The 107th Congress will consider and seek to influence trade issues with implications for the U.S. agricultural sector. Trade in agricultural commodities and food products affects farm income and rural employment, and it also generates economic activity beyond the farm gate. With agricultural export sales accounting for one-quarter of farm income, policymakers view U.S. efforts to develop market opportunities overseas as vital to the sector's financial health. Decisions taken by the Bush Administration, and actions taken by Congress, thus will affect the outlook for agricultural trade.

A briefing report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Concerns have been growing about the air quality, visibility, and respiratory illnesses around the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which straddles the border between North Carolina and Tennessee. This report analyzes recent trends in and contributing factors to (1) visibility impairments, (2) ground-level ozone, and (3) respiratory illnesses. This report also examines the Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA) plans to reduce its emission of regulated pollutants from generating electricity. Visibility impairments and ozone are largely attributable to the following three types of emissions: sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and volatile organic compounds. The counties that border the park generally have slightly higher mortality rates from two types of respiratory illness. The three types of emissions interact in the atmosphere to form ozone gas and sulfate particles, which are linked to respiratory illnesses. In response to federal laws and other factors, TVA is making substantial environment-related investments and expects to reduce its annual emissions of sulfur dioxide by 40 percent and its "ozone-season"' emissions of nitrogen oxides by 70 percent between 1999 and 2005."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Concerns have been growing about the air quality, visibility, and respiratory illnesses around the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which straddles the border between North Carolina and Tennessee. This testimony analyzes recent trends in and contributing factors to (1) visibility impairments, (2) ground-level ozone, and (3) respiratory illnesses. This testimony also examines the Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA) plans to reduce its emission of regulated pollutants. Visibility impairments and ozone are largely attributable to the following three types of emissions: sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and volatile organic compounds. The counties that border the park generally have slightly higher mortality rates from two types of respiratory illness. The three types of emissions interact in the atmosphere to form ozone gas and sulfate particles, which are linked to respiratory illnesses. In response to federal laws and other factors, TVA is making substantial environment-related investments and expects to reduce its annual emissions of sulfur dioxide by 36 percent and its "ozone-season" emissions of nitrogen oxides by 68 percent between 1999 and 2005. This testimony summarizes a May report, (GAO-01-658)."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "As of September 1999, the Department of Defense (DOD) reported that it owned secondary inventory worth about $64 billion and that $9.4 billion of that inventory is more economical to retain than to dispose of and possibly repurchase later. This report focuses on whether DOD's economic retention decisions are sound. GAO found that military components (other than the Air Force) have developed models to help make economic retention decisions on secondary inventory. However, none of the components now use their economic retention models. Instead, they and the Air Force use ceilings to limit the amount of economic retention inventory they hold. Components have not properly documented their approaches to economic retention decisions. For example, common model factors vary and assumptions are inconsistent and out of date. In addition, DOD lacked sound analytical support for the maximum levels it now uses. As a result, the components cannot depend on their models or ceilings to determine retention inventory levels without review and improvement. They also have not reviewed their approaches annually. As a result, the Department does not have a sound basis for its approach to manage items …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DOD) have made important progress, particularly during the past year, in their efforts to jointly procure drugs to help control spiraling prescription drug costs. Although their collaborative efforts have been impressive, the two agencies have largely targeted generic drugs, which comprise less than 10 percent of their combined expenditures. More dramatic cost reductions could be achieved through procurements of high-cost brand-name drugs, although doing so can be more complex and time consuming to garner the necessary clinical support and provider acceptance on therapeutic interchangeability. Nonetheless, DOD's greatly expanded retiree drug benefit and the formularies being developed by both agencies should provide added joint procurement opportunities for such drugs. Also, VA and DOD have shown that flexible approaches to developing joint solicitations can take into account differences in their health systems while still maximizing drug discounts. In GAO's view, their joint activities could be further enhanced by periodically conferring with private managed care pharmacy experts and reporting to Congress on their joint procurement activities. Top management at DOD and VA need to stay focused on their …

Several designs have been built and operated of microwave cyclotron autoresonance accelerators (CARA's) with electron beam parameters suitable for remediation of pollutants in flue gas emissions from coal-burning power plants. CARA designs have also been developed with a TW-level 10.6 micron laser driver for electron acceleration from 50 to 100 MeV, and with UHF drivers for proton acceleration to over 500 MeV. Dose requirements for reducing SO2, NOx, and particulates in flue gas emissions to acceptable levels have been surveyed, and used to optimize the design of an electron beam source to deliver this dose.

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report discusses the Emergency Steel Loan Program, which provides loan guarantees to qualified steel producing companies. GAO found that there has been only one guaranteed loan disbursed by a private lender for $110 million. With an 85 percent guarantee, the federal government's potential loss is $93.5 million, assuming no repayments and no recovery from property pledged as collateral. The financial condition of program applicants is not strong, and repayments of loans depend upon many future factors. Economic analysis indicates a flat demand for steel, moderate prices, and static imports of foreign steel forecasted for 2002 and 2003. Because of the low loan amount, the program has had a minimal overall effect on the U.S. steel industry through March 2001."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Despite efforts by the international community to reduce the spread of the human immunodeficiency virus, AIDS is now the fourth leading cause of death in the world and the primary cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), funded in part by the United States, is one important international effort against the disease. UNAIDS was established by the United Nations (U.N.) in 1996 to provide coordinated U.N. action and to lead and promote an expanded global response to the worldwide epidemic. This report (1) assesses UNAIDS' progress, especially at the country level, toward increasing the coordination and commitment of the U.N. and global community; (2) assesses UNAIDS' progress in providing technical assistance and information and in developing a monitoring and evaluation plan to measure results; and (3) identifies factors that may have affected UNAIDS' progress. GAO found that UNAIDS has made progress in increasing U.N. coordination and enhancing the global response to the worldwide HIV/AIDS epidemic, but its country-level efforts need to be strengthened. UNAIDS has provided financial and technical support to about 50 HIV/AIDS technical networks worldwide, but has …

Laser-induced fluorescence detection is one of the most sensitive detection techniques and it has found enormous applications in various areas. The purpose of this research was to develop detection approaches based on laser-induced fluorescence detection in two different areas, heterogeneous catalysts screening and single cell study. First, the author introduced laser-induced imaging (LIFI) as a high-throughput screening technique for heterogeneous catalysts to explore the use of this high-throughput screening technique in discovery and study of various heterogeneous catalyst systems. This scheme is based on the fact that the creation or the destruction of chemical bonds alters the fluorescence properties of suitably designed molecules. By irradiating the region immediately above the catalytic surface with a laser, the fluorescence intensity of a selected product or reactant can be imaged by a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera to follow the catalytic activity as a function of time and space. By screening the catalytic activity of vanadium pentoxide catalysts in oxidation of naphthalene, they demonstrated LIFI has good detection performance and the spatial and temporal resolution needed for high-throughput screening of heterogeneous catalysts. The sample packing density can reach up to 250 x 250 subunits/cm{sup 2} for 40-{micro}m wells. This experimental set-up also can screen …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "For federal agencies to become high-performing organizations, top management needs to foster performance-based cultures, find ways to measure performance, and use performance information to make decisions. GAO's survey of federal managers found wide differences in how well individual agencies demonstrated a results-based climate. However, transforming organizational cultures is an arduous and long-term effort. Managers' responses suggest that although some agencies are clearly showing signs of becoming high-performing organizations, others are not. The survey provides important information that agency leadership can use to build higher-performing organizations throughout government. GAO will continue to work with senior leadership in the individual agencies to help address the issues raised by their managers in responding to the survey. Congress has a vital role to play as well. As part of its confirmation, oversight, authorization, and appropriation responsibilities, Congress could use the information from GAO's survey, as well as information from agencies' performance plans and reports and GAO's January 2001 Performance and Accountability Series and High-Risk Series, to emphasize performance-based management and to underscore Congress' commitment to addressing long-standing challenges."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Unless the Department of Energy (DOE) revisits its disposal needs and its current option for disposing of wastes off-site, it could miss opportunities to reduce cleanup costs at the Fernald, Oak Ridge, and the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) sites and at other sites, such as Paducah, that might propose the development of new on-site facilities. Building in a decision checkpoint before major investment decisions are finalized could identify instances in which the use of off-site disposal would be less expensive, or when the cost difference no longer outweighs the long-term risks associated with on-site disposal. Such validation of the cost comparison is especially important in instances in which DOE is aware that the scope or timeframe of the cleanup effort has changed dramatically. Remaining open to new proposals for off-site disposal would also inject an element of competition into this process. Thus, even if the validation did nothing more than confirm the original decision to dispose of the wastes on-site, it has the potential to ensure that costs are kept to a minimum."

The objective of this program is to develop innovative DNA detection technologies to achieve fast mutation screening and to reveal the linkage between gene mutation and contaminants. The specific approach are (1) to develop innovative multiplexing hybridization detection for DNA mutation detection, (2) to develop sequence-proof microarray hybridization technology (3) to develop hybridization on disk and (4) to apply these new DNA detection technology for mutation analysis of contaminated fish and to validate the pollution-mediated mutation can be used for sound risk analysis for setting up the priorities for waste cleanup.

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Securities Investor Protection Act of 1970 created the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) to help protect customers against losses from the failure of a securities firm. However, the large number of claims denied in several recent SIPC liquidation proceedings has raised concerns that some SIPC policies and practices may unduly limit the actual protection afforded customers. This report discusses (1) the basis for SIPC policies involving unauthorized trading and the extent that these policies are disclosed to investors; (2) the basis for SIPC policies involving the affiliates of SIPC member firms and the extent that these policies are disclosed to investors; (3) SEC oversight of SIPC; and (4) the disclosure rules for SIPC, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and state insurance guarantee associations, as well as the related implications for consumers as the financial services industry consolidates."

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 letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In response to a shortage of math and science teachers and reductions in U.S. military personnel, Congress created the Troops to Teachers (TTT) program in 1992. Until 1995, the program, which was run by the Defense Department, offered stipends to program participants and incentive grants to school districts to hire TTT teachers. Congress transferred the program from DOD to the Department of Education in 1999. This report reviews the program from its beginning in January 1994 until its transfer to Education. GAO found that 13,756 former military personnel applied to the program and were accepted. Of these, 3,821 were hired as teachers from 1994 through 2000; more than 90 percent of those applicants hired as teachers remained in teaching after the first year. However, these participation figures most likely represent the minimum number of former military personnel who used the program's services and became teachers because the figures include only those persons who formally applied to the TTT program and who completed follow-up surveys. Compared with all teachers nationwide, a higher percentage of TTT teachers overall taught math, science, special education, and vocational education and taught …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report identifies U.S. locations where beryllium was used in workplace processes or detected as present in the workplace. Data show that beryllium was used or detected at locations in 45 of 50 states, plus the District of Columbia. However, the number of locations varied by state. For example, 30 states and the District of Columbia were reported as having from one to 10 locations, while 15 states were reported as having from 11 to 41 locations. The states without reported beryllium use were Alaska, Delaware, Minnesota, Vermont, and Wyoming."