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This report provides information about the Guide to Individuals Seated on the House Dais. The house of representatives meets in the capitol in the house chamber.

The Senate follows a well-established routine on the opening day of a new Congress. The proceedings include swearing in new members, administrative business, and the election of the president pro tempore, the constitutionally mandated officer elected to preside over the chamber in the absence of the Vice President. This report contains information on what is contained in the well-established routine.

Aircraft hazards were determined to be potentially applicable to a repository at Yucca Mountain in ''Monitored Geological Repository External Events Hazards Screening Analysis'' (BSC 2005 [DIRS 174235], Section 6.4.1). That determination was conservatively based upon limited knowledge of flight data in the area of concern and upon crash data for aircraft of the type flying near Yucca Mountain. The purpose of this report is to identify specific aircraft hazards that may be applicable to a monitored geologic repository (MGR) at Yucca Mountain, using NUREG-0800, ''Standard Review Plan for the Review of Safety Analysis Reports for Nuclear Power Plants'' (NRC 1987 [DIRS 103124], Section 3.5.1.6), as guidance for the inclusion or exclusion of identified aircraft hazards. The intended use of this report is to provide inputs for further screening and analysis of identified aircraft hazards based upon the criteria that apply to Category 1 and Category 2 event sequence analyses as defined in 10 CFR 63.2 [DIRS 176544] (Section 4). The scope of this report includes the evaluation of military, private, and commercial use of airspace in the 100-mile regional setting of the repository at Yucca Mountain with the potential for reducing the regional setting to a more manageable size after …

This report presents the results of research conducted to determine the effects of normal and abnormal processing and compositional variations on machinability (tool wear rate) of gray and ductile iron. The procedures developed allow precise tool wear measurements to be made and interpreted in terms of microstructures and compositions. Accurate data allows the most efficient ways for improving machinability to be determined without sacrificing properties of the irons.

In the Linear Collider design, the positron capture system includes a positron production target, followed by an adiabatic matching device (solenoid), a pre-linac with solenoidal focusing, and a linac with quadrupole focusing before injection into a positron damping ring. Two schemes for positron production have been studied: (1) a conventional approach with high-energy electron beam interacting with a high-Z target and (2) polarized positron production using polarized photons generated in a helical undulator by a primary collider electron beam which then interact with a positron production target. The capture efficiencies for both schemes are compared. Various parameters affecting the positron capture are analyzed.

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The appearance of BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy or “mad cow disease”) in North America has raised public health concerns and disrupted trade for cattle and beef producers. A major issue for Congress has been how to rebuild foreign confidence in the safety of U.S. beef and regain lost markets like Japan. Among other issues are whether additional measures are needed to further protect the public and cattle herd, and concerns over the relative costs and benefits of such measures for consumers, taxpayers and industry.

This report details the information related to country-of-origin information on fresh fruits and vegetables, red meats, seafood, and peanuts. The contents include the background, meat, and poultry inspection provisions, history of Congressional Action for the implementation

The availability of compact transmission grating spectrometers now allows an attractive and economical alternative to the more familiar Czerny-Turner configuration for many high-temperature plasma applications. Higher throughput is obtained with short focal length refractive optics and stigmatic imaging. Many more spectra can be obtained with a single spectrometer since smaller, more densely packed optical input fibers can be used. Multiple input slits, along with a bandpass filter, can be used to maximize the number of spectra per detector, providing further economy. Curved slits can correct for the strong image curvature of the short focal length optics. Presented here are the governing grating equations for both standard and high-dispersion transmission gratings, defining dispersion, image curvature, and desired slit curvature, that can be used in the design of improved plasma diagnostics.

Identifying the mechanism which breaks electroweak symmetry and generates fermion masses is one of the main physics goals for both the LHC and the ILC. Studies of the top quark have the potential to illuminate this issue; since it is the heaviest of the Standard Model (SM) fermions, the top is expected to couple strongly to the symmetry-breaking sector. Consequently, the structure of that sector can have significant, potentially observable effects on the properties of the top. for example, it is well known that the vector and axial t{bar t}Z form factors receive large corrections (of order 5-10%) in certain models of dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking [1]. At future colliders such as the LHC and the ILC, we will be able to pursue a program of precision top physics, similar to the program studying the Z at LEP and SLC. In this manuscript, they study the corrections to the top quark properties in ''Little Higgs'' models of electroweak symmetry breaking [2], and compare the expected deviations from the SM predictions with expected sensitivities of experiments at the LHC and the ILC. In the Little Higgs models, electroweak symmetry is driven by the radiative effects from the top sector, including the …

This report provides background information regarding the bill and joint resolution, which must be passed by both houses in identical form, then presented to the President for his approval or disapproval.

This report provides information about the Stages of Action on Measures on Committee of the Whole.

The House of Representatives uses two kinds of votes in which the names and positions of individual Members are recorded: (1) the recorded vote, used chiefly in Committee of the Whole, though also in order in the House, and (2) the yea and nay vote, in order only in the House proper. Both kinds together are referred to as record votes or, more informally, as “roll call votes,” and both are normally taken by electronic device. This report illustrates forms commonly used for obtaining each kind of vote.

A look at how the Chrysler Loan Guarantee Act of 1979 affected TARP funding for the Detroit Big Three.

We have performed a thermal mechanical analysis of the Drift Scale Test (DST) currently underway at Yucca Mountain. The Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project is investigating Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as a potential repository for high-level nuclear waste. The purpose of the DST is to acquire a more in-depth understanding of coupled Thermal-Mechanical-Hydrological-Chemical (TMHC) processes likely to exist in the rock mass surrounding a potential geologic repository at Yucca Mountain. Moreover, the DST is located in a highly fractured and densely welded ash-flow tuff, and movement of fluids in this rock is thought to occur primarily through the fractures. Our work is concerned with describing fracture deformation due to thermal mechanical effects, as normal and shear deformation of fractures can substantially change the fracture permeability, and affect the coupled TMHC behavior. We modeled the DST by defining a rectangular rock mass 50m x 50m x 100m in size. The rock mass was formed by an assemblage of discrete, elastic blocks. Excavations within the DST were closely simulated, and discrete fractures mapped from video logs of several boreholes in the DST test block were incorporated. Stress boundary conditions were used on the top and sides of the rock mass, while the bottom …

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This report provides background information on the World Heritage Convention, outlines U.S. participation and funding, and highlights criteria for adding and removing sites from the World Heritage Lists. It also discusses possible issues for the 111th Congress.

Report on tax issues facing Congress in late 2005, including state of the economy, federal budget, Hurricane Katrina, and more.

On April 28, 2005, Congress approved an FY2006 budget resolution (H.Con.Res. 95) with reconciliation instructions calling for three bills: a bill containing spending cuts ($1.5 billion in FY2006 and $34.7 billion over five years); a bill increasing the public debt limit by $781 billion (to $8,965 billion); and a bill containing tax cuts.

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.

This contract report is one of a series of reports that document implementation components of the Bonneville Power Administration's (BPA) funded project: Integrated Status and Effectiveness Monitoring Program (ISEMP - BPA project No.2003-017-00, Chris Jordan, NOAA-NWFSC project sponsor). Other components of the project are separately reported, as explained below. The ISEMP project has been created as a cost effective means of developing protocols and new technologies, novel indicators, sample designs, analytical data management, communication tools and skills, and restoration experiments that support the development of a region-wide Research, Monitoring, and Evaluation (RME) program to assess the status of anadromous salmonids populations, their tributary habitat and restoration and management actions. The most straightforward approach to developing a regional-scale monitoring and evaluation program would be to increase standardization among status and trend monitoring programs. However, the diversity of species and their habitat, as well as the overwhelming uncertainty surrounding indicators, metrics, and data interpretation methods requires the testing of multiple approaches. Thus, ISEMP has adopted an approach to develop a broad template that may differ in the details among subbasins, but one that will ultimately lead to the formation of a unified RME process for the management of anadromous salmonid populations and …

This report summarizes and compares provisions for green jobs training and worker adaptation assistance for climate change mitigation impacts in two recent bills.