This report provides an overview of Jordanian politics and current issues in U.S.-Jordanian relations. It provides a brief discussion of Jordan's government and economy and of its cooperation in promoting Arab-Israeli peace and other U.S. policy objectives in the Middle East.

This report provides background information and issues for Congress on the modernization of the Coast Guard's polar icebreaker fleet, which performs a variety of missions supporting U.S. interests in polar regions.

This report provides an overview of recent U.N. efforts to address VAW and highlights key U.N. interagency efforts. It also discusses selected U.N. funds, programs, and agencies that address international violence against women. It does not assess the extent to which VAW is directly addressed or is part of a larger initiative or program.

This report provides background information and oversight issues for Congress on the Virginiaclass nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN) program. The Navy's proposed FY2012 budget requests procurement funding for the 15th and 16th Virginia-class boats, and advance procurement (AP) funding for Virginia-class boats to be procured in future years. Decisions that Congress makes on procurement of Virginia-class boats could substantially affect U.S. Navy capabilities and funding requirements, and the U.S. shipbuilding industrial base.

This report presents a summary of trade negotiations and the proposed U.S.-Panama free trade agreement (FTA). The proposed U.S.-Panama FTA is a comprehensive agreement. Some 88% of U.S. commercial and industrial exports would become duty-free upon implementation, with remaining tariffs phased out over a 10-year period.

The United States and Russia signed a new strategic arms reduction treaty - known as New START - on April 8, 2010. This treaty is designed to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty (START), which expired, after 15 years of implementation, on December 5, 2009. This report provides an overview of New START, including a comparison to the original START Treaty, the belief of the Obama Administration and outside analysts that New START will enhance U.S. national security, and the criticisms of those who say that New START (and, indeed, the entire issue of U.S.-Russian arms control) is a distraction from more important items on the nonproliferation agenda.

Prompt global strike (PGS) would allow the United States to strike targets anywhere on earth with conventional weapons in as little as an hour. This report provides an overview of the rationale for the PGS mission and the possible deployment of conventional warheads on long-range ballistic missiles in support of this mission. It then reviews the Air Force and Navy efforts to develop these systems. It summarizes congressional reaction to these proposals, then provides a more detailed account of the issues raised by these concepts and programs.

Daily publication of the U.S. Office of the Federal Register contains rules and regulations, proposed legislation and rule changes, and other notices, including "Presidential proclamations and Executive Orders, Federal agency documents having general applicability and legal effect, documents required to be published by act of Congress, and other Federal agency documents of public interest" (p. ii). Table of Contents starts on page iii.

This report provides background information and issues for Congress on the modernization of the Coast Guard's polar icebreaker fleet, which performs a variety of missions supporting U.S. interests in polar regions. The Coast Guard's two heavy polar icebreakers-Polar Star and Polar Sea-have exceeded their intended 30-year service lives, and neither is currently in operational condition.

The United States and Russia signed a new strategic arms reduction treaty - known as New START - on April 8, 2010. This treaty is designed to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty (START), which expired, after 15 years of implementation, on December 5, 2009. This report provides an overview of New START, including a comparison to the original START Treaty, the belief of the Obama Administration and outside analysts that New START will enhance U.S. national security, and the criticisms of those who say that New START (and, indeed, the entire issue of U.S.-Russian arms control) is a distraction from more important items on the nonproliferation agenda.

Bill introduced by the Texas Senate relating to the prosecution, punishment, and certain criminal and civil consequences of offenses involving or related to the trafficking of persons and to certain protections for victims of those offenses.

Bill introduced by the Texas Senate relating to the exemption of certain electric cooperatives from certain regulations.

Bill introduced by the Texas Senate relating to the maximum capacity of a container of wine sold to a retail dealer.

Bill introduced by the Texas Senate relating to the duration of the interagency task force on ensuring appropriate care settings for persons with disabilities.

Bill introduced by the Texas Senate relating to limiting the liability of space flight entities.

Proceedings of the House of Representatives of Texas for the sixty-first day of the Regular session of the 82nd Legislature documenting legislation, reports, discussions, votes, and points-of-order.

Proceedings of the House of Representatives of Texas for the 60th day of the regular session of the 82nd Legislature documenting legislation, reports, discussions, votes, and points-of-order.

This report outlines the Endangered Species Act (ESA) provisions most relevant to the act's impacts on private property and surveys the major ESA-relevant principles of Fifth Amendment takings law. The report then proceeds to summarize the court decisions on whether particular government actions (or inaction) based on the ESA "take" private property.

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This report documents the preparation of three actual Hanford tank waste samples for shipment to the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL). Two of the samples were dissolved saltcakes from tank 241-AN-103 (hereafter AN-103) and tank 241-SX-105 (hereafter SX-105); one sample was a supernate composite from tanks 241-AZ-101 and 241-AZ-102 (hereafter AZ-101/102). The preparation of the samples was executed following the test plans LAB-PLAN-10-00006, Test Plan for the Preparation of Samples from Hanford Tanks 241-SX-105, 241-AN-103, 241-AN-107, and LAB-PLN-l0-00014, Test Plan for the Preparation of a Composite Sample from Hanford Tanks 241-AZ-101 and 241-AZ-102 for Steam Reformer Testing at the Savannah River National Laboratory. All procedural steps were recorded in laboratory notebook HNF-N-274 3. Sample breakdown diagrams for AN-103 and SX-105 are presented in Appendix A. The tank samples were prepared in support of a series of treatability studies of the Fluidized Bed Steam Reforming (FBSR) process using a Bench-Scale Reformer (BSR) at SRNL. Tests with simulants have shown that the FBSR mineralized waste form is comparable to low-activity waste glass with respect to environmental durability (WSRC-STI-2008-00268, Mineralization of Radioactive Wastes by Fluidized Bed Steam Reforming (FBSR): Comparisons to Vitreous Waste Forms and Pertinent Durability Testing). However, a rigorous assessment requires …

The development of efficient and safe methods for hydrogen storage is a major hurdle that must be overcome to enable the use of hydrogen as an alternative energy carrier. The objectives of this project in the DOE Center of Excellence in Chemical Hydride Storage were both to develop new methods for on-demand, low temperature hydrogen release from chemical hydrides and to design high-conversion off-board methods for chemical hydride regeneration. Because of their reactive protic (N-H) and hydridic (B-H) hydrogens and high hydrogen contents, amineboranes such as ammonia borane, NH3BH3 (AB), 19.6-wt% H2, and ammonia triborane NH3B3H7 (AT), 17.7-wt% H2, were initially identified by the Center as promising, high-capacity chemical hydrogen storage materials with the potential to store and deliver molecular hydrogen through dehydrogenation and hydrolysis reactions. In collaboration with other Center partners, the Penn project focused both on new methods to induce amineborane H2-release and on new strategies for the regeneration the amineborane spent-fuel materials. The Penn approach to improving amineborane H2-release focused on the use of ionic liquids, base additives and metal catalysts to activate AB dehydrogenation and these studies successfully demonstrated that in ionic liquids the AB induction period that had been observed in the solid-state was eliminated …

The Neutralized Drift Compression Experiment (NDCX-II) is an 11 M$ induction accelerator project currently in construction at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for warm dense matter (WDM) experiments investigating the interaction of ion beams with matter at elevated temperature and pressure. The machine consists of a lithium injector, induction accelerator cells, diagnostic cells, a neutralized drift compression line, a final focus solenoid, and a target chamber. The induction cells and some of the pulsed power systems have been reused from the decommissioned Advanced Test Accelerator at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory after refurbishment and modification. The machine relies on a sequence of acceleration waveforms to longitudinally compress the initial ion pulse from 600 ns to less than 1 ns in {approx} 12 m. Radial confinement of the beam is achieved with 2.5 T pulsed solenoids. In the initial hardware configuration, 50 nC of Li{sup +} will be accelerated to 1.25 MeV and allowed to drift-compress to a peak current of {approx}40 A. The project started in the summer of 2009. Construction of the accelerator will be completed in the fall of 2011 and will provide a worldwide unique opportunity for ion-driven warm dense matter experiments as well as research related to novel …

This report summarizes many of the projects, and lists all of the publications and persons trained with support from the grant.

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