A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) approval of the Social Security Act's title IV-E reimbursements for foster care placements, focusing on: (1) the number of title IV-E foster care placements made by juvenile justice agencies in fiscal year (FY) 1998 and the amount of federal care funding expended for these placements; (2) how selected states ensure that title IV-E funds are not used for placements in detention facilities and ensure that procedural requirements to protect the welfare of children in title IV-E funded juvenile cases are met; and (3) HHS' processes for ensuring the appropriate use of funds and compliance with these procedural requirements in title IV-E funded juvenile justice placements."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reported on the conclusions and recommendations resulting from its audits and other reviews of federal departments and agencies. GAO provided summary information on the status of all recommendations that have not been fully implemented in the areas of national security, international affairs, community and economic development, health care, human services, justice, general government, and financial and information management for use in congressional review of budget requests."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Program, focusing on: (1) the program's acquisition strategy; and (2) whether the strategy is being implemented in a manner that will ensure that the acquisition strategy objectives will be achieved."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO estimated the Department of Agriculture's (USDA) sugar program's: (1) costs to domestic sweetener users; (2) benefits to domestic sugar and high-fructose corn syrup producers; and (3) net effects on the U.S. economy--the differences between the costs to users and the benefits to producers that result from artificially high sweetener prices."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on on-line trading, focusing on: (1) the growth in on-line trading; (2) the extent to which on-line broker-dealers had experienced trading system delays and outages, including the causes of these problems and their reported effect on investors; and (3) how on-line broker-dealers address investor protection issues related to margin, privacy of information, risk disclosures, best execution, suitability, and advertising."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on acid rain emissions trends in the eastern United States, focusing on: (1) sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides emitted into the air at the national level; (2) deposition in the eastern United States and in three environmentally sensitive areas; (3) sulfates and nitrates in lakes in the Adirondack Mountains and the prospects for the lakes' recovery from the damage caused by acid rain; and (4) the extent to which utilities in 11 midwestern states used sulfur dioxide allowances originally assigned to utilities in their states, compared with allowances that originated in other states from 1995 through 1998."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "To improve its oversight of housing agencies, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) implemented its Public Housing Assessment System (PHAS). PHAS provides HUD with a system to measure the performance of its housing agencies. GAO found that the effectiveness of HUD's ability to measure housing agencies' performance under PHAS has not been greatly improved for several reasons. First, HUD does not verify the accuracy of self-certified data submitted by the agencies in response to PHAS requirements. According to GAO's survey, in several instances, agencies that certified themselves as "standard" or "high performers" were later found to be troubled. Second, HUD's field offices indicated that they are adequately prepared in some areas to assist troubled housing agencies but that in other areas, such as adequate staffing, they are not. Furthermore, HUD's experience indicated that although the use of sanctions against poor performing agencies can be an effective tool for improving performance, most of its field offices fail to use them."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on weaknesses in the donation of U.S. planting seed to Russia in 1999, focusing on: (1) how the seed was procured in the United States; (2) how seeds were distributed and monitored in Russia; and (3) what the process was for selling the seed and distributing the proceeds to agricultural development institutions."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the security of the Department of Energy's (DOE) unclassified information systems that support its civilian research programs, focusing on: (1) whether DOE's unclassified systems for civilian research are vulnerable to unauthorized access; (2) whether DOE is effectively managing information systems security; and (3) what DOE is doing to address the risk of unauthorized access to unclassified systems for civilian research."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Panama Canal Treaty called for the United States to transfer control over the Panama Canal to Panama and withdraw U.S. military forces and equipment from Panama. The treaty allowed the U.S. government to remove or dispose of all equipment and supplies acquired by U.S. forces. U.S. plans for withdrawal from Panama required excess property to be processed using disposal procedures that gave the military services and the federal agencies the first opportunity to receive the property. During 1998 and 1999, the Department of Defense's (DOD) Panama disposal office processed excess property valued at $136.7 million. Of this amount, $691,000 worth of property (less than one percent) was unaccounted for during this period. Disposal office records show that the property was written off as lost. DOD recognizes the need to properly manage and account for its assets and is working on a long-term strategy to provide in-transit control and visibility over excess property through information technology. DOD also has developed a new lesson segment for training its personnel on control procedures, but it has not taken adequate steps to ensure that the appropriate field personnel have …

A briefing report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Overseas Private Investment Corporation's (OPIC) progress in improving the management of its investment funds program, focusing on: (1) how OPIC identifies and approves investment fund concepts and selects fund managers; (2) the funds' performance to date; and (3) the risk levels assigned to the funds."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the World Trade Organization's (WTO) dispute settlement system, focusing on the: (1) outcome and commercial impact of completed cases involving the United States; and (2) major issues that have emerged in using the system."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO evaluated the military services' and the Department of Defense's (DOD) fiscal year (FY) 1994-1998 operation and maintenance (O&M) budget requests, focusing on: (1) identifying the differences between the amounts Congress initially designated for O&M subactivities, and those DOD reported as obligated for the same subactivities; (2) identifying those O&M subactivities where DOD obligated funds differently than recommended by Congress in each year of the 5-year period GAO examined; and (3) assessing information available to Congress to track DOD's movement of funds among O&M subactivities."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Bureau of the Public Debt's (BPD) computer controls, focusing on: (1) the vulnerabilities identified; and (2) a follow-up on previously reported vulnerabilities."