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This report is a guide to one of the regular appropriations bills that Congress considers each year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Homeland Security. It summarizes the status of the bill, its scope, major issues, funding levels, and related congressional activity, and is updated as events warrant.

This report is organized to reflect the main border security issues relating to the movement of people into the country, as indicated by the legislation currently pending in the 109th Congress.

This report discusses how gasoline composition is regulated and explains the various federal and state gasoline standards. Next, the report presents some of the key issues with the federal RFG program. Some of the problems associated with boutique fuels are discussed, as well as some of the potential effects of harmonization. Finally, congressional actions in the 109th Congress related to boutique fuels, RFG, and harmonization, including the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, are discussed.

Since the fall of 2003, a strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1) has spread throughout Asia, infecting mostly poultry but also a limited number of humans. The virus reached Europe in 2005, and the Middle East and Africa in 2006. Avian flu is highly contagious in domestic poultry. Strict biosecurity measures are practiced by commercial poultry farms and encouraged by governments. The economic effects of avian flu outbreaks can be significant, especially given international trade restrictions. Controlling avian flu in poultry is seen as the best way to prevent a human pandemic from developing, by reducing the number of animal hosts in which the virus may evolve. This report mainly covers avian flu in poultry, and will be updated.

The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA, P.L. 103- 414, 47 USC 1001-1010), enacted October 25, 1994, is intended to preserve the ability of law enforcement officials to conduct electronic surveillance effectively and efficiently despite the deployment of new digital technologies and wireless services that have altered the character of electronic surveillance. CALEA requires telecommunications carriers to modify their equipment, facilities, and services, wherever reasonably achievable, to ensure that they are able to comply with authorized electronic surveillance actions.

This report discusses government efforts to increase efficiency. One approach being implemented to reduce duplicative spending and improve cross-agency collaboration is the use of enterprise architecture (EA) planning across the federal government. An EA serves as a blueprint of the business operations of an organization, and the information and technology needed to carry out these functions.

This report discusses the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act, which makes federal funds available to metropolitan areas and states to assist in health care costs and support services for individuals and families affected by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). This report discusses related legislation and appropriations.

The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 reduced marginal tax rates, provided marriage tax penalty relief, provided temporary relief from the alternative minimum tax, and increased the child tax credit. Congress approved similar tax measures in 2003 and 2004, but all are set to expire after 2010.

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This report gives an overview and current issues related to Grazing fees.

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The CRD addresses the requirements of Department of Energy (DOE) Order 413.3-Change 1, ''Program and Project Management for the Acquisition of Capital Assets'', by providing the Secretarial Acquisition Executive (Level 0) scope baseline and the Program-level (Level 1) technical baseline. The Secretarial Acquisition Executive approves the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management's (OCRWM) critical decisions and changes against the Level 0 baseline; and in turn, the OCRWM Director approves all changes against the Level 1 baseline. This baseline establishes the top-level technical scope of the CRMWS and its three system elements, as described in section 1.3.2. The organizations responsible for design, development, and operation of system elements described in this document must therefore prepare subordinate project-level documents that are consistent with the CRD. Changes to requirements will be managed in accordance with established change and configuration control procedures. The CRD establishes requirements for the design, development, and operation of the CRWMS. It specifically addresses the top-level governing laws and regulations (e.g., ''Nuclear Waste Policy Act'' (NWPA), 10 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 63, 10 CFR Part 71, etc.) along with specific policy, performance requirements, interface requirements, and system architecture. The CRD shall be used as a vehicle to incorporate …

The authors present a search for the rare B-meson decay B{sup 0} {yields} {alpha}{sub 1}{sup {+-}}{rho}{sup {-+}} with {alpha}{sub 1}{sup {+-}} {yields} {pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -}{pi}{sup {+-}}. We use (110 {+-} 1.2) x 10{sup 6} {Upsilon}(4S) {yields} B{bar B} decays collected with the BABAR detector at the PEp-II asymmetric-energy B Factory at SLAC. They obtain an upper limit of 30 x 10{sup -6} (90% C.L.) for the branching fraction product {Beta}(B{sup 0} {yields} {alpha}{sub 1}{sup {+-}}{rho}{sup {-+}}) {Beta}({alpha}{sub 1}{sup {+-}} {yields} {pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -}{pi}{sup {+-}}), where they assume that the {alpha}{sub 1}{sup {+-}} decays exclusively to {rho}{sup 0}{pi}{sup {+-}}.

Probabilistic seismic hazard analyses provide the opportunity, indeed the requirement, to quantify the uncertainties in important inputs to the analysis. The locations of future earthquakes, their recurrence rates and maximum size, and the ground motions that will result at a site of interest are all quantities that require careful consideration because they are uncertain. The earliest PSHA models [Cornell, 1968] provided solely for the randomness or aleatory variability in these quantities. The most sophisticated seismic hazard models today, which include quantified uncertainties, are merely more realistic representations of this basic aleatory model. All attempts to quantify uncertainties require expert judgment. Further, all uncertainty models should endeavor to consider the range of views of the larger technical community at the time the hazard analysis is conducted. In some cases, especially for large projects under regulatory review, formal structured methods for eliciting expert judgments have been employed. Experience has shown that certain key elements are required for these assessments to be successful, including: (1) experts should be trained in probability theory, uncertainty quantification, and ways to avoid common cognitive biases; (2) comprehensive and user-friendly databases should be provided to the experts; (3) experts should be required to evaluate all potentially credible hypotheses; …

A ''resonance method'' of measuring the electric dipole moment (EDM) of nuclei in storage rings is described, based on two new ideas: (1) Oscillating particles velocities in resonance with spin precession, and (2) alternately producing two sub-beams with different betatron tunes--one sub-beam to amplify and thus make it easier to correct ring imperfections that produce false signals imitating EDM signals, and the other to make the EDM measurement.

A suite of test problems has been developed to examine contact behavior within the nonlinear, three-dimensional, explicit finite element analysis (FEA) code DYNA3D (Lin, 2005). The test problems use multiple interfaces and a combination of enforcement methods to assess the basic functionality of the contact algorithms. The results from the DYNA3D analyses are compared to closed form solutions to verify the contact behavior. This work was performed as part of the Verification and Validation efforts of LLNL W Program within the NNSA's Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) Program. DYNA3D models the transient dynamic response of solids and structures including the interactions between disjoint bodies (parts). A wide variety of contact surfaces are available to represent the diverse interactions possible during an analysis, including relative motion (sliding), separation and gap closure (voids), and fixed relative position (tied). The problem geometry may be defined using a combination of element formulations, including one-dimensional beam and truss elements, two-dimensional shell elements, and three-dimensional solid elements. Consequently, it is necessary to consider various element interactions during contact. This report and associated test problems examine the scenario where multiple bodies interact with each other via multiple interfaces. The test problems focus on whether any ordering issues …

A suite of test problems has been developed to examine contact behavior within the nonlinear, three-dimensional, explicit finite element analysis (FEA) code DYNA3D (Lin, 2005). The test problems address the basic functionality of the contact algorithms, including the behavior of various kinematic, penalty, and Lagrangian enforcement formulations. The results from the DYNA3D analyses are compared to closed form solutions to verify the contact behavior. This work was performed as part of the Verification and Validation efforts of LLNL W Program within the NNSA's Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) Program. DYNA3D models the transient dynamic response of solids and structures including the interactions between disjoint bodies (parts). A wide variety of contact surfaces are available to represent the diverse interactions possible during an analysis, including relative motion (sliding), separation and gap closure (voids), and fixed relative position (tied). The problem geometry may be defined using a combination of element formulations, including one-dimensional beam and truss elements, two-dimensional shell elements, and three-dimensional solid elements. Consequently, it is necessary to consider various element interactions for each contact algorithm being verified. Most of the contact algorithms currently available in DYNA3D are examined; the exceptions are the Type 4--Single Surface Contact and Type 11--SAND algorithms. …

The purpose of this project is to gain a better understanding of the stratigraphy and geologic structure of the East and West Firing Areas, at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Site 300 (Figure 1). This analysis is designed to help better delineate hydrostratigraphic units (HSUs) in order to enhance the understanding of the fate and transport of contaminants in the subsurface. Specific objectives of the investigation include: (1) Evaluation of the stratigraphic relationships between the units that contain tritium in ground water that originates from Pit 7 and the Building 850 area in the vicinity of Doall Ravine; (2) The correlation of these units across the Elk Ravine Fault Zone; and (3) The correlation of these units between the Building 865, Pit 1, Pit 2, and Building 812 areas. These issues were raised by regulators at the Regional Water Quality Control Board in the review of the Pit 7 RI/FS (Taffet and others, 2005). The results of this investigation will assist Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) hydrogeologists to conduct work in a more focused and cost-effective manner. This document is submitted to fulfill contract obligations for subcontract B539658.

Gas storage is a critical element in the natural gas industry. Producers, transmission and distribution companies, marketers, and end users all benefit directly from the load balancing function of storage. The unbundling process has fundamentally changed the way storage is used and valued. As an unbundled service, the value of storage is being recovered at rates that reflect its value. Moreover, the marketplace has differentiated between various types of storage services, and has increasingly rewarded flexibility, safety, and reliability. The size of the natural gas market has increased and is projected to continue to increase towards 30 trillion cubic feet (TCF) over the next 10 to 15 years. Much of this increase is projected to come from electric generation, particularly peaking units. Gas storage, particularly the flexible services that are most suited to electric loads, is critical in meeting the needs of these new markets. In order to address the gas storage needs of the natural gas industry, an industry-driven consortium was created--the Gas Storage Technology Consortium (GSTC). The objective of the GSTC is to provide a means to accomplish industry-driven research and development designed to enhance operational flexibility and deliverability of the Nation's gas storage system, and provide a …

Address both thickness dependence of Jc, in thick film YBCO coated conductors through an application of a suite of new measurement techniques to thick film wire samples produced by commercially viable coated conductor technologies.

Spray forming is a competitive low-cost alternative to ingot metallurgy for manufacturing ferrous and non-ferrous alloy shapes. It produces materials with a reduced number of processing steps, while maintaining materials properties, with the possibility of near-net-shape manufacturing. However, there are several hurdles to large-scale commercial adoption of spray forming: 1) ensuring strip is consistently flat, 2) eliminating porosity, particularly at the deposit/substrate interface, and 3) improving material yield. Through this program, a new strip/sheet casting process, termed spray rolling, has been developed, which is an innovative manufacturing technique to produce aluminum net-shape products. Spray rolling combines the benefits of twin-roll casting and conventional spray forming, showing a promising potential to overcome the above hurdles associated with spray forming. Spray rolling requires less energy and generates less scrap than conventional processes and, consequently, enables the development of materials with lower environmental impacts in both processing and final products. Spray Rolling was developed as a collaborative project between the University of California-Davis, the Colorado School of Mines, the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, and an industry team. The following objectives of this project were achieved: (1) Demonstration of the feasibility of the spray rolling process at the bench-scale level and evaluation …