This is a select chronology of, and a finding guide for information on, congressional and presidential actions and documents related to major budget events in calendar year 2000, covering the FY2001 budget. Brief information is provided for the President’s budget, congressional budget resolutions, appropriations measures (regular, continuing, supplementals, and rescissions), budget reconciliation, House and Senate votes, line-item vetoes, publications, testimony, charts, and tables.

This report is about the charitable choice of constitutional issues and developments through the 106th congress.

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Natural gas is used for steam and heat production in industrial processes, residential and commercial heating, and electric power generation. Because of its importance in the power mix, a life cycle assessment on electricity generation via a natural gas combined cycle system has been performed.

This specification establishes the system-level functional, performance, design, interface, and test requirements for Phase 1 of the IHLW Interim Storage System, located at the Hanford Site in Washington State. The IHLW canisters will be produced at the Hanford Site by a Selected DOE contractor. Subsequent to storage the canisters will be shipped to a federal geologic repository.

The nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann (PB) equation is solved using Pseudo Transient Continuation. The PB solver is constructed by modifying the nonlinear diffusion module of a 3D, massively parallel, unstructured-grid, finite element, radiation-hydrodynamics code. The solver also computes the electrostatic energy and evaluates the force on a user-specified contour. Either Dirichlet or mixed boundary conditions are allowed. The latter specifies surface charges, approximates far-field conditions, or linearizes conditions ''regulating'' the surface charge. The code may be run in either Cartesian, cylindrical, or spherical coordinates. The potential and force due to a conical probe interacting with a flat plate is computed and the result compared with direct force measurements by chemical force microscopy.

We have undertaken an adaptive optics imaging survey of extrasolar planetary systems and stars showing interesting radial velocity trends from high precision radial velocity searches. Adaptive Optics increases the resolution and dynamic range of an image, substantially improving the detectability of faint close companions. This survey is sensitive to objects less luminous than the bottom of the main sequence at separations as close as 1 inch. We have detected stellar companions to the planet bearing stars HD 114762 and Tau Boo. We have also detected a companion to the non-planet bearing star 16 Cyg A.

We have undertaken an adaptive optics imaging survey of extrasolar planetary systems and stars showing interesting radial velocity trends from high precision radial velocity searches. Adaptive Optics increases the resolution and dynamic range of an image, substantially improving the detectability of faint close companions. This survey is sensitive to objects less luminous than the bottom of the main sequence at separations as close as 1 inch. We have detected stellar companions to the planet bearing stars HD 114762 and Tau Boo. We have also detected a companion to the non-planet bearing star 16 Cyg A.

Agricultural interests have been following trade policy developments against a backdrop of weak foreign demand and large world supplies of agricultural products. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that the value of U.S. agricultural exports fell between FY1996 (a record year) and FY1999 by almost $11 billion. USDA forecasts agricultural exports at $50.5 billion in FY2000 and $51.5 billion in FY2001. However, the projected agricultural trade surpluses for those years, of $11.5 billion and $12 billion, would be less than half the FY1996 surplus of $27.2 billion. Many agricultural groups and their supporters in Congress believe that the sector's future prosperity depends upon such U.S. trade policies as: 1) encouraging China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), with its binding rules and responsibilities; 2) exempting agriculture from U.S. unilateral economic sanctions; 3) fully using export and food aid programs; and 4) aggressively battling foreign-imposed barriers to the movement of U.S. farm products. A few U.S. farm groups are wary of such approaches.

Appropriations are one part of a complex federal budget process that includes budget resolutions, appropriations (regular, supplemental, and continuing) bills, rescissions, and budget reconciliation bills. 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 the District of Columbia Appropriations.

Volume rendering converts a scalar function on a 3D volume into varying colors and opacities, and creates an image by integrating the color and opacity effects along viewing rays through each pixel [1]. For data specified on a regular grid, the ray tracing is straightforward [2,3,4,5], and similar effects can be obtained with 3D textures [6]. For curvilinear or irregular grids, these methods are only applicable after the data has been resampled. An alternative, which works directly on these more general grids, is cell projection [7,8,9]. The cells composited onto the image in back to front sorted order. The projections of the edges of a single cell divide the image plane into polygons, which can be scan converted and composited by standard graphics hardware. In references [9,10,11], we assumed that the cells were polyhedra with planar faces. A curvilinear grid maps a rectangular grid onto a curved volume, for example to fit next to an airplane wing or ship hull, and quadrilateral faces may map to non-planar surfaces. Irregular grids are fitted to complex geometries, for example mechanical parts, and even initially flat faces may become non-planar as the grid elements deform, for example, in a car crash simulation. Non-planar …

Recent events surrounding the Presidential election have led to increased scrutiny of voting procedures in the United States. This report focuses on the constitutional authority and limitations that might be relevant to attempts by Congress to standardize these and other procedures.

The cookoff of energetic materials involves the combined effects of several physical and chemical processes. These processes include heat transfer, chemical decomposition, and mechanical response. The interaction and coupling between these processes influence both the time-to-event and the violence of reaction. The prediction of the behavior of explosives during cookoff, particularly with respect to reaction violence, is a challenging task. To this end, a joint DoD/DOE program has been initiated to develop models for cookoff, and to perform experiments to validate those models. In this paper, a series of cookoff analyses are presented and compared with data from a number of experiments for the aluminized, RDX-based, Navy explosive PBXN-109. The traditional thermal-chemical analysis is used to calculate time-to-event and characterize the heat transfer and boundary conditions. A reaction mechanism based on Tarver and McGuire's work on RDX{sup 2} was adjusted to match the spherical one-dimensional time-to-explosion data. The predicted time-to-event using this reaction mechanism compares favorably with the validation tests. Coupled thermal-chemical-mechanical analysis is used to calculate the mechanical response of the confinement and the energetic material state prior to ignition. The predicted state of the material includes the temperature, stress-field, porosity, and extent of reaction. There is little experimental …

We report on the formation of low resistivity ohmic contacts to p-GaN, r{sub c} < 10{sup {minus}4}{Omega}cm{sup 2}, by increasing the concentration of the active Mg in the subcontact zone, via Zr-mediated release of hydrogen. We have investigated the process of evolution of hydrogen from MOCVD grown p-GaN via Zr-based metallization, and determined the optimum processing conditions (temperature and gas ambient) for fabrication of low resistance ohmic contacts. When the process is conducted in N{sub 2} flow, the metallization remains stable at temperatures required to achieve the ohmic behavior, and the morphology of the metal/semiconductor interface is unaltered by such a heat treatment. The processing in O{sub 2}, on the contrary, causes the interdiffusion of metallization constituents and the incorporation of oxygen into the semiconductor subcontact region, which could be responsible for increased resistivity of these contacts.

The Permian Salado Formation in the Delaware Basin of New Mexico is an extensively studied evaporite deposit because it is the host formation for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, a repository for transuranic wastes. Geologic and hydrologic studies of the Salado conducted since the mid-1970's have led to the development of a conceptual model of the hydrogeology of the formation that involves far-field permeability in anhydrite layers and at least some impure halite layers. Pure halite layers and some impure halite layers may not possess an interconnected pore network adequate to provide permeability. Pore pressures are probably very close to lithostatic pressure. In the near field around an excavation, dilation, creep, and shear have created and/or enhanced permeability and decreased pore pressure. Whether flow occurs in the far field under natural gradients or only after some threshold gradient is reached is unknown. If far-field flow does occur, mean pore velocities are probably on the order of a meter per hundreds of thousands to tens of millions of years. Flow dimensions inferred from most hydraulic-test responses are subradial, which is believed to reflect channeling of flow through fracture networks, or portions of fractures, that occupy a diminishing proportion of the radially …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Humana, Inc., a large Medicare Choice Plan, provided a prescription drug benefit with a coverage limit that was below the amount listed in its 1998 Florida Medicare Choice contract. Ernst and Young, the contractor hired by the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) to review Humana's contract submission, did not detect the discrepancies because it failed to follow HCFA's review procedures. HCFA has revised its processes and procedures for monitoring the accuracy of the information in Medicare Choice plans' contracts. The Humana case shows that the agency did not follow procedures that could have revealed the contract discrepancies that caused some beneficiaries to receive less coverage for brand name prescription drugs than the amount specified in their plan's basic package. Unless HCFA adheres to its revised monitoring procedures, beneficiaries will have few guarantees that they will receive the prescription drug benefits for which the government contracted and paid."

This report describes development of processes for cladding APT Target tungsten components with a thin layer (0.127-mm) of Alloy 718, Alloy 600 or 316L stainless steel alloy. The application requires that the cladding be thermally bonded to the tungsten in order to transfer heat generated in the tungsten volume to a surrounding coolant. High temperature diffusion bonding using the hot isostatic processing (HIP) technique was selected as the method for creating a metallurgical bond between pure tungsten tubes and rods and the cladding materials. Bonding studies using a uniaxially loaded vacuum hot press were conducted in preliminary experiments to determine acceptable time-temperature conditions for diffusion bonding. The results were successfully applied in cladding tungsten rods and tubes with these alloys. Temperatures 800-810 C were suitable for cladding tungsten with Alloy 600 and 316L stainless steel alloy, whereas tungsten was clad with Alloy 718 at 1020 C.

A numerical model for predicting damage and permeability in the disturbed rock zone (DRZ) has been developed. The semi-empirical model predicts damage based on a function of stress tensor invariant. For a wide class of problems hydrologic/mechanical coupling is necessary for proper analysis. The RATDAMPER model incorporates dilatant volumetric strain and permeability. The RATDAMPER model has been implemented in a weakly coupled code, which combines a finite element structural code and a finite difference multi-phase fluid flow code. Using the development of inelastic volumetric strain, a value of permeability can be assigned. This flexibility allows empirical permeability functional relationships to be evaluated.

Mineral nucleation at a Langmuir film interface has been studied by synchrotron x-ray scattering. Diluted calcium bicarbonate solutions were used as subphases for arachidic and stearic acid monolayers, compressed in a Langmuir trough. Self-assembly of the monolayer template is observed directly, and subsequent crystal growth monitored in-situ.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether the municipal employee retirement fund of the City of Fort Worth is a "fire fighter's or police officer's pension fund" under section 143.073 of the Local Government Code, for purposes of compensating a fire fighter or police officer absent for a line of duty injury or illness.

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Standard test procedures, ''IEEE P1526/D1 Draft Recommended Practice for Testing the Performance of Stand-Alone Photovoltaic Systems,'' [1] have been developed to assess the performance of stand-alone PV systems tested outdoors under prevailing conditions. A copy of the procedures is included in Appendix E. This report presents an overview of the procedures and results from three validation tests conducted between January 1999 and September 2000 at one European and four US test sites. There was good measurement agreement between the results measured at different test sites on similar systems. To date, most PV system performance test procedures have looked at the performance of the individual components and have not addressed how the integrated system works as a whole. The performance test procedures described in this report verify that the system and load operate as expected, ensure that the PV array and system are capable of recharging the battery, determine the usable battery capacity (UBC), and determine if there is any significant change in the UBC measured three different times during the procedures. The procedures have been submitted to both IEEE SCC21 and IEC TC82 for use in developing standards. The IEEE SCC21 has initiated P1526, ''Recommended Practice for Testing the Performance …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Members of Congress periodically have expressed interest in converting the federal budget process from an annual to a biennial cycle. Congress believes that the time spent on these activities has come at the expense of congressional oversight and authorization responsibilities. To better understand states' experiences with the biennial budget cycle, GAO studied three states: Arizona, Ohio, and Connecticut. GAO found that the states' reasons for changing their budget cycles varied. For example, Arizona adopted a biennial cycle to increase legislative oversight and reduce time spent on the budget. Connecticut adopted it as part of a fiscal reform effort. To execute a biennial budget successfully, the states' experiences suggest that the legislative and executive branches must agree on how the off-year budget process will work. Different approaches to managing the off-year budget have been developed by states, including establishing formal guidelines for off-year budget changes and relying on leadership control. Efforts to increase legislative oversight in the off-year by converting to a biennial budget process may be difficult. Ohio and Connecticut officials said they that have not increased legislative oversight in the off-year, and Arizona officials said …

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