Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report presents the Government Accountability Office's (GAO) Performance Plans for Fiscal Year 2009. In the spirit of the Government Performance and Results Act, this annual plan informs the Congress and the American people about what we expect to accomplish on their behalf in the coming fiscal year. It sets forth our plan to make progress toward achieving our strategic goals for serving the Congress and the American people. This framework not only shows the relationship between our strategic goals and strategic objectives, but also show major themes that could potentially affect our work."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Somalia has lacked a functioning central government since 1991. In December 2006, the Ethiopian military intervened in Somalia to support Somalia's transitional government, opening what many considered a window of opportunity to rebuild the country and restore effective governance. The United States has been the largest bilateral donor to Somalia, providing roughly $362 million in assistance since 2001. In this report, GAO assesses (1) U.S. and international efforts to stabilize Somalia, (2) U.S. and international efforts to provide humanitarian and development assistance to Somalia, and (3) strategic planning efforts to guide U.S. activities related to Somalia. GAO reviewed documents from U.S. and international organizations; interviewed U.S., United Nations (UN), Somali, and other officials; and conducted fieldwork in Kenya and Ethiopia. GAO assessed U.S. strategy using the six desirable characteristics of an effective national strategy that GAO previously developed."

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This report addresses Legislative Activity in the 110th Congress regarding the Alternative Minimum Tax For Individuals.

This report provides an overview on Coordinated Party Expenditures in Federal Elections.Federal campaign finance law provides political parties with three main options :direct contributions,coordinated expenditures,independent expenditures.

This report discusses issues associated with the use of business tax subsidies.

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A total of 66 urine samples, 6 blank fecal and 6 spiked artificial fecal samples were submitted during the report period (April 1, 2006 through March 31, 2007) to General Engineering Laboratories, South Carolina by the Hanford Internal Dosimetry Program (IDP) to check the accuracy, precision, and detection levels of their analyses. Urine analyses for tritium, Sr, 238Pu, 239Pu, 241Am, 243Am 235U, 238U, elemental uranium and fecal analyses for 241Am, 238Pu and 239Pu were tested this year. The number of QC urine samples submitted during the report period represented 1.7% of the total samples submitted. In addition to the samples provided by IDP, GEL was also required to conduct their own QC program, and submit the results of analyses to IDP. About 36% of the analyses processed by GEL during the second year of this contract were quality control samples. GEL tested the performance of 16 radioisotopes, all of which met or exceeded the specifications in the Statement of Work. IDP concluded that GEL was performing well for all analyses tested, and concerns identified earlier were satisfactorily resolved.

Increased atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition can alter the processing and storage of organic carbon in soils. In 2000, we began studying the effects of simulated atmospheric N deposition on soil carbon dynamics in three types of northern temperate forest that occur across a wide geographic range in the Upper Great Lakes region. These ecosystems range from 100% oak in the overstory (black oak-white oak ecosystem; BOWO) to 0% overstory oak (sugar maple-basswood; SMBW) and include the sugar maple-red oak ecosystem (SMRO) that has intermediate oak abundance. The leaf litter biochemistry of these ecosystems range from highly lignified litter (BOWO) to litter of low lignin content (SMBW). We selected three replicate stands of each ecosystem type and established three plots in each stand. Each plot was randomly assigned one of three levels of N deposition (0, 30 & 80 kg N ha-1 y-1) imposed by adding NaNO3 in six equal increments applied over the growing season. Through experiments ranging from the molecular to the ecosystem scales, we produced a conceptual framework that describes the biogeochemistry of soil carbon storage in N-saturated ecosystems as the product of interactions between the composition of plant litter, the composition of the soil microbial community and …

The method of transient coaxial helicity injection (CHI) has previously been used in the HITII experiment at the University of Washington to produce 100 kA of closed flux current. The generation of the plasma current by CHI involves the process of magnetic reconnection, which has been experimentally controlled in the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory to allow this potentially unstable phenomenon to reorganize the magnetic field lines to form closed, nested magnetic surfaces carrying a plasma current up to 160 kA. This is a world record for non-inductive closed-flux current generation, and demonstrates the high current capability of this method.

The method of Kruskal-Newton diagrams for the solution of differential equations with boundary layers is shown to provide rapid intuitive understanding of layer scaling and can result in the conceptual simplification of some problems. The method is illustrated using equations arising in the theory of pattern formation and in plasma physics.

NSTX high-power divertor plasma experiments have shown, for the first time, significant and frequent benefits from lithium coatings applied to plasma facing components. Lithium pellet injection on NSTX introduced lithium pellets with masses 1 to 5 mg via He discharges. Lithium coatings have also been applied with an oven that directed a collimated stream of lithium vapor toward the graphite tiles of the lower center stack and divertor. Lithium depositions from a few mg to 1 g have been applied between discharges. Benefits from the lithium coating were sometimes, but not always seen. These improvements sometimes included decreases plasma density, inductive flux consumption, and ELM frequency, and increases in electron temperature, ion temperature, energy confinement and periods of MHD quiescence. In addition, reductions in lower divertor D, C, and O luminosity were measured.