Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The General Services Administration (GSA) is the federal government's principal real estate agent, with responsibilities including constructing, leasing, and maintaining a variety of facilities--such as office buildings, courthouses, border stations, and laboratories--that it rents to federal agencies. GSA's construction projects, which can span several years, are authorized to carry forward fund balances from year to year in its construction and facility accounts for these projects. GSA is responsible for keeping track of and managing these balances to ensure that any unexpended funds that remain after projects are completed are redirected to other construction project needs within the agency. GSA is required to identify construction projects that are estimated to cost in excess of established thresholds and obtain congressional approval for them. Funding for these projects exists in two accounts: (1) Construction and Acquisition and (2) Repairs and Alterations. For the purposes of this report, we refer to them as GSA's construction accounts. Additionally, the studies required for construction projects are among the items funded in the Building Operations account and we decided to include this account in our review. For purposes of this report, we refer to this …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In March 2003, a U.S.-led multinational force began operations in Iraq. At that time, 48 nations, identified as a "coalition of the willing," offered political, military, and financial support for U.S. efforts in Iraq, with 38 nations other than the United States providing troops. In addition, international donors met in Madrid in October 2003 to pledge funding for the reconstruction of Iraq's infrastructure, which had deteriorated after multiple wars and decades of neglect under the previous regime. This testimony discusses (1) the troop commitments other countries have made to operations in Iraq, (2) the funding the United States has provided to support other countries' participation in the multinational force, and (3) the financial support international donors have provided to Iraq reconstruction efforts. This testimony is based on GAO's prior work and data collected for this hearing. Although we reviewed both classified and unclassified documents, the information in this statement is based only on unclassified documents. We completed this work in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO designated the transformation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as high risk in 2003, and it continues to do so today. One essential tool for facilitating organizational transformation is an enterprise architecture (EA)--a corporate blueprint that serves as an authoritative frame of reference for information technology investment decision making. The Congress required DHS to submit a report that includes its EA and a capital investment plan for implementing it. The Congress also required that GAO review the report. In June 2006, DHS submitted this report to the Congress. GAO's objective was to assess the status of the EA, referred to as DHS EA 2006, and the plan for implementing it. To meet this objective, GAO analyzed architectural documents relative to its prior recommendations; evaluated stakeholder comments and the process used to obtain them; and analyzed the implementation plan against relevant guidance."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The nation's current air traffic control system is reaching its capacity limits as demand for air transportation grows. The Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) represents a new system that will use state-of-the-art technologies and procedures. Transitioning to NextGen will require the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to continue to sustain the current air traffic control system while acquiring new systems on schedule and on budget. In 2003, Congress authorized the creation of the Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO), housed within FAA, to plan NextGen and coordinate the transition. GAO's testimony focuses on the progress FAA is making in implementing businesslike operations that could provide a foundation for managing the transition to NextGen, the status of JPDO's planning and facilitation of NextGen, and some key challenges that FAA and JPDO need to address in moving toward NextGen. This statement is based on GAO's November 2006 report and recent testimonies as well as ongoing work. GAO's November report recommended that FAA study its technical and contract management expertise and that JPDO take actions to institutionalize its collaborative practices. FAA and JPDO said they would consider our recommendations."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2004, several high-profile drug safety cases raised concerns about the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) ability to manage postmarket drug safety issues. In some cases there were disagreements within FDA about how to address these issues. GAO was asked to testify on FDA's oversight of drug safety. This testimony is based on Drug Safety: Improvement Needed in FDA's Postmarket Decision-making and Oversight Process, GAO-06-402 (Mar. 31, 2006). The report focused on the complex interaction between two offices within FDA that are involved in postmarket drug safety activities: the Office of New Drugs (OND), and the Office of Drug Safety (ODS). OND's primary responsibility is to review new drug applications, but it is also involved in monitoring the safety of marketed drugs. ODS is focused primarily on postmarket drug safety issues. ODS is now called the Office of Surveillance and Epidemiology. For its report, GAO reviewed FDA policies, interviewed FDA staff, and conducted case studies of four drugs with safety issues: Arava, Baycol, Bextra, and Propulsid. To gather information on FDA's initiatives since March 2006 to improve its decision-making process for this testimony, GAO interviewed FDA officials in …

Direct numerical methods for solving the Vlasov equationoffer some advantages over macroparticle simulations, as they do notsuffer from the consequences of the statistical fluctuations inherent inusing a number of macroparticles smaller than thebunch population.Unfortunately these methods are more time-consuming and generallyconsidered impractical in a full 6D phase space. However, in alower-dimension phase space they may become attractive if the beamdynamics is sensitive to the presence of small charge-densityfluctuations and a high resolution is needed. In this paper we present a2D Vlasov solverfor studying the longitudinal beam dynamics insingle-pass systems of interest for X-Ray FELs, where characterization ofthe microbunching instability stemming from self-field amplified noise isof particular relevance.

Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) is a highly effective method for simulations that span a large range of spatiotemporal scales, such as astrophysical simulations that must accommodate ranges from interstellar to sub-planetary. Most mainstream visualization tools still lack support for AMR as a first class data type and AMR code teams use custom built applications for AMR visualization. The Department of Energy's (DOE's) Science Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) Visualization and Analytics Center for Enabling Technologies (VACET) is currently working on extending VisIt, which is an open source visualization tool that accommodates AMR as a first-class data type. These efforts will bridge the gap between general-purpose visualization applications and highly specialized AMR visual analysis applications. Here, we give an overview of the state of the art in AMR visualization research and tools and describe how VisIt currently handles AMR data.

Renewables portfolio standards (RPS) have--since the late 1990s--proliferated at the state level in the United States. What began as a policy idea minted in California and first described in detail in the pages of the 'Electricity Journal' FPT has emerged as an important driver for renewable energy capacity additions in the United States. Over the years, articles in the 'Electricity Journal' have explored the RPS in more detail, identifying both its strengths and weaknesses. The present article provides an introduction to the history, concept, and design of the RPS, reviews early experience with the policy as applied at the state level, and provides a brief overview of Federal RPS proposals to date and the possible relationship between Federal and state RPS policies. Our purpose is to offer a factual introduction to the RPS, as applied and considered in the U.S. Though elements of state RPS design are summarized here, other publications provide a more thorough review of design lessons that emerge from that experience. In addition, the present article does not describe the results of economic analyses of Federal RPS proposals, though we do cite many of the analyses conducted by the U.S. DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA).

This report discusses the new Palestinian unity government, which established in March 2007 complicates U.S. policy toward the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the peace process.

This report provides information about Crime and Forfeiture. Forfeiture has been an effective law enforcement tool. Modern Forfeiture follows one of the two procedural routes.

This report discusses several programs offered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to help farmers recover financially from natural disasters, including drought and floods. All the programs have permanent authorization, and only one requires a federal disaster designation (the emergency loan program). Most programs receive funding amounts that are "such sums as necessary" and are not subject to annual discretionary appropriations.

As flight speed increases, aerodynamic drag rises more sharply than the availability of atmospheric oxygen. The ratio of oxygen mass flux to dynamic pressure cannot be improved by changing altitude. The maximum possible speed for airbreathing propulsion is limited by the ratio of air capture area to vehicle drag area, approximately Mach 6 at equal areas. Simulation of vehicle acceleration shows that the use of atmospheric oxygen offers a significant potential for minimizing onboard consumables at low speeds. These fundamental calculations indicate that a practical airbreathing launch vehicle would accelerate to near steady-state speed while consuming only onboard fuel, then transition to rocket propulsion. It is suggested that an aircraft carrying a rocket-propelled vehicle to approximately Mach 5 could be a realistic technical goal toward improving access to orbit.

Returning Mars geology samples to Earth within science mission budgets requires a miniature launch vehicle (100-200 kg) for ascending from Mars to an orbital rendezvous. A Mars Ascent Vehicle must deliver a velocity change exceeding 4 km/s within minutes, entirely outside the capabilities of satellite propulsion. A possible solution is to scale down liquid launch vehicle principles to achieve stage propellant mass fractions near 90 percent. Feeding a high-pressure engine from thin-walled low pressure tanks permits stage hardware to be sufficiently lightweight and compact, if very high performance pumps can be made available. NASA's Mars Technology Program has funded refinement and testing of a miniature piston pump, powered by reacted propellant. A pump-fed bipropellant rocket stage remains to be developed. The technology could also benefit other future lunar and planetary science programs.

The family of R{sub 5}Si{sub x}Ge{sub 4-x} alloys demonstrates a variety of unique physical phenomena related to magneto-structural transitions associated with reversible breaking and reforming of specific bonds that can be controlled by numerous external parameters such as chemical composition, magnetic field, temperature, and pressure. Therefore, R{sub 5}Si{sub x}Ge{sub 4-x} systems have been extensively studied to uncover the mechanism of the extraordinary magneto-responsive properties including the giant magnetoresistance (GMR) and colossal magnetostriction, as well as giant magnetocaloric effect (GMCE). Until now, more than a half of possible R{sub 5}Si{sub x}Ge{sub 4-x} pseudobinary systems have been completely or partially investigated with respect to their crystallography and phase relationships (R = La, Pr, Nd, Gd, Tb, Dy, Er, Lu, Y). Still, there are other R{sub 5}Si{sub x}Ge{sub 4-x} systems (R = Ce, Sm, Ho, Tm, and Yb) that are not studied yet. Here, we report on phase relationships and structural, magnetic, and thermodynamic properties in the Yb{sub 5}Si{sub x}Ge{sub 4-x} and Sm{sub 5}Si{sub x}Ge{sub 4-x} pseudobinary systems, which may exhibit mixed valence states. The crystallography, phase relationships, and physical properties of Yb{sub 5}Si{sub x}Ge{sub 4-x} alloys with 0 {le} x {le} 4 have been examined by using single crystal and powder x-ray …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) budget request shows how IRS intends to balance spending for enforcement and taxpayer service, including spending for new initiatives and the Business Systems Modernization (BSM) program. A combination of enforcement and taxpayer service promotes compliance with the tax laws. GAO was asked to (1) compare IRS's proposed FY 2008 budget to prior years' and assess how the new spending initiatives are justified, and (2) describe IRS's enforcement, filing season, and BSM performance. GAO analyses are based on IRS's 2008 budget submission, supplementary IRS data, interviews with IRS officials, and prior GAO reports. Some of GAO's analyses have been reported earlier this year and updated here."

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This report provides a brief background analysis and recent developments regarding China’s Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction and Missiles. The report includes topics such as: Recent Proliferation Transfers, chemical, nuclear, and missile technology sales to Iran, Pakistan, Libya, Syria, trade controls, nonproliferation and arms control.

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This report provides an overview of each of the current programs, including the purpose, eligibility criteria, award process, and funding.

This report describes the historical context leading to the establishment of the Fund for Improvement of Postsecondary Education, provisions governing the program, and the variety of projects funded by FIPSE.

This report provides an overview of the corps of engineers project authorization issues on the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA).

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This is a sketch of the federal forfeiture, the confiscation that attends the commission of various crimes, of its origins and attributes, of the distribution through asset forfeiture funds of the hundreds of millions of dollars it generates., and of some of the constitutional issues, it raises.

This report provides a status of the progress made in Fiscal Year 2006 on tasks identified in the Waste Area Group 10, Operable Unit 10-08, Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study Work Plan. Major accomplishments include: (1) groundwater sampling and review of the groundwater monitoring data, (2) installation of a Sitewide groundwater-level monitoring network, (3) update of the Groundwater Monitoring and Field Sampling Plan of Operable Unit 10-08, (4) re-evaluation of the risk at Site TSF-08, (5) progress on the Operable Unit 10-08 Sitewide Groundwater Model.