Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) implementation of the mutual recognition agreement (MRA) between the United States and the European Union, focusing on the: (1) progress FDA has made in developing a plan for assessing equivalence of European Union member states' pharmaceutical good manufacturing practice (GMP) regulatory systems; (2) amounts FDA spent, from October 1994 through March 1999, on negotiating and implementing MRA and the amount FDA plans to spend on making assessments of equivalence; and (3) status of the European Union's efforts to coordinate with FDA to implement MRA."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the National Park Service's Gettysburg National Military Park and two of its partners--the Gettysburg National Military Park Advisory Commission and the Friends of the National Parks of Gettysburg, Inc."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reported on the Department of the Treasury's decision to change the calculation of the interest rates used since 1980 to determine the investment returns for a number of government trust funds, including Social Security and Medicare, focusing on: (1) how and why Treasury changed its rules for calculating interest rates in 1980 and 1998; (2) the effects of these changes on the unified budget and on the financial status of Social Security and Medicare trust funds; and (3) what other trust funds were affected by Treasury's decision."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the 82nd Airborne Division Association for the year ended December 31, 1997, focusing on whether the audit report complied with the financial reporting requirements of the law."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO identified: (1) key issues the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) must resolve in order to achieve accountability over its property, plant, and equipment (PP&E); and (2) the status of FAA's efforts to resolve these issues."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the internal control requirements in Title 6, "Pay, Leave, and Allowances of the GAO Policy and Procedures Manual for Guidance of Federal Agencies" as they relate to the Air Force's Air Mobility Command's employee time and attendance (T&A) system, focusing on whether: (1) military leave records must be maintained in paper form containing handwritten signatures; and (2) it is permissible to have the supervisor approve staff leave requests on the Air Force's proposed T&A system by using an user identification code or a password in lieu of the electronic signature required in Title 6."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Military Traffic Management Command's (MTMC) first interim progress report on the Department of Defense's demonstration program (MTMC pilot) to improve personal property shipments of the armed forces, focusing on MTMC's plan for evaluating the: (1) pilot results; and (2) proposed industry alternative called the Commercial-Like Activities for Superior Quality (CLASS) proposal."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on additional matters it identified in its audit of the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) custodial financial statements for fiscal year (FY) 1998 regarding accounting procedures and internal controls that could be improved."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) fiscal year (FY) 2000 performance plan, which was submitted to Congress in response to the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, focusing on: (1) assessing the usefulness of the agency's plan for decisionmaking; and (2) identifying the degree of improvement the agency's FY 2000 performance plan represents over the FY 1999 plan."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the tax compliance burdens of small business taxpayers, focusing on: (1) why the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) compliance burden estimates are not reliable; (2) why the relationship of the no-change rates to audit rates for small businesses and other individuals is difficult to determine; and (3) why IRS has limited information on its interactions with small businesses."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Emergency Steel Guarantee Loan Board's and the Emergency Gas and Oil Guaranteed Loan Board's new rules on the Emergency Steel Guarantee Loan Program and the Emergency Oil and Gas Guaranteed Loan Program. GAO noted that: (1) the rules would establish the procedures for providing guarantees of up to $1 billion in loans for qualified steel and iron ore companies and $500 million in loans for qualified oil and gas companies; (2) both programs will be administered by both Boards; (3) prior to the issuance of the loan guarantee and while any guarantee is outstanding, the company must agree to permit an audit by GAO or its designee, and an independent auditor acceptable to the Boards; (4) audited financial statements are required to be submitted with an application; (5) the final rules have an announced effective date of December 27, 1999; and (6) both the Emergency Steel Guarantee Loan Board and the Emergency Oil and Gas Guaranteed Loan Board complied with applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO published a self-assessment checklist to assist agency leaders in designing, implementing, and maintaining an effective human capital strategy. GAO's approach to self-assessment: (1) emphasizes investment in enhancing the value of individual employees and of the agency workforce as a whole; and (2) asks whether the agency has established and clearly defined and communicated a shared vision and aligned its components and systems to support them."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "As part of its Performance and Accountability Series, GAO provided information on the major management challenges and program risks facing federal agencies."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO provided information on whether a federal employee on official duty, who is also a member of the National Guard or the armed forces Reserves, may conduct, and use agency office equipment to support, Guard or Reserve business. GAO held that: (1) agencies may permit their employees to use a limited amount of official time and agency resources to support the Guard or Reserves; (2) employees who are not in active military status and receiving military pay at the time that they perform the limited incidental service for their Guard or Reserve organization are not prohibited from using agency resources and official time to support those activities; (3) all agencies would appear to have some interest in furthering the governmental purpose of, and national interest in, the Guard and Reserves; (4) thus, some use of employee time and agency equipment to carry out limited, incidental Guard or Reserve functions falls within the parameters of activities that an agency may permit; and (5) it may be advisable for the Office of Personnel Management to provide general guidelines as to the amount of time and types of agency …

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) new rule on filing requirements for self-regulatory organizations (SRO) regarding derivative securities products. GAO noted that: (1) the new rule would permit a SRO to list and trade new derivative securities products pursuant to existing self-regulatory organization trading rules; and (2) SEC complied with applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on how the federal share of states' Medicaid spending would be affected if an alternate formula, known as the Equitable Federal Medical Assistance Percentage formula, replaced the existing Federal Medical Assistance Percentage formula, focusing on: (1) calculating the matching percentages; (2) how federal funding for each state would be altered by the formula; and (3) the assumptions described in the bill proposing the switch to the alternate formula."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the Retired Enlisted Association, Incorporated, for the fiscal years ended December 31, 1995, 1996, and 1997, focusing on whether the audit report complied with the financial reporting requirements of the law."

A statement of record issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the federal government's efforts to implement total quality management initiatives."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the reasons why a Boeing report entitled Center Wing Fuel Tank Heating Study (also referred to as the Panama Study) dated March 14, 1980, was not provided to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to aid in its investigation of the 1996 Trans World Airlines (TWA) flight 800 crash until June 1999."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO responded to congressional questions concerning federal real property management, focusing on: (1) whether GAO would advocate a more uniform management of government-owned real property; (2) whether the dispersion of ownership is a weakness in the effective management of real property; (3) what caused the weaknesses found in the management and maintenance of federal facilities; (4) whether a successful partnership between the government and the private sector can take place without the five factors identified in GAO's previous testimony; (5) what constitutes a successful partnership; (6) how underutilized property is defined; (7) to what extent did community pressure hinder or help the government's management of federal property; (8) identifying the elements of a successful joint partnership business plan; (9) how important a statutory basis is for joint partnerships; and (10) how partnerships affect historic preservation projects."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War 1861-1865 for the fiscal year ended August 31, 1997, focusing on whether the audit report complied with the financial reporting requirements of the law."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO responded to concerns regarding its previous recommendations proposing that Department of Defense (DOD) pharmacy programs charge copayments for prescription drugs."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) fiscal year (FY) 2000 performance plan, which was submitted to Congress in response to the Government Performance and Results Act, focusing on the: (1) usefulness of HUD's plan for decisionmaking; and (2) degree of improvement HUD's FY 2000 performance plan represents over the FY 1999 plan."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO determined: (1) the extent to which the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) had established adequate loan origination procedures and consistently applied them to determine whether loan applicants comply with the Direct Endorsement (DE) program's statutory, regulatory, and eligibility requirements and have any outstanding delinquent federal debt; and (2) whether HUD's Management and Marketing (M&M) contractors were adequately documenting the actions taken to preserve, protect, and maintain HUD's foreclosed properties."