This report discusses Medicare, which consists of two distinct parts — Part A (Hospital Insurance (HI)) and Part B (Supplementary Medical Insurance (SMI)). Part A is financed primarily through payroll taxes levied on current workers and their employers. Income from these taxes is credited to the HI trust fund. Part B is financed through a combination of monthly premiums paid by current enrollees and general revenues. Income from these sources is credited to the SMI trust fund.

This report discusses the ongoing international policy debate regarding Global Climate Change and U.S. involvement in the issue of global climate change.The report provides an historical context of the current debate, which is important in understanding the fundamental issues about global climate change.

While "competitiveness" has a clear meaning when applied to a baseball team, or a firm or industry, it is of limited usefulness when applied to a country's overall economic performance. Moreover, focussing on competitiveness can lead to questionable economic policies.

None

To the extent that a special rule is silent with respect to the terms for considering a measure, the standing rules of the House apply. The standing rules impose various limitations on consideration; however, it is not always in the interest of the House to observe these limitations. Therefore, special rules may sometimes include exemptions from one or more provisions of the standing rules, which appear in the form of waivers of those provisions.

This report describes the basic elements and issues of the Department of Defense's (DOD) Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) Program. It defines basic activities supported by the program, presents budget trends, discusses the management of program, and describes the infrastructure in which the program is implemented. This report is for staff new to the area of defense research and for senior staff interested in historical trends.

Japan has quickly risen to prominence as a donor of official development assistance (ODA), providing volumes of aid on par with the United States since the late 1980s. Originally a tool to bolster Japan's postwar economic recovery, Japanese aid has gradually assumed importance as a foreign policy tool. Faced with increased pressure from the international community to play a greater role in meeting global challenges and lacking the military and diplomatic resources of other nations, Japan has increasingly turned to its foreign aid as a source of world influence.

As a result of a series of laws enacted in 1983, 1985 and 1990, Social Security is considered to be "off budget" for federal budget purposes. While the meaning of this might seem obvious -- that Social Security is not to be considered as part of the federal budget -- many people are perplexed by the use of aggregate budget figures that count all federal receipts and expenditures, including Social Security's.

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.

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.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Permissible investments of Teacher Retirement System and related questions (RQ-1174)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether, under the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure under article 11.07, section 3(b), the prosecuting attorney and court clerk may agree to substitute another method of service for service by certified mail, return receipt requested (RQ-1227)

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed its work concerning federally funded teacher training programs, focusing on the: (1) number of agencies and the programs they administer that support teacher training, along with some general characteristics of these programs; and (2) funding provided by these programs."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) efforts to improve customer service."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on issues related to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC) reauthorization, focusing on issues related to derivatives that are traded on-exchange as well as those that are privately negotiated off-exchange, or over-the-counter (OTC)."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the tax compliance burdens of small business taxpayers, focusing on: (1) why the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) compliance burden estimates are not reliable; (2) why the relationship of the no-change rates to audit rates for small businesses and other individuals is difficult to determine; and (3) why IRS has limited information on its interactions with small businesses."

A statement of record issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the implementation of Executive Order 12612 on federalism, focusing on: (1) how often the preambles to covered agencies' final rules issued between April 1, 1996, and December 31, 1998, mentioned Executive Order 12612 and how often they indicated that the agencies had conducted federalism assessments under the order; (2) what selected agencies have done to implement the requirements of Executive Order 12612; and (3) what the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has done to oversee federal agencies' implementation of Executive Order 12612 in the rulemaking process."

The RELAP5/Mod3.1 computer program has been used to successfully perform thermal-hydraulic analyses to support the Safety Analysis for increasing the MNRC reactor from 1.0 MW to 2.0 MW. The calculation results show the reactor to have operating margin for both the fuel temperature and critical heat flux limits. The calculated maximum fuel temperature of 705 C is well below the 750 C operating limit. The critical heat flux ratio was calculated to be 2.51.

The general objectives are to (1) to identify and develop gelled polymer systems which have potential to improve reservoir conformance of fluid displacement processes, (2) to determine the performance of these systems in bulk and in porous media, and (3) to develop methods to predict the capability of these systems to recover oil from petroleum reservoirs. This work focuses on three types of gel systems - an aqueous polysaccharide (KUSP1) system that gels as a function of pH, the chromium(III)-polyacrylamide system and the aluminum citrate-polyacrylamide system. Laboratory research is directed at the fundamental understanding of the physics and chemistry of the gelation process in bulk form and in porous media. This knowledge will be used to develop conceptual and mathematical models of the gelation process. Mathematical models will then be extended to predict the performance of gelled polymer treatments in oil reservoirs. Technical progress of Task III, mechanisms of in situ gelation is presented in this progress report.

Newsletter distributed to the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Forum members describing current news, policies, and legislation, as well as other information relevant to the management of low-level radioactive waste.

With statistical analysis of global data from one, two and four stellarators, it is possible to draw limited conclusions whether Gyro- Bohm or Bohm scaling prevails. Either scaling may be favored, depending on whether corrections are included for possible {Beta} and v{sub *} corrections and whether all data are taken, or selected cases with low collisionality, or low net toroidal current, or with ECH heating applied, and so on. Monte Carlo-like simulations are used to test reliability of inferences about power-law scaling exponents made from data having substantial statistical variance and collinearity of control parameters. These show that for reliable conclusions, statistical studies should be augmented; more directed experimental studies are needed, with well controlled discharges and radially resolved data - such as those already begun on ATF and W7-AS.

In the last 5 years, significant technology advances have been made in the performance, size, and cost of solid-state diode-pumped lasers. These developments enable the use of compact Q-switched Nd:YAG lasers as a beam diagnostic for high current H{sup {minus}} beams. Because the threshold for photodetachment is only 0.75 eV, and the maximum detachment cross section is 4 {times} 10{sup {minus}17} cm{sup 2} at 1.5 eV, a 50 mJ/pulse Q-switched Nd:YAG laser can neutralize a significant fraction of the beam in a single 10-ns wide pulse. The neutral beam maintains nearly identical parameters as the parent H{sup {minus}} beam, including size, divergence, energy, energy spread, and phase spread. A dipole magnet can separate the neutral beam from the H{sup {minus}} beam to allow diagnostics on the neutral beam without intercepting the high-current H{sup {minus}} beam. Such a laser system can also be used to extract a low current proton beam, or to induce fluorescence in partially stripped heavy ion beams. Possible beamline diagnostic systems will be reviewed, and the neutral beam yields will be calculated.

As part of international agreement between the United States and Russia, a significant amount of plutonium requires disposition. One of the disposition paths is to immobilize it and dispose of it in a geological repository. The two favored immobilization forms are glass and ceramic. The plutonium, as an oxide, would be reacted with the glass or ceramic to form a homogeneousmaterial. The resulting solid product would then be encased in High-Level Waste (1-ILW)glass for the can-in-canister option. The HLW glass gives a radiation barrier to increase proliferation resistance. The glass canister would then be disposed of by geological emplacement. This paper discusses how glass meets two criteria: the condition of significant actinide volubility, and That the PuO{sub 2} feed should be incorporated into the matrix without significant amount of unreacted material.

Negative-parity excitations in the 2.5 MeV region in {sup 112}Cd have been investigated with the (n,n`{gamma}) reaction. Several of these states exhibit enhanced B(E2) values for L decay to the 3{sub 1}{sup -} octupole state, indicative of quadrupole-octupole coupled (2{sup +} {circle_times} 3{sup -}) structures. The B(E1) values observed are typically in the range of 1-5 x 1O{sup -4} W u , irrespective of the final state.