

An overview of particle and photon beam bunch length measurements is presented in the context of free-electron laser (FEL) challenges. Particle-beam peak current is a critical factor in obtaining adequate FEL gain for both oscillators and self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) devices. Since measurement of charge is a standard measurement, the bunch length becomes the key issue for ultrashort bunches. Both time-domain and frequency-domain techniques are presented in the context of using electromagnetic radiation over eight orders of magnitude in wavelength. In addition, the measurement of microbunching in a micropulse is addressed.

A novel wire scanner has been developed with applications at linear accelerators where small beam spots or high intensities would otherwise destroy wires. A pattern of wires is supported on a thin membrane and remains in place even when punctured by the beam. Many scans can be made before the material needs to be replaced. Tests of the principle have been carried out at the Final Focus Test Beam at SLAC.

Until relatively recent advances in technology, astronomical observations from the ground were limited in image resolution by the blurring effects of earth's atmosphere. The blur extent, ranging typically from 0.5 to 2 seconds of arc at the best astronomical sights, precluded ground-based observations of the details of the solar system's moons, asteroids, and outermost planets. With the maturing of a high resolution image processing technique called speckle imaging the resolution limitation of the atmosphere can now be largely overcome. Over the past three years they have used speckle imaging to observe Titan, a moon of Saturn with an atmospheric density comparable to Earth's, Io, the volcanically active innermost moon of Jupiter, and Neptune, a gas giant outer planet which has continually changing planet-encircling storms. These observations were made at the world's largest telescope, the Keck telescope in Hawaii and represent the highest resolution infrared images of these objects ever taken.