A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Telecommunications Act of 1996 expanded the traditional definition of universal service--affordable, nationwide telephone service--to include eligible schools and libraries. The act authorized the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to begin a program to help these institutions acquire advanced telecommunications services. Under FCC's program, often referred to as the 'e-rate' program, schools and libraries can receive discounts from the vendors on the cost of eligible telecommunications services, Internet access, and internal connections. FCC appointed the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) as the program's permanent administrator, although FCC retains responsibility for overseeing the program's operations and ensuring compliance with its rules. USAC's Schools and Libraries Division (SLD) is responsible for carrying out the program's day-to-day operations. Schools and libraries do not receive funding directly from the program. The committed funds are held by USAC, which reimburses vendors directly for the discounted portion of the e-rate approved services that they provide. This report provides information on (1) the amount of funds requested and committed for all three program years (1998-2000) and (2) the result of FCC and SLD's steps to reduce the amount of committed funds that go unspent. …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "About 80 means-tested federal programs assisted low-income people in 1998. GAO reviewed 11 programs that assisted families and individuals with income, food, medical assistance, and housing. Despite substantial overlap in the populations they serve, the 11 programs varied significantly in their financial eligibility rules. At the most basic level, the dollar levels of the income limits--the maximum amounts of income an applicant can have and still be eligible for a program--vary across programs. Beyond this, differences exist in the income rules, such as whose income and what types of income are counted. The variations and complexity of the federal financial eligibility rules, along with other factors, have led to processes that are often duplicative and cumbersome for both caseworkers and applicants. Overall, federal, state, and local entities have made little progress in simplifying or coordinating eligibility determination processes. States realigned some of the financial rules, but only to a limited extent. Another approach uses computer systems to establish joint eligibility determination processes that a single caseworker can administer. Efforts to simplify or better coordinate eligibility determination processes confront many obstacles, including restrictive federal program statutes and …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Standards for discipline and safety in schools are set primarily by local school districts. Federal and local regulations provide additional protections to special education students who misbehave to ensure that they are not unfairly deprived of their rights to an appropriate education. GAO reviewed regular and special education discipline policies to determine whether there were any differences in how disabled and non-disabled students were disciplined. GAO found the rate of misconduct among special education students was higher than that of regular education students. Despite little difference in the actions taken by schools to discipline regular education and special education students, a sizeable minority of principals voiced concern that their schools' discipline policies impeded proper disciplinary action. Although the 1997 Individuals With Disabilities Education Act amendments and final federal regulations gave schools more flexibility in handling discipline issues, GAO's analysis showed that local school district policies can provide additional protections when compared with provisions in the final regulations. Restrictive local policies may alter the balance between protecting the rights of disabled students and ensuring that administrators are able to maintain a safe and orderly environment. Because the …

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO published a functional requirements document intended to assist agencies when developing new systems and when improving or evaluating existing systems. It provides the baseline functionality that agency systems must have in order to support agency missions and comply with laws and regulations. Specifically, the document focuses on (1) micropurchases made with purchase cards, (2) information requirements relative to contract line item number, (3) information requirements relative to internal controls and security, (4) payment and closeout, (5) proposed requirements relating to the standard general ledger, (6) mandatory and value-added requirements, and (7) definitions of terms."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) provide financial support to promote social and economic progress in developing countries and the countries of central and eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Under the Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act of 2001, the United States is providing $1.3 billion to support the MDBs, with $460 million going to the regional development banks and $840 million going to the World Bank Group. All of the MDBs GAO reviewed have received unqualified or "clean" opinions on their external audits. However, none of the MDBs GAO reviewed are required to report on their internal controls over financial reporting, lending operations, or compliance with their governing charters or policies. In addition, the regional MDBs' external financial statement audits are not intended to, and do not, provide assurances about internal controls over the MDBs' lending operations and whether funds are spent as intended. Most of the regional MDBs that GAO reviewed have developed anti-corruption strategies that recognize the importance of strong internal control systems. Each of the regional MDBs GAO studied has established internal audit functions as part of their controls."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Unlike public schools, the schools run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Department of Defense (DOD) depend almost entirely on federal funds. Although the two school systems are similar in that regard, their histories and settings are very different. The performance of many BIA students on standardized tests and other academic measures is far below that of public school students. BIA students also score considerably below the national average on college admission tests. Nearly all BIA teachers are fully certified for the subjects or grade levels they teach, although BIA officials said that some schools have great difficulty recruiting and retaining qualified staff. BIA schools report that they have greater access to computers and the Internet than do public schools, but the technical support available to maintain the computers and help teachers use technology in the classroom is more limited. Many school administrators reported problems with school facilities. Estimated per-pupil expenditures at BIA schools varied widely by school type, such as day or boarding school, but are generally higher than for public schools nationally. The academic performance of DOD students generally exceeds that …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report discusses how workers' compensation (WC) benefits affect benefit programs run by the Social Security Administration (SSA) and other agencies. GAO (1) examines the effects of WC benefits on SSA programs, focusing on SSA's progress in administering the WC offset provision; (2) discusses other federal programs whose benefit payments are also affected by WC benefits; and (3) discusses ways to address federal benefit payment errors related to workers' compensation. GAO found that SSA's administration of the WC offset provision continues to be undermined by the lack of reliable information on WC benefits received by Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) beneficiaries which causes some beneficiaries to be overpaid and others to be underpaid. No national reporting system identifies WC beneficiaries. Instead, SSA largely relies on applicants and beneficiaries to report their receipt of WC benefits and any changes that occur in the benefit amounts--an approach that makes it very difficult for SSA to make accurate benefit payments. Other federal agencies also need WC information to make accurate benefit payments and face similar difficulties identifying WC beneficiaries. Like SSA, Medicare relies on its applicants and beneficiaries to …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Although the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has the authority to regulate aftermarket crash parts, the agency has not developed safety standards for them because it has not determined that any aftermarket crash parts contain safety-related defects. NHTSA has more limited authority to regulate the use of recycled air bags. NHTSA could elect to develop safety standards for occupant restraint systems under the used vehicle provision of the Motor Vehicle Safety Act. NHTSA has not developed such standards because it has not identified significant problems with occupant restraint systems that could be addressed by state motor vehicle inspection programs. The limitations of NHTSA's complaint system may hamper NHTSA's ability to detect safety-related trends through broad key-word searches of its complaint database and make it unlikely that NHTSA can identify all unsafe parts. In addition, the ability to recall unsafe aftermarket crash parts is limited because some parts are not stamped with the manufacturer's name and there is no trail leading from the manufacturer to the ultimate user of the part. Two studies on the safety of recycled airbags concluded that they can be a potentially …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Twenty-one percent of grant-eligible applicants who did not use the District of Columbia's tuition assistance grant (TAG) funding to attend a participating college or university may have encountered such barriers as college entrance requirements and the absence of minority outreach programs. Whether enrollment caps at colleges posed a barrier for applicants is unclear. In the program's first year, 516 of the nearly 2,500 eligible applicants did not use the grants. About 21 percent of the institutions in which applicants expressed interest restrict the number of out-of-state students that they will accept, although the extent to which this played a role in limiting access to these institutions is unclear. Enrollment at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) changed little during the TAG program's first year. The TAG program and UDC appeared to serve different freshmen populations, which may account for the TAG program's minimal impact on UDC enrollment. Although concerns about TAG program administration were largely resolved with the revision of program regulations in December 2000, other administrative issues may hinder program operations, including the determination of applicant eligibility and the distribution of information on …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) use different provisions to calculate pay for officers. Fundamental differences in how work is scheduled and how hours are counted also result in pay differences. For overtime, Sunday, and holiday work, Customs officers are generally paid for hours worked, whereas INS officers are often paid on the basis of minimum periods of time worked. Night pay is also fundamentally different. Foreign language awards and the inclusion of overtime pay in calculating retirement benefits are other examples of pay provisions that apply to Customs officers but not to INS officers. Because Customs and INS schedule work differently, it is difficult to compare the two systems and to analyze the effects of differences on officers' pay."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) issued antiarmor munitions master plans beginning in 1985 and updated the plans annually until 1990. These antiarmor plans focused on the Cold War armored threat and on the weapons that would be needed to prevail in a Central European Scenario. Congress expressed concern that the military continued to develop and procure an increasing number of tank-killing weapons at a time when potential adversaries had smaller numbers of armored forces. Congress told DOD to develop an Antiarmor Munitions Master Plan to identify the projected armor threat and the projected quantity of all antiarmor weapons, with the purpose of identifying and eliminating excess anti armor capability. This report reviews the plan to determine if it provides the data and analysis specified in the Fiscal Year 2000 Defense Appropriations conference report and provides data and analysis needed to support the services' current antiarmor acquisition plans. GAO found that DOD's July 2000 Antiarmor Munitions Master Plan did not provide the data and analysis specified in the Fiscal Year 2000 Defense Appropriations conference report. The plan provided limited data and analysis to support the services' current …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The military's health program--TRICARE--provides medical care to about 8.3 million active duty service members and retired beneficiaries and their dependents and survivors. The Department of Defense (DOD) also provides benefits for persons severely disabled by physical or mental problems through its Individual Case Management Program for Persons with Extraordinary Conditions (ICMP-PEC) and for less severely disabled active duty dependents through its Program for Persons with Disabilities (PFPWD). Recently, military families and advocacy groups have raised concerns about accessing ICMP-PEC benefits. Also, the DOD Authorization Act for 2001 entitled military retirees age 65 and older and their dependents and survivors to TRICARE benefits for life which may have caseload and cost effects on ICMP-PEC. As of June 2001, 38 ICMP-PEC participants were projected to receive $6 million in services in fiscal year 2001, Their annual per-case costs were projected to range from $13,000 to $382,000. ICMP-PEC now lacks a clear purpose, well-defined eligibility criteria and benefits, and an efficient application process. In contrast, PFPWD is an established program with well defined criteria and benefits that assist thousands of ADFMs with their special health care service and equipment …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Franchises are business arrangements that require payment for the opportunity to sell trademarked goods and services. Business opportunity ventures do not involve a trademark, but require payment for the opportunity to distribute goods or services with assistance in the form of locations or accounts. The Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) Trade Regulation Rule on Franchising and Business Opportunity Ventures (Franchise Rule) requires franchise and business opportunity sellers to disclose financial and other information to prospective purchasers before they pay any money or sign an agreement. In addition, FTC enforces section 5 of the FTC Act, which addresses unfair or deceptive acts or practices. Over the past several years, Congress has debated the need for a federal statute to generally regulate franchises, including issues that arise between franchisors and franchisees after the franchise agreement is signed. Much of the debate centers on the relative bargaining power franchisees have when dealing with their franchisors over various issues, such as the location of new franchised outlets or the termination of franchise relationships without good cause and advance, written notice. This report reviews FTC's enforcement of its Franchise Rule and discusses …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Federal and state agencies are making extensive use of information technology (IT) to address traditional regulatory management. For example, the Department of Labor has a system of electronic "advisors" imitating the interaction that an individual might have with an employment law expert, and the Environmental Protection Agency is working with partners in state government to develop a national environmental information exchange network. Several of the state innovations include interactive systems that allow regulated entities to identify their regulatory responsibilities and complete related transactions. For example, the Texas Railroad Commission has an electronic process that allows users to obtain oil or gas well permits on-line, complete the required forms, and pay any associated fees. Representatives from nongovernmental organizations suggest that federal agencies improve both the content and access to on-line information, more broadly and consistently use some existing applications, and adopt some new applications. Several key factors that facilitate or hinder the adoption and diffusion of innovative IT applications are (1) top-level leadership commitment/support, (2) adequate financial resources and human capital, (3) legislative and executive branch IT initiatives, (4) internal and external partnerships with critical stakeholders, (5) …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "To increase the accessibility of primary and preventive health services for low-income people living in medically underserved areas, Congress made federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics eligible for Medicaid payments. Since 1989, federal law has required Medicaid to reimburse both the centers and the clinics on the basis of reasonable costs they incurred in providing services to beneficiaries. Cost-based reimbursement can ensure that service providers are reimbursed for necessary costs; it is also regarded as inflationary because providers can increase their payments by raising their costs. In part because of their mandate to preserve and expand necessary primary health care services, the centers and the clinics have traditionally been reimbursed on the basis of their costs in an effort to ensure adequate payment. However, this approach does little to encourage efficiency. The new payment system mandated by the Benefits Improvement and Protection Act attempts to ensure adequacy by basing payments on historical rates while promoting efficiency by limiting increases. However, the combination of reimbursement limits imposed historically by most states and the inflation adjustments in the new prospective payment system may contain future Medicaid …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The ultra-filtration process for milk, developed in the 1970s, removes most of the fluid components, leaving a high concentration of milk protein that allows cheese and other manufacturers to produce their products more efficiently. No specific data on amount of ultra-filtered milk imports exists because these imports fall under the broader U.S. Customs Service classification of milk protein concentrate. Exporters of milk protein concentrates face minimal U.S. import restrictions, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) believes the milk protein concentrates pose minimal safety risks. Similarly, there is little data on the amount and use of domestically produced ultra-filtered milk in U.S. cheese making plants. According to the Department of Agriculture and state sources, a total of 22 dairy plants nationwide and five large dairy farms in New Mexico and Texas produce ultra-filtered milk. The plants primarily produce and use ultra-filtered milk in the process of making cheese. The five farms transport their product primarily to cheese-making plants in the Midwest, where most is used to make standardized cheeses. FDA relies on its own inspections, and those it contracts with 37 states, to enforce its standards …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report reviews the Small Business Administration's (SBA) fiscal year 2000 performance report and fiscal year 2002 performance plan required by the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 to assess SBA's progress in achieving selected key outcomes that are important to its mission. SBA's reported progress in achieving its outcomes is mixed. However, GAO had difficulty assessing SBA's progress due to weaknesses in its performance measures and data. GAO was unable to assess SBA's lack of an explanation about how the strategies relate to the outcomes or a discussion regarding strategies for the outcome. GAO identified some improvements from SBA's prior year report and plan, but several weaknesses persist in SBA's fiscal year 2000 performance report and performance plan. The performance report includes a section that summarizes SBA's programs, a matrix that identifies ongoing and closed audit reviews, and several recommendations associated with each. However, SBA omitted time frames or schedules for achieving unmet goals, lacked strategies for meeting unmet goals, and failed to adequately link strategies to indicators and measures."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the Department of State's fiscal year 2000 performance report and its fiscal year 2002 performance plan. Weaknesses in State's fiscal year 2000 performance report made it difficult to determine the department's progress toward achieving such key outcomes as eliminating the threat from weapons of mass destruction and expanding foreign markets for U.S. products and services. These weaknesses are rooted in performance goals and indicators established in State's performance plan for 2000, which GAO criticized in an earlier report. State has taken a major step toward implementing Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 requirements by producing a fiscal year 2002 plan that is superior to earlier efforts. State will need to focus on reporting on all indicators in the plan and, if targets are not achieved, clearly explain why and what actions it plans to achieve the targets in the future."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report focuses on the trends in federal procurement for small businesses during the 1990s. Some organizations that represent small businesses and others have expressed concerns over acquisition reforms in the mid-1990s that may have reduced the opportunities for small businesses to compete for federal government contracts. These reforms sought to streamline acquisition processes to help government acquire goods and services more efficiently. The reforms included provisions to facilitate greater use of some types of contracts. However, small business representatives believe that some of these reforms could make it difficult for small businesses to compete for federal contracts. For example, the Clinger-Cohen Act authorizes the use of multiagency contracts. These contracts could potentially consolidate agencies' requirements, which small businesses may not be able to meet. At the same time, some procurement reforms have benefited small businesses. The Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act, for example, increased the value of contracts set aside exclusively for small business participation. In addition, the Small Business Reauthorization Act of 1997 increased the percentage of federal contracts to be awarded to small businesses to 23 percent. Small Business Administration data indicate that federal …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT) Program calls for states to provide children and adolescents under age 21 with access to comprehensive, periodic evaluations of health, development, and nutritional status, as well as vision, hearing, and dental services. There is concern that state Medicaid programs are not doing an adequate job of screening children for medical conditions or providing treatment for the children who need it. There is also concern about how these services are faring under managed care plans. This report examines (1) the extent to which children in Medicaid are receiving EPSDT services, (2) efforts that selected states are taking to improve delivery of EPSDT services, particularly within managed care, and (3) federal government efforts to ensure that state Medicaid programs provide covered EPSDT services. GAO found that the extent to which children in Medicaid are receiving EPSDT services are not fully known, but the available evidence indicates that many are not receiving these services. A Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General study found that less than one-half of enrolled children in their sample received any EPSDT …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Until the mid-nineteenth century, Spain made land grants to towns and individuals to promote development in the frontier lands that now constitute the American Southwest. Under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War, the United States agreed to recognize ownership of property of every kind in the ceded areas. Many people, including grantee heirs, scholars, and legal experts, still claim that the United States did not protect the property of Mexican-Americans and their descendants, particularly the common lands of community grants. Land grant documents contain no direct reference to "community land grants," nor do Spanish and Mexican laws define or use this term. GAO did find, however, that some grants refer to lands set aside for general communal use or for specific purposes, including hunting, pasture, wood gathering, or watering. Scholars, the land grant literature, and popular terminology commonly use the phrase "community land grants" to denote land grants that set aside common lands for the use of the entire community. GAO adopted this broad definition in determining which Spanish and Mexican land grants can be identified as community land grants. GAO identified …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "When computing their federal taxes, taxpayers either claim a standard deduction or itemize deductions. This report estimates (1) the number of taxpayers who may have overpaid their taxes by claiming the standard deduction instead of itemizing their deductions, and (2) the amount of taxes they may have overpaid. On about 510,000 individual tax returns in tax year 1998, GAO found that taxpayers did not itemize their deductions yet had mortgage interest payments that exceeded the standard deduction amount for their tax filing status. These taxpayers may have overpaid their taxes by about $311 million. The average overpayment amount was $610, and about 35 percent of the taxpayers had overpaid their taxes by more than $500."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO published a second edition of Volume IV of its Principles of Federal Appropriations Law, Second Edition, which includes a discussion of the statutes and regulations governing appropriations matters as well as references to significant issues rendered by the Comptroller General and the courts."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "During its review of 2001 agency budget justifications, GAO found several capital project funding requests that lacked total project cost information and for which it was not always clear whether requested funding would provide a useful, stand-alone asset. Without this information, Congress cannot consider the full costs of proposed commitments or determine if it is funding an asset that will be useful without additional funding. This report provides several examples of agency capital project funding request information that could be improved."