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During the first session of the 108th Congress, the House and Senate will consider many different budgetary measures. Most measures pertain to fiscal year (FY) 2004 (which began on October 1, 2003) and beyond. Some also pertain to the budget for FY2003. As the session progresses, this report will describe House and Senate action on major budgetary legislation within the framework of the congressional budget process and other procedural requirements.

This report discusses the information related to gun control legislation. The contents include Gun-related statistics, federal regulation of firearms, legislative action in the 108th Congress

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China’s economy remained relatively healthy in 2002, despite economic slowdowns in other parts of the world. Foreign investment continued to pour into China, and the Chinese government effectively used public spending to boost the economy. However, painful economic reforms will be necessary to keep the economic strong in 2003 and beyond. The recent outbreak in early 2003 of a very contagious virus called SevereAcuteRespiratory Syndrome (SARS) in China appears to have had a short-term negative impact on the Chinese economy.

This report presents the issues considered by the 108th Congress related to the civil works program of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps). The Corps plans, constructs, and operates water resources facilities primarily for flood control, navigation, and environmental purposes.

Appropriations are one part of a complex federal budget process that includes budget resolutions, appropriations (regular, supplemental, and continuing) bills, rescissions, and budget reconciliation bills. This Report is a guide to one of the 13 regular appropriations bills that Congress passes each year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Agriculture.

Appropriations are one part of a complex federal budget process that includes budget resolutions, appropriations (regular, supplemental, and continuing) bills, rescissions, and budget reconciliation bills. This Report is a guide to one of the 13 regular appropriations bills that Congress passes each year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury and Independent Agencies of the House Committee on Appropriations the Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury and General Government of the Senate Committee on Appropriations.

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Cyprus has been divided since 1974. Greek Cypriots, nearly 80% of the population, live in the southern two thirds of the island. Turkish Cypriots live in the “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” (recognized only by Turkey), with about 30,000 Turkish troops providing security. U.N. peacekeeping forces maintain a buffer zone between the two. Members of Congress have urged the Administration to be more active, although they have not proposed an alternative to the U.N.-sponsored talks.

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This report has two main sections. In the first section “Identifying Public Safety Needs,” some of the organizations involved with public safety telecommunications are introduced, and key activities dealing with wireless and spectrum issues are summarized. The second main section, “Spectrum for Public Safety,” is organized by the major spectrum bands where public safety wireless communications are in use or planned. These are at: 100-512 MHz; 700 MHz; 800 MHz; 900 MHz and 4.9 GHz. Ultra-wide band (UWB), that broadcasts across a broad range of frequencies, is also discussed. The final section of this report recaps recent activities and legislation in the 107th and 108th Congresses regarding public safety and spectrum use.

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Data mining is emerging as one of the key features of many homeland security initiatives. Often used as a means for detecting fraud, assessing risk, and product retailing, data mining involves the use of data analysis tools to discover previously unknown, valid patterns and relationships in large data sets. This report discusses the data mining uses (i.e. Terrorism Information Awareness (TIA) Program) and issues (i.e. data quality, interoperability, privacy), as well as the limitations of data mining.

The Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center (INTEC) was home to nuclear fuel reprocessing activities for decades at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. As a result of the reprocessing activities, INTEC has accumulated approximately one million gallons of acidic, radioactive, sodium-bearing waste (SBW). The purpose of this demonstration was to investigate a reforming technology, offered by ThermoChem Waste Remediation, LLC, (TWR) for treatment of SBW into a ''road ready'' waste form that would meet the waste acceptance criteria for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). TWR is the licensee of Manufacturing Technology Conservation International (MTCI) steam-reforming technology in the field of radioactive waste treatment. A non-radioactive simulated SBW was used based on the known composition of waste tank WM-180 at INTEC. Rhenium was included as a non-radioactive surrogate for technetium. Data was collected to determine the nature and characteristics of the product, the operability of the technology, the composition of the off-gases, and the fate of key radionuclides (cesium and technetium) and volatile mercury compounds. The product contained a low fraction of elemental carbon residues in the cyclone and filter vessel catches. Mercury was quantitatively stripped from the product but cesium, rhenium (Tc surrogate), and the heavy metals …

Computational fluid dynamics methods were used to recommend a slurry pump operational strategy for sludge heel removal in Tank 8. Flow patterns calculated by the model were used to evaluate the performance of various combinations of operating pumps and their orientation. The models focused on removal of the sludge heel located at the east side of Tank 8 using the four existing slurry pumps. The models and calculations were based on prototypic tank geometry and expected normal operating conditions as defined by Waste Removal Closure (WRC) Engineering. The calculated results demonstrated that for pump speeds higher than 1800 rpm and at a 130 inch liquid level, a recommended orientation of the slurry pumps could be provided, based on a minimum sludge suspension velocity of 2.27 ft per sec. Further results showed that the time to reach a steady-state flow pattern was affected by both the tank level and the pump speed. Sensitivity studies showed that for a given pump speed, a higher tank level and a lower pump nozzle elevation would result in better performance in suspending and removing the sludge. The results also showed that the presence of flow obstructions were advantageous for certain pump orientations.

As part of the global synthesis effort sponsored by the Global Carbon Cycle project of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and U.S. Department of Energy, a comprehensive comparison was performed of inorganic carbon parameters measured on oceanographic surveys carried out under auspices of the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study and related programs. Many of the cruises were performed as part of the World Hydrographic Program of the World Ocean Circulation Experiment and the NOAA Ocean-Atmosphere Carbon Exchange Study. Total dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), total alkalinity (TAlk), fugacity of CO{sub 2}, and pH data from twenty-three cruises were checked to determine whether there were systematic offsets of these parameters between cruises. The focus was on the DIC and TAlk state variables. Data quality and offsets of DIC and TAlk were determined by using several different techniques. One approach was based on crossover analyses, where the deep-water concentrations of DIC and TAlk were compared for stations on different cruises that were within 100 km of each other. Regional comparisons were also made by using a multiple-parameter linear regression technique in which DIC or TAlk was regressed against hydrographic and nutrient parameters. When offsets of greater than 4 {micro}mol/kg were observed …

The Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center (INTEC) was home to nuclear fuel reprocessing activities for decades at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. As a result of the reprocessing activities, INTEC has accumulated approximately one million gallons of acidic, radioactive, sodium-bearing waste (SBW). The purpose of this demonstration was to investigate a reforming technology, offered by THORsm Treatment Technologies, LLC, for treatment of SBW into a ''road ready'' waste form that would meet the waste acceptance criteria for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). A non-radioactive simulated SBW was used based on the known composition of waste tank WM-180 at INTEC. Rhenium was included as a non-radioactive surrogate for technetium. Data was collected to determine the nature and characteristics of the product, the operability of the technology, the composition of the off-gases, and the fate of key radionuclides (cesium and technetium) and volatile mercury compounds. The product contained a low fraction of elemental carbon residues in the cyclone and filter vessel catches. Mercury was quantitatively stripped from the product but cesium, rhenium (Tc surrogate), and the heavy metals were retained. Nitrates were not detected in the product and NOx destruction exceeded 98%. The demonstration was successful.

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Between 1952 and 1970, DOE buried mixed waste in pits and trenches that now have special cleanup needs. The disposal practices used decades ago left these landfills and other trenches, pits, and disposal sites filled with three million cubic meters of buried waste. This waste is becoming harmful to human safety and health. Today's cleanup and waste removal is time-consuming and expensive with some sites scheduled to complete cleanup by 2006 or later. An interim solution to the DOE buried waste problem is to encapsulate and hydraulically isolate the waste with a geomembrane barrier and monitor the performance of the barrier over its 50-yr lifetime. The installed containment barriers would isolate the buried waste and protect groundwater from pollutants until final remediations are completed. The DOE has awarded a contract to RAHCO International, Inc.; of Spokane, Washington; to design, develop, and test a novel subsurface barrier installation system, referred to as a Subsurface Containment System (SCS). The installed containment barrier consists of commercially available geomembrane materials that isolates the underground waste, similar to the way a swimming pools hold water, without disrupting hazardous material that was buried decades ago. The barrier protects soil and groundwater from contamination and effectively meets …

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This CRADA was a continuation of earlier work with Micro-Grain, Inc. to develop power, high frequency microwave treatment process to treat insect infested grain. ORNLs role was as a subcontractor to Micro-Grain's Phase II SBIR project funded by the US Department of Agriculture. The primary objective was to develop a commercial scale prototype unit capable of treating infested grain at flow rates approaching 1 kg/sec, which is required to be viable in the grain handling industry. A flow rate of {approx} 0.12 Kg/second was demonstrated at 20 kW microwave power level with 100% kill rate. The system is capable of 200 kW however waveguide arcing due to grain dust in the waveguide limited the power to 20 kW during the tests. Development tasks performed during the project included modification of an existing high-power microwave exposure facility to uniformly process large grain samples at high flow rates and improved instrumentation to detect grain flow and uniformity. Microwave processing tasks include a series of controlled exposure tests using infested grain samples provided and analyzed by the University of Oklahoma. Grain samples were infested with red flour beetles which proved the most difficult to kill in earlier tests. Most of the samples processed …