A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Bureau of the Census' fiscal year (FY) 2000 budget, focusing on: (1) an overall analysis of the key changes in assumptions resulting in the $1.7 billion request increase; (2) details on the components of this increase and which changes, according to the bureau, are related and which are not related to the inability to use statistical sampling; and (3) the process the bureau used for developing the increase in the original FY 2000 budget request and the amended 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 crop insurance, focusing on: (1) the extent to which crop insurance claims are paid in error--either unintentionally or fraudulently--and, to the extent practical, a comparison of the rate at which claims are paid in error with rates for other types of insurance; (2) the insurance companies' and the Department of Agriculture's Risk Management Agency's (RMA) quality controls to ensure that accurate claims payments are made; and (3) the proposals being considered to reduce insurance companies' administrative requirements and the potential impact of these proposals on the operations of the crop insurance program."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the internal control requirements in Title 6, "Pay, Leave, and Allowances of the GAO Policy and Procedures Manual for Guidance of Federal Agencies" as they relate to the Air Force's Air Mobility Command's employee time and attendance (T&A) system, focusing on whether: (1) military leave records must be maintained in paper form containing handwritten signatures; and (2) it is permissible to have the supervisor approve staff leave requests on the Air Force's proposed T&A system by using an user identification code or a password in lieu of the electronic signature required in Title 6."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed efforts to reform the administration, structure, and financing of the Medicare program."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined the nuclear nonproliferation status of transparency measures for U.S. purchase of Russian highly enriched uranium (HEU), focusing on: (1) the transparency measures that are in place; (2) whether these measures ensure that the nonproliferation objectives of the agreement are met; and (3) the proposals for additional transparency measures."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed its work analyzing the Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA) 10-year business plan, focusing on: (1) whether the plan objectives address the key issues confronting TVA; (2) major costs that were not included in the plan; (3) whether the goals and assumptions in the plan are achievable or reasonable; and (4) TVA's plans to formally update the plan for significant changes."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the risks to human health posed by unsafe feed consumed by food-producing animals, focusing on the: (1) extent to which unsafe feed has been linked to human health problems in the United States; and (2) actions the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Transportation (DOT) are taking to ensure the safety of animal feed."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Under Executive Order 12866, the Office of Management and Budget's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) reviews hundreds of agency rules each year before they are published in the Federal Register. Those reviews can have a significant effect on a broad array of public policies. GAO was asked to (1) describe OIRA's review process and any changes in its policies or processes in recent years, (2) provide detailed information about rules submitted by nine health, safety, or environmental agencies that were returned, withdrawn, or changed at OIRA's suggestion, and (3) describe how OIRA decided that certain existing rules merited high priority review."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In an effort to increase homeland security following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, the executive branch issued seven national strategies related to combating terrorism and homeland security. Per the request of the Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats, and International Relations, House Committee on Government Reform, this testimony will focus primarily on the National Strategy for Homeland Security but also include relevant aspects of the National Strategy for Combating Terrorism. Together, these two national strategies address preventing terrorist attacks within the United States, reducing America's vulnerability to terrorism, and minimizing the damage and assisting in the recovery from future attacks, if they occur. This testimony covers three topics: (1) To what extent are elements of the Homeland Security and Combating Terrorism strategies aligned with recommendations issued by the 9/11 Commission? (2) What key departments have responsibilities for implementing the Homeland Security strategy, and what actions have they taken to implement the strategy? and (3) What challenges are faced by key departments in assessing their progress towards achieving homeland security objectives? This testimony continues GAO's efforts to establish baseline assessments related to homeland security. …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Much attention has focused on the topic of "offshoring" of information technology (IT) and other services to lower-wage locations abroad. "Offshoring" of services generally refers to an organization's purchase from other countries of services that it previously produced or purchased domestically, such as software programming or telephone call centers. GAO was asked to (1) describe the nature of offshoring activities and the factors that encourage offshoring, (2) discuss what U.S. government data show about the extent of this practice by the private sector and federal and state governments, and (3) discuss available data on the potential effects of services offshoring on the U.S. economy."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) Reform Act of 2002 consolidated two programs serving trade-affected workers and made changes to expand benefits and decrease the time it takes for workers to get services. GAO was asked to provide information on (1) how key reform provisions have affected program services, (2) what have been the challenges in implementing new provisions, (3) whether demand for TAA training has changed and how states are meeting this demand, and (4) what is known about what the TAA program is achieving."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In fiscal year 2004, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) estimated that Medicare improperly paid $900 million for durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies--in part due to fraud by suppliers. To deter such fraud, CMS contracts with the National Supplier Clearinghouse (NSC) to verify that suppliers meet 21 standards before they can bill Medicare. NSC verifies adherence to the standards through on-site inspections and document reviews. Recent prosecutions of fraudulent suppliers suggest that there may be weaknesses in NSC's efforts to screen suppliers or in the standards. In this report, GAO evaluated: 1) NSC's efforts to verify suppliers' compliance with the 21 standards, 2) the adequacy of the standards to screen suppliers, and 3) CMS's oversight of NSC's efforts."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The high pace of military operations, thousands of casualties in ongoing military operations, and the services' recruiting challenges have raised questions about who is serving in today's military and concern that certain subgroups of the U.S. population may be disproportionately represented among those fighting and dying in support of the war on terrorism. These challenges and concerns have increased the need for information on the demographic characteristics of military personnel. GAO was asked to address three questions: (1) What are the demographic characteristics of servicemembers and how do they compare to the comparable U.S. civilian workforce? (2) How well are the services meeting their overall recruitment goals, and what influences whether or not individuals join the military? (3) What are the demographic characteristics of servicemembers who remained in the military in fiscal years 2000, 2002, and 2004? GAO was also asked to examine the demographic characteristics of servicemembers who died or were wounded in combat in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "For about 40 years, the Department of Energy's Rocky Flats site, near Denver, served as a production facility that made plutonium triggers, or "pits," for nuclear weapons. That role resulted in radiological and chemical contamination of many of the site's buildings and its soil and water. Cleanup of the site, which commenced in 1996, has been a monumental undertaking. The cleanup is being conducted under the Rocky Flats Cleanup Agreement, which is the legally binding agreement that provides the framework for the cleanup effort. The cleanup agreement specifies the roles of the Department of Energy (DOE) and the two regulatory agencies for the site: the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (Colorado). In February 2001, when GAO last reported on DOE's project to clean up and close the Rocky Flats site, the project was slightly over cost and behind schedule. The vast amount of work remaining to be done at that time, along with various major challenges facing the cleanup contractor, made it doubtful that the contractor could achieve its December 2006 closure goal. But now the contractor hired by DOE …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Concerns remain over the control of sealed radiological sources, widely used in many industrial and medical devices and applications. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the Department of Energy (DOE), and states have responsibilities for ensuring the safe and secure use and eventual disposal of these sources as low-level radioactive wastes. DOE must ensure disposal availability for greater-than-class C (GTCC) waste; states must do so for non-GTCC waste, that is, classes A, B, and C waste. NRC and DOE also collaborate to identify and recover unwanted sources that are not safe or secure. GAO examined DOE's (1) efforts to recover unwanted sources and develop a GTCC waste disposal option, (2) actions to recover and dispose of non-GTCC source waste, and (3) ability to identify sources for recovery and disposal."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) assists agricultural producers who install conservation practices, such as planting vegetation along streams and installing waste storage facilities, to address impairments to water, air, and soil caused by agriculture or to conserve water. EQIP is a voluntary program managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). NRCS allocates about $1 billion in financial and technical assistance funds to states annually. About $650 million of the funds are allocated through a general financial assistance formula. As requested, GAO reviewed whether USDA's process for allocating EQIP funds to states is consistent with the program's purposes and whether USDA has developed outcome-based measures to monitor program performance. To address these issues, GAO, in part, examined the factors and weights in the general financial assistance formula"

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The marine transportation system is a critical part of the nation's infrastructure. To facilitate the safety and efficiency of this system, the Coast Guard maintains aids-to-navigation (ATON), such as buoys and beacons, and conducts domestic icebreaking in the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence Seaway, and northeast coast. To conduct these missions, the Coast Guard has a fleet of more than 200 vessels, ranging from 225-foot seagoing buoy tenders and 140-foot domestic icebreakers to 21-foot boats. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, many of these assets took on additional responsibilities for security patrols and other homeland security duties. Although some assets have been recently acquired, many others are reaching or have exceeded their design service lives, raising concerns about how well and for how much longer these older assets may be able to carry out their missions. In response, GAO examined (1) recent trends in the amount of time these assets have spent performing missions; (2) asset condition and its effect on mission performance; and (3) the actions taken by the Coast Guard to continue to achieve the missions of these assets. To conduct this work, …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Air Force has turned to service contracts for the F-15C, F-16, Airborne Warning and Control System, and F-15E, and the Army has done the same for helicopter simulator training at its Flight School XXI. The contractors own, operate, and maintain the simulator hardware and software. The military services rely on industry to capitalize the required up-front investment, with the understanding that the contractors will amortize this investment by selling training services by the hour. GAO was asked to address (1) the factors that led the Air Force and Army to acquire simulator training as a service and whether the decision to use this approach was adequately supported; (2) whether implementation of the approach has resulted in the planned number of simulator training sites being activated; and (3) whether the Air Force and Army are effectively tracking the return on their expenditure of taxpayer dollars. GAO makes recommendations to the Secretary of Defense intended to improve management and oversight of these service contracts to help ensure that the best approach is used to provide the war-fighter with needed training. In written comments on a draft of …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Empowerment Zone/Enterprise Community (EZ/EC) program is one of the most recent large-scale federal effort intended to revitalize impoverished urban and rural communities. There have been three rounds of EZs and two rounds of ECs, all of which are scheduled to end no later than December 2009. The Community Renewal Tax Relief Act of 2000 mandated that GAO audit and report in 2004, 2007, and 2010 on the EZ/EC program and its effect on poverty, unemployment, and economic growth. This report, which focuses on the first round of the program starting in 1994, discusses program implementation; program oversight; data available on the use of program tax benefits; and the program's effect on poverty, unemployment, and economic growth. In conducting this work, GAO made site visits to all Round I EZs, conducted an e-mail survey of 60 Round I ECs, and used several statistical methods to analyze program effects."

Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This document presents the results of GAO's survey of federal Enterprise Communities (EC) that were designated in the first round of the Empowerment Zone and Enterprise Community program in 1994. Round I ECs received $2.95 million in program grants and businesses in the ECs could use a program tax-exempt bond. The purpose of our survey was to collect data describing how Round I ECs implemented the program. Questionnaire items covered the types of governance structures ECs established, number of programs they implemented, usage of the program tax-exempt bond, and perceptions of factors influencing changes observed in poverty, unemployment, and economic growth in the ECs. We administered an e-mail survey to officials from the 60 Round I ECs--33 urban and 27 rural--that were still in operation as of June 2005 and did not receive additional designations under the Empowerment Zone or Renewal Community programs. We chose to exclude ECs that received subsequent designations, because we did not want their responses to be influenced by the benefits received under the additional designations. We created two versions of the questionnaire, one for urban ECs and another for rural ECs, …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. military has long relied on contractors to provide a variety of goods and services to U.S. forces around the world, including those located in Iraq and Afghanistan. These services range from maintaining advanced weapon systems and setting up and operating communications networks to providing gate and perimeter security, interpreting foreign languages, preparing meals and doing laundry for the troops. The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) uses contractors for a variety of reasons, including a lack of skilled and qualified military personnel and the need to conserve scarce skills to ensure that they will be available for future deployments. DOD estimates that it has more than 50,000 contractor employees in support of operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Depending on the types of services being offered, contractor employees may be U.S. citizens, or third country nationals, and contractors are often encouraged to hire host country nationals to help rebuild local economies and get local nationals back to work. While contractor employees can provide significant benefits to U.S. forces, contractor employees can also pose a risk to U.S. troops. For example, the terrorists who attacked the U.S.S. Cole were …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Almost 6,000 servicemembers died from October 2001 through September 2005. The Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and the Social Security Administration (SSA) provide assistance to survivors of servicemembers who die on active duty. This assistance includes but is not limited to making funeral arrangements, applying for federal benefits, providing relocation assistance, and coordinating with other agencies. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006 required GAO to assess casualty assistance provided to survivors of servicemembers. For this report, GAO reviewed the extent to which DOD has (1) an oversight framework and standards to monitor the assistance it provides to survivors of these deceased servicemembers and (2) visibility over the costs of its casualty assistance programs. GAO also reviewed the roles of VA and SSA in providing casualty assistance. In conducting this review, GAO analyzed agency documents and interviewed program officials, limiting its scope to federal programs."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In recent years, Congress has expressed concerns about the federal land management agencies' ability to provide quality recreational opportunities and reduce visitor confusion over the variety of user fees. In December 2004, Congress passed the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (REA) to standardize recreation fee collection and use at federal lands and waters. GAO was asked to determine (1) what the agencies have done to coordinate implementation of REA, (2) what agencies have done to implement REA, (3) the extent to which agencies have controls and accounting procedures for collected fees, (4) how projects and activities are selected to receive funding from fees, and (5) the extent of unobligated fund balances. To answer these objectives, GAO reviewed agency guidance, analyzed fee data, interviewed officials, visited 26 fee-collecting units, and administered a nationwide survey to 900 fee-collecting units."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, combating terrorism has been one of the nation's highest priorities. As part of that effort, preventing nuclear and radioactive material from being smuggled into the United States--perhaps to be used by terrorists in a nuclear weapon or in a radiological dispersal device (a "dirty bomb")--has become a key national security objective. On April 15, 2005, the president directed the establishment, within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), of the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO), whose duties include acquiring and supporting the deployment of radiation detection equipment. In October 2006, Congress enacted the SAFE Port Act, which made DNDO responsible for the development, testing, acquisition and deployment of a system to detect radiation at U.S. ports of entry. An important component of this system is the deployment of radiation portal monitors, large stationary detectors through which cargo containers and trucks pass as they enter the United States. Prior to DNDO's creation, another DHS agency--U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)--managed programs for deployment of radiation detection equipment. In 2002, CBP began the radiation portal monitor project, deploying radiation detection equipment at U.S. ports …