During the week of December 18, 2005, both the House and Senate approved the conference agreement on the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (H.Rept. 109-362, S. 1932), which includes net reductions of $2.7 billion over five years for USDA mandatory programs. Included in the agreement is a $1.7 billion reduction in farm commodity support programs, a $934 million reduction in conservation spending, a $620 million reduction in a mandatory research program, and $419 million cut in rural development programs, as scored by CBO over a five-year period (FY2006-2010). The measure also includes a two-year extension of a dairy income support program, at an estimated cost of $998 million. No reductions to food stamp spending were included in the conference agreement.

This report monitors actions taken by the 109th Congress for the House’s Science, State, Justice, Commerce, and Related Agencies (SSJC) and the Senate’s Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) FY2006 appropriations legislation.

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

Evaluation of the fabrication processes involved in the manufacture of waste containers is important as these processes can have an effect on the metallurgical structure of an alloy. Since material properties such as strength, toughness, aging kinetics and corrosion resistance are all dependent on the microstructure, it is important that prototypes be built and evaluated for processing effects on the performance of the material. Of particular importance are welds, which have an as-cast microstructure with chemical segregation and precipitation of complex phases resulting from the welding process. The work presented in this report focuses on the effects of processes such as solution annealing, stress mitigation, and welding on the kinetics of precipitation and corrosion properties. For a waste package lifetime of thousands of years, it is impossible to test directly in the laboratory the behavior of Alloy 22 under expected repository conditions. The changes that may occur in these materials must be accelerated. For phase-stability studies this is achieved by accelerating the phase transformations by increasing test temperatures above those anticipated in the proposed repository. For these reasons, Alloy 22 characterization specimens are currently being aged at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Aging Facilities for times from 1 hour to …

The federal government has a long history of providing credit assistance to farmers by issuing direct loans and guarantees, and creating rural lending institutions. These institutions include the Farm Credit System (FCS), which is a network of borrower-owned lending institutions operating as a government-sponsored enterprise, and the Farm Service Agency (FSA) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which makes or guarantees loans to farmers who cannot qualify at other lenders. When loans cannot be repaid, special bankruptcy provisions help family farmers reorganize debts and continue farming (P.L. 109-8 made Chapter 12 permanent and expanded eligibility). S. 238 and H.R. 399 (the Rural Economic Investment Act) would exempt commercial banks from paying taxes on profits from farm real estate loans, thus providing similar benefits as to the Farm Credit System.

This report consists of american bankers association v. lockyer: Whether California’s Financial Information Privacy Law Has Been Preempted by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions (FACT) Act.

This report is designed to assist congressional policymakers to understand and apply broad based objective criteria when evaluating progress in the nation’s efforts to combat terrorism. It is not intended to define specific, in-depth, metrics for measuring progress against terrorism.

Compatibility and outgassing studies of non-nuclear materials were carried out in support of the W80 Life Extension Program. These studies included small-scale laboratory experiments as well as participation in Sandia's Materials Aging and Compatibility test (MAC-1). Analysis of the outgassing signature of removable epoxy foam (REF) revealed unusually high levels of volatile organic compounds in the material. REF was replaced with the polyurethane PMDI. Laboratory compatibility tests of high priority materials were performed and revealed incompatibilities between Viton A (LX-07 binder) and syntactic polysulfide as well as Viton A and REF. With the removal of REF from the system, the incompatibility with Viton A is not an issue. In the case of the viton/polysulfide, both of these materials have a history of reliability in the stockpile, and the observed results, while scientifically interesting, appear to be a laboratory anomaly. Participation in the MAC-1 test led to a detailed study of Viton A degradation. At elevated temperatures up to 70 C, the Viton A samples darkened and exhibited increased crosslinking. Laboratory experiments were pursued to correlate the observed changes to exposure to specific compounds that were present in the MAC-1 canister atmospheres. Exposure to siloxanes resulted in changes similar to those …

This report examines EPA's analysis and adjusts some of its assumptions to reflect current regulations. The most important adjustment is the choice of baseline. The agency’s analysis assumes as a baseline that, in the absence of new federal legislation, EPA and the states will take no additional action to control SO2, NOx, Hg, or CO2 emissions beyond those actions finalized by mid-2004. This baseline is put forth despite three rules recently promulgated by EPA that limit SO2, NOx, and Hg emissions on a timeframe similar to that proposed by the Clear Skies legislation.

Mechanically alloyed oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) Fe-Cr-Al alloy thin walled tubes and sheets, produced via powder processing and consolidation methodologies, are promising materials for eventual use at temperatures up to 1200 C in the power generation industry, far above the temperature capabilities of conventional alloys. Target end-uses range from gas turbine combustor liners to high aspect ratio (L/D) heat exchanger tubes. Grain boundary creep processes at service temperatures, particularly those acting in the hoop direction, are the dominant failure mechanisms for such components. The processed microstructure of ODS alloys consists of high aspect ratio grains aligned parallel to the tube axis, a result of dominant axial metal flow which aligns the dispersoid particles and other impurities in the longitudinal direction. The dispersion distribution is unaltered on a micro scale by recrystallization thermal treatments, but the high aspect ratio grain shape typically obtained limits transverse grain spacing and consequently the hoop creep response. Improving hoop creep in ODS-alloy components will require understanding and manipulating the factors that control the recrystallization behavior, and represents a critical materials design and development challenge that must be overcome in order to fully exploit the potential of ODS alloys. The objectives of this program are to …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "For many years, the Department of Defense (DOD) has been attempting to modernize its business systems, and GAO has made numerous recommendations to help it do so. To further assist DOD, Congress included provisions in the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005 aimed at ensuring that DOD develop a well-defined business enterprise architecture and transition plan by September 30, 2005, as well as establish and implement effective structures and processes for managing information technology (IT) business system investments. In response to the act's mandate, GAO is reporting on DOD's compliance with requirements relating to DOD's architecture, transition plan, budgetary disclosure, and business system review and approval structures and processes. Given GAO's existing recommendations, it is not making additional recommendations at this time. In comments on a draft of this report, DOD recognized that GAO has been a constructive player in its business transformation efforts. While not specifically commenting on most of the report's findings and its conclusions, DOD also said that it disagreed with two points: the level of development for its "As Is" architecture and instances of nonintegration within the …

The purpose of the environmental monitoring plan (EMP) is to promote the early identification of, and response to, potential adverse environmental impacts associated with DOE operations. Environmental monitoring supports the Integrated Safety Management System (ISMS) to detect, characterize, and respond to releases from DOE activities; assess impacts; estimate dispersal patterns in the environment; characterize the pathways of exposure to members of the public; characterize the exposures and doses to individuals and to the population; and to evaluate the potential impacts to the biota in the vicinity of the DOE activity. In addition, the EMP addresses the analytical work supporting environmental monitoring to ensure the following: (1) A consistent system for collecting, assessing, and documenting environmental data of known and documented quality; (2) A validated and consistent approach for sampling and analysis of radionuclide samples to ensure laboratory data meets program-specific needs and requirements within the framework of a performance-based approach for analytical laboratory work; and (3) An integrated sampling approach to avoid duplicative data collection. Until recently, environmental monitoring at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) was required by DOE Order 5400.1, which was canceled in January 2003. LLNL is in the process of adopting the ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems …

Plutonium, because of its radioactive nature, ages from the 'inside out' by means of self-irradiation damage and thus produces nanoscale internal defects. The self-irradiation induced defects come in the form of Frenkel-type defects (vacancies and self-interstitial atoms), helium in-growth, and defect clusters. At present there are neither experimental nor theoretical models describing the changes in the electronic structure caused by the aging in Pu. This fact appears to be associated primarily with the absence of reasonably convincing spectroscopic evidence of the changes. This paper demonstrates that Resonant Photoemission, a variant of Photoelectron Spectroscopy, has strong sensitivity to aging of Pu samples. The spectroscopic results are correlated with an extra-atomic screening model [1], and are shown to be the fingerprint of mesoscopic or nanoscale internal damage in the Pu physical structure. This means that a spectroscopic signature of internal damage due to aging in Pu has been established.

This report presents numerical simulations of isothermalreactive flows which might be induced in the caprock of an Italiandepleted gas reservoir by the geological sequestration of carbon dioxide.Our objective is to verify that CO2 geological disposal activitiesalready planned for the study area are safe and do not induce anyundesired environmental impact.Gas-water-rock interactions have beenmodelled under two different intial conditions, i.e., assuming that i)caprock is perfectly sealed, or ii) partially fractured. Field conditionsare better approximated in terms of the "sealed caprock model". Thefractured caprock model has been implemented because it permits toexplore the geochemical beahvior of the system under particularly severeconditions which are not currently encountered in the field, and then todelineate a sort of hypothetical maximum risk scenario.Major evidencessupporting the assumption of a sealed caprock stem from the fact that nogas leakages have been detected during the exploitation phase, subsequentreservoir repressurization due to the ingression of a lateral aquifer,and during several cycles of gas storage in the latest life of reservoirmanagement.An extensive program of multidisciplinary laboratory tests onrock properties, geochemical and microseismic monitoring, and reservoirsimulation studies is underway to better characterize the reservoir andcap-rock behavior before the performance of a planned CO2 sequestrationpilot test.In our models, fluid flow and mineral alteration …

This report discusses the Farm Credit System (FCS) is a nationwide financial cooperative that lends to agricultural producers, rural homeowners, certain agriculture-related businesses, and agricultural, aquatic, and public utility cooperatives. Established by the Federal Farm Loan Act in 1916 as a government-sponsored enterprise (GSE), it has a statutory mandate to serve agriculture and related enterprises.

Product imaging has been used to investigate several processes important to a fundamental understanding of combustion. The imaging technique produces a "snapshot" of the three-dimensional velocity distribution of a state-selected reaction product. Research in three main areas is planned or underway. First, product imaging has been used to investigate the reactive scattering of radicals or atoms with species important in combustion. These experiments, while more difficult than studies of inelastic scattering or photodissociation, are now becoming feasible. They provide both product distributions of important processes as well as angular information important to the interpretation of reaction mechanisms. Second, the imaging technique has been used to measure rotationally inelastic energy transfer on collision of closed-shell species with important combustion radicals. Such measurements improve our knowledge of intramolecular potentials and provide important tests of ab initio calculations. Finally, experiments using product imaging have explored the vacuum ultraviolet photodissociation of O2, N2O, SO2, CO2 and other important species. Little is known about the highly excited electronic states of these molecules and, in particular, how they dissociate. These studies provide product vibrational energy distributions as well as angular information that can aid in understanding the symmetry and crossings among the excited electronic states

This report presents current data on estimated ownership of United States Treasury securities and major holders of federal debt by country.

This report focuses on heritage areas designated by Congress, and related issues and legislation.

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This report provides an overview of the 2005 developments on Iran's nuclear program.

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Nuclear weapons are integral to the defense of the United States. The U.S. Department of Energy, as the steward of these devices, must continue to gauge the efficacy of the individual weapons. This could be accomplished by occasional testing at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) in Nevada, northwest of Las Vegas. Yucca Flat Basin is one of the testing areas at the NTS. One issue of concern is the nature of the somewhat poorly constrained pre-Tertiary geology and its effects on ground-water flow in the area subsequent to a nuclear test. Ground-water modelers would like to know more about the hydrostratigraphy and geologic structure to support a hydrostratigraphic framework model that is under development for the Yucca Flat Corrective Action Unit (CAU). During 2003, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) collected and processed Magnetotelluric (MT) and Audio-magnetotelluric (AMT) data at the Nevada Test Site in and near Yucca Flat to help characterize this pre-Tertiary geology. That work will help to define the character, thickness, and lateral extent of pre-Tertiary confining units. In particular, a major goal has been to define the upper clastic confining unit (UCCU) in the Yucca Flat area. Interpretation will include a three-dimensional (3-D) character analysis and two-dimensional …

Nuclear weapons are integral to the defense of the United States. The U.S. Department of Energy, as the steward of these devices, must continue to gauge the efficacy of the individual weapons. This could be accomplished by occasional testing at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) in Nevada, northwest of Las Vegas. Yucca Flat Basin is one of the testing areas at the NTS. One issue of concern is the nature of the somewhat poorly constrained pre-Tertiary geology and its effects on ground-water flow in the area subsequent to a nuclear test. Ground-water modelers would like to know more about the hydrostratigraphy and geologic structure to support a hydrostratigraphic framework model that is under development for the Yucca Flat Corrective Action Unit (CAU). During 2003, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) collected and processed Magnetotelluric (MT) and Audio-magnetotelluric (AMT) data at the Nevada Test Site in and near Yucca Flat to help characterize this pre-Tertiary geology. That work will help to define the character, thickness, and lateral extent of pre-Tertiary confining units. In particular, a major goal has been to define the upper clastic confining unit (UCCU) in the Yucca Flat area. Interpretation will include a three-dimensional (3-D) character analysis and two-dimensional …

Nuclear weapons are integral to the defense of the United States. The U.S. Department of Energy, as the steward of these devices, must continue to gauge the efficacy of the individual weapons. This could be accomplished by occasional testing at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) in Nevada, northwest of Las Vegas. Yucca Flat Basin is one of the testing areas at the NTS. One issue of concern is the nature of the somewhat poorly constrained pre-Tertiary geology and its effects on ground-water flow in the area subsequent to a nuclear test. Ground-water modelers would like to know more about the hydrostratigraphy and geologic structure to support a hydrostratigraphic framework model that is under development for the Yucca Flat Corrective Action Unit (CAU). During 2003, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) collected and processed Magnetotelluric (MT) and Audio-magnetotelluric (AMT) data at the Nevada Test Site in and near Yucca Flat to help characterize this pre-Tertiary geology. That work will help to define the character, thickness, and lateral extent of pre-Tertiary confining units. In particular, a major goal has been to define the upper clastic confining unit (UCCU) in the Yucca Flat area. Interpretation will include a three-dimensional (3-D) character analysis and two-dimensional …