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Southwest Retort, Volume 58, Number 5, January 2006 (open access)

Southwest Retort, Volume 58, Number 5, January 2006

This publication of the Dallas-Fort Worth Section of the American Chemical Society includes information about research, prominent scientist, organizational business, and various other stories of interest to the community. Published monthly during long academic semesters.
Date: January 2006
Creator: American Chemical Society. Dallas/Fort Worth Section.
Object Type: Journal/Magazine/Newsletter
System: The UNT Digital Library
Questions for the Record Related to DOD's Personnel Security Clearance Program and the Government Plan for Improving the Clearance Process (open access)

Questions for the Record Related to DOD's Personnel Security Clearance Program and the Government Plan for Improving the Clearance Process

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "On November 9, 2005, GAO testified before the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs at a hearing on "Access Delayed: Fixing the Security Clearance Process, Part II." This letter responds to three questions for the record that Senator Daniel K. Akaka posed."
Date: January 17, 2006
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
DOD Business Transformation: Defense Travel System Continues to Face Implementation Challenges (open access)

DOD Business Transformation: Defense Travel System Continues to Face Implementation Challenges

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) has been working to develop and implement a standard end-to-end travel system for the last 10 years. Over the past several years numerous GAO reports and testimonies have highlighted problems with DOD's travel practices that resulted in wasteful spending of millions of dollars. In response, the department has noted that the Defense Travel System (DTS), in part, will help correct these problems. Because of the widespread congressional interest in DTS, GAO initiated the audit under the statutory authority of the Comptroller General of the United States. The objectives of the audit were to (1) determine if DOD effectively tested key DTS functionality, (2) ascertain if DTS will correct the weaknesses previously identified, (3) identify the challenges that remain, and (4) identify opportunities to streamline DOD's travel process."
Date: January 18, 2006
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Defense Trade Data (open access)

Defense Trade Data

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Defense trade impacts many issues of importance to the Department of Defense (DOD), including maintaining a healthy supplier base, protecting critical technologies, ensuring access to a secure supply of defense-related items and services, managing technology transfers, and increasing interoperability with allies. A critical element to guide decision makers is access to comprehensive and reliable data. The Committee on Armed Services, through its report on the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006, directed GAO to identify and assess defense trade data. In response, we (1) identified defense trade data available from U.S. government sources and their limitations, and (2) determined defense trade balances as indicated by the data for years 2000 through 2004."
Date: January 27, 2006
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Telecommunications: Challenges to Assessing and Improving Telecommunications For Native Americans on Tribal Lands (open access)

Telecommunications: Challenges to Assessing and Improving Telecommunications For Native Americans on Tribal Lands

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "An important goal of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, is to ensure access to telecommunications services for all Americans. The Federal Communications Commission has made efforts to improve the historically low subscribership rates of Native Americans on tribal lands. In addition, Congress is considering legislation to establish a grant program to help tribes improve telecommunications services on their lands. This report discusses 1) the status of telecommunications subscribership for Native Americans living on tribal lands; 2) federal programs available for improving telecommunications on these lands; 3) barriers to improvements; and 4) how some tribes are addressing these barriers."
Date: January 11, 2006
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Federal Employees Health Benefits Program: First-Year Experience with High-Deductible Health Plans and Health Savings Accounts (open access)

Federal Employees Health Benefits Program: First-Year Experience with High-Deductible Health Plans and Health Savings Accounts

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) recently began offering high-deductible health plans (HDHP) coupled with tax-advantaged health savings accounts (HSA) that enrollees use to pay for health care. Unused HSA balances may accumulate for future use, providing enrollees an incentive to purchase health care prudently. The plans also provide decision support tools to help enrollees make purchase decisions, including health care quality and cost information. Concerns have been expressed that HDHPs coupled with HSAs may attract younger, healthier, or wealthier enrollees, leaving older, less healthy enrollees to drive up costs in traditional plans. Because the plans are new, there is also interest in the plan features and the decision support tools they provide to enrollees. GAO was asked to evaluate the experience of the 14 HDHPs coupled with an HSA that were first offered under the FEHBP in January 2005. GAO compared the characteristics of enrollees in the 14 HDHPs to those of enrollees in another recently introduced (new) plan without a high deductible and to all FEHBP plans. GAO also compared characteristics of the three largest HDHPs to traditional FEHBP plans offered by the …
Date: January 31, 2006
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Medicare: Sponsors' Management of the Prescription Drug Discount Card and Transitional Assistance Benefit (open access)

Medicare: Sponsors' Management of the Prescription Drug Discount Card and Transitional Assistance Benefit

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) added a prescription drug benefit to the Medicare program, which became effective January 1, 2006. To assist Medicare beneficiaries with their prescription drug costs until the new benefit became available, the MMA also required the establishment of a temporary program, the Medicare Prescription Drug Discount Card and Transitional Assistance Program, which began in June 2004. The drug card program offers Medicare beneficiaries access to discounts off the retail price of prescription drugs at the point of sale. All Medicare beneficiaries, except those receiving Medicaid drug coverage, were eligible to enroll in the drug card program. Certain low-income beneficiaries without other drug coverage qualified for an additional benefit, a transitional assistance (TA) subsidy that can be applied toward the cost of drugs covered under the drug card program. Drug cards were offered and are managed by private organizations, known as drug card sponsors. General drug cards were available to all eligible beneficiaries living in a card's service area; there are both national and regional general cards. Exclusive and special endorsement drug cards were available to specific beneficiary groups. …
Date: January 13, 2006
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Information on False Claims Act Litigation (open access)

Information on False Claims Act Litigation

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The False Claims Act (FCA) is one of the government's primary weapons to fight fraud against the government. The Act, as amended in 1986, provides for penalties and triple damages for anyone who knowingly submits or causes the submission of false or fraudulent claims to the United States for government funds or property. Under the FCA's qui tam provisions, a person with evidence of fraud, also known as a whistle blower or relator, is authorized to file a case in federal court and sue, on behalf of the government, persons engaged in the fraud and to share in any money the government may recover. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has the responsibility to decide on behalf of the government whether to join the whistle blower in prosecuting these cases. From fiscal years 1987 through 2005, settlements and judgments for the federal government in FCA cases have exceeded $15 billion, of which $9.6 billion, or 64 percent, was for cases filed by whistle blowers under FCA's qui tam provisions. The whistle blowers share of the qui tam settlements and judgments was over $1.6 billion during this period. With regard …
Date: January 31, 2006
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Defense Management: Fully Developed Management Framework Needed to Guide Air Force Future Total Force Efforts (open access)

Defense Management: Fully Developed Management Framework Needed to Guide Air Force Future Total Force Efforts

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Air Force is in the process of transforming its force to meet today's new and emerging threats. Its "Future Total Force" concept is intended to maximize future capabilities by integrating its active, National Guard, and reserve components to a greater degree. While the Air Force was making force structure decisions and developing its 20-year plan, the Air National Guard embarked on its own "Vanguard" transformation initiative to ensure its role and relevance in the new Air Force. This report discusses (1) the processes and events that surrounded the Air Force's development of its 20-year force structure plan, including the involvement of key stakeholders and the development of the Guard's Vanguard initiative, and (2) the extent to which the Air Force is utilizing key results-oriented management tools to guide its effort to identify new missions for the Air National Guard and integrate active and Guard forces as part of its Future Total Force effort."
Date: January 31, 2006
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Social Security Numbers: Stronger Protections Needed When Contractors Have Access to SSNs (open access)

Social Security Numbers: Stronger Protections Needed When Contractors Have Access to SSNs

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Recent data breaches highlight how identity theft may occur when businesses share individuals' personal information, including Social Security Numbers (SSNs), with contractors. Because private sector entities are more likely to share consumers' personal information via contractors, members of Congress raised concerns about the protection of this information in contractual relationships. In response, GAO examined (1) how entities within certain industries share SSNs with contractors; (2) the safeguards and notable industry standards in place to ensure the protection of SSNs when shared with contractors; and (3) how federal agencies regulate and monitor the sharing and safeguarding of SSNs between private entities and their contractors."
Date: January 23, 2006
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Trade Adjustment Assistance: Most Workers in Five Layoffs Received Services, but Better Outreach Needed on New Benefits (open access)

Trade Adjustment Assistance: Most Workers in Five Layoffs Received Services, but Better Outreach Needed on New Benefits

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Little is known nationally about the extent to which workers laid off as a result of international trade use the variety of federally funded reemployment services available to them. GAO was asked to study the experiences of workers affected by a small number of trade-related layoffs. GAO examined (1) the extent to which workers accessed federally funded reemployment services and the mix of services received, (2) the employment outcomes these workers achieved, and (3) the extent to which workers used the new health insurance and wage insurance benefits under the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program, and the factors affecting their participation."
Date: January 31, 2006
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Hospital Quality Data: CMS Needs More Rigorous Methods to Ensure Reliability of Publicly Released Data (open access)

Hospital Quality Data: CMS Needs More Rigorous Methods to Ensure Reliability of Publicly Released Data

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 directed that hospitals lose 0.4 percent of their Medicare payment update if they do not submit clinical data for both Medicare and non-Medicare patients needed to calculate hospital performance on 10 quality measures. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) instituted the Annual Payment Update (APU) program to collect these data from hospitals and report their rates on the measures on its Hospital Compare Web site. For hospital quality data to be useful to patients and other users, they need to be reliable, that is, accurate and complete. GAO was asked to (1) describe the processes CMS uses to ensure the accuracy and completeness of data submitted for the APU program, (2) analyze the results of CMS's audit of the accuracy of data from the program's first two calendar quarters, and (3) describe processes used by seven other organizations that assess the accuracy and completeness of clinical performance data."
Date: January 31, 2006
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Public Service Announcement Campaigns: Activities and Financial Obligations for Seven Federal Departments (open access)

Public Service Announcement Campaigns: Activities and Financial Obligations for Seven Federal Departments

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Government-sponsored public service announcement (PSA) campaigns are prepackaged messages generally placed for free through various media to promote designated government activities, programs, or services. Although PSAs may be placed for free, PSA campaigns may still incur financial obligations for production. GAO was mandated to provide information about federal PSA campaign activities by a House Appropriations Committee report (House Report No.108-671). GAO received detailed information on PSA campaigns for the seven federal departments with the highest obligations for public relations and advertising in fiscal year 2003--Commerce, Defense, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Interior, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs--as reported in a governmentwide federal procurement data system. GAO submitted questionnaires to these seven departments to obtain information for fiscal year 2003 through the second quarter of fiscal year 2005 on (1) obligations incurred for PSA campaigns, including whether obligations were incurred externally, such as through a contract, or internally; (2) the purpose, audience, and type of media employed; and (3) whether campaigns were evaluated for success and their results published in performance reports, including Government Performance Results Act (GPRA) reports."
Date: January 13, 2006
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Financial Audit: Restatements to the Department of Agriculture's Fiscal Year 2003 Consolidated Financial Statements (open access)

Financial Audit: Restatements to the Department of Agriculture's Fiscal Year 2003 Consolidated Financial Statements

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Secretary of the Treasury, in coordination with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), is required to annually prepare and submit audited financial statements of the U.S. government to the President and Congress. We are required to audit these consolidated financial statements (CFS) and report on the results of our work. An issue meriting concern and close scrutiny that emerged during our fiscal year 2004 CFS audit was the growing number of Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act agencies that restated certain of their financial statements for fiscal year 2003 to correct errors. Errors in financial statements can result from mathematical mistakes, mistakes in the application of accounting principles, or oversight or misuse of facts that existed at the time the financial statements were prepared. Frequent restatements to correct errors can undermine public trust and confidence in both the entity and all responsible parties. Further, when restatements do occur, it is important that financial statements clearly communicate, and readers of the restated financial statements understand, that the financial statements originally issued by management in the previous year and the opinion thereon should no longer be …
Date: January 25, 2006
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Media Contracts: Activities and Financial Obligations for Seven Federal Departments (open access)

Media Contracts: Activities and Financial Obligations for Seven Federal Departments

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The federal government contracts with public relations firms, advertising agencies, media organizations, and individual members of the media to provide, among other things, messages about its programs and services. As we have reported, there is a lack of accurate governmentwide information on these contracts. Seven federal departments account for nearly all the obligated federal dollars for public relations and advertising activities in fiscal year 2003--Commerce, Defense, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Interior, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs. GAO submitted a questionnaire to each of these seven departments to obtain information for fiscal year 2003 through the second quarter of fiscal year 2005 on (1) the number of contracts with public relations firms, advertising agencies, media organizations, and individual members of the media for which obligations have been incurred; (2) the total amount of contract obligations incurred on each contract by fiscal year; (3) the method by which the contract was awarded--competed, noncompeted, follow-on to competed action, or not available for competition; and (4) summaries of the purpose and scope of work to be performed under each contract."
Date: January 13, 2006
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Mine Safety: MSHA's Programs for Ensuring the Safety and Health of Coal Miners Could Be Strengthened (open access)

Mine Safety: MSHA's Programs for Ensuring the Safety and Health of Coal Miners Could Be Strengthened

A statement of record issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Chairman, Subcommittee on Labor, HHS and Education, Senate Committee on Appropriations, asked GAO to submit a statement for the record highlighting findings from our 2003 report on how well the Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) oversees its process for reviewing and approving critical types of mine plans and the extent to which MSHA's inspections and accident investigations processes help ensure the safety and health of underground coal miners."
Date: January 23, 2006
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Defense Acquisitions: DOD Management Approach and Processes Not Well-Suited to Support Development of Global Information Grid (open access)

Defense Acquisitions: DOD Management Approach and Processes Not Well-Suited to Support Development of Global Information Grid

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Department of Defense (DOD) officials currently estimate that the department will spend approximately $34 billion through 2011 to develop the core network of the Global Information Grid (GIG), a large and complex undertaking intended to provide on-demand and real-time data and information to the warfighter. DOD views the GIG as the cornerstone of information superiority, a key enabler of network-centric warfare, and a pillar of defense transformation. A high degree of coordination and cooperation is needed to make the GIG a reality. In prior work GAO found that enforcing investment decisions across the military services and assuring management attention and oversight of the GIG effort were key management challenges facing DOD. This report assesses (1) the management approach that DOD is using to develop the GIG and (2) whether DOD's three major decision-making processes support the development of a crosscutting, departmentwide investment, such as the GIG."
Date: January 30, 2006
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Mandatory Spending: Using Budget Triggers to Constrain Growth (open access)

Mandatory Spending: Using Budget Triggers to Constrain Growth

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Prepared as part of GAO's basic statutory responsibility for monitoring the condition of the nation's finances, the objectives of this report were to (1) determine the feasibility of designing and using trigger mechanisms to constrain growth in mandatory spending programs and (2) provide an analysis of the factors that led to differences between estimated and actual outlays in seven mandatory budget accounts during fiscal years 2000 through 2004."
Date: January 31, 2006
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Internet Access Tax Moratorium: Revenue Impacts Will Vary by State (open access)

Internet Access Tax Moratorium: Revenue Impacts Will Vary by State

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "According to one report, at the end of 2004, some 70 million U.S. adults logged on to access the Internet during a typical day. As public use of the Internet grew from the mid-1990s onward, Internet access became a potential target for state and local taxation. In 1998, Congress imposed a moratorium temporarily preventing state and local governments from imposing new taxes on Internet access. Existing state and local taxes were grandfathered. In amending the moratorium in 2004, Congress required GAO to study its impact on state and local government revenues. This report's objectives are to determine the scope of the moratorium and its impact, if any, on state and local revenues. For this report, GAO reviewed the moratorium's language, its legislative history, and associated legal issues; examined studies of revenue impact; interviewed people knowledgeable about access services; and collected information about eight case study states not intended to be representative of other states. GAO chose the states considering such factors as whether they had taxes grandfathered for different forms of access services and covered different urban and rural parts of the country."
Date: January 23, 2006
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
U.S.-China Trade: Eliminating Nonmarket Economy Methodology Would Lower Antidumping Duties for Some Chinese Companies (open access)

U.S.-China Trade: Eliminating Nonmarket Economy Methodology Would Lower Antidumping Duties for Some Chinese Companies

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "U.S. companies adversely affected by unfair imports may seek a number of relief measures, including antidumping (AD) duties. The Department of Commerce (Commerce) classifies China as a nonmarket economy (NME) and uses a special methodology that is commonly believed to produce AD duty rates that are higher than those applied to market economies. Commerce may stop applying its NME methodology if it finds that China warrants designation as a market economy. In light of increased concern about China's trade practices, the conference report on fiscal year 2004 appropriations requested that GAO review efforts by U.S. government agencies responsible for ensuring free and fair trade with that country. In this report, the last in a series, GAO (1) explains the NME methodology, (2) analyzes AD duties applied to China and compares them with duties applied to market economies, and (3) explains circumstances in which the United States would stop applying its NME methodology to China and evaluates the potential impact of such a step. Commerce agreed with our findings, commenting that our report provides timely and helpful information on the NME methodology and its application to China."
Date: January 10, 2006
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Combating Terrorism: Determining and Reporting Federal Funding Data (open access)

Combating Terrorism: Determining and Reporting Federal Funding Data

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The President's annual budget reports on federal funding dedicated to combating terrorism activities. Identification of such funding is inherently difficult because a significant portion of combating terrorism funding is embedded within appropriation accounts that include funding for other activities as well. In 2002, GAO reported on the difficulties that the executive branch faced in reporting funding for combating terrorism to Congress (see GAO-03-170). This report updates the information contained in the 2002 report by providing information on (1) the methods agencies use to determine the portion of their annual appropriations related to combating terrorism, and (2) the status of recommendations from GAO's 2002 report."
Date: January 17, 2006
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Drinking Water: EPA Should Strengthen Ongoing Efforts to Ensure That Consumers Are Protected from Lead Contamination (open access)

Drinking Water: EPA Should Strengthen Ongoing Efforts to Ensure That Consumers Are Protected from Lead Contamination

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Elevated lead levels in the District of Columbia's tap water in 2003 prompted questions about how well consumers are protected nationwide. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), states, and local water systems share responsibility for providing safe drinking water. Lead typically enters tap water as a result of the corrosion of lead in the water lines or household plumbing. EPA's lead rule establishes testing and treatment requirements. This report discusses (1) EPA's data on the rule's implementation; (2) what implementation of the rule suggests about the need for changes to the regulatory framework; and (3) the extent to which drinking water at schools and child care facilities is tested for lead."
Date: January 4, 2006
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
National Parks Air Tour Management Act: More Flexibility and Better Enforcement Needed (open access)

National Parks Air Tour Management Act: More Flexibility and Better Enforcement Needed

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Primarily because of concerns that noise from air tours over national parks could impair visitors' experiences and park resources, Congress passed the National Parks Air Tour Management Act of 2000 to regulate air tours. The act requires the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Park Service to develop air tour management plans for all parks where air tour operators apply to conduct tours. A plan may establish controls over tours, such as routes, altitudes, time of day restrictions, and/or a maximum number of flights for a given period; or ban all air tours. GAO was asked to (1) determine the status of FAA and the Park Service's implementation of the act; (2) assess how the air tour operators and national parks have been affected by implementation; and (3) identify what issues, if any, need to be addressed to improve implementation."
Date: January 27, 2006
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
GAO's International Protocols (open access)

GAO's International Protocols

Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report supersedes GAO-05-91SP, GAO's International Protocols, October 2004. This document contains the protocols governing the U.S. Government Accountability Office's (GAO) work that has international components or implications. These protocols provide clearly defined and transparent policies and practices on how GAO will interact with U.S. federal departments and agencies, other national governments, and international organizations in its international work. They identify what international organizations and supreme audit institutions (SAI) can expect from GAO. These protocols are intended to cover most situations that arise during the course of GAO's work and are consistent, to the extent applicable, with the protocols that govern GAO's work for the Congress and with U.S. federal agencies."
Date: January 31, 2006
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library