This report discusses the current political state of Afghanistan, as well as the Afghan government. This report also discusses Afghanistan's relationship with the United States, particularly U.S. efforts to urge President Hamid Karzai, to address corruption within the Afghan government. The report also includes discussion of election fraud and corruption in Afghanistan.

Congress has long been concerned about whether U.S. policy advances the national interest in reducing the role of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and missiles that could deliver them. China has taken some steps to mollify U.S. concerns about its role in weapons proliferation. Skeptics question whether China's cooperation in weapons nonproliferation has warranted President Bush's pursuit of stronger bilateral ties. This report discusses the national security problem of China's role in weapons proliferation and issues related to the U.S. policy response, including legislation, since the mid-1990s.

This report provides a convenient listing of online FY2013 agency budget justification submissions for all 15 executive branch departments and 9 selected independent agencies.

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 Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents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.

"The report reviews the management and performance of the Trinity Independent School District's (TISD) education, financial, and operational functions."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GPOs are subject to certain federal laws that HHS, DOJ, and FTC are responsible for enforcing. According to HHS Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) officials, since 2004, the office has not routinely exercised its authority to request and review disclosures related to GPOs’ contract administrative fees, but it has collected information on GPOs’ contract administrative fees while conducting audits of hospitals’ cost reports. While HHS-OIG is responsible for enforcing the Anti-Kickback statute, the law and regulation do not require routine monitoring of GPO written agreements and disclosures. HHS-OIG officials told us that even if they requested this information from GPOs, it would not necessarily be sufficient to determine whether a GPO violated the Anti-Kickback statute. Officials from HHS-OIG also told us that, since 2004, it participated in two case investigations with DOJ that involved allegations that certain GPOs did not comply with safe harbor requirements and violated the Anti-Kickback statute. Officials told us that HHS-OIG has not imposed administrative penalties on any GPOs since 2004. DOJ and FTC have investigated complaints related to federal antitrust laws, and we identified one lawsuit filed by DOJ against a GPO in …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The following is a list of the specific data elements that we requested DOD provide an updated status as of December 31, 2011, for each of the ERPs."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "FDA met most performance goals for priority and standard NDAs and BLAs received from FY 2000 through FY 2010. FDA meets its performance goals by completing its review and issuing an action letter—such as an approval or a response detailing deficiencies that are preventing the application from being approved—for a specified percentage of applications within a designated period of time. FDA designates NDAs and BLAs as either priority—if the product would provide significant therapeutic benefits when compared to available drugs—or standard. FDA met the performance goals for both priority and standard NDAs and BLAs for 10 of the 11 fiscal years GAO examined; FDA did not meet either of the goals for FY 2008. Although FDA had not yet issued an action letter for all of the applications it received in FY 2011 and results are therefore preliminary, FDA was meeting the goals for both priority and standard NDAs and BLAs on which it had taken action. Meanwhile, FDA review time for NDAs and BLAs—the time elapsed between FDA’s receipt of an application and issuance of an action letter—increased slightly from FY 2000 through FY 2010. …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO’s analysis of the Office of Air and Marine (OAM) data found that OAM met 73 percent of the 38,662 air support requests and 88 percent of the 9,913 marine support requests received in fiscal year 2010. The level of support differed by location, customers, and type of mission. For example, in its northern region OAM met air support requests 77 percent of the time and in its southeast region, it met these requests 60 percent of the time. The main reasons for unmet air and marine support requests were maintenance and adverse weather, respectively. OAM has taken actions, such as developing an aircraft modernization plan and purchasing all-weather vessels, to address these issues."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Certain financial incentive programs are permitted within the framework of federal fraud and abuse laws, but stakeholders GAO spoke with reported that the laws, regulations, and agency guidance have created challenges for program design and implementation. The Stark law and anti-kickback statute, which restrict financial relationships among providers, have statutory and regulatory exceptions and safe harbors, respectively, that permit financial incentive programs that meet specific criteria. However, there are no exceptions or safe harbors specifically for financial incentive programs intended to improve quality and efficiency, and legal experts reported that the constraints of existing exceptions and safe harbors make it difficult to design and implement a comprehensive program for all participating physicians and patient populations. The CMP law prohibits hospitals from paying physicians to reduce or limit services, and OIG has interpreted the law to apply to the reduction or limitation of any services, whether or not those services are medically necessary. The CMP law does not include statutory exceptions to this prohibition, and OIG does not have the authority to create exceptions through regulation. Through its advisory opinion process, OIG, however, has indicated that it …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Most lobbyists were able to provide documentation to demonstrate compliance with disclosure requirements. This finding is similar to GAO’s results from prior reviews. There are no specific requirements for lobbyists to create or maintain documentation related to disclosure reports they file under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 as amended (LDA). Nonetheless, and similar to last year’s results, for two key elements of the reports (income and expenses), GAO estimates that lobbyists could provide documentation to support approximately 93 percent of the disclosure reports for the third and fourth quarters of 2010 and the first and second quarters of 2011. According to documentation lobbyists provided for income and expenses, GAO estimates that the amounts disclosed were properly reported and supported for 63 percent of the quarterly lobbying disclosure (LD-2) reports. For lobbyists and lobbying firms listed on the LD-2 report, an estimated 86 percent filed year-end 2010 or midyear 2011 reports of federal political campaign contributions (LD-203) reports as required. For LD-203 political contributions reports, GAO estimates that a minimum of 4 percent of all LD-203 reports omitted one or more reportable political contributions that were …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO’s prior work on sexual assault in the military has resulted in 25 recommendations on various aspects of the Department of Defense’s (DOD) Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SAPR) program. DOD concurred or partially concurred with all of GAO’s recommendations and has since begun or completed action on each of them. To date, GAO’s analysis shows that DOD has fully implemented 13 recommendations and has partially implemented the remaining 12 recommendations, which GAO will continue to monitor."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "VA estimates the amount of collections and reimbursements it expects to receive each year by using a projection model and other methods. These estimates have varied when compared with actual amounts for various reasons. VA used a projection model to estimate its collections for fiscal years 2005 through 2012 based on data reflecting the amount of health care—known as workload—VA has provided in the past and the amounts VA has collected in the past. To estimate its collections in fiscal year 2013, VA began using a second projection model, known as the Integrated Collections Forecasting Model (ICFM) to estimate collections. The ICFM relies on many of the same data sources as VA’s previous collections model, but it also incorporates forecasts related to future workload. For fiscal years 2005 through 2011, VA both overestimated and underestimated its collections. For example, for fiscal year 2011, VA overestimated the amount of its collections by about $582 million, or 17 percent. VA officials attribute this difference to several factors, such as overestimating the amount of collections VA would receive when it billed veterans’ third-party insurance plans. To estimate the amount of reimbursements …

Report of the Texas Lottery Commission regarding the level of minority business participation in its lottery and bingo regulatory contracting activity and in the licensing of lottery sales agents, as well as recommendations for the improvement of lottery-related minority business opportunities.

This report discusses about the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 that authorizes most federal farm and food policies. It also discusses Programs Without Baseline After FY2012.

This report is categorized into seven categories: (I) Background, (II) Member Mail Allowances, (III) Regulation, (IV) Costs, (V) Legislation in the 112th Congress, (VI) Legislation in the 111th Congress and (VII) Legislation in the 110th Congress.

This report contains the information about The Davis-Bacon Act. It further discusses the comparison of David-Bacon Prevailing Wages with Average Hourly Wages from the occupational employment statistics (OES) survey.

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This report seeks to provide an overview of Congress's ability to participate in litigation before Article III courts.

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The Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) Smart Meter Pilots provided invaluable information and experience for future deployments of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), including the deployment planned as part of LIPA’s Smart Grid Demonstration Project (DE-OE0000220). LIPA will incorporate lessons learned from this pilot in future deployments, including lessons relating to equipment performance specifications and testing, as well as equipment deployment and tracking issues. LIPA ultimately deployed three AMI technologies instead of the two that were originally contemplated. This enabled LIPA to evaluate multiple systems in field conditions with a relatively small number of meter installations. LIPA experienced a number of equipment and software issues that it did not anticipate, including issues relating to equipment integration, ability to upgrade firmware and software “over the air” (as opposed to physically interacting with every meter), and logistical challenges associated with tracking inventory and upgrade status of deployed meters. In addition to evaluating the technology, LIPA also piloted new Time-of-Use (TOU) rates to assess customer acceptance of time-differentiated pricing and to evaluate whether customers would respond by adjusting their activities from peak to non-peak periods. LIPA developed a marketing program to educate customers who received AMI in the pilot areas and to seek voluntary …

The Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium (MGSC) carried out a small-scale carbon dioxide (CO2) injection test in a sandstone within the Clore Formation (Mississippian System, Chesterian Series) in order to gauge the large-scale CO2 storage that might be realized from enhanced oil recovery (EOR) of mature Illinois Basin oil fields via miscible liquid CO2 flooding. As part of the MGSC’s Validation Phase (Phase II) studies, the small injection pilot test was conducted at the Bald Unit site within the Mumford Hills Field in Posey County, southwestern Indiana, which was chosen for the project on the basis of site infrastructure and reservoir conditions. Geologic data on the target formation were extensive. Core analyses, porosity and permeability data, and geophysical logs from 40 wells were used to construct cross sections and structure contour and isopach maps in order to characterize and define the reservoir architecture of the target formation. A geocellular model of the reservoir was constructed to improve understanding of CO2 behavior in the subsurface. At the time of site selection, the Field was under secondary recovery through edge-water injection, but the wells selected for the pilot in the Bald Unit had been temporarily shut-in for several years. The most recently shut-in …

Principle Power Inc. and National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) have completed a contract to assess the technical and economic feasibility of integrating wave energy converters into the WindFloat, resulting in a new concept called the WindWaveFloat (WWF). The concentration of several devices on one platform could offer a potential for both economic and operational advantages. Wind and wave energy converters can share the electrical cable and power transfer equipment to transport the electricity to shore. Access to multiple generation devices could be simplified, resulting in cost saving at the operational level. Overall capital costs may also be reduced, provided that the design of the foundation can be adapted to multiple devices with minimum modifications. Finally, the WindWaveFloat confers the ability to increase energy production from individual floating support structures, potentially leading to a reduction in levelized energy costs, an increase in the overall capacity factor, and greater stability of the electrical power delivered to the grid. The research conducted under this grant investigated the integration of several wave energy device types into the WindFloat platform. Several of the resulting system designs demonstrated technical feasibility, but the size and design constraints of the wave energy converters (technical and economic) make the …

The discovery of bright gamma-ray emission coincident with supernova remnant (SNR) W51C is reported using the Large Area Telescope (LAT) onboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. W51C is a middle-aged remnant ({approx}10{sup 4} yr) with intense radio synchrotron emission in its shell and known to be interacting with a molecular cloud. The gamma-ray emission is spatially extended, broadly consistent with the radio and X-ray extent of SNR W51C. The energy spectrum in the 0.2-50 GeV band exhibits steepening toward high energies. The luminosity is greater than 1 x 10{sup 36} erg s{sup -1} given the distance constraint of D > 5.5 kpc, which makes this object one of the most luminous gamma-ray sources in our Galaxy. The observed gamma-rays can be explained reasonably by a combination of efficient acceleration of nuclear cosmic rays at supernova shocks and shock-cloud interactions. The decay of neutral p mesons produced in hadronic collisions provides a plausible explanation for the gamma-ray emission. The product of the average gas density and the total energy content of the accelerated protons amounts to {bar n}{sub H} W{sub p} {approx_equal} 5 x 10{sup 51} (D/6 kpc){sup 2} erg cm{sup -3}. Electron density constraints from the radio and X-ray bands …