Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The National Interagency Canada Lynx Survey (Protocol) was designed to determine the presence of Canada lynx through deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) analysis of hair samples recovered from scratch pads in forests in the northern United States. Beginning in January 2002, GAO investigated the submission of unauthorized samples to the University of Montana's laboratory as part of the National Survey and investigated whether the biologists involved had communications about their submissions. GAO found were four instances in which unauthorized hair samples, not obtained from the Wenatchee and Gifford Pinchot National Forests, were submitted for DNA testing as part of the National Survey for those forests. These included one submission on bobcat hair in 1999, and three submissions of lynx hair in September and October 2000. The biologists maintain that they submitted these samples to test the accuracy of the work done by the laboratory, although they knew that the Protocol for the National Survey did not provide for such action. They also said that they did not have the authority to make these submissions and that they were aware that they had alternatives for testing the laboratory other than submitting …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The District of Columbia appropriations acts for fiscal years 1999, 2000, and 2001 limited the amount of appropriated funds that could be paid to an attorney representing a prevailing party in an action brought against the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The appropriations act for fiscal year 2002 lifted the caps on attorneys' fees and directed DCPS and GAO to report on judgments awarding attorneys' fees in excess of the limitations imposed in fiscal years 1999, 2000, and 2001. In May 2002, GAO reported that, for fiscal years 1999, 2000, and 2001, the appropriations acts' limitations had little if any impact on the total amount of attorneys' fees awarded to prevailing parties in judgments entered by the courts in judicial proceedings brought against DCPS and the act. The District's March 29, 2002 report showed that of the $12.7 million paid for attorneys' fees from its appropriations for 1999 through 2001, $10 million was related to administrative proceedings and $2.7 million was related to judicial proceedings. DCPS reported that the estimated total amount of fees that might have been paid as …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report describes the status of our work toward developing a methodology for evaluating the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) Program. Our objectives are to provide information about (1) the NMTC Program, including its goals, its design, and progress in implementing the program, and (2)our mandated review of the program, including the potential scope of the review and how the program may be evaluated for effectiveness and compliance."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Financial management problems at the Department of Defense (DOD) are complex, long-standing, and deeply rooted throughout its business operations. DOD's financial management deficiencies represent the single largest obstacle to achieving an unqualified opinion on the U.S. government's consolidated financial statements. So far, none of the military services or major DOD components have passed the test of an independent financial audit because of pervasive weaknesses in financial management systems, operations, and controls. These problems go back decades, and earlier attempts at reform have been unsuccessful. DOD continues to rely on a far-flung, complex network of finance, logistics, personnel, acquisition, and other management information systems for financial data to support day-to-day management and decision-making. This network has evolved into an overly complex and error-prone operation with (1) little standardization across DOD components, (2) multiple systems performing the same tasks, (3) the same data stored in multiple systems, (4) manual data entry into multiple systems, and (5) a large number of data translations and interfaces, which combine to exacerbate problems with data integrity. Many of the elements that are crucial to financial management reform and business process transformation--particularly those that rely …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Financial Management Improvement Act (FFMIA) of 1996 ensures that agency financial management systems routinely provide reliable and timely financial information on the investment of resources, reduced costs and programs oversight. Although many agencies are receiving unqualified opinions on their financial statements, auditor determinations of FFMIA compliance are lagging. To achieve the financial management improvements envisioned by the Chief Financial Officers Act, FFMIA, and more recently, the President's Management Agenda, agencies need to modernize their financial systems to generate reliable, useful, and timely financial information throughout the year and at year-end."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) has been at the forefront of federal agencies in using the OMB Circular A-76 process. In 1995, DOD made it a priority to reduce operating costs and free funds for other needs. DOD has also augmented the A-76 program with what it terms strategic sourcing--a broader array of reinvention and reengineering options that may not necessarily involve A-76 competitions. The number of positions--at one point 229,000--that DOD planned to study and the time frames for the studies have varied. Current plans are to study about 183,000 positions between fiscal years 1997 and 2007. Changes in the inventory of commercial activities and the current administration's sourcing initiatives could change the number of positions studied in the future. However, GAO has not evaluated the extent to which these changes might occur. DOD's A-76 program has faced several challenges that may provide valuable lessons learned for other federal agencies. These lessons include the following: (1) studies took longer than initially projected, (2) costs and resources required for the studies were underestimated, (3) selecting and grouping functions to compete can be difficult, and (4) determining and maintaining …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The federal government has spent billions of dollars attempting to reduce the consumption of petroleum in the transportation sector for over 25 years. Throughout the period, the government has tried tax incentives, mandates to use vehicles that run on alternative fuels, and laws designed to enhance fuel efficiency. More recently, the federal government conducted a $1.2 billion partnership between industry and government, the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicle, to develop a highly fuel-efficient car. The administration has proposed a new initiative, known as FreedomCAR, focused on developing hydrogen fuel cells that will provide the technology necessary to create cars and trucks that do not require petroleum and have no polluting emissions--without sacrificing safety or convenience. FreedomCAR will operate as a cooperative research effort between the Department of Energy and General Motors, Daimler-Chrysler, and the Ford Motor Company. The FreedomCAR initiative should make sure that it (1) performs research that private industry would not do on its own, (2) specifies a clear and measurable goal, (3) devises a strategy to directly address that goal, and (4) considers whether consumers will buy the products resulting from the research …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Many people are homeless for only a short time and get back on their feet with minimal assistance, but others are chronically homeless and need intensive and ongoing assistance. Fifty federal programs exist to help the homeless with housing. Sixteen of these are targeted exclusively to the homeless, and the others are mainstream programs. Targeted programs were funded at $1.7 billion in fiscal year 2001. GAO found that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has been unable to ensure that adequate coordination occurs among the programs without creating undue administrative burdens for the states and communities. Steps have been taken to improve the coordination of homeless assistance programs within communities and to reduce some of the administrative burdens caused by separate programs. Although low-income populations face barriers to obtaining services provided by mainstream programs, these barriers are compounded by homelessness. In addition, the underlying structure and operations of federal mainstream programs do not ensure that the special needs of homeless people are met. Consolidating HUD's McKinney-Vento programs could help reduce the administrative burden. However, to end chronic homelessness in 10 years, federal agencies must strive to …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001 seek to minimize pervasive information security weaknesses that place federal operations at significant risk of disruption, tampering, fraud, and inappropriate disclosure of sensitive information. Increases in computer interconnectivity, especially in the use of the Internet, pose significant risks to computer systems and to the critical operations and infrastructures they support, such as telecommunications, power distribution, public health, national defense, law enforcement, and emergency services. Although federal agencies have taken steps to redesign and strengthen their information security programs, federal systems are not being adequately protected from computer-based threats, even though these systems process, store, and transmit enormous amounts of sensitive data and are indispensable to many federal agency operations."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony describes China's development of rule of law practices related to the commitments China made to the World Trade Organization (WTO), which it joined in November 2001. When China joined the WTO, it agreed that its legal measures would be consistent with its WTO obligations. GAO found 60 commitments that specifically obligate China to enact, repeal, or modify trade-related laws or regulations. In addition, China has made a substantial number of other WTO commitments related to the rule of law in transparency, judicial review, uniform enforcement of laws, and nondiscriminatory treatment. Chinese government officials described how their efforts for reform go beyond China's WTO commitments and include broad reforms of laws and regulations at the national and provincial levels, as well as reforms of judicial and administrative procedures. However, Chinese officials acknowledged the challenges they face in completing the necessary reforms and identified the need for outside training assistance. According to GAO's survey, U.S. businesses in China consider rule of law-related WTO commitments to be important, especially the consistent application of laws, regulations, and practices in China, and enforcement of intellectual property rights. However, a majority of …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The National Interagency Canada Lynx Survey (Protocol) was designed to determine the presence of Canada lynx through deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) analysis of hair samples recovered from scratch pads in forests in the northern United States. Beginning in January 2002, GAO investigated the submission of unauthorized samples to the University of Montana's laboratory as part of the National Survey and investigated whether the biologists involved had communications about their submissions. GAO found four instances in which unauthorized hair samples, not obtained from the Wenatchee and Gifford Pinchot National Forests, were submitted for DNA testing as part of the National Survey for those forests. These included one submission on bobcat hair in 1999, and three submissions of lynx hair in September and October 2000. The biologists maintain that they submitted these samples to test the accuracy of the work done by the laboratory, although they knew that the Protocol for the National Survey did not provide for such action. They also said that they did not have the authority to make these submissions and that they were aware that they had alternatives for testing the laboratory other than submitting samples …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980 (RFA) requires agencies to prepare an initial and a final regulatory flexibility analysis. The Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996 (SBREFA) seeks to strengthen RFA protections for small entities, and some of the act's requirements are built on "significant impact." GAO has reviewed the implementation of RFA and SBREFA several times in recent years, with topics ranging from specific provisions in each statute to the overall implementation of RFA. Although both of these reforms have clearly affected how federal agencies regulate, GAO believes that their full promise has not been realized, and key questions about RFA remain unanswered. These questions lie at the heart of RFA and SBREFA, and their answers can have a substantive effect on the amount of regulatory relief provided through those statutes. Because Congress did not answer these questions when the statutes were enacted, agencies have had to develop their own answers, and those answers differ."