Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In November 2004, Asian Soybean Rust (ASR) was discovered in the United States in Louisiana. In the following weeks, it was found in eight additional southern states. ASR is a harmful fungal disease that has spread throughout many other parts of the world, including Asia, Australia, Africa, and South America. ASR can infect over 90 host plant species, including legumes, such as dry beans, peas, and kudzu, a plant that grows wild primarily in the southern United States. Although the disease has caused significant soybean crop loss and increased production costs in many other countries, ASR arrived in the United States too late in the crop year to have any effect on soybean production in 2004, and scientists were uncertain about how it would survive the winter climates in the United States. However, in February 2005, researchers found that ASR had successfully over-wintered on kudzu in Florida, and it was subsequently detected in Georgia on soybean plants in April 2005. Since environmental factors, such as rainfall, humidity, and temperature, affect both the severity and incidence of ASR, scientists do not know how widespread or damaging the disease will …

A statement of record issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. commercial aviation industry has an extraordinary safety record. However, when passenger airlines have accidents or serious incidents, regardless of their rarity, the consequences can be tragic. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) works to maintain a high level of safety through an effective safety oversight system. Keys to this system are to: (1) establish programs that focus resources on areas of highest safety risk and on mitigating risks; (2) provide training and communication to ensure that inspectors can consistently carry out the agency's oversight programs; and (3) have processes and data to continuously monitor, evaluate, and improve the numerous oversight programs that make up the safety oversight system. This statement focuses on these three key areas and is based on recent GAO reports on FAA's inspection oversight programs, industry partnership programs, enforcement program, and training program."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2004, an estimated 23 billion pounds of air cargo was transported within the United States, about a quarter of which was transported on passenger aircraft. Within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is responsible for ensuring the security of commercial aviation, including the transportation of cargo by air. To evaluate the status of TSA's efforts to secure domestic air cargo, GAO examined (1) the extent to which TSA used a risk management approach to guide decisions on securing air cargo, (2) the actions TSA has taken to ensure the security of air cargo and the factors that may limit their effectiveness, and (3) TSA's plans for enhancing air cargo security and the challenges TSA and industry stakeholders face in implementing these plans."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "D.C. has a larger percentage of students in charter schools than any state. To help oversee D.C. charter schools, Congress established two authorizers--the Board of Education (BOE), which has an Office of Charter Schools responsible for oversight, and the independent Public Charter School Board (PCSB). Congress required the GAO to conduct a study of the authorizers. This report--which completes GAO's May 2005 study--examines the (1) authorizers' resources, (2) oversight practices, and (3) actions taken once charter schools close. GAO examined BOE and PCSB monitoring reports, revenue and expenditure documents, and closure procedures."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Approved in the late 1990s, the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) is the largest project on the Capitol grounds in over 140 years. Its purposes are to provide greater security for all persons working in or visiting the U.S. Capitol and to enhance the educational experience of visitors who have come to learn about Congress and the Capitol building. When completed, this three-story, underground facility, located on the east side of the Capitol, is designed to be a seamless addition to the Capitol complex that does not detract from the appearance of the Capitol or its historic landscaping. According to current plans, it will include theaters, an auditorium, exhibit space, a service tunnel for truck loading and deliveries, storage, and additional space for use by the House and Senate. This testimony discusses the Architect of the Capitol's (AOC) management of the project's schedules and contracts; the project's estimated costs, including risks and uncertainties; worker safety issues; and AOC's monthly reporting to Congress on the project. This testimony also discusses recommendations that we have made in previous testimony and briefings and the actions AOC has taken in response."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 1990, the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act, heralded as the most comprehensive financial management reform legislation in 40 years, was enacted. The Act's goal is to improve management through reliable, useful, and timely financial and performance information for day-to-day decisionmaking and accountability. This testimony outlines the legislative history of the CFO Act, and its key elements, progress to date in implementing the Act, and the challenges for the future. Prior to passage of the CFO Act, the seemingly never ending disclosures of fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement in federal programs painted a picture of a government unable to manage its programs, protect its assets, or provide taxpayers with the effective and economical services they expect. The enactment of the CFO Act represented a broad-based recognition that federal financial management was in great need of fundamental reform. The Act mandated a financial management leadership structure; required the preparation and audit of annual financial statements; called for modernized financial management systems and strengthened internal control; and required the systematic measurement of performance, the development of cost information, and the integration of program, budget, and financial systems."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Coast Guard's budget has steadily increased in recent years, reflecting the agency's need to address heightened homeland security responsibilities while also addressing traditional programs such as rescuing mariners in distress and protecting important fishing grounds. The fiscal year 2006 budget request, which totals $8.1 billion, reflects an increase of $570 million over the previous year. GAO has conducted reviews of many of the Coast Guard's programs in recent years, and this testimony synthesizes the results of these reviews as they pertain to three priority areas in the Coast Guard's budget: (1) implementing a maritime strategy for homeland security, (2) enhancing performance across missions, and (3) recapitalizing the Coast Guard, especially the Deepwater program--an acquisition that involves replacing or upgrading cutters and aircraft that are capable of performing missions far out at sea. GAO's observations are aimed at highlighting potential areas for ongoing congressional attention."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) is the federal government's largest purchaser of contractor services, spending $118 billion in fiscal year 2003 alone--an increase of 66 percent since fiscal year 1999. DOD is expected to rely increasingly on contractors to carry out its mission. In recent reports, DOD has identified inadequate surveillance on service contracts. This report examines how DOD manages service contract surveillance. It looks at the extent of DOD's surveillance on a selection of service contracts, reasons why insufficient surveillance occurred, and efforts to improve surveillance."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) and Congress both recognize that Defense technology innovations sometimes move too slowly from the lab to the field. Three new programs have been recently created in DOD to help speed and enhance the transition of new technologies. A report accompanying the fiscal year 2003 National Defense Authorization Act required GAO to review two of these programs--the Technology Transition Initiative (TTI) and Defense Acquisition Challenge Program (DACP). The first is designed to speed transition of technologies from DOD labs to acquisition programs and the second is designed to introduce cost-saving technologies from inside and outside DOD. We were also asked to review the Quick Reaction Fund, which is focused on rapidly field testing promising new technology prototypes. We assessed the impact the programs had on technology transition and the programs' selection, management and oversight, and assessment practices."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The digital television (DTV) transition offers the promise of enhanced television services. At the end of the transition, radiofrequency spectrum used for analog broadcast television will be used for other wireless services and for critical public safety services. To spur the digital transition, some industry participants and experts have suggested that the government may choose to provide a subsidy for settop boxes, which can receive digital broadcast television signals and convert them into analog signals so that they can be displayed on existing television sets. This testimony provides information on (1) the current distribution of American households by television viewing methods and whether there are demographic differences among these groups; (2) the equipment required for households to receive digital broadcast signals; and (3) the estimated cost to the federal government, under various scenarios, of providing a subsidy for set-top boxes that would enable households to view digital broadcast signals. We developed estimates of the cost of a subsidy for set-top boxes using data on household television characteristics, expected set-top box costs, and varied assumptions about how certain key regulatory issues will be decided."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the ease with which the public can obtain products that are marketed, designed, and sold to defraud urine drug use screening tests such as those administered in the Federal Workplace Drug Testing Program. For purposes of this testimony, these products will be referred to as masking products and ways in which some businesses peddle them on the Internet will be discussed. Masking products fall into one of four categories: (1) dilution substances that are added to a urine specimen at the time it is collected or are ingested before an individual submits a urine specimen; (2) cleansing substances that detoxify or cleanse the urine and are ingested prior to the time that an individual submits a urine specimen; (3) adulterants that are used to destroy or alter the chemical make-up of drugs and are added to a urine specimen at the time that it is provided for testing; and (4) synthetic or drug-free urine that is substituted in place of an individual's specimen and provided for testing. This testimony today summarizes our findings."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The burden of cleaning up Superfund and other hazardous waste sites is increasingly shifting to taxpayers, particularly since businesses handling hazardous substances are no longer taxed under Superfund and the backlog of sites needing cleanup is growing. While key environmental laws rely on the "polluter pays" principle, the extent to which liable parties cease operations or restructure--such as through bankruptcy--can directly affect the cleanup costs faced by taxpayers. GAO was asked to (1) determine how many businesses with liability under federal law for environmental cleanups have declared bankruptcy, and how many such cases the government has pursued in bankruptcy court; (2) identify challenges the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) faces in holding bankrupt and other financially distressed businesses responsible for their cleanup obligations; and (3) identify actions EPA could take to better ensure that such businesses pay for their cleanups."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2004, a series of media articles alleged that financial firms were marketing expensive and potentially unnecessary insurance or other financial products to members of the military. GAO's report for this committee examined (1) features and marketing of certain insurance and securities products being sold to military members and (2) how financial regulators and the Department of Defense (DOD) were overseeing the sales of insurance and securities products to military members. GAO also examined issues relating to DOD's oversight of insurance sales for a report issued in June 2005."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO's audits and evaluations identify federal programs and operations that, in some cases, are high risk due to their greater vulnerabilities to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement. Increasingly, GAO also is identifying high-risk areas to focus on the need for broad-based transformations to address major economy, efficiency, or effectiveness challenges. Since 1990, GAO has periodically reported on government operations that it has designated as high risk. In this 2005 update for the 109th Congress, GAO presents the status of high-risk areas identified in 2003 and new high-risk areas warranting attention by the Congress and the administration. Lasting solutions to high-risk problems offer the potential to save billions of dollars, dramatically improve service to the American public, strengthen public confidence and trust in the performance and accountability of the federal government, and ensure the ability of government to deliver on its promises."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Clean Air Act, as amended, requires some areas with especially poor air quality to use a "special gasoline blend" designed to reduce emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) and requiring the use of an oxygenate such as ethanol. In less severely polluted areas, the Act allows states, with EPA approval, to require the use of other special blends as part of their effort to meet air quality standards. GAO agreed to answer the following: (1) To what extent are special gasoline blends used in the United States and how, if at all, is this use expected to change in the future? (2) What effect has the use of these blends had on reducing vehicle emissions and improving overall air quality? (3) What is the effect of these blends on the gasoline supply? (4) How do these blends affect gasoline prices?"

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In September 2003, the Head Start Bureau, in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Administration for Children and Families (ACF), implemented the National Reporting System (NRS), the first nationwide skills test of over 400,000 4- and 5-year-old children. The NRS is intended to provide information on how well Head Start grantees are helping children progress. Given the importance of the NRS, this report examines: what information the NRS is designed to provide; how the Head Start Bureau has responded to concerns raised by grantees and experts during the first year of implementation; and whether the NRS provides the Head Start Bureau with quality information."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "According to the Institute of Medicine and others, the U.S. health care delivery system is an information-intensive industry that is complex, inefficient, and highly fragmented, with estimated spending of $1.7 trillion in 2003. The Institute of Medicine has called for transformational change in the health care industry through the use of health information technology (IT) to improve the efficiency and quality of medical care. As a regulator, purchaser, health care provider, and sponsor of research, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has also been working over the years to promote the use of IT in public and private health care settings. We are currently working to provide Congress with an overview of HHS's efforts to develop a national health IT strategy, identify lessons learned from the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense regarding their use of electronic health records (EHR), and identify lessons learned from international efforts to modernize national health IT infrastructures. As part of this ongoing work, Congress asked us to review how a recent HHS estimate of cost savings from the adoption of IT was derived and what portion of these savings are …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Benefits Improvement and Protection Act of 2000 (BIPA) established a prospective payment system (PPS) for Medicaid payments to Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) and Rural Health Clinics (RHC), giving providers a financial incentive to operate efficiently. BIPA requires that BIPA PPS rates be adjusted for inflation and changes in scope of services. States also may use an alternative methodology if it pays no less than the BIPA PPS rate. In response to a BIPA mandate, GAO reviewed states' implementation of the new payment requirements, the need to rebase or refine the BIPA PPS, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) oversight of states' implementation. GAO surveyed the states about their payment methodologies, did a targeted review in four states, and reviewed indexes used to reflect medical care inflation."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) is an Internet-based system run by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to collect and record information on foreign students, exchange visitors, and their dependents--before they enter the United States, when they enter, and during their stay. GAO has reported (GAO-04-690) that although the system had a number of performance problems during the first year that its use was required, several SEVIS performance indicators were positive at that time (June 2004). Nonetheless, some problems were still being reported by educational organizations. In addition, concerns have been raised that the number of international students and exchange visitors coming to the United States has been negatively affected by the U.S. visa process. Accordingly, the Congress asked GAO to testify on its work on SEVIS and related issues. This testimony is based on its June 2004 report, augmented by more recent GAO work, reports that we issued in February 2004 and 2005 on student and visiting scholar visa processing, and related recent research by others."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "People are critical to any agency transformation because they define an agency's culture, develop its knowledge base, promote innovation, and are its most important asset. Thus, strategic human capital management at the Department of Defense (DOD) can help it marshal, manage, and maintain the people and skills needed to meet its critical mission. In November 2003, Congress provided DOD with significant flexibility to design a modern human resources management system. On November 1, 2005, DOD and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) jointly released the final regulations on DOD's new human resources management system, known as the National Security Personnel System (NSPS). Several months ago, with the release of the proposed regulations, GAO observed that some parts of the human resources management system raised questions for DOD, OPM, and Congress to consider in the areas of pay and performance management, adverse actions and appeals, and labor management relations. GAO also identified multiple implementation challenges for DOD once the final regulations for the new system were issued. This testimony provides GAO's overall observations on selected provisions of the final regulations."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Homeland Security Act of 2002 mandated the merging of 22 federal agencies and organizations to create the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), whose mission, in part, is to protect our homeland from threats and attacks. DHS relies on a variety of computerized information systems to support its operations. GAO was asked to review DHS's information security program. In response, GAO determined whether DHS had developed, documented, and implemented a comprehensive, departmentwide information security program."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The use of wireless networks is becoming increasingly popular. Wireless networks extend the range of traditional wired networks by using radio waves to transmit data to wireless-enabled devices such as laptops. They can offer federal agencies many potential benefits but they are difficult to secure. GAO was asked to study the security of wireless networks operating within federal facilities. This report (1) describes the benefits and challenges associated with securing wireless networks, (2) identifies the controls available to assist federal agencies in securing wireless networks, (3) analyzes the wireless security controls reported by each of the 24 agencies under the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act of 1990, and (4) assesses the security of wireless networks at the headquarters of six federal agencies in Washington, D.C."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The volume and complexity of patent applications to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) have increased significantly in recent years, lengthening the time needed to process patents. Annual applications have grown from about 185,000 to over 350,000 in the last 10 years and are projected to exceed 450,000 by 2009. Coupled with this growth is a backlog of about 750,000 applications. USPTO has long recognized the need to automate its patent processing and, over the past two decades, has been engaged in various automation projects. Accordingly, GAO was asked to, among other things, assess progress to date and any problems facing USPTO as it develops the capability to efficiently handle patent information electronically."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is responsible for issuing U.S. patents that protect new ideas and investments in innovation and creativity. Recent increases in both the complexity and volume of patent applications have increased the time it takes to process patents and have raised concerns about the validity of the patents USPTO issues. Adding to these challenges is the difficulty that USPTO has had attracting and retaining qualified staff. In this context, GAO was asked to obtain information about USPTO's patent organization. Specifically GAO reviewed (1) overall progress in implementing the initiatives in its strategic plan; (2) efforts to attract and retain a qualified patent workforce; and (3) remaining challenges, if any, in attracting and retaining a qualified patent workforce."