Report of the Texas State Auditor's Office related to determining whether the Health and Human Services Commission (Commission) and the Department of State Health Services (Department) have controls to help ensure that home health providers enrolled in the Texas Health Steps program are qualified according to applicable policies and procedures, monitored for accurate and appropriate service delivery, and sanctioned or removed from provider rolls as appropriate.

This report discusses the authority of state and local law enforcement to assist in the enforcement of federal immigration law through the investigation and arrest of persons believed to have violated such laws. It describes current provisions in federal law that permit state and local police to enforce immigration law directly; analyzes major cases concerning the ability of states and localities to assist in immigration enforcement, including the Supreme Court's ruling in Arizona v. United States; and briefly examines opinions on the issue by the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) within the Department of Justice. This report does not discuss legal issues raised by state and local measures intended to supplement federal immigration laws through the imposition of additional criminal or civil penalties.

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Surveying wildlife at risk from offshore wind energy development is difficult and expensive. Infrared video can be used to record birds and bats that pass through the camera view, but it is also time consuming and expensive to review video and determine what was recorded. We proposed to conduct algorithm and software development to identify and to differentiate thermally detected targets of interest that would allow automated processing of thermal image data to enumerate birds, bats, and insects. During FY2012 we developed computer code within MATLAB to identify objects recorded in video and extract attribute information that describes the objects recorded. We tested the efficiency of track identification using observer-based counts of tracks within segments of sample video. We examined object attributes, modeled the effects of random variability on attributes, and produced data smoothing techniques to limit random variation within attribute data. We also began drafting and testing methodology to identify objects recorded on video. We also recorded approximately 10 hours of infrared video of various marine birds, passerine birds, and bats near the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) Marine Sciences Laboratory (MSL) at Sequim, Washington. A total of 6 hours of bird video was captured overlooking Sequim Bay over …

Report that looks at vehicle fuel costs, fuel consumption in the United States, and examines the estimated costs to new vehicles that may arise from the Obama Administration's new passenger vehicle fuel economy and greenhouse gas standards for vehicle model years (MY) 2017-2025.

This report is on the Availability of Injunctive Relief for StandardEssential Patent Holders.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and its business lines and offices are in different stages of their implementation of Safety Management Systems (SMS). FAA finalized its agency-wide implementation plan in April 2012, and the Air Traffic Organization (ATO) has completed its SMS implementation, but other FAA SMS efforts are in the early stages. FAA business lines, such as the Aviation Safety Organization (AVS) and the Office of Airports (ARP), have SMS guidance and plans largely in place and have begun to integrate related practices into their operations, but many implementation tasks remain incomplete, and officials and experts project that full SMS implementation could take many years."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has taken actions to validate the science underlying its behavior-based passenger screening program, the Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques, or SPOT, program, but more work remains. GAO reported in May 2010 that (1) TSA deployed SPOT before first determining whether there was a scientifically valid basis for using behavior and appearance indicators to reliably identify passengers who may pose a risk; and (2) it is unknown if the SPOT program has ever resulted in the arrest of anyone who is a terrorist, or who was planning to engage in terrorist related activity, although there is other evidence that terrorists have transited through SPOT airports. GAO recommended in May 2010 that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) convene an independent panel of experts to review the methodology of the ongoing validation study on the SPOT program to determine whether it is sufficiently comprehensive to validate the program. DHS concurred and subsequently revised its validation study to include an independent expert review. DHS's study, completed in April 2011, found that SPOT was more effective than random screening to varying degrees; however, DHS noted limitations …

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Report of the Texas State Auditor's Office related to determining the competitiveness of the Position Classification Plan (Plan) with similar positions in the private and public sector, and whether changes to the Plan are needed.

The objectives of this report were to: provide a current state of the science of radioiodine biogeochemistry relevant to its fate and transport at the Hanford Site; conduct a review of Hanford Site data dealing with groundwater {sup 129}I; and identify critical knowledge gaps necessary for successful selection, implementation, and technical defensibility in support of remediation decisions.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) approved the Generation-3 (Gen-3) acquisition in October 2009, but it did not fully engage in the early phases of its acquisition framework to ensure that the acquisition was grounded in a justified mission need and that it pursued an optimal solution. Critical processes in the early phases of DHS's framework are designed to (1) justify a mission need that warrants investment of resources and (2) select an optimal solution by evaluating viable alternatives based on risk, costs, and benefits. BioWatch program officials said that these early acquisition efforts were less comprehensive and systematic than the DHS framework calls for because there was already departmental consensus around the solution. Without a systematic effort to justify the need for the acquisition in the context of its costs, benefits, and risks, DHS has pursued goals and requirements for Gen-3 with limited assurance that they represent an optimal solution. Reevaluating the mission need and systematically analyzing alternatives could provide better assurance of an optimal solution."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the White House have acted to strengthen biosurveillance consistent with prior GAO recommendations made from December 2009 through October 2011.In August 2012, DHS issued a strategic plan for its National Biosurveillance Integration Center (NBIC) that officials say was written in coordination with federal partners and designed to respond to GAO’s December 2009 findings that NBIC did not have key resources to carry out its mission, in part due to collaboration issues it faced. In July 2012, the White House released the National Strategy for Biosurveillance, which describes guiding principles, core functions, and enablers for strengthening biosurveillance. In June 2010, GAO recommended a national biosurveillance strategy to provide a unifying framework for building and maintaining a national biosurveillance capability. In October 2011, GAO also recommended the strategy account for the need to leverage resources and respond to challenges while partnering with nonfederal entities. The July 2012 strategy partially responds to the issues GAO called for such a strategy to address, but does not fully address them, as discussed below. A strategic implementation plan is to be published within 120 days of strategy …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Certain countries and visa categories are subject to higher levels of fraud. In fiscal year 2010, almost 60 percent of confirmed fraud cases (9,200 out of 16,000) involved applicants from Brazil, China, Dominican Republic, India, and Mexico. Department of State (State) officials told GAO that fraud most commonly involves applicants for temporary visits to the United States who submit false documentation to overcome the presumption that they intend to illegally immigrate. Fraud is also perpetrated for immigrant visas and nonimmigrant visa categories such as temporary worker visas and student visas. In response to State efforts to combat visa fraud, unscrupulous visa applicants adapt their strategies, and as a result, fraud trends evolve over time."

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This report looks at considerations of the 112th Congress in furthering encouragement of broadband deployment and adoption so as decrease the "digital divide" between "information haves and have-nots."

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Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) personnel, at the request of Area Completion Projects (ACP), evaluated In-Situ Disposal (ISD) alternatives that are under consideration for deactivation and decommissioning (D&D) of Building 235-F and the Building 294-2F Sand Filter. SRNL personnel developed and used a GoldSim fate and transport model, which is consistent with Musall 2012, to evaluate relative to groundwater protection, ISD alternatives that involve either source removal and/or the grouting of portions or all of 235-F. This evaluation was conducted through the development and use of a Building 235-F GoldSim fate and transport model. The model simulates contaminant release from four 235-F process areas and the 294-2F Sand Filter. In addition, it simulates the fate and transport through the vadose zone, the Upper Three Runs (UTR) aquifer, and the Upper Three Runs (UTR) creek. The model is designed as a stochastic model, and as such it can provide both deterministic and stochastic (probabilistic) results. The results show that the median radium activity concentrations exceed the 5 ?Ci/L radium MCL at the edge of the building for all ISD alternatives after 10,000 years, except those with a sufficient amount of inventory removed. A very interesting result was that grouting was shown …

During the period of Dec. 1 2006 – Jun. 30, 2012, the UNEDF collaboration carried out a comprehensive study of all nuclei, based on the most accurate knowledge of the strong nuclear interaction, the most reliable theoretical approaches, the most advanced algorithms, and extensive computational resources, with a view towards scaling to the petaflop platforms and beyond. The long-term vision initiated with UNEDF is to arrive at a comprehensive, quantitative, and unified description of nuclei and their reactions, grounded in the fundamental interactions between the constituent nucleons. We seek to replace current phenomenological models of nuclear structure and reactions with a well-founded microscopic theory that delivers maximum predictive power with well-quantified uncertainties. Specifically, the mission of this project has been three-fold: first, to find an optimal energy density functional (EDF) using all our knowledge of the nucleonic Hamiltonian and basic nuclear properties; second, to apply the EDF theory and its extensions to validate the functional using all the available relevant nuclear structure and reaction data; third, to apply the validated theory to properties of interest that cannot be measured, in particular the properties needed for reaction theory. The main physics areas of UNEDF, defined at the beginning of the project, …

Based on previous research conducted by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Florida Solar Energy Center providing technical assistance to implement 22 deep energy retrofits across the nation, 6 homes were selected in Florida and Texas for detailed post-retrofit energy modeling to assess realized energy savings (Chandra et al, 2012). However, assessing realized savings can be difficult for some homes where pre-retrofit occupancy and energy performance are unknown. Initially, savings had been estimated using a HERS Index comparison for these homes. However, this does not account for confounding factors such as occupancy and weather. This research addresses a method to more reliably assess energy savings achieved in deep energy retrofits for which pre-retrofit utility bills or occupancy information in not available. A metered home, Riverdale, was selected as a test case for development of a modeling procedure to account occupancy and weather factors, potentially creating more accurate estimates of energy savings. This “true up” procedure was developed using Energy Gauge USA software and post-retrofit homeowner information and utility bills. The 12 step process adjusts the post-retrofit modeling results to correlate with post-retrofit utility bills and known occupancy information. The “trued” post retrofit model is then used to estimate pre-retrofit energy consumption …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Justice’s Bureau of Prisons’ (BOP) 9.5 percent population growth from fiscal years 2006 through 2011 exceeded the 7 percent increase in its rated capacity, and BOP projects continued population growth. Growth was most concentrated among male inmates, and in 2011, 48 percent of the inmates BOP housed were sentenced for drugs. From fiscal years 2006 through 2011, BOP increased its rated capacity by about 8,300 beds as a result of opening 5 new facilities and closing 4 minimum security camps, but because of the population expansion, crowding (or population in excess of rated capacity) increased from 36 to 39 percent. In 2011 crowding was most severe (55 percent) in highest security facilities. BOP’s 2020 long-range capacity plan projects continued growth in the federal prison population from fiscal years 2012 through 2020, with systemwide crowding exceeding 45 percent through 2018."