Reference - General

Located in FAA's Office of Aviation Safety (Aviation Safety), the Aircraft Certification Service (Aircraft Certification) and Flight Standards Service (Flight Standards) issue certificates and approvals for new aviation products to be used in the national airspace system as well as for new operators in...

Information security is a critical consideration for any agency that depends on information systems and computer networks to carry out its mission and is especially important for a government corporation such as FDIC, which has responsibilities to oversee the financial institutions that are entrusted...

Congress enacted the Coastal Zone Management Act in 1972 to balance the often competing demands for economic growth and development with the need to protect coastal resources. To accomplish the goals of the act, Congress established a framework for a voluntary federal and state...

To carry out NNSA's nuclear weapons and nonproliferation missions, contractors at the eight NNSA sites conduct research, manufacturing, testing at facilities located at those sites.Author: United States Government AccountabilityISBN-10: 1508946744ISBN-13: 9781508946748Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing PlatformLanguage: EnglishPublished: 06/26/2015Pages: 32Format: PaperbackWeight: 0.22lbsSize: 11.02h x 8.50w x...

The Army and Marine Corps use established mechanisms that allow them to categorize and track personnel with specific skill sets. Specifically, each service uses Military Occupational Specialties (MOS) and additional skill identifiers to categorize the specific jobs and skill sets of officers and enlisted...

The Department of Defense's plan satisfied all four statutory requirements. Fore example, for the first requirement, the plan contained detailed information on the scope of the inventory, including a list of over 900 software titles from publishers including Adobe, Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM; as...

Several federal agencies, including the Small Business Administration (SBA), provide training and other assistance to veterans seeking civilian employment. For example, the Department of Defense, in cooperation with the Department of Labor, Department of Veterans Affairs, and several other federal agencies, including the SBA,...

This publication contains historical pulpwood production data derived from canvasses of wood-using plumps that have drawn roundwood or wood residues from lands within the 13 Southern States. The canvasses of southern plumps have been conducted annually for more than 60 years.Author: U. S. Department...

The shooting of Michael Brown occurred on August 9, 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. Brown, an 18-year-old black man, was fatally shot by Darren Wilson, 28, a white Ferguson police officer. The disputed circumstances of the shooting and the resultant...

This report contains the findings of a 2001 canvas of all primary wood-using plants in North Carolina, and presents changes in product output and residue use since 1999. It complements the Forest Inventory and Analysis periodic inventory of volume and removals from the State's...

This report contains the findings of a 2001 canvass of all primary wood-using plants in Virginia, and presents changes in product output and residue use since 1999. It complements the Forest Inventory and Analysis periodic inventory of volume and removals from State's timberland.Author: Charles...

Minnesota sits at the crossroads of three major ecosystems-prairies to the west, boreal forests to the north, and hardwoods to the south-and its forests reflect the variety of the State's unique location.Author: Usda Forest ServiceISBN-10: 1508798508ISBN-13: 9781508798507Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing PlatformLanguage: EnglishPublished: 06/26/2015Pages: 94Format:...

An econometric model of private land-use decisions is used to project land use to 2030 for each county in the continental United States. On a national scale, forest area is projected to increase overall between 0.1 and 0.2 percent per year between now and...

Incidence and effects of tree damage by black bear (Ursus americanus altifrontalis) in a 50-year-old, coast Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco var. menziesii) plantation are described. Bears girdled or partially girdled 35 dominant or codominant Douglas-fir trees per acre, but only in that portion...

Current resource statistics for the Umatilla National Forest, based on two separate inventories conducted in 1993-96 and in 1997-2002, are presented in this report. Currently on the Umatilla National Forest, 89 percent of the land area is classified as forest land. The predominant forest...

This report uses data from a network of forest inventory plots sampled at two points in time, annual aerial insect and disease surveys, and specialized pest damage surveys to quantify the incidence and impact of insects, diseases, and other damaging agents on Oregon's forests....

Due to temporary unavailability of trade data, this report was delayed. In the interest of efficiency and timeliness, all four quarters of 2006 are being published in one book. This report presents current information on the timber situation in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, Montana,...

This report summarizes timber resource statistics for the 20 counties in eastern Washington. The inventory sampled all private and public lands except those administered by the National Forest System in 2001, and those that were reserved from management for wood products. Area information for...

Western Oregon has an estimated 19 million acres of land. About 80 percent of this land is forested with 71 percent being timberland. Lands administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, National Forest System (NFS) and U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau...

Prior to the existence of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Forest Service district rangers had considerable latitude to make resource management decisions and execute management plans with relatively little encumbrance by documentation and process requirements. Today there appears to be differences not only...

We describe sampling methods and provide software to accurately and efficiently estimate snag and tree densities at desired scales to meet a variety of research and management objectives. The methods optimize sampling effort by choosing a plot size appropriate for the specified forest conditions...

The concept of management studies-implemented by managers as normal business to meet priority learning needs-is applied to a priority regional question: how to manage after a large wildfire to better meet preexisting or new societal needs. Because of a lack of knowledge and studies,...

Changes in forest management have detrimentally affected the economic health of small communities in the Blue Mountain region of Oregon over the past few decades. A build-up of small trees threatens the ecological health of these forests and increases wildland fire hazard. Hoping to...

The HCR (Harvest Cost-Revenue) Estimator is engineering and financial analysis software used to evaluate stand-level financial thresholds for harvesting smalldiameter ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex Laws.) in the Southwest United States. The Windows-based program helps contractors and planners to identify costs associated with...

Timber markets in the United States are areas where timber prices tend to be uniform because of the continuous interactions of buyers and sellers. These markets are highly competitive, volatile, and change relentlessly. This paper looks at how market interactions in the Pacific Northwest...

We describe methods for efficient, accurate sampling of logs at landscape and stand scales to estimate density, total length, cover, volume, and weight. Our methods focus on optimizing the sampling effort by choosing an appropriate sampling method and transect length for specific forest conditions...

Multiyear procurement (MYP) and block buy contracting (BBC) are special contracting mechanisms that Congress permits the Department of Defense (DOD) to use for a limited number of defense acquisition programs. Compared to the standard or default approach of annual contracting, MYP and BBC have...

This report explores the structure and function of the U.S. nutrition research system, with an emphasis on trends in Federal support. It describes how nutrition research is used, especially for nutrition education and communication, but also for regulation and food assistance. The report uses...

The Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008 (Post-9/11 GI Bill)-enacted as Title V of the Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2008 (P.L. 110-252) on June 30, 2008-is the newest GI Bill and went into effect on August 1, 2009. There were four main drivers for...

Implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Affordable Care Act, or ACA) is having a significant impact on federal mandatory-also known as direct-spending. Most of the projected spending under the law is for expanding health insurance coverage. This spending includes premium tax...

On November 13, 2001, President Bush issued a Military Order (M.O.) pertaining to the detention, treatment, and trial of certain non-citizens in the war against terrorism. Military commissions pursuant to the M.O. began in November 2004 against four persons declared eligible for trial, but...

In 2013, 45.3 million people were counted as poor in the United States under the official poverty measure-a number statistically unchanged from the 46.5 million people estimated as poor in 2012. The poverty rate, or percent of the population considered poor under the official...

This report provides an overview of the child tax credit under current law, as well as a legislative history of this tax benefit, which helps explain its purpose and current structure.Author: Margot L. Crandall-HollickISBN-10: 1508699534ISBN-13: 9781508699538Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing PlatformLanguage: EnglishPublished: 06/26/2015Pages: 28Format: PaperbackWeight:...

Although "too big to fail" (TBTF) has been a perennial policy issue, it was highlighted by the near-collapse of several large financial firms in 2008. Financial firms are said to be TBTF when policy makers judge that their failure would cause unacceptable disruptions to...

Arms control and nonproliferation efforts are two of the tools that have occasionally been used to implement U.S. national security strategy. Although some believe these tools do little to restrain the behavior of U.S. adversaries, while doing too much to restrain U.S. military forces...

New sources of crude oil from North Dakota, Texas, and western Canada have induced new routes for shipping crude oil to U.S. and Canadian refineries. While pipelines have traditionally been the preferred method of moving crude overland, they either are not available or have...

Student loan forgiveness and loan repayment programs provide borrowers a means of having all or part of their student loan debt forgiven or repaid in exchange for work or service in specific fields or professions or following a prolonged period during which their student...

The 109th Congress provided the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with statutory authority to regulate chemical facilities for security purposes through Section 550 of the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2007 (P.L. 109-295). This statutory authority contains a termination date, after which the...

While many legislative proposals introduced in a given Congress may have implications for rural America, Congress has generally expressed concern with economic development of rural communities within the context of periodic omnibus farm bills, most recently in Title VI of the Agricultural Act of...

The Secure Flight program, as implemented pursuant to the 2008 Secure Flight Final Rule, requires commercial aircraft operators traveling to, from, within, or overflying the United States to collect information from passengers and transmit that information electronically to TSA. This information, known collectively as...

According to USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS), national net farm income-a key indicator of U.S. farm well-being-is forecast at $113.2 billion in 2014, down 14% from last year's record $131.3 billion. The 2014 forecast would be the lowest since 2010, but would remain $25...

Internet worms are perceived to be one of the primary threats to the nation's information technology infrastructure. They are a significant cause for concern from both financial and network security perspectives. According to the Worm Information Center FAQ [1], the Sobig and Blaster worms,...

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Farm Service Agency (FSA) in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) currently administer close to 20 programs and subprograms that are directly or indirectly available to assist producers and landowners who wish to practice conservation on...

The Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) Secure Flight program-established to identify those passengers who may pose security risks before boarding an aircraft-is a frontline defense against acts of terrorism that target the nation's civil aviation system. TSA developed and implemented Secure Flight in response to...

The recent increase in the number of unaccompanied alien children (UACs) apprehended at the border between Mexico and the United States has raised questions about the role that gang-related violence in Central America may play in determining whether such children are eligible for refugee...

A trade secret is confidential, commercially valuable information that provides a company with a competitive advantage, such as customer lists, methods of production, marketing strategies, pricing information, and chemical formulae. (Well-known examples of trade secrets include the formula for Coca-Cola, the recipe for Kentucky...

Even though the United States plans to reduce the number of warheads deployed on its long-range missiles and bombers, consistent with the terms of the New START Treaty, it also plans to develop new delivery systems for deployment over the next 20-30 years. The...

Article III of the Constitution established the judicial branch of the United States, staffing the branch with life-tenured and salary-protected judges. Amongst the powers of the federal judiciary is the power of "judicial review"-that is, the power to invalidate the acts of other branches...

The annual Agriculture appropriations bill provides funding for all of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) except the Forest Service. It also includes the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and-in the House bill and in enacted bills in even-numbered fiscal years-the Commodity Futures Trading...

Several Turkish domestic and foreign policy issues have significant relevance for U.S. interests, and Congress plays an active role in shaping and overseeing U.S. relations with Turkey. This report provides background information on Turkey and discusses possible policy options for Members of Congress and...