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This report examines the strengths and limitations of deploying UAVs along the borders and related issues for Congress

Several bills introduced in the 108th Congress included revenue-raising provisions, particularly those aimed at tax shelters that are generally used by corporations. In 2003, anti-sheltering provisions were included in several bills. This report is an overview of the revenue-raising provisions in the original reported versions of H.R. 2896 and S. 1637 and the final anti-sheltering bill as enacted.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is required by law to subsidize approximately two dozen specified agricultural commodities. Several permanent statutes provide the basic authority for these subsidies; more recent multi-year farm bills shape their operation and funding levels. The most recent omnibus farm bill is the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (P.L.107-171). However, Congress since FY1989 has also passed 30 appropriations, authorization, or farm disaster acts adding approximately $53 billion in supplemental funding for USDA farm and related programs (through October 2004). This report will not be updated.

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA), as amended, is the primary federal statute in the area of minimum wages and overtime pay. Through administrative rulemaking, the Secretary of Labor has established two tests through which to define eligibility under the Section 13(a)(1) exemption: a duties test and an earnings test. In the 106th Congress, legislation was introduced by Representatives Andrews and Lazio that would have increased the scope of the exemption: first, by expanding the range of exempt job titles, and then, through a relative reduction in the value of the earnings threshold or test. For example, were the minimum wage increased to $6.15 per hour, as pending proposals would do, the value of the computer services exemption threshold would be 4.5 times the federal minimum wage. Ultimately, neither bill was enacted, but the issue has re-emerged as H.R. 1545 (Andrews) and H.R. 546 (Quinn).

This report discusses issues regarding the arsenic’s health effects and how to reduce the uncertainty in assessing health risks associated with exposure to low levels of arsenic. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued the current standard of 50 parts per billion (ppb) in 1975. . This report reviews EPA efforts to develop a new arsenic rule and summarizes key provisions and subsequent events.

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Since the U. S. Department of Energy published the DOE Beryllium Rule, 10 CFR 850, in 1999, DOE sites have been required to measure beryllium on air filters and wipes for worker protection and for release of materials from beryllium-controlled areas. Measurements in the nanogram range on a filter or wipe are typically required. Industrial hygiene laboratories have applied methods from various analytical compendia, and a number of issues have emerged with sampling and analysis practices. As a result, a committee of analytical chemists, industrial hygienists, and laboratory managers was formed in November 2003 to address the issues. The committee developed a baseline questionnaire and distributed it to DOE sites and other agencies in the U.S. and U.K. The results of the questionnaire are presented in this paper. These results confirmed that a wide variety of practices were in use in the areas of sampling, sample preparation, and analysis. Additionally, although these laboratories are generally accredited by the American Industrial Hygiene Association there are inconsistencies in performance among accredited labs. As a result, there are significant opportunities for development of standard methods that could improve consistency. The current availabilities and needs for standard methods are further discussed in a companion …

The Design Team continued to conference this quarter. Their primary task during this timeframe was to finalize the dryer design based on information learned from the NDIC Pilot work and detailed design discussions at Barr offices in August. Heyl-Patterson was tasked with incorporating all comments and drafting drawings. They submitted a preliminary proposal which spawned detailed discussions about tube bundle, air locks, and fire suppression systems. The type of fire protection specified dictated the final structural arrangement. Three meetings were spent discussing the pro's and con's of suppression vs. ventilation systems. In the end, the dryer and bucket elevator will have suppression systems and the remaining equipment will be explosion vented. This is in agreement with GRE's current insurer, FM Global. Three inlet airlocks were reduced to two and four outlets were reduced to three. The inlet plenum was subdivided for greater flexibility and sparging air added in the outlet plenum. It was also decided to use bundles with varied material, diameter, and tube & fin spacing. This will be completed in an effort to identify for us which configuration has the best heat transfer characteristics using coal as the fluidizing medium. The dryer will also be delivered in four …

This plan provides an overview, work to date, and the path forward for the design development strategy of the Aging cask for aging commercial spent nuclear fuel (CSNF) at the Yucca Mountain Project (YMP) repository site. Waste for subsurface emplacement at the repository includes US Department of Energy (DOE) high-level radioactive waste (HLW), DOE SNF, commercial fuel in dual-purpose canisters (DPCs), uncanistered bare fuel, naval fuel, and other waste types. Table 1-1 lists the types of radioactive materials that may be aged at YMP, and those materials that will not be placed in an aging cask or module. This plan presents the strategy for design development of the Aging system. The Aging system will not handle naval fuel, DOE HLW, MCOs, or DOE SNF since those materials will be delivered to the repository in a state and sequence that allows them to be placed into waste packages for emplacement. Some CSNF from nuclear reactors, especially CSNF that is thermally too hot for emplacement underground, will need to be aged at the repository.

Tubing and rods of the S.P. Pedro-Nepple No.1 well were pulled and the well was prepared for running of Schlumberger's Cased Hole Formation Resistivity Tool (CHFR) in selected intervals. The CHFR tool was successfully run and data was captured. The CHFR formation resistivity readings were compared to original open hole resistivity measurements. Separation between the original and CHFR resistivity curves indicate both swept and un-swept sand intervals. Both watered out sand intervals and those with higher remaining oil saturation have been identified. Due to the nature of these turbidite sands being stratigraphically continuous, both the swept and unswept layers have been correlated across to one of the four nearby offset shallow wells. As a result of the cased hole logging, one well was selected for a workover to recomplete high oil saturated shallow sand intervals. During the second report period, well S.P. Pedro-Nepple No.2 was plugged back with cement excluding the previously existing production interval, squeeze cemented behind casing, selectively perforated in the shallower ''Bell'' zone and placed on production to develop potential new oil reserves and increase overall well productivity. Prior workover production averaged 3.0 BOPD for the previous six-months. Post workover well production was marginally increased to 3.7 …

Plant design support for the US Department of Energy (DOE) River Protection Project (RPP) - Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) required pilot scale testing of the High Level Waste (HLW) glass former chemical (GFC) delivery system. A pilot facility was assembled at the Clemson Environmental Technology Laboratory (CETL) under the direction of the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL). Tests were performed using a representative HLW GFC blend to determine the behavior of the dry chemicals when transported through a chute and discharged into the enclosed head space of an agitated tank. The use of chute purge air, injected upstream of the point where the GFCs were added to the chute, was investigated. The pilot scale testing showed purge air was effective in reducing GFC holdup in the chute and that when the GFCs were discharged into the tank head space, dusting was evident during all transport conditions. This dusting lead to additional bench scale and laboratory scale tests that showed the addition of wetting agents to HLW and Low Activity Waste (LAW) GFC blends effectively mitigated dusting at the bench and pilot scales.

We present a three-dimensional, time-dependent simulation of a laboratory-scale rod-stabilized premixed turbulent V-flame. The simulations are performed using an adaptive time-dependent low Mach number model with detailed chemical kinetics and a mixture model for differential species diffusion. The algorithm is based on a second-order projection formulation and does not require an explicit subgrid model for turbulence or turbulence chemistry interaction. Adaptive mesh refinement is used to dynamically resolve the flame and turbulent structures. Here, we briefly discuss the numerical procedure and present detailed comparisons with experimental measurements showing that the computation is able to accurately capture the basic flame morphology and associated mean velocity field. Finally, we discuss key issues that arise in performing these types of simulations and the implications of these issues for using computation to form a bridge between turbulent flame experiments and basic combustion chemistry.

A physical separation method (i.e. sieving) was investigated to determine particle size distribution in non-radioactive sludge slurry simulants with the goal of implementation into the SRNL (Savannah River National Laboratory) shielded cells for use with radioactive sludge slurries. The investigation included obtaining the necessary experimental equipment, developing accessory equipment for use with the sieve shaker (to be able to sieve simulant slurries with aqueous solutions), sieving three different simulant slurries through a number of sieves and determining the particle size distribution gravimetrically, and developing a sufficient cleaning protocol of the sieves for re-use. The experimental protocol involved successive sieving of a NIST standard (to check the particle size retention of the sieves) and three non-radioactive slurry simulants (Batch 3 Tank 40 Test 3, Tank 40 Drum 3 and CETL Sludge Batch 2, which had been previously characterized by Microtrac analysis) through smaller and smaller sieves (150 microns x 5 microns) via use of the wet sieving system or by hand. For each of the three slurries, duplicate experiments were carried out using filtered supernate and DI water (to check the accuracy of the method versus Microtrac data) to sieve the slurry. Particle size determinations using the wet sieving system with …

This report describes basic science studies of conversion of starch to sucrose in plant leaves. The importance of maltose is described. The studies proved that hydrolysis of the starch is more important than phosphorolysis.

This report provides the details related to Salary adjustments of Federal white-collar employees for the Fiscal Year 2005

This report examines the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004, P.L. 108-446, which makes several changes to the previous law regarding children with disabilities in private schools. Generally, children with disabilities enrolled by their parents in private schools are to be provided special education and related services to the extent consistent with the number and location of such children in the school district served by a LEA pursuant to several requirements. These requirements include new provisions relating to direct services to parentally placed private school children with disabilities, the calculation of the proportionate amount of funds, and a requirement for record keeping.

The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (P.L. 108-458) directs the Department of Homeland Security to place high priority on developing and deploying equipment for passenger explosives screening; requires TSA to submit a strategic plan for deploying such equipment; and authorizes additional research funding. It also requires that passengers who are selected for additional screening be screened for explosives, as an interim measure until all passengers can be screened for explosives. Congressional interest in this topic continues in the 109th Congress. This report discusses the current state of passenger explosives trace detection, ongoing federal R&D efforts and pilot equipment deployments, and related policy issues.

This report is about completing a biometric entry-exit screening system for travelers to and from the United States is essential to nations security.

This report describes the federal laws and regulations that seek to assure an adequate level of safety in the use of asbestos.

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This report provides Congress with a broad overview of significant congressional and presidential regulatory reform efforts within the past 20 to 30 years.

This report addresses Formula and other changes regarding Allocation of Wastewater Treatment Assistance.