Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The gradual retreat of polar sea ice, combined with an expected increase in human activity--shipping traffic, oil and gas exploration, and tourism in the Arctic region--has increased the strategic interest that the United States and other nations have in the Arctic. As a result, the U.S. Coast Guard, within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has responsibilities in the Arctic, which are expected to increase. This testimony provides an update of: (1) the extent to which the Coast Guard has taken actions to identify requirements for future Arctic operations; (2) issues related to the U.S. icebreaking fleet; and (3) the extent to which the Coast Guard is coordinating with stakeholders on Arctic issues. This statement is based on GAO-10-870, issued in September 2010, and includes selected updates. For the selected updates, GAO analyzed Coast Guard, Department of Defense (DOD,) and other related documents on Arctic operations and capabilities. GAO also interviewed Coast Guard and DOD officials about efforts to identify Arctic requirements and coordinate with stakeholders."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of the Interior (Interior) is responsible for managing much of the nation's vast natural resources. Its agencies implement an array of programs intended to protect these resources for future generations while also allowing certain uses of them, such as recreation and oil and gas development. In some cases, Interior is authorized to collect royalties and fees for these uses. Over the years, GAO has reported on management challenges at Interior, which are largely characterized by the struggle to balance the demand for greater use of its resources with the need to conserve and protect them. Furthermore, given the government's long-term fiscal challenges, Interior faces difficult choices in balancing its responsibilities. This testimony highlights some of the major management challenges facing Interior today. It is based on prior GAO reports."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the challenges that the Department of Defense (DOD) faces in fulfilling urgent operational needs identified by our warfighters. Over the course of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. forces have encountered changing adversarial tactics, techniques, and procedures, which challenged DOD to quickly develop and provide new equipment and new capabilities to address evolving threats. Further, U.S. troops faced shortages of critical items, including body armor, tires, and batteries. DOD's goal is to provide solutions as quickly as possible to meet urgent warfighter needs to prevent mission failure or loss of life. To meet its urgent needs, DOD had to look beyond traditional acquisition procedures, expand the use of existing processes, and develop new processes and entities designed to be as responsive as possible to urgent warfighter requests. In addition to requests for equipment from DOD's existing stocks, warfighters have requested new capabilities, such as: technology to counter improvised explosive devices (IED); technology related to intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) to provide increased situational awareness; and equipment related to command and control to enhance operations on the battlefield. In meeting urgent needs, it is important …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Foster children have often been removed from abusive or neglectful homes and tend to have more mental health conditions than other children. Treatment may include psychotropic drugs but their risks to children are not well understood. Medicaid, administered by states and overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), provides prescription drug coverage to foster children. This testimony examines (1) rates of psychotropic prescriptions for foster and nonfoster children in 2008 and (2) state oversight of psychotropic prescriptions for foster children through October 2011. GAO selected Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon, and Texas primarily based on their geographic diversity and size of the foster care population. Results cannot be generalized to other states. In addition, GAO analyzed Medicaid fee-for-service and foster care data from selected states for 2008, the most recent year of prescription data available at the start of the audit. Maryland's 2008 foster care data was unreliable. GAO also used expert child psychiatrists to provide a clinical perspective on its methodology and analysis, reviewed regulations and state policies, and interviewed federal and state officials."

Guidance issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This publication supersedes GAO-07-731G, Government Auditing Standards: July 2007 Revision. This is the Government Auditing Standards 2011 version. This document outlines standards that contain requirements for auditor reporting on internal control. This revision supersedes the 2007 revision."

Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report presents the Government Accountability Office's (GAO) Performance Plan for Fiscal Year 2012. In the spirit of the Government Performance and Results Act, this annual plan informs the Congress and the American people about what we expect to accomplish on their behalf in the coming fiscal year. It sets forth our plan to make progress toward achieving our strategic goals for serving the Congress and the American people. This framework not only shows the relationship between our strategic goals and strategic objectives, but also show major themes that could potentially affect our work."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins ""

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Agencies across the government are increasingly reliant on contractors to execute their missions. With hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars at stake, the government needs strong controls to provide reasonable assurance that these contract funds are not being lost to improper payments (fraud and errors), waste, and mismanagement. Effective contract oversight, which includes effective internal controls throughout the contracting process, is essential to protecting government and taxpayer interests. Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government provides the overall framework for internal control, which includes the control environment, risk assessment, control activities, information and communication, and monitoring. Contract auditing is a control mechanism intended to provide those responsible for government procurement with financial information and advice relating to contractual matters and the effectiveness, efficiency, and economy of contractors' operations. Today's testimony describes the (1) contracting cycle and related internal controls, (2) Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) and its role in performing contract audits for the Department of Defense (DOD) and other federal agencies, and (3) risks associated with ineffective contract controls and auditing. GAO's testimony is based on prior reports and testimonies, as listed at the end of …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission report recommended that the Army close Kansas and Lone Star Army Ammunition Plants and relocate certain munitions production-related functions from the Kansas and Lone Star Plants to Iowa and Milan (Tennessee) Army Ammunition Plants. As a result of the recommendations, the Army closed the Kansas and Lone Star Plants in 2009 and is in the process of relocating munitions production functions to the Iowa and Milan Plants. The 2005 BRAC recommendations must be completed by September 15, 2011. In addition, in February 2008, the U.S. Army Sustainment Command issued a request for proposals for operating and maintaining both the Iowa and Milan Plants. As part of the proposals, all offerors were to submit optimization plans for the optimum operation, maintenance, and utilization of the plants. In October 2008 the Army awarded a contract to American Ordnance for the operation and maintenance of the Iowa and Milan Plants at no direct cost to the government. Under the contract, American Ordnance will perform (among other things) security and maintenance for the facilities and will perform the actions identified in its Baseline Optimization …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has helped millions purchase homes by insuring private lenders against losses from defaults on single-family mortgages. In recent years, FHA has experienced a dramatic increase in its market role due, in part, to the contraction of other mortgage market segments. The increased reliance on FHA mortgage insurance highlights the need for FHA to ensure that it has the proper controls in place to minimize financial risks while meeting the housing needs of borrowers. This statement discusses (1) changes in the financial condition of FHA's fund used to insure mortgages--the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund (Fund)--and the budgetary implications of these changes; (2) how FHA evaluates the financial condition of the Fund; and (3) steps FHA has taken to assess and manage risks. This statement is drawn from a recent report on FHA's oversight capacity (GAO-12-15) as well as a report issued in September 2010 on the financial condition of the Fund (GAO-10-827R). GAO also obtained updated information on the status of the Fund from the recently issued actuarial report on the Fund."

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether volunteer assistant fire marshals may be designated as “reserve deputies” (RQ-0927-GA)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Authority of the Harris County Department of Education to operate an on-site health clinic for its employees (RQ-0928-GA)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Constitutionality of section 6.06(d) of article 179e of the Texas Racing Act, which imposes racetrack licensing residency requirements (RQ-0936-GA)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether the expanded definition of “disability” under federal law affects a taxpayer’s qualification for the real property tax freeze on existing homesteads under Texas law (RQ-0939-GA)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a county auditor is responsible for oversight of a constable’s continuing education funds allocated under section 1701.157, Occupations Code (RQ-0944-GA)

Commercial scale oil shale and oil sands development will require water, the amount of which will depend on the technologies adopted and the scale of development that occurs. Water in oil shale and oil sands country is already in scarce supply, and because of the arid nature of the region and limitations on water consumption imposed by interstate compacts and the Endangered Species Act, the State of Utah normally does not issue new water rights in oil shale or oil sands rich areas. Prospective oil shale and oil sands developers that do not already hold adequate water rights can acquire water rights from willing sellers, but large and secure water supplies may be difficult and expensive to acquire, driving oil shale and oil sands developers to seek alternative sources of supply. Produced water is one such potential source of supply. When oil and gas are developed, operators often encounter ground water that must be removed and disposed of to facilitate hydrocarbon extraction. Water produced through mineral extraction was traditionally poor in quality and treated as a waste product rather than a valuable resource. However, the increase in produced water volume and the often-higher quality water associated with coalbed methane development …

One of the largest exports in the Southeast U.S. is forest products. Interest in biofuels using forest biomass has increased recently, leading to more research into better forest management BMPs. The USDA Forest Service, along with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, University of Georgia and Oregon State University are researching the impacts of intensive forest management for biofuels on water quality and quantity at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Surface runoff of saturated areas, transporting excess nutrients and contaminants, is a potential water quality issue under investigation. Detailed maps of variable source areas and soil characteristics would therefore be helpful prior to treatment. The availability of remotely sensed and computed digital elevation models (DEMs) and spatial analysis tools make it easy to calculate terrain attributes. These terrain attributes can be used in models to predict saturated areas or other attributes in the landscape. With laser altimetry, an area can be flown to produce very high resolution data, and the resulting data can be resampled into any resolution of DEM desired. Additionally, there exist many maps that are in various resolutions of DEM, such as those acquired from the U.S. Geological Survey. Problems arise when using maps derived from …

The funds from this project were used to purchase tools and instrumentation to help replicate actual on-the-job wind energy scenarios which provided the students with the practical or applied components of wind energy jobs. This project enhanced the educational experiences provided for the students in terms of engineering and science components of wind energy by using electronics, control systems, and electro-mechanical instrumentation to help students learn standardized wind-specific craftsman skills. In addition the tools and instrumentation helped the students learn the safety necessary to work in the wind industry.

From fighting cancer to assuring food is safe to protecting our borders, nuclear physics impacts the lives of people around the globe every day. In learning about the nucleus of the atom and the forces that govern it, scientists develop a depth of knowledge, techniques and remarkable research tools that can be used to develop a variety of often unexpected, practical applications. These applications include devices and technologies for medical diagnostics and therapy, energy production and exploration, safety and national security, and for the analysis of materials and environmental contaminants. This brochure by the Office of Nuclear Physics of the USDOE Office of Science discusses nuclear physics and ways in which its applications fuel our economic vitality, and make the world and our lives safer and healthier.

We review the use of Voronoi tessellations for grid generation, especially on the whole sphere or in regions on the sphere. Voronoi tessellations and the corresponding Delaunay tessellations in regions and surfaces on Euclidean space are defined and properties they possess that make them well-suited for grid generation purposes are discussed, as are algorithms for their construction. This is followed by a more detailed look at one very special type of Voronoi tessellation, the centroidal Voronoi tessellation (CVT). After defining them, discussing some of their properties, and presenting algorithms for their construction, we illustrate the use of CVTs for producing both quasi-uniform and variable resolution meshes in the plane and on the sphere. Finally, we briefly discuss the computational solution of model equations based on CVTs on the sphere.

With the Coordinated Infrastructure for Fault Tolerance Systems (CIFTS, as the original project came to be called) project, our aim has been to understand and tackle the following broad research questions, the answers to which will help the HEC community analyze and shape the direction of research in the field of fault tolerance and resiliency on future high-end leadership systems. #15; Will availability of global fault information, obtained by fault information exchange between the different HEC software on a system, allow individual system software to better detect, diagnose, and adaptively respond to faults? If fault-awareness is raised throughout the system through fault information exchange, is it possible to get all system software working together to provide a more comprehensive end-to-end fault management on the system? #15; What are the missing fault-tolerance features that widely used HEC system software lacks today that would inhibit such software from taking advantage of systemwide global fault information? #15; What are the practical limitations of a systemwide approach for end-to-end fault management based on fault awareness and coordination? #15; What mechanisms, tools, and technologies are needed to bring about fault awareness and coordination of responses on a leadership-class system? #15; What standards, outreach, and community …

This report summarizes overseas loans and grants given by the United States between July 1st, 1945 and September 30th, 2009.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The United States has generated over 75,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear waste--extremely hazardous substances--at 80 sites in 35 states and is expected to more than double that amount by 2055. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (NWPA) required the Department of Energy (DOE) to investigate a geologic repository for nuclear waste. In 1987, Congress amended NWPA to direct DOE to focus on a repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. In 2008, DOE submitted a license application for the repository but in March 2010 moved to withdraw it. However, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) or the courts--as a result of federal lawsuits--might compel DOE to resume the licensing process. GAO has reported on options for interim storage of this waste and the effects a Yucca Mountain termination could have on both commercial waste and DOE-managed waste. This testimony is based on that prior work and discusses (1) the status of the Yucca Mountain repository and national policy for nuclear waste disposal, (2) options for storing nuclear waste and their benefits and challenges, and (3) principal lessons that can be learned from past nuclear waste …

Transcript of a public hearing held by the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq & Afghanistan held April 1, 2011 in Washington, D.C. This hearing includes testimony from USAID administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah on the reform progress for the U.S. Agency for International Aid's contracting policy.