A briefing report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Concerned with the time, money, and resources that the federal government expends servicing its vehicle and engine fleet, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works asked GAO to compile information on the government's use of engine lubricating oil. GAO was asked to determine: (1) how much engine lubricating oil the federal government bought in fiscal years 1999, 2000, and 2001; (2) what costs are incurred for the disposal and recycling of engine lubricating oil; (3) what costs are incurred for changing motor oil in military and civilian fleets; (4) what logistical implications exist for the transport of engine lubricating oil during recent military operations; and (5) what options exist for reducing purchase, maintenance, and disposal costs for engine lubricating oil. To conduct its study, GAO focused on three agencies that account for 79 percent of all non-tactical vehicles owned or leased by the U.S. government: the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), the Department of Defense (DOD), and the General Services Administration (GSA). It compiled information only on engine lubricating oil used in ground vehicles and equipment and not in aircraft and ships."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Comptroller General convened a forum in September 2002 to identify useful practices and lessons learned from major private and public sector mergers, acquisitions, and organizational transformations. This was done to help federal agencies implement successful transformations of their cultures, as well as the new Department of Homeland Security merge its various originating components into a unified department. There was general agreement on a number of key practices found at the center of successful mergers, acquisitions, and transformations. In this report, we identify the specific implementation steps for the key practices raised at the forum with illustrative private and public sector examples. To identify these implementation steps and examples, we relied primarily on interviews with selected forum participants and other experts about their experiences implementing mergers, acquisitions, and transformations and also conducted a literature review."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) provides graduate medical education (GME) to as many as one-third of U.S. resident physicians, but oversight responsibilities spread across VA's organizational components and multiple affiliated hospitals and medical schools could allow supervision problems to go undetected or uncorrected. GAO was asked to examine VA's procedures for (1) monitoring VA medical centers' adherence to VA's requirements for resident supervision, (2) using evaluations of supervision by GME accrediting bodies and residents, and (3) using information about resident supervision drawn from VA's programs for monitoring the quality and outcomes of patient care."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In the past few years, the nation's media have focused public attention on a series of misconduct and mismanagement issues within the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard. As part of the Bob Stump National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2003, Congress directed GAO to examine four issues related to the management of the National Guard. In this report, GAO assesses the effectiveness of the (1) procedures that the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard have established and implemented to deal with service members who stop attending required training; (2) procedures that the National Guard uses for federally recognizing state promotions of senior National Guard officers; (3) process that the National Guard uses for disciplining senior officers (colonels and generals) who are guilty of misconduct; and (4) federal protections for National Guard members or civilian federal employees who report allegations of waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement (whistleblowers) and the extent to which disciplinary action is taken against those in the National Guard who retaliate against whistleblowers."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Agencies are increasingly asked to demonstrate results, but many programs lack credible performance information and the capacity to rigorously evaluate program results. To assist agency efforts to provide credible information, GAO examined the experiences of five agencies that demonstrated evaluation capacity in their performance reports: the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), the Coast Guard, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and the National Science Foundation (NSF)."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The State Department plans to spend at least $80 million to purchase and renovate a multibuilding facility in Frankfurt, Germany. The facility, known as Creekbed, is scheduled to open in mid-2005. The project is a key rightsizing initiative under the President's Management Agenda to reassess and reconfigure the staffing of the U.S. overseas presence. Creekbed is expected to achieve the department's major rightsizing and regionalization goals. The Office of Management and Budget expects the project to serve as a model for developing other regional centers. GAO was asked to determine whether State fully examined the potential for relocating regional staff from outside Germany to Creekbed."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This study responds to a legislative mandate, which directs the Comptroller General to review the actions taken by the Department of Defense (DOD) to implement provisions included in the Bob Stump National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2003 (Public Law 107-314) concerning management of the purchase card program. This study also discusses DOD efforts to implement provisions in the DOD Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2003 (Public Law 107-248) as well as recommendations and the status of disciplinary actions taken against individuals identified in prior GAO reports as having used the government purchase card for potentially fraudulent, improper, and abusive or questionable purposes."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Recent operations in Afghanistan demonstrated the dangers of providing air support close to troops on the ground. Such close air support requires timely, well-practiced procedures and communication between ground and air elements. While most close air support operations in Afghanistan were successful, "friendly fire" incidents have resulted from mistakes made while conducting the mission. At the request of the Ranking Minority Members of the Subcommittees on Total Force and Readiness, House Committee on Armed Services, GAO reviewed Department of Defense (DOD) efforts to provide adequate close air support training, as well as efforts to enhance the equipment used to support this mission."

This report discusses issues regarding the Violence Against Women Office (VAWO), which was created in 1995 to address legal and policy issues concerning violence against women.

This report examines federal law regarding obscenity and indecency. The First Amendment provides: “Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.” In general, the First Amendment protects pornography, with this term being used to mean any erotic material. The Supreme Court, however, has held that the First Amendment does not protect two types of pornography: obscenity and child pornography. Consequently, they may be banned on the basis of their content, and federal law prohibits the mailing of obscenity, as well as its transport or receipt in interstate or foreign commerce.

This report describes the legislative history of the Senate's PAYGO rule, explains its current features, and reviews Senate actions under the rule .

This report is an Overview of the effects on Institutional operations, the Legislative process, and future Planning related to House of Representatives Information Technology Management issues.

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This report discusses several temporary provisions affecting the taxation of capital income that were adopted in the 2001-2003 period. These provisions include lower individual tax rates, bonus depreciation, and lower individual income tax rates on dividends and capital gains.

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This report identifies types of preparedness standards, describes current activities to develop these standard, and discusses policy approaches that Congress might take in addressing this issue.

This report discusses the funding authorizations for programs in the Higher Education Act (HEA). This legislation, administered by the U.S. Department of Education (ED), authorizes the federal government’s major student aid programs, as well as other significant initiatives.

In recent years conflicting budget priorities and divided political control have accentuated the institutional tensions between the executive and legislative branches inherent in the federal budget process. President Clinton, like his two predecessors, called for an item veto, or possibly expanded impoundment authority, to provide him with greater control over federal spending. This report provides a brief history of impoundment and discusses the debate surrounding the line item veto.

This report discusses the complicated body of rules, precedents, and practices that governs the legislative process on the floor of the House of Representatives.

This report discusses the effect of human activities on global climate change. Human activities, particularly burning of fossil fuels, have increased atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and other trace gases, including chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), methane, and nitrous oxide.

On March 1, 2003, the Turkish parliament, in a close vote, failed to pass a resolution authorizing the United States to deploy troops to Turkish territory to open a northern front in a war against Iraq. The vote surprised the U.S. government and its Turkish counterpart. Both governments may have greatly overestimated their understanding of the Turkish political situation that contributed to the defeat of the resolution. This report focuses on that political scene, Turkish concerns about an Iraq conflict, the tentative, but unfulfilled, bargain struck between the U.S. and Turkish governments to authorize the U.S. deployment - to the extent that it is known, the final arrangements for U.S. access to Turkish airspace, and attendant issues. This report also reviews the implications of parliament’s actions for the bilateral U.S.- Turkish relationship, regional relations, Turkey’s domestic politics, its economy, and broader issues.

This report provides background on the U.S. Postal Service's (USPS) funding of its retirement obligations, describes and analyzes the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) recalculation, and discusses considerations Congress may bring to bear on the draft legislation.