Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This letter is the formal response to a mandate in the Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011. This mandate required the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to (1) update its Fiscal Year 2010 expenditure plan on border security fencing, infrastructure, and technology (BSFIT) for fiscal year 2011 budget authority and (2) submit the updated plan to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. The plan is to address 10 legislative conditions in the fiscal year 2010 DHS appropriations act and be reviewed by GAO. DHS submitted an updated plan to Congress on September 8, 2011. As required by the act, we reviewed the plan."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the research and development activities of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the findings of our recent report on the agency's laboratory enterprise. EPA was established in 1970 to consolidate a variety of federal research, monitoring, standard-setting, and enforcement activities into one agency for ensuring the joint protection of environmental quality and human health. Scientific research, knowledge, and technical information are fundamental to EPA's mission and inform its standard-setting, regulatory, compliance, and enforcement functions. The agency's scientific performance is particularly important as complex environmental issues emerge and evolve, and controversy continues to surround many of the agency's areas of responsibility. Unlike other primarily science-focused federal agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health or the National Science Foundation, EPA's scientific research, technical support, and analytical services underpin the policies and regulations the agency implements. Therefore, the agency operates its own laboratory enterprise. This enterprise is made up of 37 laboratories that are housed in about 170 buildings and facilities located in 30 cities across the nation. Specifically, EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD) operates 18 laboratories with primary responsibility for research and development. Four …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses our prior work examining the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) and Research and Development (R&D) efforts. The Homeland Security Act of 2002 created DHS and, within it, established S&T with the responsibility for conducting national research, development, test and evaluation (T&E) of technology and systems for, among other things, detecting, preventing, protecting against, and responding to terrorist attacks. Since its creation in 2003, DHS, through both S&T and its components, has spent billions of dollars researching and developing technologies used to support a wide range of missions including securing the border, detecting nuclear devices, and screening airline passengers and baggage for explosives, among others. S&T has a wide-ranging mission, which includes conducting basic and applied research of technologies, and overseeing the testing and evaluation of component acquisitions and technologies to ensure that they meet DHS acquisition requirements before implementation in the field. In recent years, we have reported that DHS has experienced challenges in managing its multibillion-dollar technology development and acquisition efforts, including implementing technologies that did not meet intended requirements and were not appropriately tested and evaluated. These problems …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, Congress granted the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) authority to enter into transactions other than contracts, leases, and cooperative agreements; this gave the agency greater flexibility in achieving its mission. NASA uses its other transaction authority through three kinds of instruments known as Space Act agreements. Specifically, NASA uses reimbursable agreements when costs associated with an undertaking are reimbursed by the agreement partner (in full or in part); the agency uses non-reimbursable agreements when each party bears the cost of participation in mutually beneficial activities. In 2006, NASA began to use a third kind of agreement--referred to as funded Space Act agreements--that have involved NASA providing significant funds to private industry partners to stimulate the development of large-scale commercial space transportation capabilities. Under a funded Space Act agreement, appropriated funds are transferred to a domestic partner, such as a private company or a university, to accomplish an agency mission. These agreements differ from Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) contracts in that they do not include requirements that generally apply to government contracts entered into under the authority of the …