Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate designating Nacogdoches as the official Garden Capital of Texas.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate honoring Sue Brannon of Midland for her years of civic engagement.

Bill introduced by the Texas Senate relating to service of citation on a financial institution.

Bill introduced by the Texas Senate relating to passing certain vehicles on a highway; providing a penalty.

Bill introduced by the Texas Senate relating to the inclusion of the emblem of the veteran's branch of service on Disabled Veteran specialty license plates.

Bill introduced by the Texas Senate relating to the authority of the Midland County Hospital District of Midland County, Texas, to employ and commission peace officers.

Bill introduced by the Texas Senate relating to business entities and associations.

Bill introduced by the Texas Senate relating to the adoption of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act.

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This report describes the current CSE incentive payment system, provides information on financial penalties imposed on states if incentive payment data are unreliable or if performance standards are not met, explains how state incentive payments are derived, discusses some state trends and presents some policy issues concerning incentive payments.

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This report describes the history of temporary federal extensions to unemployment benefits from 1980 to the present. It has five sections which discuss: [1] background information on unemployment compensation (UC) benefits, [2] a definition of a recession and the process of declaring a recession, [3] a summary of the legislative history of federal extensions of unemployment benefits, [4] figures examining the statistics of recessions, and [5] previous methods for financing temporary recession programs.

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This report provides a brief overview of the FY2014 State Department, Foreign Operations and Related Programs funding request.

Proceedings of the Senate of Texas for the fifty-first day of the Regular session of the 83rd Legislature documenting legislation, reports, discussions, votes, and points-of-order.

Proceedings of the Senate of Texas for the fiftieth day of the Regular session of the 83rd Legislature documenting legislation, reports, discussions, votes, and points-of-order.

This report discusses the legislative branch appropriations bill that provides funding for the Senate; House of Representatives; Joint Items; Capitol Police; Office of Compliance; Congressional Budget Office (CBO); Architect of the Capitol (AOC); Library of Congress, including the Congressional Research Service (CRS); Government Printing Office (GPO); Government Accountability Office (GAO); and Open World Leadership Center.

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Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) have attracted great interest for last two decades due to their unique and advantageous structural properties, such as high surface area, pore volume, stable mesostructure, tunable pore size and controllable particle morphology. The robust silica framework provides sites for organic modifications, making MSNs ideal platforms for adsorbents and supported organocatalysts. In addition, the pores of MSNs provide cavities/ channels for incorporation of metal and metal oxide nanoparticle catalysts. These supported metal nanoparticle catalysts benefit from confined local environments to enhance their activity and selectivity for various reactions. Biomass is considered as a sustainable feedstock with potential to replace diminishing fossil fuels for the production of biofuels. Among several strategies, one of the promising methods of biofuel production from biomass is to reduce the oxygen content of the feedstock in order to improve the energy density. This can be achieved by creating C-C bonds between biomass derived intermediates to increase the molecular weight of the final hydrocarbon molecules. In this context, pore size and organic functionality of MSNs are varied to obtain the ideal catalyst for a C-C bond forming reaction: the aldol condensation. The mechanistic aspects of this reaction in supported heterogeneous catalysts are explored. The …

This report seeks to inform the current debate in three ways: first, by providing a statistical analysis of President Barack Obama's nominees, during his first term, to U.S. circuit court of appeals and U.S. district court judgeships, and of any actions taken on their nominations by the Senate Judiciary Committee and the full Senate; second, by using various statistical measures to compare the success of President Obama's judicial nominees, during his first term, in advancing through the Senate confirmation process with the success of the judicial nominees during the first terms of the four most recent preceding Presidents (Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush); and third, by identifying various factors which might help explain differences or variations found in judicial nomination statistics across the first terms of the five Presidents.

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