A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed patient access to clinical trials sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), focusing on: (1) how health insurers' coverage policies and practices affect patient participation in clinical trials; (2) researchers' experience in enrolling patients for trials sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and factors that may explain this experience; and (3) whether NIH has evidence of recent difficulties in enrolling patients in clinical trials."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the readiness of the insurance industry to meet the year 2000 date change, focusing on: (1) what state regulators were doing to oversee the year 2000 readiness of the insurance industry; (2) how the regulatory oversight of the insurance industry's year 2000 readiness compared with the oversight of the banking and securities industries; (3) the status of the insurance industry's year 2000 readiness; and (4) the nature and extent of year 2000 liability exposures that insurers face and the mitigation efforts taken to address such exposures."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the Bureau of Indian Affairs' (BIA) and the Indian Health Service's (IHS) management of contract support funding under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, focusing on: (1) to what extent and for what reasons contract support costs and the associated funding shortfalls changed over the past decade, and what can be expected in the future for these costs; (2) how the shortfalls in funding for contract support costs affected tribes; and (3) whether the act's provisions for contract support costs have been consistently implemented."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the increasing outbreaks of harmful algae, focusing on the: (1) available information on harmful algae and their effects on human health and the environment; and (2) status of federal efforts to address the problem of harmful algae, particularly the coordination of research and management strategies among the federal agencies."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the International Monetary Fund's financial operations, focusing on the: (1) Fund's liquidity position as of April 30, 1999, including its experience with borrowed resources to meet its members' financing needs; (2) role of gold holdings in the Fund's operations; and (3) Fund's process for determining the amount of quota contributions required from its members."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on issues associated with the theft of stock used to create airline tickets, focusing on: (1) the number and value of the airline ticket stock stolen annually; (2) financial implications associated with the use of stolen ticket stock; (3) issues that are potentially associated with the use of stolen ticket stock; and (4) technological interventions and other initiatives designed to detect the use of stolen ticket stock."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the quality of the Department of Agriculture's (USDA) information security at its National Finance Center (NFC)."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the financial statements of the Bank Insurance Fund, the Savings Association Insurance Fund, and the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation Resolution Fund for the years ended December 31, 1998 and 1997. GAO also reviewed: (1) the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) management's assertions regarding the effectiveness of its internal control as of December 31, 1998; and (2) FDIC's compliance with laws and regulations during 1998."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO assessed the disclosure practices and safeguards employed by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and other federal, state, and local agencies to protect taxpayer information, focusing on: (1) which federal, state, and local agencies receive taxpayer information from IRS; (2) what type of information they receive; (3) how the taxpayer information is being used; (4) what policies and procedures the agencies are required to follow to safeguard taxpayer information; (5) how frequently IRS is to monitor agencies' adherence to the safeguarding requirements; and (6) the results of IRS' most recent monitoring efforts."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Agriculture's (USDA) actions to ensure the year 2000 readiness of its high impact food assistance and food safety programs."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the approaches that agencies have proposed or adopted to verify and validate performance information."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on state experiences with reserve funds for emergencies or other unpredictable funding needs and state practices that could be instructive in the emergency spending debate, particularly regarding how the federal government might budget for emergencies with surplus funds."

A chapter 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) modernization investment management approach as carried out through the Acquisition Management System (AMS), focusing on the extent to which FAA, through AMS: (1) has established a structured approach for selecting and controlling its investments; (2) incorporates all investments, including those in operation, in the agency's portfolio; and (3) selects, controls, and evaluates its investments with complete and reliable information."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO assessed how best practices offer improvements to the way the Department of Defense (DOD) incorporates new technology into weapon system programs, focusing on: (1) the impact of technology maturity on product outcomes; (2) best practices for managing new technologies and incorporating them into products; and (3) ways DOD can adapt these practices to get better outcomes on weapon system programs."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program, focusing on: (1) changes in CSE welfare collections since 1994; (2) the net savings/cost experiences of state and federal CSE programs; (3) those states that have experienced declines in CSE welfare collections and how these declines affected their state's CSE program funding; and (4) the future implications of caseload declines and welfare reform changes for the CSE program."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed House Resolution (H.R.) 2245, the Federalism Act of 1999, focusing on the agency rulemaking and performance measurement requirements of the bill."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) progress in implementing its recent initiatives to strengthen efforts to ensure the quality of care provided by the nation's nursing homes."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO examined fraud and abuse in the Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), focusing on: (1) what is known about the amount of fraud and abuse in the program, including the levels of fraud and abuse being detected by the state and local agencies responsible for administering WIC; and (2) the efforts taken to prevent and detect fraud and abuse and barriers to these efforts."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Agency for International Development's (AID) Initiative for Southern Africa program, focusing on the: (1) specific activities AID's Regional Center for Southern Africa conducted to implement the Initiative; (2) extent to which this regional program complements AID's bilateral programs in the region; and (3) challenges the Regional Center faces in implementing the Initiative."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) efforts to develop more mobile and deployable forces, focusing on: (1) how NATO determines its force requirements and each member's contribution to meeting those requirements; and (2) how NATO allies have responded to the need for increased mobility and deployability in their military forces."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO determined whether the Department of Energy's (DOE) expenses to close out its participation in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project were reasonable."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the Legion of Valor of the United States of America Incorporated, for the fiscal year ended April 30, 1998, focusing on whether the audit report complied with the financial reporting requirements of the law."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO updated its previous report on the Department of Energy's (DOE) fiscal year (FY) 2000 budget request, focusing on: (1) selected projects and activities by the Office of Environmental Management in which part or all of the FY 2000 budget request or budget authority from previous years is not needed; and (2) GAO's analysis of Environmental Management's and Defense Programs' carryover funds from prior years to determine if funds are available that could be used to reduce DOE's FY 2000 budget request."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Medicare payments for skilled nursing facilities' (SNF) services under the new prospective payment system (PPS), focusing on: (1) whether the SNF payment rates incorporate the costs of nontherapy ancillary services; and (2) an analysis of the PPS design and nontherapy ancillary cost variation to assess whether payments are distributed appropriately."