A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Dedicated access privilege (DAP) programs are one tool the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) uses to help end overfishing and promote conservation. Under a DAP program, NMFS sets an allowable catch in a fishery and allocates the privilege to harvest a portion of the total to eligible entities, such as fishermen. Because DAP programs can have significant impacts on fishermen and their communities, many believe that effective participation by fishermen and other stakeholders in the development of these programs is critical. GAO was asked to determine (1) the extent to which the regional fishery management councils are using a framework for effective participation and (2) the methods stakeholders and participation experts suggest for enhancing stakeholder participation in developing DAP programs."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In January 2004, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)--the federal regulator of national banks--issued rules concerning the extent to which federal law preempts state and local banking laws. Some state officials and consumer groups expressed concerns about a perceived loss of consumer protection. GAO identified (1) how OCC's complaint process compares with that of other federal bank regulators, (2) how complaint information informs OCC's supervision of national banks, and (3) issues that consumer advocates and state officials have raised about OCC's consumer protection efforts and OCC's responses to the issues."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This letter concerns a variety of issues related to identifying a universal definition of insurance and the challenges associated with doing so. We briefed congressional staff on the preliminary results of our work on June 24, 2005, and on our final results on November 29, 2005. Specifically, we provided information on (1) the elements that are commonly part of definitions of insurance, (2) a few products not universally defined as insurance or regulated across the states by their insurance departments, (3) possible regulatory implications of developing separate definitions for insurance products covering insurance risks in more than one category, (4) current developments in statutory and financial accounting communities in re-evaluating their guidelines for measuring risk transfer in reinsurance contracts, and (5) certain circumstances when finite risk contracts are used."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the challenges of effective emergency preparedness for, response to, and recovery from major emergencies, including catastrophic incidents. Effective emergency preparedness and response for major events requires the coordinated planning and actions of multiple players from multiple first responder disciplines, jurisdictions, and levels of government as well as nongovernmental entities. Effective emergency preparedness and response requires putting aside parochialism and working together prior to and after an emergency incident. September 11, 2001 fundamentally changed the context of emergency management preparedness in the United States, including federal involvement in preparedness and response. The biggest challenge in emergency preparedness is getting effective cooperation in planning, exercises, and capability assessment and building across first responder disciplines and intergovernmental lines. DHS has developed several policy documents designed to define the federal government's role in supporting state and local first responders in emergencies, implement a uniform incident command structure across the nation, and identify performance standards that can be used in assessing state and local first responder capabilities. Realistic exercises are a key component of testing and assessing emergency plans and first responder capabilities, and the Hurricane PAM planning exercise demonstrated …