This report provides an analysis of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and its financial status, summarizes the major challenges facing the program, including issues affecting its long-term financial solvency, presents some alternative approaches for managing and financing the flood losses and describes pending legislation on this issue.

This report discusses Pakistan's efforts to produce fissile material and other issues related to nuclear proliferation and improving its nuclear arsenal. It also discusses the steps Pakistan has taken to increase international confidence in its nuclear security. However, continued instability in Pakistan has caused some to question the effectiveness of its nuclear security reforms.

This a progress report on the first year of a three-year renewal of DE-FG02-91ER40626.

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A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Reverse mortgages--a type of loan against home equity available to seniors--are growing in popularity. A large majority of reverse mortgages are insured by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under its Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program. The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) made several modifications to the HECM program, including changes in how origination fees are calculated and an increase in the loan limit. The Act directed GAO to examine (1) how these changes have affected lenders' plans to offer reverse mortgages, (2) how the changes will affect borrowers, and (3) actions HUD has taken to evaluate the financial performance of the HECM program. To address these objectives, GAO surveyed a representative sample of HECM lenders, analyzed loan-level HECM data, and reviewed HUD estimates and analysis of HECM program costs."

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SIMCO Technologies, Inc. was contracted to evaluate the durability of the saltstone matrix material and to measure saltstone transport properties. This information will be used to: (1) Parameterize the STADIUM{reg_sign} service life code, (2) Predict the leach rate (degradation rate) for the saltstone matrix over 10,000 years using the STADIUM{reg_sign} concrete service life code, and (3) Validate the modeled results by conducting leaching (water immersion) tests. Saltstone durability for this evaluation is limited to changes in the matrix itself and does not include changes in the chemical speciation of the contaminants in the saltstone. This report summarized results obtained to date which include: characterization data for saltstone cured up to 365 days and characterization of saltstone cured for 137 days and immersed in water for 31 days. Chemicals for preparing simulated non-radioactive salt solution were obtained from chemical suppliers. The saltstone slurry was mixed according to directions provided by SRNL. However SIMCO Technologies Inc. personnel made a mistake in the premix proportions. The formulation SIMCO personnel used to prepare saltstone premix was not the reference mix proportions: 45 wt% slag, 45 wt% fly ash, and 10 wt% cement. SIMCO Technologies Inc. personnel used the following proportions: 21 wt% slag, 65 …

This report describes the statutory provision authorizing Gang of Eight notifications, reviews the legislative history of the provision, and examines the impact of such notifications on congressional oversight.

This report focuses on current developments in Taiwan, analyzing how those developments are affecting choices the United States makes about its policy toward Taiwan specifically and toward the People's Republic of China (PRC) more broadly.

Tritium reservoirs are constructed from welded stainless steel forgings. While these steels are highly resistant to the embrittling effects of hydrogen isotopes and helium from tritium decay; they are not immune. Tritium embrittlement is an enhanced form of hydrogen embrittlement because of the presence of helium-3 from tritium decay which nucleates as nanometer-sized bubbles on dislocations, grain boundaries, and other microstructural defects. Steels with decay helium bubble microstructures are hardened and less able to deform plastically and become more susceptible to embrittlement by hydrogen and its isotopes. Ductility, elongation-to-failure, and fracture toughness are reduced by exposures to tritium and the reductions increase with time as helium-3 builds into the material from tritium permeation and radioactive decay. Material and forging specifications have been developed for optimal material compatibility with tritium. These specifications cover composition, mechanical properties, and select microstructural characteristics like grain size, flow-line orientation, inclusion content, and ferrite distribution. For many years, the forming process of choice for reservoir manufacturing was high-energy-rate forging (HERF), principally because the DOE forging facility owned only HERF hammers. Today, some reservoir forgings are being made that use a conventional, more common process known as press forging (PF or CF). One of the chief differences …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Postal Service's (USPS) financial condition has worsened this year, with the recession and changing mail use causing declines in mail volume and revenues despite postal rate increases. GAO testified in May to this subcommittee that USPS expects these declines to lead to a record net loss and an unprecedented cash shortfall even if ambitious cost cutting is achieved. GAO reported that maintaining USPS's financial viability as the provider of affordable, high-quality universal postal service will require actions in a number of areas, such as (1) rightsizing its retail and mail processing networks by consolidating operations and closing unnecessary facilities and (2) reducing the cost and size of its workforce, which generates about 80 percent of its costs. Today GAO is releasing its report on USPS efforts to improve the efficiency of delivery. Delivery accounts for nearly half of USPS salary and benefit costs. This testimony (1) updates USPS's financial condition and outlook and explains GAO's decision to place USPS's financial condition on the High-Risk List and (2) discusses the need for USPS to restructure its mail processing, retail, and delivery networks and its efforts to improve …

This report provides an overview of the status of the U.S. science and technology (S&T) workforce, and identifies some of the issues and options that are currently being discussed in Congress.

This report examines the role of United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in Afghanistan and discusses the obstacles the organization faces in coordinating international efforts and explores related policy issues and considerations for the 112th Congress.

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2008, the United Nations (UN) began construction associated with its Capital Master Plan (CMP) to renovate its headquarters complex in New York City. As the UN's host country and largest contributor, the United States has a substantial interest in the success of the CMP. In this requested update, GAO reviewed the following key areas: schedule, cost, funding, risk management, procurement, and oversight. To perform this work, GAO reviewed UN documents and met with officials from the CMP office and other UN departments. GAO also reviewed select CMP schedules to assess the extent to which they met best practices for scheduling contained in GAO's Cost Estimating and Assessment Guide. To assess oversight and monitoring, GAO reviewed UN documents and oversight reports and interviewed officials from the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services and officials from the U.S. Department of State (State)."

The Yakima-Klickitat Fisheries Project (YKFP) is a joint project of the Yakama Nation (lead entity) and the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) and is sponsored in large part by the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) with oversight and guidance from the Northwest Power and Conservation Council (NPCC). It is among the largest and most complex fisheries management projects in the Columbia Basin in terms of data collection and management, physical facilities, habitat enhancement and management, and experimental design and research on fisheries resources. Using principles of adaptive management, the YKFP is attempting to evaluate all stocks historically present in the Yakima subbasin and apply a combination of habitat restoration and hatchery supplementation or reintroduction, to restore the Yakima Subbasin ecosystem with sustainable and harvestable populations of salmon, steelhead and other at-risk species. The original impetus for the YKFP resulted from the landmark fishing disputes of the 1970s, the ensuing legal decisions in United States versus Washington and United States versus Oregon, and the region's realization that lost natural production needed to be mitigated in upriver areas where these losses primarily occurred. The YKFP was first identified in the NPCC's 1982 Fish and Wildlife Program (FWP) and supported in …

This report contains the awards of attorneys' fees by federal courts and federal agencies. Most Supreme Court decisions involves attorney's fees that have interpreted civil right statutes and this report focuses on these statutes.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006 (Perkins IV) supports career and technical education (CTE) in high schools and postsecondary institutions, such as community colleges. Perkins IV established student performance measures at the secondary and postsecondary levels for state agencies, such as state educational agencies, and local recipients, such as school districts, eligible to receive funds. GAO examined (1) how states have implemented the Perkins IV performance measures and what, if any, challenges they have faced in implementing the measures; (2) to what extent the Department of Education (Education) has ensured that states are implementing the new performance measures and supported states in their efforts; and (3) what Education knows about the effectiveness of CTE programs. To collect national-level data, GAO surveyed state CTE directors in the 50 states and District of Columbia between January and April 2009, and received responses from all states and the District of Columbia. To view survey results, click on http://redesign-www.gao.gov/special.pubs/gao-09-737sp/index.html. We provided a draft copy of this report to Education for comment. We received technical comments, which we incorporated into the draft where appropriate."

This report addresses relevant policy questions in current U.S.-China relations, discusses trends and key legislation in the current Congress, and provides a chronology of developments and high-level exchanges.

This report provides information about the FY2010 Authorization and Appropriations on Defense.The FY2010 national defense authorization bills drafted by the house and senate armed services.

The chiral supramolecular catalyst Ga{sub 4}L{sub 6} [L = 1,5-bis(2,3-dihydroxybenzoylamino)naphthalene] is a molecular tetrahedron that catalyzes the 3-aza-Cope rearrangement of allyl enammonium cations. This catalysis is accomplished by preorganizing the substrate in a reactive conformation within the host. This work demonstrates that through the use of enantiopure assembly, its chiral cavity is capable of catalyzing the 3-aza-Cope rearrangement enantioselectively, with yields of 21-74% and enantiomeric excesses from 6 to 64% at 50 C. At lower temperatures, the enantioselectivity improved, reaching 78% ee at 5 C. This is the highest enantioselectivity to date induced by the chiral cavity of a supramolecular assembly.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Millions of adults in the U.S. report that they speak limited English, and English language ability appears linked to multiple dimensions of adult life, such as civic participation and workforce participation and mobility. GAO examined (1) the trends in the need for and enrollment in federally funded adult English language programs, (2) the nature of federal support for adult English language learning, (3) ways in which states and local public providers have supported English language programs for adults, and (4) federal agencies' plans for research to identify effective approaches to adult English language learning. To conduct this work, GAO analyzed Census and enrollment data and conducted interviews with federal officials within the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Labor and the National Institute for Literacy (NIFL); semistructured telephone interviews with state adult education officials in 12 states; site visits to 4 states; and reviews of relevant laws and literature."

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This report includes legal analyses of three ATF-investigated, Southwest border gun trafficking cases to illustrate the federal statutes that are typically violated as part of wider gun trafficking schemes. The report also examines anti-gun trafficking proposals introduced in the 110th Congress.

This report provides an introduction to health care reform. It focuses on the three predominant concerns just mentioned--coverage, cost and spending, and quality--and some of the legislative issues within which they likely will be debated, including the scope of reform (particularly whether Medicare and Medicaid should be included); the choice between public and private coverage; whether employment-based insurance should be strengthened, weakened, or left alone; and what role states might play.