Recently projected climate changes could have widespread effects on wildlife species. These effects might be positive or negative, depending on the species. Some effects might include extinction, range shifts, mismatches in phenology (timing of pollination, flowering, etc.), and population changes. If the effects of climate change are widespread, there is uncertainty on how wildlife will adapt. Some suggest that evolution and migration will enable species to adapt, whereas others contend that adaptation will be minimal because of limited habitat, and changes in climate that may occur may rapidly than adaptation can respond.

This report provides an overview of recent industry proposals for new LNG import terminals. The report summarizes LNG hazards and the industry's safety record. It discusses federal laws and regulations related to LNG terminal siting with a focus on the authorities of key federal agencies and safety provisions in the permitting of onshore facilities. The report reviews controversial safety issues in recent LNG siting proceedings, such as safety zones, marine hazards, hazard modeling, and remote siting. The report outlines policy issues related to LNG terminal safety, including the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC's) LNG siting authority, regional LNG siting, “remote” siting requirements in federal regulations, state permitting requirements, terrorism, and other issues.

This report examines six studies that project the costs of S. 2191 (S. 3036) to 2030 or 2050. It considers [1] the response of the economy to the technological challenges; [2] the ability to create a considerable amount of low-carbon generating capacity; [3] offsetts as a possible tool to reduce costs and buy time for the development of more efficient technologies; [4] the role of the Carbon Market Efficiency Board; [5] the effect of the Low Carbon Feul Standard; and [6] how the climate-related benefits function in a global context.

This report reviews national nanotechnology research and development (R&D) investments, scientific papers, and patents as indicators of current U.S. scientific and technological competitiveness and potential indicators of future industrial competitiveness in nanotechnology products.

This report discusses the sugar policy which is designed to guarantee the price received by sugar crop growers and processors and to operate at “no cost” to the U.S. Treasury.

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, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether an open-enrollment charter school is a governmental entity, and whether the state may enter into an agreement with the Social Security Administration on the school’s behalf (RQ-0652-GA)

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Defense Base Act (DBA) requires U.S. government contractors and subcontractors to buy workers' compensation insurance for employees working overseas, and the cost of this insurance is then passed on to the government. The Department of Labor oversees the claims process and ensures contractors are aware of DBA insurance requirements. Given the large number of contractor personnel working in Iraq, concerns have been raised over the cost of workers' compensation insurance provided under DBA. Since the Iraq conflict began in March 2003, federal agencies have issued contracts for Iraq reconstruction and to support deployed forces. The Department of Defense (DOD) recently reported it alone has 163,591 contractor personnel working in Iraq. Based on GAO's 2005 report on DBA insurance, Congress directed DOD to address challenges identified. This testimony is based on the 2005 report and GAO's analysis of recent agency efforts. As requested, it provides an update on (1) DOD's efforts to reduce DBA insurance rates; (2) DOD's ability to calculate its total DBA insurance costs; and (3) the progress toward addressing prior DBA implementation challenges. In preparation for this testimony, GAO reviewed related reports to identify agency …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report presents our opinion on the financial statements of the Congressional Award Foundation (the Foundation) for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2007, and 2006. These financial statements are the responsibility of the Foundation. This report also presents (1) our opinion on the effectiveness of the Foundation's related internal control as of September 30, 2007, and (2) the results of our tests of the Foundation's compliance in fiscal year 2007 with selected provisions of laws and regulations. We conducted our audit pursuant to section 107 of the Congressional Award Act, as amended (2 U.S.C. 807), and in accordance with U.S. generally accepted government auditing standards."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 1995, GAO first designated the Department of Defense's (DOD) business systems modernization program as "high risk," and GAO continues to do so today. To assist in addressing this high-risk area, the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005 contains provisions that are consistent with prior GAO investment management and enterprise architecture-related recommendations, and requires the department to submit annual reports to its congressional committees on its compliance with these provisions. The act also directs GAO to review each annual report. In response, GAO assessed the actions taken by DOD to comply with requirements of the act. To do so, GAO leveraged its recent reports on various aspects of the department's modernization management controls, and it reviewed, for example, the latest version of its business enterprise architecture and the associated transition plan and architecture federation strategy. GAO also interviewed key officials."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Government and private-sector interest is growing in unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for use in a variety of missions such as U.S. border protection, hurricane research, law enforcement, and real estate photography. However, UASs can fly only after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) conducts a case-by-case safety analysis. GAO's research questions included (1) What are the current and potential uses and benefits of UASs? (2) What challenges exist in operating UASs safely and routinely in the national airspace system? and (3) What is the federal government's response to these challenges? To address these questions, GAO reviewed the literature, interviewed agency officials and aviation stakeholders, and surveyed 23 UAS experts."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Federal law requires commercial drivers to submit urine specimens for drug testing. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is responsible for ensuring that motor carriers comply with these regulations. Recent reports have raised concerns that some drivers may not be tested, some may be tested but avoid detection, and some may test positive but continue to drive. GAO was asked to look at these challenges. This report reviews (1) the factors that contribute to challenges related to drug testing and (2) the various options that exist to address these challenges. GAO obtained information from a wide variety of stakeholders in the drug testing industry, and analyzed data from FMCSA and others to determine the potential effectiveness of various options."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Federal entities--agencies, corporations, and others--are growing users of credit and debit cards, as both "merchants" (receiving payments) and purchasers. Merchants accepting cards incur fees--called merchant discount fees--paid to banks to process the transactions. For Visa and MasterCard transactions, a large portion of these fees-- referred to as interchange--goes to the card-issuing banks. Some countries have acted to limit these fees. GAO was asked to examine (1) the benefits and costs associated with federal entities' acceptance of cards, (2) the effects of other countries' actions to limit interchange fees, and (3) the impact on federal entities of using cards to make purchases. Among other things, GAO analyzed fee data and information on the impact of accepting and using cards from the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) and the General Services Administration, reviewed literature, and interviewed officials of major card companies and three foreign governments."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report formally transmits the briefing in response to the Senate Report on the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008. The report required GAO to review and make recommendations regarding the reports, assessments, analyses, and documents used for determining the compliance of the Department of Defense and military departments with the percentage limitation in 10 U.S.C. 2466--frequently referred to as the 50/50 requirement. On April 23 and 24, 2008, we provided the briefing to staff of Congressional committees to satisfy the mandate requirement."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In the future, businesses will demand workers with higher-level skills and more education. Community colleges are key providers of career and technical training as well as traditional academic education. These colleges can also play important roles in the one-stop system created by the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), through which a variety of federally funded employment and training programs provide services. Given the importance of community colleges to workforce development, GAO was asked to examine (1) how community colleges meet the workforce training needs of their communities; (2) what community colleges do to integrate with the nation's one-stop system; (3) the conditions or practices that enhance or impede these efforts; and (4) the actions the Departments of Labor and Education have taken to encourage linkages between community colleges and the workforce investment system, including one-stops. To address these objectives, GAO visited 20 community colleges, surveyed one-stop centers and their associated workforce investment boards, and talked to Labor and Education officials. Labor and Education generally agreed with GAO's findings."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Smithsonian Institution's governing body, the Board of Regents (Board), has developed a set of actions to address governance and accountability breakdowns that came to light in 2007. These actions were aimed at problems in three main areas: (1) executive compensation, benefits, ethics, and operational policies and controls; (2) flow of information to the Board, transparency of Board operations, and relationship with stakeholders; and (3) the Board's responsibilities, structure, and performance. GAO was asked to assess the extent of the Board's progress in each of these areas. GAO obtained information and data from the Board's regents, Smithsonian executives, and other stakeholders and also analyzed other organizations whose boards had faced similar governance challenges."

This report provides an overview of nanotechnology, current and anticipated applications, indicators of U.S. scientific and technological strength, and issues and options Congress may opt to consider for the federal role, if any, in promoting the nation's competitive position in nanotechnology.

This report provides an overview of recent industry proposals for new LNG import terminals. The report summarizes LNG hazards and the industry's safety record. It discusses federal laws and regulations related to LNG terminal siting with a focus on the authorities of key federal agencies and safety provisions in the permitting of onshore facilities. The report reviews controversial safety issues in recent LNG siting proceedings, such as safety zones, marine hazards, hazard modeling, and remote siting. The report outlines policy issues related to LNG terminal safety, including the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC's) LNG siting authority, regional LNG siting, "remote" siting requirements in federal regulations, state permitting requirements, terrorism, and other issues.

This report discusses the federal government's role in the country's information technology (IT) research and development (R&D) activities. The government's support of IT R&D began because it had an important interest in creating computers and software that would be capable of addressing the problems and issues the government needed to solve and study.

This report describes disability compensation, which is a benefit Congress provides to American veterans and their dependents through the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Disability compensation is a monthly cash benefit program for veterans currently impaired from past service-connected activities.

This report discusses the expanded GI bill, which provides educational benefits, offset by a tax surcharge, extends unemployment compensation payments, delays new Medicaid regulations that would reduce payments to the states, and provides $20 billion for a number of domestic and international affairs programs, including gulf coast hurricane protection and emergency international food aid.

This report reviews the status of energy efficiency and renewable energy legislation introduced during the 110th Congress. Most action in the second session is focused on the FY2009 budget request, the Farm Bill (H.R. 2419), and three bills (H.R. 6049, H.R. 5984/H.R. 3221 [S. 2821], and S. 2886) that would extend or modify selected renewable energy and energy efficiency tax incentives.

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This report discusses broadband internet regulations. The goal is to ensure that broadband deployment is timely and contributes to nations to economic growth.

This report considers the debate on the efficacy of U.S. efforts to stabilize Afghanistan. Moreover, the report discusses how the Bush Administration's review of the progress resulted as inadequate, and thus ways of changing progress are being considered. The report also discusses the NATO led troops in the region.