A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) is responsible for administering billions of dollars annually in program benefits to farmers and ranchers. Since 2004, FSA has been planning to modernize its information technology (IT) systems that process these benefits with the Modernize and Innovate the Delivery of Agricultural Systems (MIDAS) program. GAO was asked to determine (1) the scope and status of MIDAS, (2) whether MIDAS has appropriate program management, and (3) whether MIDAS has appropriate executive oversight and governance. To do so, GAO reviewed relevant department guidance and program documents and interviewed USDA officials."

This document was created as an annual report detailing the accomplishments of the Integrated Status and Effectiveness Monitoring Program (ISEMP) in the Upper Columbia Basin in fiscal year 2008. The report consists of sub-chapters that reflect the various components of the program. Chapter 1 presents a report on programmatic coordination and accomplishments, and Chapters 2 through 4 provide a review of how ISEMP has progressed during the 2008 fiscal year in each of the pilot project subbasins: the John Day (Chapter 2), Wenatchee/Entiat (Chapter 3) and Salmon River (Chapter 4). Chapter 5 presents a report on the data management accomplishments in 2008.