The primary focus of this issue brief is legislative action in the 107th Congress with respect to abortion. However, discussion of those legislative proposals necessarily involves a brief discussion of the leading U.S. Supreme Court decisions concerning a woman’s right to choose whether to terminate her pregnancy. For a more detailed discussion of the relevant case law, see CRS Report 95-724, Abortion Law Development: A Brief Overview.

Surface water temperatures calculated from Multispectral Thermal Imager (MTI) brightness temperatures and the robust retrieval algorithm, developed by the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), are compared with ground truth measurements at a mid-latitude cold-water site along the Atlantic coast near Plymouth, MA. In contrast to the relative uniformity of the sea-surface temperature in the open ocean the water temperature near Pilgrim exhibits strong spatial gradients and temporal variability. This made it critical that all images be accurately registered in order to extract temperature values at the six buoy locations. Sixteen images during a one-year period from August 2000 to July 2001 were selected for the study. The RMS error of Pilgrim water temperature is about 3.5 C for the 4 buoys located in open water. The RMS error of the combined temperatures from 3 of the open-water buoys is 2.8 C. The RMS error includes errors in the ground truth. The magnitude of this error is estimated to range between 0.8 and 2.3 C. The two main components of this error are warm-layer effect and spatial variability. The actual error in the MTI retrievals for Pilgrim daytime conditions is estimated to be between 2.7 and 3.4 C for individual buoys …

This report is a guide to one of the 13 regular appropriations bills that Congress passes each year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Energy and Water. It summarizes the current legislative status of the bill, its scope, major issues, funding levels, and related legislative activity. The report lists the key CRS staff relevant to the issues covered and related CRS products.

This report discusses the budget for fiscal year 2003. It debates issues such as budget action, receipts surpluses or deficits, and the economy

Accidents in complex systems send us signals. They may be harbingers of a catastrophe. Some even argue that a ''normal'' consequence of operations in a complex organization may not only be the goods it produces, but also accidents and--inevitably--catastrophes. We would like to tell you the story of a large, complex organization, whose history questions the argument ''that accidents just happen.'' Starting from a less than enviable safety record, the National Ignition Facility (NIF) has accumulated over 2.5 million safe hours. The story of NIF is still unfolding. The facility is still being constructed and commissioned. But the steps NIF has taken in achieving its safety record provide a principled blueprint that may be of value to others. Describing that principled blueprint is the purpose of this paper. The first part of this paper is a case study of NIF and its effort to achieve a world-class safety record. This case study will include a description of (1) NIF's complex systems, (2) NIF's early safety history, (3) factors that may have initiated its safety culture change, and (4) the evolution of its safety blueprint. In the last part of the paper, we will compare NIF's safety culture to what safety …

The entry into force, on January 1, 1994, of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has eliminated the advantage that the beneficiaries of the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (CBERA) and related provisions of the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) had enjoyed in trade with the United States relative to Mexico, and gave Mexico an increasingly significant competitive edge over the CBERA countries. The scheduled further implementation of the NAFTA would have resulted in a substantial advantage to Mexico over the CBERA countries and vitiate in part the purpose of the CBERA.

Composite cathodes of 50/50 vol percent LSM-YSZ (La1-xSrxMnO3-yttria stabilized zirconia) were deposited onto dense YSZ electrolytes by a colloidal deposition technique. The cathode characteristics were then examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and studied by an impedance spectroscopy (IS). Conditioning effects of the LSM-YSZ cathodes were seen, and remedies for these effects were proposed for improving the performance of a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). LSM surface contamination and modification, cathode bonding to the YSZ electrolyte, changing Pt electrode and bonding paste, and curvature of sintered YSZ electrolytes led to some changes in microstructure and variability in cell performances.

This report provides information on the history of continuing resolutions; the nature, scope, and duration of CRs during the last 30 years; the various types of CRs that have been enacted; and an overview of those instances when budget authority has lapsed and a funding gap has resulted.

This Corrective Action Investigation Plan contains the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Operations Office's approach to collect the data necessary to evaluate corrective action alternatives appropriate for the closure of Corrective Action Unit (CAU) 527, Horn Silver Mine, Nevada Test Site, Nevada, under the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order. Corrective Action Unit 527 consists of one Corrective Action Site (CAS): 26-20-01, Contaminated Waste Dump No.1. The site is located in an abandoned mine site in Area 26 (which is the most arid part of the NTS) approximately 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Historical documents may refer to this site as CAU 168, CWD-1, the Wingfield mine (or shaft), and the Wahmonie mine (or shaft). Historical documentation indicates that between 1959 and the 1970s, nonliquid classified material and unclassified waste was placed in the Horn Silver Mine's shaft. Some of the waste is known to be radioactive. Documentation indicates that the waste is present from 150 feet to the bottom of the mine (500 ft below ground surface). This CAU is being investigated because hazardous constituents migrating from materials and/or wastes disposed of in the Horn Silver Mine may pose a threat to human …

High level waste is stored in carbon steel tanks at the Savannah River Site (SRS). The site is currently in the process of waste removal from, and ultimately closure of, these tanks. One of the most time consuming steps in the waste removal process is cleaning the sludge heel from the bottom of the tanks to an acceptable residual quantity. The sludge consists primarily of metal oxides that formed after waste from the canyons was neutralized with sodium hydroxide. Since the canyon waste was originally a nitric acid solution, this acid is a prime candidate for sludge heel dissolution.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974. Greek Cypriots, nearly 80% of the population, live in the southern two thirds of the island. Turkish Cypriots live in the “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” (recognized only by Turkey), with about 30,000 Turkish troops providing security. U.N. peacekeeping forces maintain a buffer zone between the two. Members of Congress have urged the Administration to be more active, although they have not proposed an alternative to the U.N.-sponsored talks.

This report examines four criteria which are often used today to rank and assess countries’ levels of development. They are: (1) per capita income; (2) economic and social structure; (3) social conditions; and (4) the prevailing level of economic and political freedom. Specific indices or quantitative studies are explained and applied to each criteria and the differences among the various measures are explained.

We have used Coherent Bragg Rod Analysis (COBRA) to investigate the atomic structure of a 5.6 nm thick Gd{sub 2}O{sub 3} film epitaxially grown on a (100) GaAs substrate. COBRA is a method to directly obtain the structure of systems periodic in two-dimensions by determining the complex scattering factors along the substrate Bragg rods. The system electron density and atomic structure are obtained by Fourier transforming the complex scattering factors into real space. The results show that the stacking order of the first seven Gd{sub 2}O{sub 3} film layers resembles the stacking order of Ga and As layers in GaAs then changes to the stacking order of cubic bulk Gd{sub 2}O{sub 3}. This behavior is distinctly different from the measured stacking order in a 2.7 nm thick Gd{sub 2}O{sub 3} in which the GaAs stacking order persists throughout the entire film.

This report discusses issues debated in the 107th Congress while is considering various proposals to amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA). Major issues in recent years have included changing the role of science in decision-making, changing the role of critical habitat, reducing conflicts with Department of Defense activities, incorporating further protection for property owners, and increasing protection of listed species, among others. In addition, many have advocated including significant changes to ESA regulations made during the Clinton Administration in the law itself.

On April 9, 2001, the President requested $7.3 billion in discretionary budget authority for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for FY2002, $512.0 million (or 7%) less than the FY2001 funding level of $7.8 billion. The request would not have continued funding of about $500 million for activities earmarked for FY2001, and contained provisions shifting more enforcement responsibilities to the states. Popular wastewater infrastructure funding, state roles, and the future of Superfund were some of the predominant topics. On July 17, the House Appropriations Committee recommended $7.545 billion,$229 million more than requested (H.R. 2620, H. Rept. 107-159).

This report provides the background and issues of the food crisis in Southern Africa.

The P wells were installed in the late 80s as part of the SRP Baseline Hydrogeological Investigation for the purpose of updating and improving the current knowledge and understanding of the hydrogeological systems underlying the SRS. During the installation of the P well series wells, a total of more than 16,000 feet of unconsolidated geologic sediments were cored and are currently stored at the Core Facility and 129 wells were installed at eighteen widely spaced P well clusters. Each well cluster nominally consists of 8 observations wells screened at the water table down to the lower McQueen Branch aquifer (Middendorf Formation). The vertical distribution of the wells at each cluster not only provides information on the hydraulic head within each monitoring unit but also the vertical gradients between the different formations.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "An essential element to acquiring, developing, and retaining high-quality federal employees is agencies' effective use of human capital flexibilities. These flexibilities represent the policies and practices that an agency has the authority to implement in managing its workforce. Congressional requesters asked GAO to provide information on agency and union officials' views about the most effective human capital flexibilities, additional flexibilities needed, and whether additional flexibilities could be implemented while also protecting employees' rights. GAO was also asked to identify key practices for effective use of flexibilities. GAO interviewed the human resources directors of the federal government's 24 largest departments and agencies, and representatives of 4 national organizations representing federal employees and managers. GAO further focused its efforts on 7 federal agencies--Department of Air Force, General Services Administration, Internal Revenue Service, International Trade Administration, U.S. Mint, State Department, and Veterans Benefits Administration--interviewing more than 200 managers, supervisors, human resources officials, and union representatives in headquarters and field locations."

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