Spectrum Management: Federal Government's Use of Spectrum and Preliminary Information on Spectrum Sharing (open access)

Spectrum Management: Federal Government's Use of Spectrum and Preliminary Information on Spectrum Sharing

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is responsible for governmentwide federal spectrum management, but GAO reported in 2011 that NTIA’s efforts in this area had been limited. In 2003, the President directed NTIA to develop plans identifying federal and nonfederal spectrum needs, and in 2008, NTIA issued the federal plan. GAO found it did not identify governmentwide spectrum needs and did not contain key elements and conform to best practices for strategic planning. Furthermore, NTIA’s primary spectrum management operations do not focus on governmentwide needs. Instead, NTIA depends on agency self-evaluation of spectrum needs and focuses on mitigating interference among spectrum users, with limited emphasis on overall spectrum management. Additionally, NTIA’s data management system is antiquated and lacks internal controls to ensure the accuracy of agency-reported data, making it unclear if reliable data inform decisions about federal spectrum use. NTIA is developing a new data management system, but implementation is years away."
Date: September 13, 2012
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Biosurveillance: Observations on BioWatch Generation-3 and Other Federal Efforts (open access)

Biosurveillance: Observations on BioWatch Generation-3 and Other Federal Efforts

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the White House have acted to strengthen biosurveillance consistent with prior GAO recommendations made from December 2009 through October 2011.In August 2012, DHS issued a strategic plan for its National Biosurveillance Integration Center (NBIC) that officials say was written in coordination with federal partners and designed to respond to GAO’s December 2009 findings that NBIC did not have key resources to carry out its mission, in part due to collaboration issues it faced. In July 2012, the White House released the National Strategy for Biosurveillance, which describes guiding principles, core functions, and enablers for strengthening biosurveillance. In June 2010, GAO recommended a national biosurveillance strategy to provide a unifying framework for building and maintaining a national biosurveillance capability. In October 2011, GAO also recommended the strategy account for the need to leverage resources and respond to challenges while partnering with nonfederal entities. The July 2012 strategy partially responds to the issues GAO called for such a strategy to address, but does not fully address them, as discussed below. A strategic implementation plan is to be published within 120 days of strategy …
Date: September 13, 2012
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996: Status of Treasury's Centralized Efforts to Collect Delinquent Federal Nontax Debt (open access)

Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996: Status of Treasury's Centralized Efforts to Collect Delinquent Federal Nontax Debt

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In summary, according to FMS officials, FMS considers both TOP and the cross-servicing program to be fully mature in that all key elements of the programs have been implemented. As such, FMS's current and future efforts will focus on enhancements that will (1) for TOP, facilitate its ability to increase federal nontax debt collections through additional offsets and (2) for the cross-servicing program, enable it to collect such debt more efficiently and effectively. Further, FMS is considering a number of initiatives intended to improve centralized collection of delinquent federal nontax debt. These initiatives primarily involve increasing the amount of debt subject to collection by FMS, bolstering FMS's set of debt collection tools, and enhancing FMS's internal operations and interactions with referring federal agencies. Several of FMS's initiatives, which are in the early stages of development, could, if approved and effectively implemented, address long-standing concerns about FMS's centralized debt collection program."
Date: September 13, 2012
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
System: The UNT Digital Library