A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report focuses on the debt collection processes and procedures used by the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The primary reason for the growth of CMS' civil monetary penalties (CMP) receivables was the expansion of fraud and abuse detection activities from fiscal year 1995 through fiscal year 1997 that significantly increased reported fraud and abuse debts in fiscal year 1997. GAO's analysis of CMS' CMP receivable data revealed similar financial accountability and reporting issues as those identified for non-CMP receivables by CMS' external financial statement auditors. GAO identified (1) unreconciled differences of tens of millions of dollars in the CMP receivables balances reported by HHS and CMS for fiscal years 1997 through 1999 and (2) an unreconciled net difference of about $22 million between the CMP receivables balance in CMS' general ledger and the detailed subsidiary systems as of September 30, 2000. The data reliability issue prevented GAO from determining the overall adequacy of the CMP debt collection policies and procedures. However, GAO's limited tests showed that debt collection policies and procedures were followed for 11 of …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "As part of its Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation (ACE), the U.S. Census Bureau interviewed people across the country to develop an estimate of the number of persons missed, counted more than once, or otherwise improperly counted in the 2000 census. In conducting the interviews, which took place in person or over the phone, Census faced several challenges, including (1) completing the operation on schedule, (2) ensuring data quality, (3) overcoming unexpected computer problems, (4) obtaining a quality address list, and (5) keeping the interviews independent of census follow-up operations to ensure unbiased estimates of census errors. The Bureau completed the interviews largely ahead of schedule. On the basis of the results of its quality assurance program, the Bureau assumes that about one-tenth of one percent of all cases nationally would have failed the program because they were believed to have been falsified. Early on, the Bureau dealt with an unexpected problem with its automated work management system, which allows supervisors to selectively reassign work among interviewers. According to the Bureau officials, the Bureau addressed the underlying programming error within two weeks, and the operations proceeded on …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. defense industry and some foreign government purchasers have expressed concern that the U.S. export control process is unnecessarily burdensome. Defense industry officials contend that extended reviews of export license applications by the State Department have resulted in lost sales and are harming the nation's defense industry. The State Department's Office of Defense Trade Controls is responsible for licensing the export and temporary import of defense articles and services. Many license applications take a long time to review because of their complexity and the need to consider different points of view. However, several conditions make the application review process less efficient and cause delays. The State Department has not established formal guidelines for determining the agencies and offices that need to review license applications. As a result, the licensing office refers more license applications to other agencies and offices than may be necessary. Furthermore, many license application reviewers in State Department reviewing offices consider license reviews a low priority. The State Department lacks procedures to monitor the flow of license applications through the review process. The State Department has hired new licensing officers which license …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report identifies long-term structural or operational issues that may affect the U. S. Postal Services's (USPS) ability to provide affordable universal postal service on a break-even basis. One key issue is the Service's retirement costs and future liabilities. USPS had a net loss of $199 million in fiscal year 2000 and recently announced a $1.7 billion net loss for fiscal year 2001. The impact of September 11 and the subsequent anthrax mailings on the volume and the cost of future mail service is unclear. USPS' annual retirement plan costs are projected to rise significantly in the next 10 years--from $8.5 billion in fiscal year 2000 to $14 billion in fiscal year 2010. USPS also faces mounting debt because of pay increases resulting from new labor contracts and annual cost-of-living adjustments for retirees. USPS reported an outstanding liability for future retirement benefits of $32.2 billion as of September 2000, and anticipates paying another $16.5 billion in interest on this liability over 30 years. The Post-Retirement Health Benefit Program--an additional benefit available to USPS retirees--cost $744 million in fiscal year 2000. When this benefit is added to …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report focuses on debt collection processes and procedures used by the Department of the Interior's Office of Surface Mining (OSM). GAO discusses (1) the primary reasons for the growth in civil monetary penalties owed to OSM; (2) whether OSM's receivables for civil monetary penalties have financial accountability and reporting issues similar to those of its other receivables; (3) whether adequate processes exist to collect this debt; and (4) what roles, if any, the Office of Management and Budget and the Treasury Department play in overseeing and monitoring OSM's collection of civil monetary penalties debt."

This report brief provides an overview of legislation to reauthorize the ESEA, ERDDIA, and NESA.

Final project report of natural state modeling effort for The Geysers geothermal field, California. Initial models examined the liquid-dominated state of the system, based on geologic constraints and calibrated to match observed whole rock delta-O18 isotope alteration. These models demonstrated that the early system was of generally low permeability (around 10{sup -12} m{sup 2}), with good hydraulic connectivity at depth (along the intrusive contact) and an intact caprock. Later effort in the project was directed at development of a two-phase, supercritical flow simulation package (EOS1sc) to accompany the Tough2 flow simulator. Geysers models made using this package show that ''simmering'', or the transient migration of vapor bubbles through the hydrothermal system, is the dominant transition state as the system progresses to vapor-dominated. Such a system is highly variable in space and time, making the rock record more difficult to interpret, since pressure-temperature indicators likely reflect only local, short duration conditions.

Annual financial report of the The Edwards Aquifer Authority documenting income, expenditures, and other relevant financial information for fiscal year 2001.