Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report presents the General Accounting Office's (GAO) Performance Plans for Fiscal Year 2007. In the spirit of the Government Performance and Results Act, this annual plan informs the Congress and the American people about what we expect to accomplish on their behalf in the coming fiscal year. It sets forth our plan to make progress toward achieving our strategic goals for serving the Congress and the American people. This framework not only shows the relationship between our strategic goals and strategic objectives, but also show major themes that could potentially affect our work."

Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Acquisition of products and services from contractors consumes about a quarter of discretionary spending governmentwide and is a key function in many federal agencies. In fiscal year 2005 alone, federal government contracting involved over $388 billion. The work of the government is increasingly being performed by contractors, including in emergency and large-scale logistics operations such as hurricane response and recovery and the war in Iraq. Many agencies rely extensively on contractors to carry out their basic missions. The magnitude of the government's spending and dependence on contractors make it imperative that this function be performed as efficiently and effectively as possible. Yet, acquisition issues are heavily represented on GAO's list of government high-risk areas. In the 21st century, the government needs to reexamine and evaluate its strategic and tactical approaches to acquisition. To identify and discuss the key issues confronting the federal acquisition community, the Comptroller General hosted a forum in July 2006 that brought together acquisition experts from inside and outside the government. Participants shared their insights on challenges and opportunities for improving federal acquisition in an environment of increasing reliance on contractors and severe …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "To document the interactions of aliens with the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and other government entities, USCIS creates alien files, or A-files. While deemed critical, especially in making citizenship decisions, A-files are sometimes missing during adjudications. In 2002, naturalization was granted to an alien whose A-file was missing and who was later found to be associated with a terrorist organization. GAO focused its review on (1) how often USCIS adjudicates naturalization applications without an A-file and why, (2) the effect that missing A-files can have on the adjudication process, and (3) steps taken to help mitigate the risk of missing A-files. To address these questions, GAO interviewed officials and staff from USCIS and reviewed relevant data, policies, and procedures related to processing naturalization applications and the automated file-tracking system DHS established to track the movement of A-files."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Every year, food stamp recipients exchange hundreds of millions of dollars in benefits for cash instead of food with retailers across the country, a practice known as trafficking. From 2000 to 2005, the Food Stamp Program has grown from $15 billion to $29 billion in benefits. During this period of time, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) replaced paper food stamp coupons with electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards that work much like a debit card at the grocery checkout counter. Given these program changes and continuing retailer fraud, GAO was asked to provide information on (1) what is known about the extent and nature of retailer food stamp trafficking, (2) the efforts of federal agencies to combat such trafficking, and (3) program vulnerabilities. To do this, GAO interviewed agency officials, visited 10 field offices, conducted case file reviews, and analyzed data from the FNS retailer database."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program was created to increase the use of small businesses to meet federal research needs and commercialize the results of this research. To monitor the program, the Small Business Administration (SBA) requires participating agencies to provide, in a standard format, specific data on all SBIR awards they make. SBA then compiles these data into a database known as Tech-Net. Congress also required SBA to create, by 2001, a restricted and more comprehensive database that would provide information for government agencies to use in evaluating the program. GAO was asked to identify the (1) types of data that agencies report to SBA for inclusion in the Tech-Net database, (2) extent to which these data are provided in a standard format, (3) extent to which SBA has established the government-use database, and (4) extent to which SBIR agencies have developed and implemented techniques to track commercialization of SBIR projects. GAO reviewed 8 of the 11 agencies participating in SBIR."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Agencies rely extensively on computerized information systems and electronic data to carry out their missions. To ensure the security of the information and information systems that support critical operations and infrastructure, federal law and policy require agencies to periodically test and evaluate the effectiveness of their information security controls at least annually. GAO was asked to evaluate the extent to which agencies have adequately designed and effectively implemented policies for testing and evaluating their information security controls. GAO surveyed 24 major federal agencies and analyzed their policies to determine whether the policies address important elements for periodic testing. GAO also examined testing documentation at 6 agencies to assess the quality and effectiveness of testing on 30 systems."

The purpose of this conservation assessment is to summarize existing knowledge regarding the biology and ecology of the Siskiyou Mountains salamander and Scott Bar salamander, identify threats to the two species, and identify conservation considerations to aid federal management for persistence of the species. The conservation assessment will serve as the basis for a conservation strategy for the species.

Report of the Texas State Auditor's Office related to determining whether the Texas Building and Procurement Commission (Commission) conforms to the State's Classification Plan in ensuring proper classifications of positions.

Report of the Texas State Auditor's Office related to verifying that residential child care providers are spending federal and state funds for contractually required services that promote the well-being of the children placed in their care.

Report of the Texas State Auditor's Office related to determining the methodologies the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (Medical Branch) and the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (Health Sciences Center) use to allocate the overhead costs associated with providing inmate health care.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether Federal Reserve notes are eligible as collateral for repurchase agreements under chapters 404 and 2256 of the Government Code—Clarification of Attorney General Opinion GA-0324 (2005) (RQ-0438-GA)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a county participating in Operation Linebacker may use Justice Assistance Grant funds to pay its sheriff or a constable compensation, such as overtime, in addition to the salary appropriated in the existing county budget (RQ-0444-GA)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a county that wishes to abandon a drainage easement or right-of-way should comply with Transportation Code section 251.058(b), Local Government Code section 263.002, or Local Government Code section 272.001 (RQ-0462-GA)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Sabine County Hospital District’s authority and duties (RQ-0466-GA)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Authority of a county commissioners court to appoint a county road administrator who is not a road engineer (RQ-0472-GA)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Appropriate construction of Local Government Code chapter 373A authorizing a city to establish homestead preservation districts and reinvestment zones (RQ-0471-GA)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Gillespie county attorney's authority to use money in the hot check fund to sponsor a children's book (RQ-0473-GA)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services may contract with a governmental entity to provide substitute care and case management services (RQ-0475-GA)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether the Open Meetings Act requires specific notice of a non-binding vote on a "personal endorsement" motion (RQ-0477-GA)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Authority of a Type A general-law municipality to annex land outside its extraterritorial jurisdiction (RQ-0480-GA)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Application of chapter 706 of the Texas Transportation Code, which permits a political subdividion contract with the Texas Department of Public Safety to provide information necessary for the department to deny renewal of the driver's license of a person who fails to appear in court or fails to pay or satisfy a judgement ordering payment of a fine and costs (RQ-0481-GA)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether a deputy sheriff may use a county petrol vehicle to perform off duty security work (RQ-0482-GA).

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether s city may use the proceeds of certificates of obligations for a water system improvement project that is different from the one contemplated when the certificates were issued (RQ-0483-GA)

This report discusses a plan announced by EPA in January 2005, called the Air Compliance Agreement, that would produce air quality monitoring data on animal agriculture emissions from a small number of farms, while at the same time protecting all participants (including farms where no monitoring takes place) through a “safe harbor” from liability under certain provisions of federal environmental laws.