This is a report about the USDA budget for food and nutrition programs in the fiscal year 1997.

The President signed P.L. 104-205, the Department of Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1997, (FY1997 Act) on September 30, 1996. This action completes work on Department of Transportation (DOT) and related agencies appropriations for the year.

The VA, HUD and Independent Agencies appropriations bill includes funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and a number of independent agencies. This report describes some of the key issues affecting agency funding in FY1997.

The FY1997 agriculture appropriations act (P.L. 104-180) was signed into law on August 6, 1996. P.L. 104-180 provides $52.84 billion in FY1997 budget authority for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and related agencies, an amount which is $5.60 billion below the Administration's FY1997 request and $10.25 billion below the FY1996 enacted level. Much of the reduction in funding from FY1996 levels is attributable to an $8.9 billion reduction in the reimbursement for net realized losses of the Commodity Credit Corporation, which is the funding mechanism for USDA's commodity programs. The act also requires recipients of the new farm bill-authorized market transition payments to use eligible land for farm production, or place it in a conserving use.

Report providing an overview of provisions and funding related to food and agriculture program as a part of a supplemental appropriations bill (P.L. 105-18, H.R. 1871).

This report provides a synopsis of the budget activity related to AIDS from the discovery of the disease in 1981 through FY1999. Funding for AIDS research, prevention and treatment programs within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) discretionary budget has increased from $200,000 in FY1981 to an estimated $3.85 billion in FY1999.

Report for the expenditures and projects pursued by the Texas Planing Council for Developmental Disabilities during the fiscal year.

Annual report for the Sabine River Compact Administration for 1997, including a summary of the meetings and work of the administration, reports from the hydrologic stations, fiscal revenues and expenditures, and accompanying notes.

Report of the Texas State Auditor's Office related to the financial statements of the Office of the Fire Fighters' Pension Commissioner (Commission). The report discusses the changes that the Commission has implemented to reduce investment operations risk, and the reportable conditions related to internal controls that, if not corrected, could adversely affect the Commission's ability record, process, summarize, and report its financial data accurately.

Report of the Texas State Auditor's Office related to the Texas Permanent School Fund's (Fund) financial statements and the Fund's material accounts reported by the Texas Education Agency (Agency) for fiscal year 1997, which are accurately presented in all material respects, in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.

Report of the Texas State Auditor's Office related to the full-time classified state employee turnover rate for Fiscal Year 1997. This report provides classified employee turnover information that can be used to evaluate and address areas of concern related to turnover and potentially reduce turnover costs to the State.

Report of the Texas State Auditor's Office related to the general purpose financial statements of the Teacher Retirement System, which were accurately presented in all material respects and in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.

Report of the Texas State Auditor's Office related to 20 state entities reviewed for compliance with state Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) requirements; these entities demonstrated "good-faith" efforts to increase purchases from HUB vendors.

Biennial report of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission describing the organization's goals and activities during fiscal years 1997-1998 as well as information about the history of the Commission as it celebrates 90 years (1909-1999).

Report summarizing budgets and performance information for Texas agencies, organized by government function: general, health and human services, education, judiciary, public safety and criminal justice, natural resources, business and economic development, and regulatory activities.

Report summarizing budgets and performance information for Texas agencies, organized by government function: general, health and human services, education, judiciary, public safety and criminal justice, natural resources, business and economic development, and regulatory activities. This report includes information through fiscal year 1998 with projected data for 1999.

Report to the Governor and Texas Legislature from the Texas Comptroller of Public Account providing statistics and information about the sales and franchise tax exemptions for 1997.

This document delineates the activities to be accomplished during the period October 1, 1996, through September 30, 1997, the funding requirements, and the agency responsible for accomplishing the tasks.

The Transportation Improvement Program outlines a list of federally assisted transportation projects that will be implemented over a three year period in the San Antonio - Bexar County area.

The Transportation Improvement Program outlines a plan of federally assisted transportation projects that will be implemented over a three year period in the San Antonio - Bexar County area.

'Monosodium aluminate, the phase of aluminate found in waste tanks, is only stable over a fairly narrow range of water vapor pressure (22% relative humidity at 22 C). As a result, aluminate solids are stable at Hanford (seasonal average RH {approximately}20%) but are not be stable at Savannah River (seasonal average RH {approximately}40%). Monosodium aluminate (MSA) releases water upon precipitation from solution. In contrast, trisodium aluminate (TSA) consumes water upon precipitation. As a result, MSA precipitates gradually over time while TSA undergoes rapid accelerated precipitation, often gelling its solution. Raman spectra reported for first time for monosodium and trisodium aluminate solids. Ternary phase diagrams can be useful for showing effects of water removal, even with concentrated waste. Kinetics of monosodium aluminate precipitation are extremely slow (several months) at room temperature but quite fast (several hours) at 60 C. As a result, all waste simulants that contain aluminate need several days of cooking at 60 C in order to truly represent the equilibrium state of aluminate. The high level waste (HLW) slurries that have been created at the Hanford and Savannah River Sites over that last fifty years constitute a large fraction of the remaining HLW volumes at both sites. In …

'The purpose of this project is to develop a computer code for joint in-version of seismic and electrical data, to improve underground imaging for site characterization and remediation monitoring. The computer code developed in this project will invert geophysical data to obtain direct estimates of porosity and saturation underground, rather than inverting for seismic velocity and electrical resistivity or other geophysical properties. This is intended to be a significant improvement in the state-of-the-art of under-ground imaging, since interpretation of data collected at a contaminated site would become much less subjective. The schedule of this project is as follows: In the first year, investigators perform laboratory measurements of elastic and electrical properties of sand-clay mixtures containing various fluids. Investigators also develop methods of relating measurable geophysical properties to porosity and saturation by using rock physics theories, geostatistical, and empirical techniques together with available laboratory measurements. In the second year, investigators finish any necessary laboratory measurements and apply the methods de-veloped in the first year to invert available borehole log data to predict measured properties of cores and sediments from a borehole. Investigators refine the inversion code in the third year and carry out a field experiment to collect seismic and electrical …

'The background for the project is briefly reviewed and the work done during the nine months since funding was received is documented. Work began in January, 1997. A post doctoral fellow joined the team in April. The major activities completed this fiscal year were: staffing the project, design of the experimental system, procurement of components, assembly of the system. preparation of the Safe Operating Procedure and ES and H compliance, pressure testing, establishing data collection and storage methodology, and catalyst preparation. Objective The objective of the project is to develop new chemistry for the removal of organic contaminants from supercritical carbon dioxide. This has application in processes used for continuous cleaning and extraction of parts and waste materials. A secondary objective is to increase the fundamental understanding of photocatalytic chemistry. Cleaning and extraction using supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO{sub 2}) can be applied to the solution of a wide range of environmental and pollution prevention problems in the DOE complex. Work is being done that explores scCO{sub 2} in applications ranging from cleaning contaminated soil to cleaning components constructed from plutonium. The rationale for use of scCO{sub 2} are based on the benign nature, availability and low cost, attractive solvent properties, …

The purpose of this report is to provide the results of the first annual self-assessment to confirm readiness to replace the mixer pump (pump No.1) in Tank 241-SY-101, should the mixer pump fail or need to be replaced for some other reason.