Current law governing financial activity of campaigns for federal office is based on two principal statutes: the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) of 1971, as amended in 1974, 1976, and 1979, and the Revenue Act of 1971. These laws were enacted to remedy widely perceived shortcomings of existing law, the Corrupt Practices Act of 1925, and in response to reports of campaign finance abuses over the years, culminating in the 1972-1974 Watergate scandal. This report provides a summary of major provisions of federal law and a chronology of key legislative and judicial actions.

In light of 1999's oil production cuts by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and several other non-OPEC members, the characteristics of the world's major oil producers are an important consideration for policymakers. These countries vary in importance as direct suppliers to the U.S. Their ability to add to current world supply varies as well.

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Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Department of State's fiscal year (FY) 2001 budget, focusing on the management challenges that State faces in improving its operations in four areas."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the challenges the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) faces in evaluating and overseeing proposed mass transit construction projects, focusing on: (1) FTA's process for evaluating proposed transit projects; (2) FTA's oversight of transit projects under construction; (3) the ever-increasing competition for federal transit construction dollars; and (4) the costs, schedules, and financing of six ongoing transit projects."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Department of Defense's 1999 Survey of Active Duty Personnel, focusing on: (1) military personnel's satisfaction with military life and the aspects of military life that influence decisions to stay in or leave; (2) the extent to which military personnel are working long hours and spending time away from home; and (3) the personal financial conditions reported by military personnel."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed its recent report on the management of federal medical stockpiles that would be used to treat civilians in a chemical or biological terrorist attack."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO described the Department of State's Overseas Emergency Security Program, focusing on: (1) progress that State has made in implementing the program funded by the emergency supplemental appropriations and the challenges State faces in completing the program; and (2) State's long-term capital construction program and its response to a study on overseas presence in follow-on reports."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) interim rule on property acquisition and relocation grants in the wake of Hurricane Floyd. GAO noted that: (1) the interim final rule provides guidance on the administration of grants of $215 million for the acquisition and relocation of properties affected by Hurricane Floyd and surrounding events for hazard mitigation purposes; and (2) FEMA complied with applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Bureau of Indian Affairs' (BIA) new rule on the distribution of fiscal year (FY) 2000 Indian Reservation Roads Funds. GAO noted that: (1) the new rule is published as a temporary one and requires distribution of one-half of the FY 2000 Indian Reservation Roads funds to projects on or near Indian reservations using the Relative Need Formula adopted in 1993; and (2) BIA complied with the applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

A statement of record issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Navy and Marine Corps Intranet effort, focusing on whether the: (1) the Navy acquisition approach and implementation plan are based on appropriate analyses, resolution of key issues, and adequate risk management activities; and (2) Office of the Secretary of Defense is overseeing that effort with adequate review of relevant Navy analyses and other program activities to ensure that system interoperability and information assurance safeguards are implemented."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed several evaluations of the Even Start Family Literacy Program's effectiveness, focusing on how the Even Start program has performed in terms of preparing children for school."

The fate of six volatile organic compounds (VOC) in a 150-meter deep vadose zone was examined in support of a RCRA Corrective Measures Study of the Chemical Waste Landfill at Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico. The study focused on the modeling of potential future transport of the VOCs to exposure media upon the completion of two separate voluntary corrective measures--soil vapor extraction and landfill excavation--designed to significantly reduce contaminant levels in subsurface soils. modeling was performed with R-UNSAT, a finite-difference simulator that was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey. R-UNSAT facilitated a relatively unique and comprehensive assessment of vapor transport because it (1) simulated the simultaneous movement of all six VOCs, taking into account each constituent's diffusion coefficient as affected by its mole fraction within a mixture of chemicals, and (2) permitted simultaneous assessment of risk to human health via volatilization (air) and drinking water (groundwater) pathways. Modeling results suggested that monitored natural attenuation would represent a viable remedial alternative at the landfill after both voluntary corrective measures were completed.

The Hanford Site's mission has been to produce nuclear materials for the US Department of Energy (DOE) and its predecessors. A large inventory of radioactive and mixed waste, largely generated during plutonium production, exists in 177 underground single- and double-shell tanks. These wastes are to be retrieved and separated into low-activity waste (LAW) and high-level waste (HLW) fractions. The total volume of LAW requiring immobilization will include the LAW separated from the tank waste, as well as new wastes generated by the retrieval, pretreatment, and immobilization processes. Per the Tri-Party Agreement (1994), both the LAW and HLW will be vitrified. It has been estimated that vitrification of the LAW waste will result in over 500,000 metric tons or 200,000 m{sup 3} of immobilized LAW (ILAW) glass. The ILAW glass is to be disposed of onsite in a near-surface burial facility. It must be demonstrated that the disposal system will adequately retain the radionuclides and prevent contamination of the surrounding environment. This report describes a study of the impacts of systematic glass-composition variation on the responses from accelerated laboratory corrosion tests of representative LAW glasses. A combination of two tests, the product consistency test and vapor-hydration test, is being used to …

Sandia National Laboratories has been developing technologies to support person-to-person collaboration and the efforts of teams in the business and research communities. The technologies developed include knowledge-based design advisors, knowledge management systems, and streamlined manufacturing supply chains. These collaborative environments in which people can work together sharing information and knowledge have required a new approach to software development. The approach includes an emphasis on the requisite change in business practice that often inhibits user acceptance of collaborative technology. Leveraging the experience from this work, they have established a multidisciplinary approach for developing collaborative software environments. They call this approach ``A Holistic Software Development Methodology''.

The next great issue on the Russian landscape will be management of its foreign debt. In the near future the United States will be called upon to lead an international program of debt restructuring to assist Russia in overcoming the burden of its debt trap. With debt service obligations equal to 50{percent} of 1999 revenues, Russia has virtually no chance of sustaining a program of economic recovery without debt relief (Hardt, 1999). With some form of debt restructuring a foregone conclusion, Russia, the United States, and world community have a vital stake in searching for creative ways to transform the inevitability of debt restructuring into something of value and constructive to Russia and the problems it faces. This was the rationale behind debt-for-nature swaps which emerged in the early 1980s in Latin American and Eastern Europe as a means of relieving developing nations of their crippling foreign debt. Debt-for-nature swaps served both domestic and international needs by converting a portion of foreign debt, often at steep discounts, into local currency that was then used to fund programs to preserve the environment. The debt swap mechanism provides the prospect of getting something of real value where nothing is expected. The Pacific …

During this CRADA, Honeywell FM and T and MoDOT personnel designed a unique scanning system (including both hardware and software) that can be used to perform an automated scan and evaluation of a concrete sample. The specific goals of the CRADA were: (1) Develop a combined system integration, image acquisition, and image analysis approach to mimic the manual scanning and evaluation process. Produce a prototype system which can: (a) automate the scanning process to improve its speed and efficiency; (b) reduce operator fatigue; and (c) improve the consistency of the evaluation process. (2) Capture and preserve the baseline knowledge used by the MoDOT experts in performing the evaluation process. At the present time, the evaluation expertise resides in two MoDOT personnel. Automation of the evaluation process will allow that knowledge to be captured, preserved, and used for training purposes. (3) Develop an approach for the image analysis which is flexible and extensible in order to accommodate the inevitable pathologies that arise in the evaluation process. Such pathologies include features such as cracks and fissures, voids filled with paste or debris, and multiple, overlapping voids. FM and T personnel used image processing, pattern recognition, and system integration skills developed for other …

This paper focuses on a ten-element strategy for streamlining the NEPA process in order to achieve the Act's objectives while easing the considerable burden on agencies, the public, and the judicial system. In other words, this paper proposes a strategy for making NEPA work better and cost less. How these ten elements are timed and implemented is critical to any successful streamlining. The strategy elements discussed in this paper, in no particular order of priority, are as follows: (1) integrate the NEPA process with other environmental compliance and review procedures; (2) accelerate the decision time for determining the appropriate level of NEPA documentation; (3) conduct early and thorough internal EIS (or EA) scoping before public scoping or other public participation begins; (4) organize and implement public scoping processes that are more participatory than confrontational; (5) maintain an up-to-date compendium of environmental baseline information; (6) prepare more comprehensive, broad-scope umbrella EISs that can be used effectively for tiering; (7) encourage preparation of annotated outlines with detailed guidance that serve as a road map for preparation of each EIS or EA; (8) decrease the length and complexity of highly technical portions of NEPA documents; (9) increase and systematize NEPA compliance outreach, training, …

The magnitude of Russian foreign debt, both official bilateral and commercial, compounded by collapse of the Russian economic system, is an obstacle in preventing the Russian Federation from effectively increasing the domestic priority of drawing down its nuclear weapons complex and providing a healthy, competitive environment to its nuclear cities. Debt-for-nature swaps, introduced in the early 1980s, provide debtor nations with a means of converting a portion of foreign debt into local currency, often at steep discounts, to use for purposes such as environmental protection that serve both a domestic and international need. This paper presents the debt-for-nature concept as a model for providing an infusion of funds to further U.S. and international nonproliferation objectives to help stabilize Russian closed city economic conditions through direct work on proliferation problems and remediation of the environment. A specific proposal is presented to demonstrate the utility and efficacy of the dept swap concept through initial collaboration with the city administration of Ozersk. The purpose of the proposal is to facilitate making Ozersk a safe, healthy competitive city, providing useful employment for its scientists and population and converting its superior infrastructure into productive activities.

Bis(cyclopentadienyl)magnesium (MgCp2) is used commonly as a source for doping nitride materials with magnesium. Increased oxygen incorporation known to accompany the use of MgCp2 makes the purity of this precursor an important consideration in nitride CVD. Gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GCMS) methods have now been developed for the identification of volatile impurities in MgCp2. Diethylether, an oxygen containing organic compound (CH{sub 3}CH{sub 2}OCH{sub 2}CH{sub 3}), and additional organic impurities were found in the MgCp2 supplied by three manufacturers. Subsequent refinements in the synthetic processes by these companies have resulted in the availability of MgCp2 free of ether and other organic impurities as determined by GCMS.

A project to develop non-intrusive active sensors that can be applied on existing aging aerospace structures for monitoring the onset and progress of structural damage (fatigue cracks and corrosion) is presented. The state of the art in active sensors structural health monitoring and damage detection is reviewed. Methods based on (a) elastic wave propagation and (b) electro-mechanical (NM) impedance technique are sighted and briefly discussed. The instrumentation of these specimens with piezoelectric active sensors is illustrated. The main detection strategies (E/M impedance for local area detection and wave propagation for wide area interrogation) are discussed. The signal processing and damage interpretation algorithms are tuned to the specific structural interrogation method used. In the high-frequency EIM impedance approach, pattern recognition methods are used to compare impedance signatures taken at various time intervals and to identify damage presence and progression from the change in these signatures. In the wave propagation approach, the acoustic-ultrasonic methods identifying additional reflection generated from the damage site and changes in transmission velocity and phase are used. Both approaches benefit from the use of artificial intelligence neural networks algorithms that can extract damage features based on a learning process. Design and fabrication of a set of structural specimens …

The authors consider the ability of the numerical solution of Richards equation to model gravity-driven fingers. Although gravity-driven fingers can be easily simulated using a partial downwind averaging method, they find the fingers are purely artificial, generated by the combined effects of truncation error induced oscillations and capillary hysteresis. Since Richards equation can only yield a monotonic solution for standard constitutive relations and constant flux boundary conditions, it is not the valid governing equation to model gravity-driven fingers, and therefore is also suspect for unsaturated flow in initially dry, highly nonlinear, and hysteretic media where these fingers occur. However, analysis of truncation error at the wetting front for the partial downwind method suggests the required mathematical behavior of a more comprehensive and physically based modeling approach for this region of parameter space.

The Chicago Pile 5 (CP-5) Reactor, the first reactor built on the Argonne National Laboratory-East site, followed a rich history that had begun in 1942 with Enrico Fermi's original pile built under the west stands at the Stagg Field Stadium of The University of Chicago. CP-5 was a 5-megawatt, heavy water-moderated, enriched uranium-fueled reactor used to produce neutrons for scientific research from 1954--79. The reactor was shut down and defueled in 1979, and placed into a lay-up condition pending funding for decontamination and decommissioning (D and D). In 1990, work was initiated on the D and D of the facility in order to alleviate safety and environmental concerns associated with the site due to the deterioration of the building and its associated support systems. A decision was made in early Fiscal Year (FY) 1999 to direct focus and resources to the completion of the CP-5 Reactor D and D Project. An award of contract was made in December 1998 to Duke Engineering and Services (Marlborough, MA), and a D and D crew was on site in March 1999 to begin work, The project is scheduled to be completed in July 2000. The Laboratory has determined that the building housing the …

The {gamma}-irradiated-oxidation of pentacontane (C{sub 50}H{sub 102}) and the polymer polyisoprene was investigated as a function of oxidation level using {sup 17}O nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. It is demonstrated that by using {sup 17}O labeled O{sub 2} gas during the {gamma}-irradiation process, details about the oxidative degradation mechanisms can be directly obtained from the analysis of the {sup 17}O NMR spectra. Production of carboxylic acids is the primary oxygen-containing functionality during the oxidation of pentacontane, while ethers and alcohols are the dominant oxidation product observed for polyisoprene. The formation of ester species during the oxidation process is very minor for both materials, with water also being produced in significant amounts during the radiolytic oxidation of polyisoprene. The ability to focus on the oxidative component of the degradation process using {sup 17}O NMR spectroscopy demonstrates the selectivity of this technique over more conventional approaches.