Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "On October 21, 2002, we reported that consular staff at posts around the world held different views on balancing national security and customer service in the process of adjudicating visas. Since then, the Department of State's Bureau of Consular Affairs has underscored the importance of visa operations in protecting our nation's security and implemented many changes in visa processing to tighten security screening for applicants worldwide. Because of Canada's proximity to the United States and the fact that many nationals from countries of concern apply for U.S. visas in Canada, Congress asked us to obtain the views of U.S. consular officers in Canada regarding the visa process. In response, we are providing information from consular staff who adjudicate U.S. visas in Canada regarding their perceptions of the importance of national security in the visa process, including impediments that could interfere with efforts to make security a top priority in visa processing."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Many U.S. communities face difficulties attracting physicians to meet their health care needs. To address this problem, states and federal agencies have turned to foreign physicians who have just completed their graduate medical education in the United States under J-1 visas. Ordinarily, these physicians are required to return home after completing their education, but this requirement can be waived at the request of a state or federal agency if the physician agrees to practice in, or work at a facility that treats residents of, an underserved area. In 1996, GAO reported that J-1 visa waivers had become a major means of providing physicians for underserved areas, with over 1,300 requested in 1995. Since 2002, each state has been allotted 30 J-1 visa waivers per year, but some states have expressed interest in more. GAO was asked to report on its preliminary findings from ongoing work on (1) the number of J-1 visa waivers requested by states and federal agencies and (2) states' views on the 30-waiver limit and on their willingness to have unused waiver allotments redistributed. Such redistribution would require legislative action. GAO surveyed the 50 states, …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses our work on the status of efforts to establish federal border control in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and implement the Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008 (CNRA) with regard to foreign workers, visitors, and investors in the CNMI. In May 2008, the United States enacted CNRA, amending the U.S.-CNMI Covenant to establish federal control of CNMI immigration. CNRA contains several CNMI-specific provisions affecting foreign workers and investors during a transition period that began in November 2009 and ends in 2014. In addition, CNRA amends existing U.S. immigration law to establish a joint visa waiver program for the CNMI and Guam by replacing an existing visa waiver program for Guam visitors. During the transition period, the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretaries of the Interior, Labor, and State and the U.S. Attorney General, has the responsibility to establish, administer, and enforce a transition program to regulate immigration in the CNMI. CNRA requires that we report on the implementation of federal immigration law in the CNMI. This testimony summarizes findings from our recent report regarding (1) steps that the …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Congress directed the Department of Defense (DOD) to prepare a master plan to develop laser technologies for potential weapons applications in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000. In response to this legislation, the High Energy Laser (HEL) Executive Review Panel was formed and issued the HEL Master Plan on March 24, 2000. This plan recommended that DOD implement a new management structure for HEL technologies and increase the funding allocated to HELs to achieve a better balance between large demonstration programs and the enabling science and technology projects. Subsequently, in the Floyd D. Spence National Defense Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 2001, Congress directed the Secretary of Defense to implement the management and organizational structure specified in the Master Plan. Congress asked us to review the extent to which DOD has implemented the recommendations of the HEL Master Plan, by assessing (1) whether DOD has achieved more balance between large demonstration projects and the enabling science and technology base projects; (2) whether the DOD funding process focuses on the most critical HEL issues; and (3) what impact the new management structure has had on the …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on Customs Service's efforts to correct the management and technical weaknesses of its Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) system."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since 2001, Congress has provided the Department of Defense (DOD) with hundreds of billions of dollars in supplemental and annual appropriations for military operations in support of the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). DOD's reported annual costs for GWOT have shown a steady increase from about $0.2 billion in fiscal year 2001 to about $98.4 billion in fiscal year 2006. So far in fiscal year 2007, Congress has provided DOD with $70 billion in annual appropriations for GWOT. To continue its GWOT operations, DOD has requested an additional $93.4 billion in supplemental appropriations for fiscal year 2007 and $141.7 billion in appropriations for fiscal year 2008. The United States' commitments to GWOT will likely involve the continued investment of significant resources, requiring decision makers to consider difficult trade-offs as the nation faces an increasing long-range fiscal challenge. The magnitude of future costs will depend on several direct and indirect cost variables and, in some cases, decisions that have not yet been made. DOD's future costs will likely be affected by the pace and duration of operations, the types of facilities needed to support troops overseas, redeployment plans, and …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This letter summarizes our review of the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) implementation of the requirements of the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) revised Circular No. A-123, Management's Responsibility for Internal Control (A-123) during fiscal year 2006. These requirements are applicable to the 24 Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Act agencies, including the Department of the Treasury (Treasury), of which IRS is a significant component. The objectives of our review, which was conducted as part of our audit of IRS's fiscal year 2006 financial statements, were to determine whether (1) IRS appropriately planned and implemented its assessment of internal controls over financial reporting in accordance with the requirements of OMB Circular No. A-123, (2) IRS performed sufficient work to support its related assurance statement to Treasury, and (3) IRS's assurance statement appropriately represented the status of IRS's internal control over financial reporting."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In August 2006, we reported to Congress on the results of our review, which Congress requested, of factors affecting Hispanic representation in the federal workforce and efforts being taken by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and other agencies related to Hispanic representation. We reported that EEOC and OPM require agencies to analyze their workforces to help ensure equal employment opportunity and that EEOC requires agencies to analyze subsets of their workforce to determine whether barriers to such opportunities may exist. As indicated in that report, and as discussed with Congress, this report contains additional data on Hispanic representation in various subsets of the federal workforce with some comparisons to Hispanic representation in the Civilian Labor Force (CLF). The data in this report provide a foundation for further analyses by agency officials and policymakers as they consider a broad spectrum of issues related to Hispanic representation in the federal workforce. These data include analyses by agency, selected occupation, occupational category, grade, and among new hires. For purposes of these analyses, the federal workforce governmentwide includes civilian employees of all cabinet-level departments, independent agencies, …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) insures the pensions of nearly 44 million private sector workers in over 30,000 employer-sponsored defined benefit pension plans. Established in 1974 as a self-financing government corporation, PBGC's primary responsibility is to insure, under statutory limits, the pension benefits of participants in covered private defined benefit plans. PBGC collects premiums from the sponsors of defined benefit pension plans and administers plans that are terminated for reasons such as plan insolvency or bankruptcy. In the event of a termination, PBGC assumes control of plan assets, determines plan benefit liabilities, and pays benefits as guaranteed by statute. In fiscal year 2006, about 612,000 plan participants and beneficiaries received $4.1 billion in benefit payments from PBGC. An additional 659,000 participants in plans already trusteed by the corporation will receive benefits from PBGC when they become eligible to retire. An increase in underfunded plan terminations in recent years increased the number of plan participants receiving and eligible for benefit payments. In 2005, PBGC reorganized, creating an additional legal department called the Office of the Chief Counsel, and placed this new office under the Chief Insurance Program Officer. …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Hurricane Katrina struck near the Louisiana-Mississippi border and became one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history, affecting a large geographic area and necessitating the evacuation of people from parts of the area, including vulnerable populations, such as hospital patients, nursing home residents and transportation-disadvantaged populations who were not in such facilities. The disaster highlighted the challenges involved in evacuating vulnerable populations due to hurricanes. GAO was asked to discuss efforts to plan and prepare for the needs of seniors in the event of a national emergency. GAO describes its ongoing work on evacuation in the event of emergencies, such as hurricanes, and provides preliminary observations on (1) challenges faced by hospital and nursing home administrators that are related to hurricane evacuations; (2) the federal program that supports the evacuation of patients needing hospital care and nursing home residents; and (3) challenges states and localities face in preparing for and carrying out the evacuation of transportation-disadvantaged populations and efforts to address evacuation needs. This testimony is based in part on a prior GAO report, Disaster Preparedness: Preliminary Observations on the Evacuation of Hospitals and Nursing Homes Due …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the ILOVEYOU computer virus, focusing on measures that can be taken to mitigate the effects of future attacks."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed efforts by the Customs Service to interdict drugs, allocate inspectional personnel, and develop performance measures, including information on Customs' action plan for resolving management problems."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO discussed efforts to improve federal agencies' human capital management, focusing on: (1) how high-performing organizations approach the design and implementation of their training and development programs; and (2) the design, implementation, and evaluation of training and development programs at the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS), the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), and the Department of State."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed violation of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 and noted that, during the last administration, the acting Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (Institute) had served longer than the 210-day period allowed under the Act. However, with the recent Presidential transition, an acting Director may, as of January 20, 2001, once again temporarily serve for the time period allowed under the Presidential inaugural transition provision. Therefore, no action need be taken at this time since there is no current violation of the Act."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, insurance coverage for terrorism largely disappeared. Congress passed the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) in 2002 to help commercial property-casualty policyholders obtain terrorism insurance and give the insurance industry time to develop mechanisms to provide such insurance after the act expires on December 31, 2005. Under TRIA, the Department of Treasury (Treasury) caps insurer liability and would process claims and reimburse insurers for a large share of losses from terrorist acts that Treasury certified as meeting certain criteria. As Treasury and industry participants have operated under TRIA for more than a year, GAO was asked to assess Treasury's progress in implementing TRIA and describe how TRIA affected the terrorism insurance market."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Over the last two decades, FAA has experienced difficulties meeting the demands of the aviation industry while also attempting to operate efficiently and effectively. Now, as air traffic returns to pre- 9/11 levels, concerns have again arisen as to how prepared FAA may be to meet increasing demands for capacity, safety, and efficiency. FAA's air traffic control (ATC) modernization efforts are designed to enhance the national airspace system through the acquisition of a vast network of radar, navigation, and communication systems. Nine years have passed since Congress provided FAA with personnel and acquisition reforms. However, projects continue to experience cost, schedule and performance problems. FAA's Air Traffic Organization (ATO) is its most current reform effort. Expectations are that the ATO will bring a performance management approach to ATC modernization. This statement focuses on three main questions: (1) What are some of the major challenges and demands that confront FAA? (2) What is the status of FAA's implementation of reforms and/or procedural relief that Congress provided? and (3) What are some of the critical success factors that will enable FAA to become a highperforming organization?"

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Average health insurance premiums for plans participating in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) have risen each year since 1997. These growing premiums result in higher costs to the federal government and plan enrollees. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) oversees FEHBP, negotiating benefits and premiums and administering reserve accounts that may be used to cover plans' unanticipated spending increases. GAO was asked to discuss its December 22, 2006 report, entitled Federal Employees Health Benefits Program: Premium Growth Has Recently Slowed, and Varies Among Participating Plans (GAO-07-141). In this report, GAO reviewed (1) FEHBP premium trends compared with those of other purchasers, (2) factors contributing to average premium growth across all FEHBP plans, and (3) factors contributing to differing trends among selected FEHBP plans. GAO reviewed data provided by OPM relating to FEHBP premiums and factors contributing to premium growth. For comparison purposes, GAO examined premium data from the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) and surveys of other public and private employers. GAO also interviewed officials from OPM and eight FEHBP plans with premium growth that was higher than average and six FEHBP plans with premium …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) space shuttle program is key to implementing the President's vision for space exploration, which calls for completing the assembly of the International Space Station (ISS) by the end of the decade. Currently, the space shuttle, which is to be retired after ISS assembly is completed, is the only launch system capable of transporting ISS components. To meet the goals of the President's vision and satisfy ISS's international partners, NASA is examining alternative launch vehicles and ISS configurations. Retiring the space shuttle and, in the larger context, implementing the President's vision, will require NASA to rely on its most important asset--its workforce. Because maintaining a skilled workforce through retirement will be challenging, GAO was asked to discuss the actions NASA has taken to sustain a skilled space shuttle workforce and the challenges it faces in doing so--findings reported on in March 2005 (see GAO, Space Shuttle: Actions Needed to Better Position NASA to Sustain Its Workforce through Retirement, GAO-05-230)."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Head Start program, overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services and administered by the Office of Head Start, provides child development services primarily to low-income families and their children. Federal law allows up to 10 percent of enrolled families to have incomes above 130 percent of the poverty line--GAO refers to them as "over-income." Families with incomes below 130 percent of the poverty line, or who meet certain other criteria, are referred to as "under-income". Nearly 1 million children a year participate in Head Start, and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided an additional $2.1 billion in funding. GAO received hotline tips alleging fraud and abuse by grantees. In response, GAO investigated the validity of the allegations, conducted undercover tests to determine if other centers were committing fraud, and documented instances where potentially eligible children were put on Head Start wait lists. The investigation of allegations is ongoing. To perform this work, GAO interviewed grantees and a number of informants and reviewed documentation. GAO used fictitious identities and bogus documents for proactive testing of Head Start centers. GAO also interviewed families on wait lists. …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO discussed the usage of the Social Security number (SSN), focusing on: (1) the ways that the federal government uses SSNs and current restrictions on these uses; (2) the nonfederal purposes for which the number is used; and (3) what businesses and state governments believe the effect would be if federal laws limiting the use of SSNs were passed."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Veterans Benefits Administration's (VBA) claims processing operations, focusing on: (1) long-standing performance problems; (2) claims processing complexities; (3) challenges to improving performance; and (4) VBA's initiatives to improve performance."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO discussed the implementation and effects of the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996, focusing on: (1) employers' compliance with the law and the changes they have made to their health benefit plans, (2) what is known about the costs of complying with the law, and (3) the oversight roles of the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Labor (DOL) in enforcing this law."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the issues related to the District of Columbia (DC) Courts' financial operations for fiscal year (FY) 1998, focusing on: (1) identifying DC Courts' total obligations for fiscal years 1996, 1997, and 1998; (2) whether DC Courts had a spending plan for FY 1998, and whether it obligated funds consistent with available resources; (3) why payments to court-appointed attorneys were deferred between July and September 1998; and (4) whether DC Courts processed payments to court-appointed attorneys in accordance with policies and procedures."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Under the Small Business Reauthorization Act of 1997, the federal government has a goal of awarding at least 23 percent of prime, or direct, contracting dollars to small businesses each fiscal year. The Department of Energy (DOE), like other federal agencies, shares in the responsibility for meeting this goal. In fiscal year 2003, DOE spent $21.6 billion on prime contracts. More than 80 percent of this amount was spent on facility management contracts to manage and operate DOE's sites. Before 1999, DOE included subcontracts awarded by its facility management contractors when calculating its small business prime contracting achievements. In 1999, however, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy determined that DOE could no longer do so. This testimony discusses (1) the effect of the 1999 policy change on the amount of prime contract dollars that DOE will be required to direct to small businesses, (2) the steps that DOE has taken or plans to take to achieve its small business contracting goals, and (3) the likely implications for DOE's programs resulting from these changes."