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

New “fast track,” or trade promotion, authority (TPA) cleared the 107th Congress for the President’s expected signature in August 2002. Such authority enables the Administration to submit negotiated foreign trade agreements to Congress for consideration under expedited procedures. Many agricultural and food industry interests were among the export-oriented enterprises that supported TPA, arguing that foreign trading partners would not seriously negotiate with an Administration that lacked it. However, some farm groups argued that fast track ultimately will lead to new agreements that have adverse effects on U.S. producers, at least of some commodities.

Appropriations are one part of a complex federal budget process that includes budget resolutions, appropriations (regular, supplemental, consolidated, and continuing) bills, rescissions, and budget reconciliation bills. This report is a guide to one of the 13 regular appropriations bills that Congress considers each year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the House and Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittees.

None

This report discusses the issue of U.S. economic assistance to sub-Saharan Africa, highlighting the importance of continued assistance in light of U.S. national security and also various U.S.-led efforts to promote reform amongst African citizens themselves. U.S. assistance finds its way to Africa through a variety of channels, including the USAID-administered DA program, food aid programs, and indirect aid provided through international financial institutions and the United Nations.

None

None

None

None

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 Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents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.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Strategic human capital management challenges face public sector organizations both here and abroad. The United States is not alone in examining how government agencies can use their performance management systems as a tool to foster a more results-oriented organizational culture. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has reported that its member nations have increasingly moved towards performance-based pay and appraisal systems that reward employees, hold them accountable for the quality of their work, and connect their efforts to organizational results. Four OECD member countries--Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom--have begun to use their performance management systems to achieve results. Although the performance management initiatives in these countries reflect their specific organizational structures, cultures, and priorities, their experiences developing and implementing results-oriented individual performance management initiatives may provide U.S. agencies with information and insights as they implement strategic human capital practices. These countries have begun to use their performance management systems to create a "line of sight" between individual and organizational goals, use competencies to provide a fuller assessment of individual performance, link pay to individual and overall organizational performance, and foster organizationwide …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "For national security and foreign policy reasons, U.S. export control policy seeks to balance economic interests in promoting high technology exports with national security interests to maintain a military advantage in high performance computers over potential adversaries. In January 2002, the President announced that the control threshold--above which computers exported to countries such as China, India, and Russia--would increase from 85,000 millions of theoretical operations per second (MTOPS) to 190,000 MTOPS. The report justifying the changes in control thresholds for high performance computers focused on the availability of such computers. However, the justification did not fully address the requirements of the National Defense Authorization Act of 1998. The December 2001 report did not address several key issues related to the decision to raise the threshold: (1) the unrestricted export of computers with performance capabilities between the old and new thresholds will allow countries of concern to obtain computers that they have had difficulty constructing on their own, (2) the United States is unable to monitor the end-uses of many of the computers it exports, and (3) the report does not acknowledge the multilateral process used to …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 replaced the 15-percent tax rate for individual taxpayers with a 10-percent rate. To stimulate the economy quickly, the act provided for an advance refund in 2001. Between July and December 2001, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), working with the Department of the Treasury's Financial Management Service (FMS), mailed out 86 million advance refund checks totaling $36.4 billion. IRS spent $104 million to run the advance tax refund program, and FMS spent $34 million to issue checks; IRS expects to spend another $12 million during fiscal year 2002. Overall, GAO found that IRS and FMS did a good job carrying out the program. However, the advance refunds and related rate reduction led to increased errors during the 2002 tax-filing season because of taxpayer confusion about the tax credit. In GAO's view, an independent review of the computer programming used to carry out a major effort such as the advance tax refund program might help avoid future problems. At the same time, clearer tax return instructions might reduce the number of returns filed in error."

The Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on MUTAGENESIS was held at Bates College from 7/28/02 thru 8/2/02. The Conference was well-attended with 157 participants. The attendees represented the spectrum of endeavor in this field coming from academia, industry, and government laboratories, both U.S. and foreign scientists, senior researchers, young investigators, and students.

New methods are developed to construct exact difference equations from which numerical solutions of both initial value problems and two-point boundary value problems involving first and second order ordinary differential equations can be computed. These methods are based upon the transformation theory of differential equations and require the identification of symmetry properties of the differential equations. The concept of the divergence-invariance of a variational principle is also applied to the construction of difference equations. It is shown how first and second order ordinary differential equations that admit groups of point transformations can be integrated numerically by constructing any number of exact difference equations.

The proximity of Ca to the Mn cluster of the photosynthetic water-oxidation complex is demonstrated by X-ray absorption spectroscopy. We have collected EXAFS data at the Ca K-edge using active PS II membrane samples that contain approximately 2 Ca per 4 Mn. These samples are much less perturbed than previously investigated Sr-substituted samples, which were prepared subsequent to Ca depletion. The new Ca EXAFS clearly shows backscattering from Mn at 3.4 angstroms, a distance that agrees with that surmised from previously recorded Mn EXAFS. This result is also consistent with earlier related experiments at the Sr K-edge, using samples that contained functional Sr, that show Mn is {approx}; 3.5 angstroms distant from Sr. The totality of the evidence clearly advances the notion that the catalytic center of oxygen evolution is a Mn-Ca heteronuclear cluster.

Mini RF-driven ion sources with 1.2 cm and 1.5 cm inner chamber diameter have been developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Several gas species have been tested including argon, krypton and hydrogen. These mini ion sources operate in inductively coupled mode and are capable of generating high current density ion beams at tens of watts. Since the plasma potential is relatively low in the plasma chamber, these mini ion sources can function reliably without any perceptible sputtering damage. The mini RF-driven ion sources will be combined with electrostatic focusing columns, and are capable of producing nano focused ion beams for micro machining and semiconductor fabrications.

There exists at SRS 50 million pounds of depleted UO3 (DUO) stored in 55-gallon drums stacked three high in several buildings. This storage configuration does not allow access to the individual drums for monitoring drum integrity and material accountability.

None

The kinetics of water-gas shift were studied over ferrochrome catalysts under conditions with high carbon dioxide partial pressures, such as would be expected in a membrane reactor. The catalyst activity is inhibited by increasing carbon dioxide partial pressure. A microkinetic model of the reaction kinetics was developed. The model indicated that catalyst performance could be improved by decreasing the strength of surface oxygen bonds. Literature data indicated that adding either ceria or copper to the catalyst as a promoter might impart this desired effect. Ceria-promoted ferrochrome catalysts did not perform any better than unpromoted catalyst at the conditions tested, but copper-promoted ferrochrome catalysts did offer an improvement over the base ferrochrome material. A different class of water-gas shift catalyst, sulfided CoMo/Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} is not affected by carbon dioxide and may be a good alternative to the ferrochrome system, provided other constraints, notably the requisite sulfur level and maximum temperature, are not too limiting. A model was developed for an adiabatic, high-temperature water-gas shift membrane reactor. Simulation results indicate that an excess of steam in the feed (three moles of water per mole of CO) is beneficial even in a membrane reactor as it reduces the rate of adiabatic temperature …

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are one of the potentially most efficient and clean energy conversion technologies for electric utility applications. Laboratory cells have shown extraordinary durability, and actual utility-scale prototypes have worked very well. The main obstacle to commercialization has been the relatively high manufacturing cost. To reduce these costs, efforts have been underway for several years to adapt manufacturing technology from the semiconductor industry to the SOFCs; however, tape casting, screen printing and similar methods are more applicable to planar configurations than to the more proven tubular ones. In planar cells the bipolar plate and edge seals become more critical elements, and material selection may have repercussions for the other fuel cell components. Ferritic stainless steel bipolar plates may be a good choice for reducing the cost of the stacks, but ferritic steels oxidize rapidly at temperatures above 800 C. Inexorably, one is led to the conclusion that anodes, cathodes and electrolytes operating below 800 C need to be found. Another motivation for developing planar SOFCs operating at reduced temperature is the prospect of new non-utility applications. The U.S. Department of Energy has initiated the Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance (SECA) program for developing small modular stacks ranging …

Final report for program on the study of structure and properties of epitaxial oxide films. The defect structure of epitaxial oxide thin films was investigated. Both binary and complex oxides were studied. Epitaxial oxides were synthesized by organometallic chemical vapor deposition (OMCVD). This technique has been found to be highly versatile for the synthesis of a wide range of epitaxial oxide including dielectrics, ferroelectrics and high T{sub c} superconductors. Systems investigated include the binary oxides ZnO and TiO{sub 2} and ferroelectric oxides BaTiO{sub 3}, BaSrTiO{sub 3} and KNbO{sub 3}. Techniques used to evaluate the defect structure included deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS), photocapacitance spectroscopy, and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. High purity, stoichiometric oxide films were deposited and their defect structure evaluated. Epitaxial ZnO was deposited at temperatures as low as 250 C. PL indicated only near band edge ultraviolet emission showing that both extrinsic and intrinsic point defects could be significantly lowered in OMCVD derived thin films compared to that of the bulk. This presumably was a result of low deposition temperatures and high purity starting materials. Ferroelectric oxides epitaxial thin films of BaTiO{sub 3} and the solid solution BaSrTiO{sub 3} were synthesized and the defect structure determined. Photocapacitance spectroscopy was …

None

This report considers the issue of new "fast track" or trade promotion authority (APA) legislation in the 107th Congress. Moreover, the report summarizes the agricultural debates on the issue.