Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Congress has found that the Iranian government continues to engage in systematic and ongoing violations of human rights, including the suppression of freedom of expression. Such violations have reportedly increased in the aftermath of the disputed presidential election in Iran on June 12, 2009. Of particular concern has been the Iranian regime's crackdown on freedom of expression and interference with the use of the Internet, mobile phones, and other means of communication in order to restrict the free flow of information. According to a Freedom House report, the Iranian authorities have employed extensive and sophisticated methods to tamper with Internet access, mobile phone services, and satellite broadcasting; monitor dissenters online; and use monitored information to intimidate and arrest dissenters. The U.S. government, governments of other nations, and nongovernmental organizations have expressed concern that firms outside Iran have aided the Iranian government in monitoring and suppressing its citizens' activities. For example, in 2008, Nokia Siemens Network, as part of a contract for mobile phone network technology, sold communications monitoring equipment to the Iranian government. As a result of credible reports that the Iranian government misused the technology …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Section 8102 of the Department of Defense (DOD) and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2011 directed us to evaluate the effect on national security resulting from the section's requirements. These requirements, as well as those previously included in Section 8116 of the DOD Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2010, prohibit DOD's use of funds appropriated by the respective acts for any contract over $1 million unless the contractor agrees not to use or enforce mandatory arbitration agreements to resolve specified employee claims, such as those under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. These statutes also provide that the Secretary of Defense can waive the application of these restrictions on mandatory arbitration to avoid harm to U.S. national security interests."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), which became law in March, 2010, generally prohibits health insurance issuers and group health plan sponsors from imposing annual limits on the dollar value of "essential" covered health benefits beginning on January 1, 2014, but allows restricted annual limits, as defined by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), on the value of those benefits until that time. In setting these annual limits, HHS is statutorily required to ensure that individuals' access to needed services remains available with a minimal impact on plan premiums. In June 2010, HHS set restrictions on annual limits for each plan year from September 2010 through December 2013. To mitigate a potential impact on individuals' access or premiums for existing plans with benefit limits below these amounts, HHS established a waiver program based on the statutory requirement. Under the program, issuers or other group health plan sponsors could apply for a waiver from the annual limits set by HHS if they attested and presented evidence that meeting the annual limits would result in diminished access to benefits or a significant increase in premiums. To …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "While federal grant funding has been increasing, long-standing concerns remain about the federal government's grants management and the lack of effective oversight tools to reasonably assure that grants are used for their intended purposes and that risks of fraud, waste, and abuse are minimized. GAO has issued a range of reports raising concerns about the risks and vulnerabilities related to grants management and oversight. The Administration recognizes these concerns. It included improving grants management as a part of its initiative to eliminate waste in the U.S. government and has various efforts underway to improve grants oversight and accountability. This testimony addresses the (1) significance of federal grant funding, (2) risks and vulnerabilities in key controls in the federal grant life cycle, and (3) improvements needed to make the single audit process an effective accountability mechanism. This testimony is primarily based on prior GAO work that reviewed grant accountability and the single audit process."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is responsible for protecting the Medicare program's fiscal integrity and ensuring that it pays only for those services that are its responsibility. Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) provisions make Medicare a secondary payer to certain group health plans (GHP) and non-group health plans (NGHP), which include auto or other liability insurance, no-fault insurance, and workers' compensation plans. CMS has the right to recover Medicare payments made that should have been the responsibility of another payer, but CMS has not always been aware of these MSP situations. In 2007, Congress added mandatory reporting requirements for GHPs and NGHPs that should enable CMS to be aware of MSP situations. CMS reports that mandatory reporting was pushed back from 2009 to 2011 for some NGHPs and from 2009 to 2012 for others, in part due to concerns raised by the industry. GAO was asked to present background information about the MSP process as it pertains to NGHPs. To do this work, GAO reviewed relevant CMS documentation, including MSP regulations, manuals, and user guides, and conducted an interview with CMS related to mandatory reporting and …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report responds to section 322 of the Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009. Section 322 required the Secretary of Defense to contract for a study on the capability and efficiency of the depots of the Department of Defense (DOD) to provide the logistics capabilities and capacity necessary for national defense. DOD placed a task order under an existing contract with LMI, Inc. (LMI) to complete the study, which was to address a range of issues specified in section 322. As required by section 322, the task order specified that the contractor submit an interim report on its study to the Senate and House Committees on Armed Services not later than 1 year after the commencement of the study and a final report not later than 22 months after the date on which the Secretary of Defense enters into the contract. LMI submitted its interim report, containing background information and summary data on the DOD depot maintenance enterprise, to the Committees on Armed Services in December 2009. The final report, containing conclusions and recommendations, was provided to the Committees on Armed Services in February …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the training efforts of the U.S. Department of State's (State) Bureau of Diplomatic Security (Diplomatic Security). The testimony is based on our report, which is being released today. Diplomatic Security is responsible for the protection of people, information, and property at over 400 embassies, consulates, and domestic locations and, as we reported in previous testimony, experienced a large growth in its budget and personnel over the last decade. Diplomatic Security trains its workforce and others to address a variety of threats, including crime, espionage, visa and passport fraud, technological intrusions, political violence, and terrorism. To meet its training needs, Diplomatic Security relies primarily on its Diplomatic Security Training Center (DSTC), which is an office of Diplomatic Security's Training Directorate and is the primary provider of Diplomatic Security training. Diplomatic Security's training budget grew steadily from fiscal years 2006 to 2010--increasing from approximately $24 million in fiscal year 2006 to nearly $70 million in fiscal year 2010. In fiscal year 2010, DSTC conducted 342 sessions of its 61 courses and trained 4,739 students. Our prior work identified the challenges that Diplomatic Security experienced as a result …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Prior to Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, Department of Defense (DOD) personnel with flame resistant (FR) uniforms were mainly aviators, fuel handlers, and tank crews. With the growing prevalence of the improvised explosive device (IED) threat, all ground forces serving in Iraq and Afghanistan have been exposed to the possibility of fire-related injuries. The Ike Skelton National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011 extended to 2015 the authority to procure fire resistant rayon fiber for the production of uniforms from certain foreign countries, provided by section 829 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 and originally set to expire in 2013. This letter discusses the briefing developed in response to the requirement in the Ike Skelton National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011 to report on the supply chain for FR fiber for the production of military uniforms. Specifically, the act required GAO to analyze several elements of the supply chain, including the current and anticipated sources of FR rayon fiber; actions DOD has taken to identify alternatives to FR rayon fiber; impediments to the use of such alternatives; and the …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Medicare voluntary outpatient prescription drug insurance program, known as Medicare Part D, provided prescription drug coverage for about 23 million beneficiaries--eligible individuals 65 years and older and eligible individuals with disabilities--enrolled in the program in 2010. Under Part D, Medicare beneficiaries may enroll in prescription drug plans offered by private companies, known as sponsors, that contract with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the agency that administers the Medicare program. Sponsors may have multiple contracts with CMS to provide drug coverage, with each contract offering one or more distinct Part D plans. Sponsors compete for beneficiary enrollment on the basis of plan premiums and benefit designs. Sponsors also vary in the content of their formularies--the list of covered drugs and associated utilization management (UM) requirements. UM requirements include (1) step therapy, which requires that a beneficiary try lower-cost drugs before a sponsor will cover a more costly drug; (2) prior authorization, which requires a beneficiary to obtain the sponsor's approval before a drug is covered for that individual; and (3) quantity limits, which restrict the dosage or number …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In the wake of the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, thousands of current and former military servicemembers are undergoing a transition between their military service and their civilian employment. Congress enacted the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA) to protect the employment and reemployment rights of federal and nonfederal employees when they leave their employment to perform military or other uniformed service. Among other rights, servicemembers who meet the statutory requirements are entitled to reinstatement to the positions they would have held if they had never left their employment or to positions of like seniority, status, and pay. USERRA applies to a wide range of employers, including federal, state, and local governments as well as private-sector firms. This report focuses on federal executive agencies. Under USERRA, an employee who believes that his or her USERRA rights have been violated may file a claim with the Department of Labor's (DOL) Veterans' Employment and Training Service (VETS), which investigates and attempts to resolve the claim. If DOL's VETS cannot resolve the claim and the servicemember is a federal government employee or applicant to a federal …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Comparative effectiveness research (CER) is research comparing different interventions and strategies to prevent, diagnose, treat, and monitor health conditions. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) appropriated $1.1 billion to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) specifically for CER, including $400 million to the Secretary of HHS, $300 million to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and $400 million to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Recovery Act required that these funds be obligated by September 30, 2010. For grants and cooperative agreements, funds are drawn down by recipients on an as-needed basis in accordance with the objectives of the project. For contracts, as milestones are met, invoices are submitted to HHS for payments for goods and services provided under the contract. Additionally, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) directed AHRQ to disseminate the findings of CER published by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) and other related government-funded research in consultation with NIH. PPACA established a trust fund to support PCORI's mission and specified that percentages of this trust fund be provided to the Secretary of HHS …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "To help defray out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for limited or low-income Medicare beneficiaries, the Medicare Part D outpatient prescription drug program offers a low-income subsidy (LIS) for eligible beneficiaries. In 2010, about 9.4 million beneficiaries received the LIS--about 40 percent of the approximately 23 million Medicare Part D beneficiaries in that year. Most of the LIS beneficiaries received the full LIS, thus paying no premiums or deductibles as long as they enrolled in so-called "benchmark" stand-alone prescription drug plans (PDP). Benchmark PDPs are those plans with premiums at or below a specified benchmark for a given geographic region, calculated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the agency within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that administers the Medicare program. Full LIS beneficiaries may also enroll in other Part D plans--either nonbenchmark PDPs or Medicare Advantage prescription drug plans (MAPD)-- but must pay any difference between the premium of the plan in which they choose to enroll and the benchmark for their region. Because plan premiums can change from year to year and because CMS recalculates the premium benchmarks annually, some PDPs may be …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This letter responds to the mandate contained in Section 1312(c) of the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, for GAO to conduct a study of the Small Business Administration's (SBA) Procurement Center Representatives (PCR) and Commercial Market Representatives (CMR), including ways to improve their effectiveness. To fulfill this mandate, we provided congressional staff a briefing on the results of this work in meetings with them on March 22, 23, and 24, 2011. Each year, the federal government awards hundreds of billions of dollars in contracts for goods and services--more than $500 billion in fiscal year 2010 alone. It uses this buying power to maximize procurement opportunities for small businesses through long-standing policies such as set-asides and requiring large contractors to set goals for using small business subcontractors. SBA's PCRs and CMRs play an important role in helping ensure that small businesses gain access to contracting and subcontracting opportunities. In particular, a PCR's key responsibilities include reviewing proposed agency contract events--such as potentially bundled or consolidated contracts--and making set-aside recommendations to agency contracting officers (through informal and formal means), reviewing agency small business programs (surveillance reviews), and counseling small …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act (FEPCA) of 1990 established locality pay to achieve pay comparability between federal and nonfederal jobs within the United States. Because FEPCA established pay localities only for areas within the United States, federal employees permanently stationed overseas, including members of the Foreign Service, did not receive locality pay. As the Washington, D.C., locality rate grew to over 24 percent in 2010, the pay gap between federal employees who receive locality pay and those who do not widened considerably. To close this gap, the fiscal year 2009 Supplemental Appropriations Act granted the Department of State (State) temporary authority to provide locality pay at the Washington, D.C., rate, also known as Overseas Comparability Pay, to Foreign Service personnel posted overseas. State is implementing this pay in three phases. Currently, Foreign Service personnel serving overseas receive 16.52 percent comparability pay, approximately twothirds of the Washington, D.C., locality rate. State had planned to implement the third and final phase of comparability pay, raising it to 24.22 percent, in August 2011. However, these plans have been delayed by the administration's freeze on federal salaries and the passage of …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2004, the bilateral U.S. and Japanese Security Consultative Committee began a series of sustained security consultations to strengthen the U.S.-Japan security alliance by establishing a framework for the future of the U.S. force structure in Japan. The United States and Japan agreed to reduce the U.S. force structure in Japan while maintaining the U.S. force presence in the Pacific theater by relocating units to other areas, including Guam. As part of this effort, called the Defense Policy Review Initiative, about 8,600 Marines and 9,000 dependents were to move from Okinawa, Japan, to Guam by a projected date of 2014, as described in the bilateral agreement. On June 21, 2011, however, United States and Government of Japan officials noted that completion of the Marine relocation will not meet the previously targeted date of 2014, but confirmed their commitment to complete the relocation at the earliest possible date after 2014. 2 The Department of Defense (DOD) also plans to move other military forces and equipment to Guam on different schedules in implementing a new strategic approach in the Pacific as part of its worldwide Integrated Global Presence and Basing …

A statement of record issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The current fiscal environment, ongoing deliberations for the next Farm Bill, and the public's expectations for a high-performing and efficient government underscore the need for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to focus on program results and customer needs, work across organizational lines to help minimize any overlap and duplication, and build its internal capacity. USDA comprises 15 agencies in seven mission areas that are responsible for, among other things, assisting farmers and rural communities, overseeing meat and poultry safety, providing access to nutritious food for low-income families, and protecting the nation's forests. For fiscal year 2010, USDA estimated that its 15 agencies would have total outlays of $129 billion. This statement highlights examples from GAO's previous work that illustrate how USDA can address challenges it faces in three key areas: (1) the performance and accountability of USDA programs, (2) coordination within USDA and between USDA and other agencies to minimize duplication and overlap, and (3) the sufficiency of USDA management capacity. This statement is based on GAO's extensive body of work on USDA programs authorized under the Farm Bill and issued from September 2005 …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In November 2010, we issued our report on the results of our audit of the financial statements of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as of, and for the fiscal years ending, September 30, 2010, and 2009, and on the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting as of September 30, 2010. We also reported our conclusions on IRS's compliance with selected provisions of laws and regulations and on whether IRS's financial management systems substantially comply with the requirements of the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996. In March 2011, we issued a report on information security issues identified during our fiscal year 2010 audit, along with associated recommendations for corrective actions. The purpose of this report is to present internal control issues identified during our audit of IRS's fiscal year 2010 financial statements for which we do not already have any recommendations outstanding. While two of these issues contributed to a significant deficiency in internal control discussed in our report on the results of our fiscal year 2010 financial statement audit, they all warrant IRS management's attention. This report provides 29 recommendations to address the internal …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "A mentor-protege program is an arrangement in which mentors--businesses, typically experienced prime contractors--provide technical, managerial, and other business development assistance to eligible small businesses, or protege. In return, the programs provide incentives for mentor participation, such as credit toward subcontracting goals, additional evaluation points toward the awarding of contracts, an annual award to the mentor providing the most effective developmental support to a protege, and in some cases, cost reimbursement. Overall, mentor-protege programs seek to enhance the ability of small businesses to compete more successfully for federal government contracts by furnishing them with assistance to improve their performance. We identified 13 federal agencies that currently have mentor-protege programs including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Energy (DOE), Department of State (DOS), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), General Services Administration (GSA), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Small Business Administration (SBA), Department of the Treasury (Treasury), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 required that we conduct a study …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Departments of Defense (DOD) and State (State) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have collectively obligated billions of dollars for contracts and assistance to support U.S. efforts in Afghanistan. The work of GAO and others has documented shortcomings in DOD's contract management and oversight, and its training of the non-acquisition workforce. Addressing these challenges can help DOD meet warfighter needs in a timely and costconscious manner; mitigate the risks of fraud, waste, and abuse; and minimize the operational risks associated with contractors. This testimony addresses the extent to which (1) DOD's Contracting Officer's Representatives (COR) are prepared for their roles and responsibilities and provide adequate contract oversight in Afghanistan; (2) DOD, State, and USAID vet non-U.S. firms for links to terrorist and insurgent groups in Afghanistan; and (3) DOD has implemented GAO's past recommendations. The testimony is based on GAO's recently published reports and testimonies on operational contract support, including a June 2011 report on vetting of non-U.S. vendors in Afghanistan, as well as providing preliminary observations as a result of ongoing audit work in Afghanistan. GAO's work included analyses of a wide range …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The National Museum of the American Indian Act of 1989 (NMAI Act), as amended in 1996, generally requires the Smithsonian Institution to inventory and identify the origins of its Indian and Native Hawaiian human remains and objects placed with them (funerary objects) and repatriate them to culturally affiliated Indian tribes upon request. According to the Smithsonian, two of its museums--the American Indian and the Natural History Museums--have items that are subject to the NMAI Act. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), enacted in 1990, includes similar requirements for federal agencies and museums. The National NAGPRA office, within the Department of the Interior's National Park Service, facilitates the governmentwide implementation of NAGPRA. Each act requires the establishment of a committee to monitor and review repatriation activities. GAO's testimony is based on its July 2010 report on NAGPRA implementation (GAO-10-768) and its May 2011 report on Smithsonian repatriation (GAO-11-515). The testimony focuses on the extent to which key federal agencies have complied with NAGPRA's requirements and the extent to which the Smithsonian has fulfilled its repatriation requirements."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) recently reported that its financial results for the first half of this fiscal year--a net loss of $2.6 billion--are worse than projected. USPS expects continued financial challenges as mail volume continues to decline. Most notable is the decline of First-Class Mail (its most profitable mail) by over 25 billion pieces, or about 25 percent, over the past decade. GAO has reported on proposals to revise USPS pension and retiree health obligations, but such actions alone will not be sufficient to address the accelerating volume decline and changing use of the mail. This statement discusses (1) why it is important to restructure USPS's networks and (2) what actions are needed to facilitate additional progress. This statement is based primarily on past and ongoing GAO work."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of the Interior oversees oil and gas activities on leased federal lands and waters. Revenue generated from federal oil and gas production is one of the largest nontax sources of federal government funds, accounting for about $9 billion in fiscal year 2009. Since the April 2010 explosion on board the Deepwater Horizon, Interior has been in the midst of restructuring the bureaus that oversee oil and gas development. Specifically, Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oversees onshore federal oil and gas activities; the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (BOEMRE)--created in May 2010--oversees offshore oil and gas activities; and the newly established Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) is responsible for collecting royalties on oil and gas produced from both onshore and offshore federal leases. Prior to BOEMRE, the Minerals Management Service's (MMS) Offshore Energy and Minerals Management Office oversaw offshore oil and gas activities and revenue collection. In 2011, GAO identified Interior's management of oil and gas resources as a high risk issue. GAO's work in this area identified challenges in five areas: (1) reorganization, (2) balancing responsibilities, (3) human capital, (4) revenue …

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

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) has been on GAO's high-risk list since 2006, when the program had to borrow from the U.S. Treasury to cover losses from the 2005 hurricanes. The outstanding debt is $17.8 billion as of June 2011. This sizeable debt, plus operational and management challenges that GAO has identified at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which administers NFIP, have combined to keep the program on the high-risk list. NFIP's need to borrow to cover claims in years of catastrophic flooding has raised concerns about the program's long-term financial solvency. This testimony (1) discusses ways to place NFIP on a sounder financial footing in light of public policy goals for federal involvement in natural catastrophe insurance and (2) highlights operational and management challenges at FEMA that affect the program. In preparing this statement, GAO relied on its past work on NFIP, including a June 2011 report on FEMA's management of NFIP, which focused on its planning, policies, processes, and systems. The management review included areas such as strategic and human capital planning, acquisition management, and intra-agency collaboration."