Report describing Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS), how it is supposed to work, why it has gained the interest and support of some members of Congress, and what some of the challenges are to its implementation and deployment across the United States.

Report that looks at the history and applications of the Lacey Act, which allows the U.S. to enforce the laws of other countries.

This report discusses the current state of Bahrain, which has undergone substantial political reforms since the late 1990s, but which still suffers from tension between the Shiite majority and the Sunni-led government. This report focuses particularly on Bahrain's relationship with Iran and with the United States.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Federal IT spending has risen to an estimated $79 billion for fiscal year 2011. To improve transparency and oversight of this spending, in June 2009 the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) deployed a public website, known as the IT Dashboard, which provides information on federal agencies' major IT investments, including assessments of actual performance against cost and schedule targets (referred to as ratings). According to OMB, these data are intended to provide both a near real-time and historical perspective of the performance of these investments. GAO was asked to (1) examine the accuracy of the cost and schedule performance ratings on the Dashboard for selected investments and (2) determine whether the data on the Dashboard are used as a management tool to make improvements to IT investments. To do so, GAO selected 8 major investments from 5 agencies with large IT budgets, compared its analyses of the selected investments' performance to the ratings on the Dashboard, and interviewed agency officials about their use of the Dashboard to manage investments."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "About 14 percent of small employers sponsor some type of plan for their employees to save for retirement and these employers in general can face numerous challenges establishing and maintaining a plan. GAO's March 2012 report found that many of the small employers who were contacted said they felt overwhelmed by the number of plan options, plan administration requirements, and fiduciary responsibilities. For example, some small employers found it challenging to select investment funds for their plans. Small employers also cited other challenges in sponsoring a plan, including a lack of financial resources, time, and personnel. GAO's April 2012 review of select 401(k) plans--the most common type of plan sponsored by small employers--found that some smaller plan sponsors did not know about or fully understand fees they and their participants were charged, such as fees associated with group annuity contracts. In addition to these fees, participants in small plans often pay higher recordkeeping and investment management fees than participants in larger plans. GAO's work demonstrates the need for plan sponsors, particularly small sponsors, to understand fees in order to help participants secure adequate retirement savings. Any fees paid …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins ""

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has taken some steps toward developing a conflict minerals disclosure rule, but it has not issued a final rule. For example, SEC published a proposed rule in December 2010 and has gathered and reviewed extensive input from external stakeholders through comment letters and meetings. SEC has also announced, on several occasions, new target dates for the publication of a final rule. In July 2012, SEC announced that the Commission will hold an open meeting in August 2012 to consider whether to adopt a final rule. According to SEC officials, various factors have caused delays in finalizing the rule beyond the April 2011 deadline stipulated in the act, including the intensity of input from stakeholders and the public; the amount of time required to review this input; and the need to conduct a thorough economic analysis for rule making."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "From 2004 to 2011, the total number of mental health records that states made available to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) increased by approximately 800 percent—from about 126,000 to 1.2 million records—although a variety of challenges limited states’ ability to share such records. This increase largely reflects the efforts of 12 states. However, almost half of all states increased the number of mental health records they made available by fewer than 100 over this same time period. Technological, legal, and other challenges limited the states’ ability to share mental health records. To help address these challenges, the Department of Justice (DOJ) provides assistance to states, such as grants and training, which the 6 states GAO reviewed reported as helpful. DOJ has begun to have states share their promising practices at conferences, but has not distributed such practices nationally. By disseminating practices that states used to overcome barriers to sharing mental health records, DOJ could further assist states efforts."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Army's and Marine Corps' major training facilities--Army and Marine Corps combat training centers and Army mobilization training centers--have focused on training units for counterinsurgency missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. As troop levels decrease in Iraq and increase in Afghanistan, larger numbers of forces will be training for Afghanistan. To meet future requirements, the services plan to adjust training to train forces on a fuller range of missions. The House report to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 directed GAO to report on any challenges the Department of Defense faces as it adjusts training capacities. GAO assessed the extent to which the Army and Marine Corps have (1) made adjustments at their major training facilities to support larger deployments to Afghanistan; and (2) developed plans to adjust training capacity to meet future requirements. GAO analyzed service training guidance, future training requirements, and related plans, and interviewed headquarters officials and personnel from the services' major training facilities."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Both the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) have provided limited oversight of county spending under Title III of the Secure Rural Schools Act. Neither agency has issued regulations, and guidance available from these agencies is limited and sometimes unclear about which types of expenditures are allowable under the act. In addition, their guidance appears to be inconsistent with certain provisions of the act. For example, the Forest Service website contains a brief overview document of Title III, which generally echoes wording in the act, and a “frequently asked questions” document. These documents, however, do little to clarify language in the act, neither defining terms from the act, such as “emergency services,” nor specifying which activities the terms cover. Moreover, the agencies do not review the annual certifications of expenditures that counties are required to complete to determine whether counties spent funds appropriately and do not have assurance that they have an accurate accounting of the amounts of Title III funding spent and unspent by the counties. According to agency officials, the steps they have taken to provide guidance have been limited because …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Consumer-directed health plans (CDHP) combine a high-deductible health plan with a tax-advantaged account, such as a health reimbursement arrangement (HRA), that enrollees can use to pay for health care expenses. In an effort to restrain cost growth, several employers, including the federal government through its Office of Personnel Management (OPM), have offered HRAs for several years. For enrollees in HRAs compared with those in traditional plans such as preferred provider organization (PPO) plans, GAO assessed (1) differences in health status, and (2) changes in spending and utilization of health care services. GAO analyzed data from two large employers--one public and one private--that introduced an HRA option in 2003. GAO compared changes in health spending and utilization before and after 2003 for enrollees who switched from a PPO into an HRA (the HRA group) with those who stayed in a PPO (the PPO group). At the time GAO made its data requests to each employer, 2007 data from the public employer and 2005 data from the private employer were the most current and complete data available. GAO also reviewed published studies that included an assessment of the …

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This report provides background on regulatory requirements, controversies and legal challenges to mountaintop mining, and recent Administration actions. Congressional interest in these issues also is discussed, including legislation seeking to restrict the practice of mountaintop mining and other legislation intended to block the Obama Administration’s regulatory actions.

This report discusses about the CRS Issue on Canada. It points out about U.S. and Canada's cooperation in international security and Political Issue, both bilaterally and through numerous international organizations.

This report discusses funding issues for the Economic Development Administration (EDA), which was created pursuant to the enactment of the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965, with the objective of fostering growth in economically distressed areas characterized by high levels of unemployment and low per-capita income levels.

This report outlines the broad challenges for federal law enforcement agencies in identifying and confronting the challenges posed by the Islamic State in the United States. This report also highlights the interagency efforts taken in preempting terrorists in the screening processes, visa fraud, and stopping the radicalization of individuals.

In the report we present a summary of the new models and algorithms developed by the PI and the students supported by this grant. These developments are described in detail in ten peer-reviewed journal articles that acknowledge support from this grant.

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Pacific Northwest National Laboratory performed a demonstration to determine the acceptable location in which to place an air sampling probe for emissions monitoring for radionuclides in the exhaust air discharge from the new 3430 Building Filtered Exhaust Stack. The method was to adopt the results of a previously performed test series for a system of similar configuration, followed by a partial test on the actual system to verify the applicability of previously performed tests. The qualification criteria included 1) a uniform air velocity, 2) an average flow angle that does not deviate from the axis of the duct by more than 20°, 3) a uniform concentration of tracer gases, and 4) a uniform concentration of tracer particles. Section 1 provides background information for the demonstration, and Section 2 describes the test strategy, including the criteria for the applicability of model results and the test matrix. Section 3 describes the flow -angle test and the velocity uniformity test, Section 4 provides the test results, and Section 5 provides the conclusions. Appendix A includes the test data sheets, and Appendix B gives applicable qualification results from the previously tested model stack. The data from the previously tested and similarly designed stack was …

This report examines the financial implications of experimental flows conducted at the Glen Canyon Dam (GCD) in water year 2011. It is the third report in a series examining financial implications of experimental flows conducted since the Record of Decision (ROD) was adopted in February 1997 (Reclamation 1996). A report released in January 2011 examined water years 1997 to 2005 (Veselka et al. 2011), and a report released in August 2011 examined water years 2006 to 2010 (Poch et al. 2011). An experimental release may have either a positive or negative impact on the financial value of energy production. This study estimates the financial costs of experimental releases, identifies the main factors that contribute to these costs, and compares the interdependencies among these factors. An integrated set of tools was used to compute the financial impacts of the experimental releases by simulating the operation of the GCD under two scenarios, namely, (1) a baseline scenario that assumes both that operations comply with the ROD operating criteria and the experimental releases that actually took place during the study period, and (2) a 'without experiments' scenario that is identical to the baseline scenario of operations that comply with the GCD ROD, except …

The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) has examined the issue of trioctylamine (TOA) losses at the Modular Caustic-Side Solvent Extraction Unit (MCU) solvent. For this study, SRNL used partitioning and radiolysis data from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) as well as actual MCU operational data. From the radiolysis data, SRNL prepared a model on the rate of TOA degradation. From the combined sets of data, SRNL has calculated the largest possible value of TOA (although this value is not credible) in the Strip Effluent (SE) and also calculated two different conservative, more realistic values for TOA in the SE. Even under conservative assumptions, such as all of the TOA losses partitioning solely into the Strip Effluent (SE), the MCU operational data suggests that the maximum realistic TOA concentration in the SE is < 0.6 mg/L. Furthermore, from understanding the chemical differences between the old and new strip solutions, SRNL does not believe that the TOA will deplete from the blended BOBCalixC6 – Next Generation Solvent (NGS-MCU) at a rate higher than previously experienced. Finally, SRNL recommends pursuing analytical development of a method for TOA with a superior precision compared to the current method. However, as the TOA in the …

Supporting nuclear nonproliferation and global security principles, beginning in 1994 the United States has withdrawn more than 50 metric tons (MT) of government-controlled plutonium from potential use in nuclear weapons. The Department of Energy (DOE), including the National Nuclear Security Administration, established protocols for the tracking of this "excess" and "surplus" plutonium, and for reconciling the current storage and utilization of the plutonium to show that its management is consistent with the withdrawal policies. Programs are underway to ensure the safe and secure disposition of the materials that formed a major part of the weapons stockpile during the Cold War, and growing quantities have been disposed as waste, after which they are not included in traditional nuclear material control and accountability (NMC&A) data systems. A combination of resources is used to perform the reconciliations that form the basis for annual reporting to DOE, to U.S. Department of State, and to international partners including the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Plasmas in spherical and conventional tokamaks, with weakly reversed shear q pro le and minimum q above but close to unity, are susceptible to an non-resonant (m, n ) = (1, 1) internal kink mode. This mode can saturate and persist and can induce a (2; 1) seed island for Neoclassical Tearing Mode (NTMs)1 . The mode can also lead to large energetic particle transport and signi cant broadening of beam-driven current. Motivated by these important e ects, we have carried out extensive nonlinear simulations of the mode with nite toroidal rotation using parameters and pro les of an NTSX plasma with a weakly reversed shear pro le. The numerical results show that, at the experimental level, plasma rotation has little e ect on either equilibrium or linear stability. However, rotation can signi cantly inuence the nonlinear dynamics of the (1, 1) mode and the the induced (2, 1) magnetic island. The simulation results show that a rotating helical equilibrium is formed and maintained in the nonlinear phase at nite plasma rotation. In contrast, for non-rotating cases, the nonlinear evolution exhibits dynamic oscillations between a quasi-2D state and a helical state. Furthermore, the e ects of rotation are found to …