This report gives an overview of the federal debt limit, its history, and recent increases

This document of Data Quality Objectives (DQOs) was prepared based on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Guidance on Systematic Planning Using the Data Quality Objectives Process, EPA, QA/G4, 2/2006 (EPA 2006), as well as several other published DQOs. The intent of this report is to determine the necessary steps required to ensure that radioactive emissions to the air from the Marine Sciences Laboratory (MSL) headquartered at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s Sequim Marine Research Operations (Sequim Site) on Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula are managed in accordance with regulatory requirements and best practices. The Sequim Site was transitioned in October 2012 from private operation under Battelle Memorial Institute to an exclusive use contract with the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Pacific Northwest Site Office.

Published reports have suggested that in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Pentagon has expanded its counter-terrorism intelligence activities as part of what the Bush Administration termed the global war on terror. This report discusses the Department of Defense's (DOD) various counter-terrorist intelligence activities, whether or not they constitute classification as "covert action," and the challenge of clarifying the roles and responsibilities of various intelligence activities with regard to clandestine activities. This report examines the statutory procedures governing covert action and associated questions to consider.

It is the purpose of this report to describe the statutory provisions that authorize the NIC, provide a brief history of its work, and review its role within the federal government. The report will focus on congressional interaction with the NIC and describe various options for modifying congressional oversight.

Samples have been prepared from a softwood fiberboard lower subassembly. Physical, mechanical and thermal properties have been measured following varying periods of conditioning in each of several environments. These tests have been conducted in the same manner as previous testing on cane fiberboard samples. Overall, similar aging trends are observed for softwood and cane fiberboard samples, with a few differences. On the positive side, the softwood fiberboard data to date shows less sample-to-sample variation in physical properties than cane fiberboard, and the thermal conductivity decreases at a slower rate at 250F for softwood fiberboard than for cane fiberboard. On the other hand, the softwood fiberboard physical property samples generally show degradation rates greater than cane fiberboard samples in the 185F 30%RH environment. Testing following additional conditioning will continue and the addition of samples in other elevated humidity environment(s) will be pursued to identify the extent of these trends. Post-conditioning data have been measured on samples from a single softwood fiberboard assembly, and baseline data are also available from a limited number of vendor-provided samples. This provides minimal information on the possible sample-to-sample variation exhibited by softwood fiberboard. Data to date are generally consistent with the range seen in cane fiberboard, …

This report discusses the Section 179 of the Further Continuing and Security Assistance Appropriations Act, 2017 (P.L. 114-254), which establishes expedited or "fast track" parliamentary procedures governing Senate consideration of legislation that would waive a legal restriction related to the prior military service of the Secretary of Defense.

This report shows Sketch of 18 U.S.C. 1030 and Related Federal Criminal Laws on cybercrime. The federal computer fraud and abuse statute,outlaws conduct that victimizes computer systems.

The federal computer fraud and abuse statute, 18 U.S.C. 1030, outlaws conduct that victimizes computer systems. It is a cyber security law. It protects federal computers, bank computers, and computers connected to the Internet. It shields them from trespassing, threats, damage, espionage, and from being corruptly used as instruments of fraud. It is not a comprehensive provision, but instead it fills cracks and gaps in the protection afforded by other federal criminal laws. This is a brief sketch of Section 1030 and some of its federal statutory companions, including the amendments found in the Identity Theft Enforcement and Restitution Act.

This report discusses the National Security Letters (NSLs), which seek customer and consumer transaction information in national security investigations from communications providers, financial institutions, and credit agencies.

This report includes a chart comparing the provisions of the bills and current law. It also reprints the text of the five NSL statutes as they now appear and as they appeared prior to amendment by the USA PATRIOT Act (to which form they would have returned under some of the bills).

This report summarizes the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) and jurisdiction in cases against foreign defendants and analyzes the court of appeals decision. It also discusses legislative efforts to address these issues(S. 1535 and H.R. 3143).

This report looks at the history and current need for a Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) program. Potential issues for Congress include the role and need for the GCV in a downsized Army that will likely have fewer heavy brigade combat teams (HBCTs).

This report briefly outlines an array of science and technology policy issues that may come before the 113th Congress.

Tax reductions enacted in 2001-2004 reduce the effective tax rate on capital income in several different ways. Taxes on capital arise from individual taxes on dividends, interest, capital gains, and income from non-corporate businesses. This report contains data on the distribution of income by type and class, shifting the incidence of taxes, the effect of the savings response, and related information.

This report provides a background on the Medicare fee schedule, the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) system and the annual updates, and discusses recent proposal to address this issue.

Analysis is presented for an eight-cavity proton cyclotron accelerator that could have advantages as compared with other accelerators because of its potentially high acceleration gradient. The high gradient is possible since protons orbit in a sequence of TE111 rotating mode cavities of equally diminishing frequencies with path lengths during acceleration that greatly exceed the cavity lengths. As the cavities operate at sequential harmonics of a basic repetition frequency, phase synchronism can be maintained over a relatively wide injection phase window without undue beam emittance growth. It is shown that use of radial vanes can allow cavity designs with significantly smaller radii, as compared with simple cylindrical cavities. Preliminary beam transport studies show that acceptable extraction and focusing of a proton beam after cyclic motion in this accelerator should be possible. Progress is also reported on design and tests of a four-cavity electron counterpart accelerator for experiments to study effects on beam quality arising from variations injection phase window width. This device is powered by four 500-MW pulsed amplifiers at 1500, 1800, 2100, and 2400 MHz that provide phase synchronous outputs, since they are driven from a with harmonics derived from a phase-locked 300 MHz source.

Several key provisions related to extended federal unemployment benefits are temporary and, therefore, scheduled to expire.This report describes the consequences of these expirations for the financing and availability of unemployment benefits in states.The report also summarizes current legislative proposals to extend these expiring provision.

The overall objective of the project is to design, develop and demonstrate a technically feasible and commercially viable system to produce ammonia along with recovery of the products by adsorption separation methods and significantly decrease the energy requirement in ammonia production. This is achieved through a significantly more efficient ammonia psa recovery system. The new ammonia recovery system receives the reactor effluents and achieves complete ammonia recovery, (which completely eliminates the energy intensive refrigeration and condensation system currently used in ammonia production). It also recovers the unused reactants and recycles them back to the reactor, free of potential reactor contaminants, and without the need for re-compression and re-heat of recycle stream thereby further saving more energy. The result is a significantly lower energy consumption, along with capital cost savings.

This report discusses the General System of Preferences (GSP) which provides nonreciprocal, duty-free tariff treatment to certain products imported from designated beneficiary developing countries (BDCs).

This report discusses Iraq's political system that is increasingly characterized by peaceful competition and formation of cross-sectarian alliances. However, ethnic and sectarian political and sometimes violent infighting continues, often involving the questionable use of key levers of power and legal institutions. This infighting-and the belief that holding political power may mean the difference between life and death for the various political communities-significantly delayed agreement on a new government that was to be selected following the March 7, 2010, national elections for the Council of Representatives (COR, parliament)

This report describes the relationship between the United States and the Sultanate of Oman, especially with respect to Oman's support of U.S. efforts toward peace in the Middle East, the U.S. free trade agreement with Oman, and Oman's relatively close relations with Iran, the last of which seems incongruous with the other positive aspects of Oman's relationship with the U.S.

This report discusses Qatar's governmental structure and politics, economy, foreign policy and regional disputes with other Gulf countries, U.S.-Qatar relations and security collaboration, and human rights issues.

This report discusses section 123 of the Atomic Energy Act (AEA), the specific requirements of which must be met in order for the United States to engage in civilian nuclear cooperation with other states. The AEA also provides for exemptions to these requirements, export control licensing procedures, and criteria for terminating cooperation.

In an attempt to develop simplified methods for radiochemical synthesis of radiopharmaceuticals useful in Positron Emission Tomography (PET), current commercially available automated synthesis apparati were evaluated for use with solid phase synthesis, thin-film techniques, microwave-accelerated chemistry, and click chemistry approaches. Using combinations of these techniques, it was shown that these automated synthesis systems can be simply and effectively used to support the synthesis of a wide variety of carbon-11 and fluorine-18 labeled compounds, representing all of the major types of compounds synthesized and using all of the common radiochemical precursors available. These techniques are available for use to deliver clinically useful amounts of PET radiopharmaceuticals with chemical and radiochemical purities and high specific activities, suitable for human administration.