A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since the Department of Energy's (DOE) loan guarantee program (LGP) for innovative energy projects was established in Title XVII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, its scope has expanded both in the types of projects it can support and in the amount of loan guarantee authority available. DOE currently has loan guarantee authority estimated at about $77 billion and is seeking additional authority. As of April 2010, it had issued one loan guarantee for $535 million and made nine conditional commitments. In response to Congress' mandate to review DOE's execution of the LGP, GAO assessed (1) the extent to which DOE has identified what it intends to achieve through the LGP and is positioned to evaluate progress and (2) how DOE has implemented the program for applicants. GAO analyzed relevant legislation, prior GAO work, and DOE guidance and regulations. GAO also interviewed DOE officials, LGP applicants, and trade association representatives."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Annual revenues into the Assets Forfeiture Fund (AFF) from forfeited assets increased from $500 million in 2003 to $1.8 billion in 2011, in part due to an increase in prosecutions of fraud and financial crimes cases. Expenditures in support of forfeiture activities such as equitable sharing payments to state and local law enforcement agencies and payments to victims also increased over the same 9-year period, growing from $458 million in 2003 to $1.3 billion in 2011. The Department of Justice (DOJ) uses the difference between revenues and expenditures in any year to help cover anticipated expenses in the next fiscal year. Because the AFF uses fund revenues to pay for the expenses associated with forfeiture activities, DOJ carries over funds at the end of each fiscal year to ensure it has sufficient resources to cover expenses that may not be covered by the next year’s revenues. When determining the amounts to carry over, DOJ reviews historical data on past program expenditures, analyzes known future expenses such as salaries and contracts, and estimates the costs of any potential new expenditures. However, DOJ has not documented the process …

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 Defense's (DOD) efforts to reduce the infrastructure that supports initial pilot training, focusing on: (1) DOD's prior efforts to reduce aircraft training infrastructure; (2) plans for expanding pilot training capacity; and (3) the likelihood of further consolidations."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), announced January 2003, aims to provide 2 million people with anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment in 14 of the world's most severely affected countries. In May 2003 legislation established the position of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator in the State Department. GAO was asked to (1) identify major challenges to U.S. efforts to expand ARV treatment in resource-poor settings and (2) assess the Global AIDS Coordinator's response to these challenges."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Director of National Intelligence (DNI), as Security Executive Agent, has not provided agencies clearly defined policy and procedures to consistently determine if a position requires a security clearance. Executive Order 13467 assigns DNI responsibility for, among other things, developing uniform and consistent policies to determine eligibility for access to classified information, and gives the DNI authority to issue guidance to agency heads to ensure uniformity in processes relating to those determinations. In the absence of this guidance, agencies are using an Office of Personnel Management (OPM) tool that OPM designed to determine the sensitivity and risk levels of civilian positions which, in turn, inform the type of investigation needed. OPM audits, however, found inconsistency in these position designations, and some agencies described problems in implementing OPM’s tool. In an April 2012 audit, OPM reviewed the sensitivity levels of 39 positions in an agency within the Department of Defense (DOD) and reached different conclusions than the agency for 26 of them. Problems exist, in part, because OPM and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) did not collaborate on the development of the position …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since the 1970s, the roles of women as both students and athletes have changed in higher education, with female enrollment surpassing male enrollment, and female athletic participation showing gains as well. These changes have generated public interest in whether women participate in athletics at comparable levels to men and whether men's opportunities have decreased as a result of the increased opportunities for women. Under the Comptroller General's authority, GAO assessed the extent to which the numbers of men's and women's intercollegiate sports teams and participants at 4-year colleges have changed from the 1991-1992 through 2004-2005 school years."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The federal financial regulators have issued certain final rules for resolving large, complex financial companies under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act’s (Dodd-Frank Act) established Orderly Liquidation Authority (OLA). Under OLA, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) could serve as receiver of a failing financial company instead of the company entering the bankruptcy process. Regulators continue to address a number of issues related to FDIC’s new authority, including how creditors will ensure that they receive no less than they would under a Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation; how certain assets and liabilities would be treated in a new company created by FDIC under OLA; and what role the Securities Investor Protection Corporation would play in the resolution of a broker-dealer under OLA. Regulatory officials reported that they were continuing to draft rules to clarify how OLA would be used. FDIC and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve (Federal Reserve) also have issued final rules requiring certain financial companies to file resolution plans or “living wills” that must detail how companies would resolve their operations through an orderly bankruptcy. Regulators told GAO that …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) cannot meet its global commitments without continued reserve participation. The Army Reserve provides critical combat support and combat service support units, such as medical and transportation units, to the Army. While Army Reserve members historically could expect to train one weekend a month and 2 weeks a year with activations for limited deployments, since September 11 some have been called upon to support ongoing military operations for a year or more. GAO (1) identified the challenges the Army Reserve faces in continuing to support overseas operations and (2) assessed the extent to which the Army and Army Reserve have taken steps to improve the Army Reserve's readiness for future missions."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Buildings Fund’s (FBF) balance has increased from $56 million in fiscal year 2007 to $2.2 billion in fiscal year 2012 primarily due to the growing difference between the resources provided to the FBF and the General Services Administration’s (GSA) use of these funds as determined through the budgeting and appropriations process. In the last 2 years, Congress has provided fewer resources than requested by the executive branch and generated by the FBF. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) staff and GSA officials stated that if GSA were able to spend all of the funds collected by the FBF each year, these funds would generally be sufficient to fund GSA’s needs. However, GSA, through the annual President’s Budget Request, has sought less obligational authority than the balance available in the fund. While the FBF’s balance has increased, various factors have limited the fund’s income. Funds from operations—revenue less costs excluding depreciation—that contribute to FBF income have declined from 2006 to 2011 when adjusted for inflation. Revenues have declined while costs have outstripped inflation over this time period. In addition, portions of GSA’s inventory operate at …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Students with disabilities face several longstanding challenges accessing services that may assist them as they transition from high school into postsecondary education or the workforce--services such as tutoring, vocational training, and assistive technology. Eligible students with disabilities are entitled to transition planning services during high school, but after leaving high school, to receive services that facilitate their transition they must apply as adults and establish eligibility for programs administered by multiple federal agencies. Students with disabilities may face delays in service and end up on waitlists if these programs are full. In addition, while all five states GAO contacted have taken steps to coordinate their transition services and assist families with the transition process, officials said that it is still difficult for students and their parents to navigate and for providers to coordinate services across different programs. Officials and parents GAO spoke with also noted a lack of sufficient information or awareness of the full range of service options available after high school on the part of students with disabilities, parents, and service providers. In addition, state and local officials said students with disabilities may not …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2005, federal spending on advertising exceeded $1 billion. Five agencies--DOD, Treasury, HHS, Interior, and NASA--together made up over 90 percent of this spending from 2001 to 2005. Executive Order 13170, signed in October 2000, directs agencies to take an aggressive role in ensuring substantial participation in federal advertising contracts by businesses in the Small Business Administration's (SBA) 8(a) and small disadvantaged business (SDB) programs and minority-owned businesses. This report describes (1) strategies DOD, HHS, Treasury, Interior, and NASA used to address Executive Order 13170, and (2) the total obligations, number of contract actions, and percentage of total obligations represented by these actions that each agency awarded to 8(a)s, SDBs, and minority-owned businesses for advertising services. In conducting this study, GAO analyzed agency contracting data and executive order implementation plans and interviewed agency procurement officials."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) certified relatively few commodities under its Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) for Farmers program, as reauthorized by the Trade and Globalization Adjustment Assistance Act of 2009, but provided assistance to most individual farmers and fishermen who produced certified commodities and applied for assistance. Specifically, USDA certified 5 of the 18 commodities for which it received petitions. As of April 2012, USDA approved 9,852, or about 90 percent, of the applicants who produced a certified commodity to participate in the program. In addition, out of the $202.5 million in appropriations for the reauthorized program, USDA paid nearly $50 million in financial assistance to help producers implement long-term business plans in order to become more competitive. GAO identified two issues regarding USDA’s process for approving applications from spouses of producers and providing financial assistance:"

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Low recycling rates for used televisions, computers, and other electronics result in the loss of valuable resources, and electronic waste exports risk harming human health and the environment in countries that lack safe recycling and disposal capacity. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates the management of used electronics that qualify as hazardous waste and promotes voluntary efforts among electronics manufacturers, recyclers, and other stakeholders. However, in the absence of a comprehensive national approach, a growing number of states have enacted electronics recycling laws, raising concerns about a patchwork of state requirements. In this context, GAO examined (1) EPA's efforts to facilitate environmentally sound used electronics management, (2) the views of various stakeholders on the state-by-state approach, and (3) considerations to further promote environmentally sound management. GAO reviewed EPA documents, interviewed EPA officials, and interviewed stakeholders in five states with electronics recycling legislation."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins ""

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "States provide health care coverage to about 40 million uninsured, low-income adults and children under two federal-state programs--Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). To receive federal funding, states must meet statutory requirements, including providing certain levels of benefits to specified populations. Under section 1115 of the Social Security Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) can waive many of the statutory requirements in the case of experimental, pilot, or demonstration projects likely to promote program objectives. Since August 2001, HHS has approved four of 13 waiver proposals from states to either expand health insurance to uninsured populations or extend pharmacy coverage to low-income seniors, consistent with the new goals. Of the nine proposals still under review, five seek to expand coverage to uninsured populations, while four would provide pharmacy benefits for low-income seniors. GAO has both legal and policy concerns about the extent to which the approved waivers are consistent with the goals and fiscal integrity of Medicaid and SCHIP. The legal concern is that HHS has allowed Arizona to use unspent SCHIP funding to cover adults without children, despite SCHIP's …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) established critical job responsibilities for group managers and frontline employees that align with each of the agency's three strategic goals. In the group managers' performance management system, all of the supporting behaviors clearly align with the critical job responsibilities. However, for frontline employees, the supporting behaviors do not always align with IRS's description of the critical job responsibilities. Misalignments occur when (1) supporting behaviors reflect concerns not expressed in the description, (2) supporting behaviors that relate to a responsibility are located under other responsibilities, or (3) no supporting behavior exists to support the description. Raters provided feedback on the three critical job responsibilities related to IRS's organizational goals in 90 percent or more of evaluations and provided feedback on leadership and equal employment opportunity in 70 percent of the evaluations. IRS senior executives have no firm plans to monitor how well the group managers' and frontline employees' systems are being implemented or to assess whether changes need to be made, even though IRS's management processes call for obtaining data on how well programs are achieving their goals."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) searches state criminal history records to prevent gun sales to ineligible persons. GAO found that state firearm laws and procedures may affect how these records are used by NICS. Each of the six states GAO surveyed had some mechanism by which persons with criminal convictions could have their rights to own a firearm restored. The six states typically require a waiting period before someone can apply for relief, and some criminal convictions make a person ineligible for restoration. In 26 states, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has determined that a concealed carry permit may exempt permit holders from an NICS background check when they are buying a firearm. This situation underscores the need to carefully screen applications and monitor permit holders to ensure their eligibility to own firearms. The six states used various approaches to make it easier to identify individuals convicted of domestic violence. Despite these efforts, NICS failed to detect more than 2,800 persons convicted of domestic violence who bought firearms during the first three years the system was in operation."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on math and science education, focusing on: (1) the key efforts undertaken by the Department of Education, the National Institutes of Health, and the nine federal agencies under the purview of the House Committee on Science that support the development and dissemination of comprehensive kindergarten through 12th-grade mathematics and science curriculum materials and the characteristics of these efforts; (2) the extent to which federal agencies coordinated their efforts to develop and disseminate these materials; and (3) the extent to which agencies assessed the quality and use of these materials."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Air Force launched an acquisition program to develop and produce a revolutionary laser weapon system, known as the Airborne Laser, in 1996. Being developed for installation in a modified Boeing 747 aircraft, it is intended to destroy enemy ballistic missiles almost immediately after their launch. The Air Force originally estimated development costs at $2.5 billion and projected fielding of the system in 2006. However, by August 2001, the Air Force determined that the development cost estimate rose 50 percent to $3.7 billion, and the fielding date slipped to 2010. The Department of Defense transferred responsibility for the Airborne Laser in October 2001 to the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization. Subsequently, the Defense Secretary designated the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization as the Missile Defense Agency and granted the agency expanded responsibility and authority. The Air Force was unable to meet the Airborne Laser's original cost and schedule goals because it did not fully understand the level of effort that would be required to develop the critical system technology needed to meet the user's requirements. The Missile Defense Agency's new strategy for developing the Airborne Laser incorporates some …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed: (1) the Navy's 1997 antisubmarine warfare (ASW) assessment; (2) the role and funding influence of the Navy's recently established Antisubmarine Warfare Requirements Division; and (3) whether the assessment is supported by rigorous analysis of ASW shortfalls and capabilities and establishes priorities among ASW programs, as directed by congressional conferees on the 1997 National Defense Authorization Act."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) decision to allow the use of personal computer-based aviation training devices (PCATD), focusing on: (1) the process and information FAA used in deciding to approve the use of personal computer devices for 10 hours of instrument training; and (2) what is known about the training effectiveness of these devices and their long-term impact on a pilot's ability to fly safely."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Every year investors lose money to individuals and corporations that violate federal securities laws. One mission of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is to deter such violations and return lost funds to investors. SEC's primary tool is the disgorgement order, which requires violators to give up money obtained through securities law violations. In order for disgorgement to succeed, SEC must have an effective disgorgement collection program. Although the courts have ordered billions of dollars in disgorgement in the last decade, concerns exist about SEC's success in collecting these funds. For several reasons, SEC's disgorgement collection rate is not an adequate measure of the effectiveness of SEC's disgorgement program. First, while SEC data showed a collection rate of 14 percent for the $3.1 billion in disgorgement ordered in 1995-2001--compared with the 50 percent collection rate GAO reported in its 1994 report--GAO found that the rate varied widely from year to year and was influenced by large individual disgorgement orders. Second, the data used to calculate the collection rate was not reliable because of weaknesses in entering and updating information in SEC's disgorgement tracking database. Third, factors …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Army's approach to assessing wartime spare parts industrial base capability does not use current data from industry. Instead, the Army uses historical parts procurement data because its prior efforts to collect current data from industry were not successful due to poor response rates. GAO identified a program in the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) that has several attributes reflecting sound management practices for reliable industrial base capability assessments. Although DLA's program is in its early stages of implementation, DLA has been able to successfully collect current data directly from private industry on thousands of parts. Further, DLA is analyzing that data to identify actual or potential parts availability problems."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Many Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) employees leave the SEC each year, and some of these former employees go to work for firms regulated by SEC or the law or consulting firms that represent them. This practice raises questions about the potential impact on SEC's ability to effectively carry out its mission, including the potential for undue influence by former SEC employees on SEC matters or cases. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act required GAO to examine the movement of former SEC employees to regulated firms and the associated concerns. Among other things, this report examines (1) the extent to which employees leave SEC to work for or represent regulated entities and the potential issues associated with such movements and (2) internal controls SEC has in place to manage potential conflicts of interest and how these controls compare across other agencies. To address these objectives, GAO analyzed data on former SEC employees, reviewed SEC's and other agencies' internal controls, and interviewed current and former SEC officials."