A briefing report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which went into effect in 1994, was intended to spur trade and investment throughout North America. Separately, the three NAFTA countries--the United States, Canada, and Mexico--negotiated and entered into two side agreements, the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation and the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation. The side agreements allow citizens and governments to raise questions about failures to effectively enforce environmental or labor laws in any of the three countries. This can be accomplished through both a submission process and a government-to-government dispute settlement process. NAFTA also provides protections for investors, such as nondiscriminatory treatment and the right to freely transfer funds related to an investment, as well as a mechanism to settle investor-state disputes through the agreement's chapter 11. This report provides information on the institutional structure, principles, process, cases, and outcomes associated with (1) the environmental side agreement's submission process, (2) the labor side agreement's submission process, and (3) NAFTA's investor-state dispute settlement mechanism. This report includes information on fines and trade sanctions under the side agreements, as well as summary date on cases filed …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) established the Defense Manufacturing Technology Program to develop and apply advanced manufacturing technologies to reduce the total cost and improve the manufacturing quality of weapon systems. By maturing and validating emerging manufacturing technology and transferring it to the factory floor, the program bridges the gap between technology invention and industrial application. The program, which has existed in various forms since the 1950's, received about $200 million in funding fiscal year 2001. DOD's Office of the Under Secretary of Defense provides guidance and oversight to the Army, Navy, Air Force, and the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), but each establishes its own policies and procedures for running the program and determines which technologies to develop. Users told GAO that the program was responding to their needs by developing technologies, products, and processes that reduced the cost and improved the quality of weapons systems. To the extent practicable, DOD used competitive procedures to award the work done under the program. The Army, Air Force, and DLA competitively awarded most of the projects GAO reviewed for fiscal years 1999 and 2000, and the remaining non-competitive …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "To take a more complete and accurate count of the nation's population in the 2000 Census, the Bureau of the Census partnered with other federal agencies, as well as with state, local, and tribal governments; religious, community, and social service organizations; and private businesses. According to the Bureau, about 140,000 organizations participated in the partnership program by assisting in such critical activities as reviewing and updating the Bureau's address list, encouraging people--especially hard-to-count populations--to participate in the census, and recruiting temporary census employees. GAO found that the Bureau spent about $142.9 million on its partnership program, or about two percent of the estimated $6.5 billion the Bureau allocated for the census and an average of about $1.19 for each of the 120 million households that the Bureau estimates are in the nation. The Bureau staffed the partnership program with 594 full-time positions, of which 560 were allocated to the field, while the remaining slots were located in the Bureau's headquarters. Decisions on which organizations to partner with and what events to attend were governed by unwritten guidelines and criteria and were driven by the Bureau's desire …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "A sound public infrastructure plays a vital role in encouraging a more productive and competitive national economy and meeting public demands for safety, health, and improved quality of life. The federal government has spent an average of $149 billion (in constant 1998 dollars) annually since the late 1980s on the nation's infrastructure. Little is known, however, about the comparability and reasonableness of individual agencies' estimates for infrastructure needs. This report discusses infrastructure investment or "needs" estimates compiled by seven agencies--the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), the General Services Administration (GSA), and the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC). GAO focuses on the following infrastructure areas: water resources (inland and deep draft navigation, flood control, and shore protection), hydropower, water supply, wastewater treatment, airports, highways, mass transit, and public buildings. GAO found that the agencies' estimates for infrastructure investments ranged from GSA's calculation of $4.58 billion (in current dollars) over one to five years to repair public buildings to FHWA's estimate of $83.4 billion (in constant 1997 dollars) per …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), and the state agriculture and health departments spent about $1.3 billion in fiscal year 1999. FSIS and FDA spent about $1 billion, and the states reported spending about $300 million. The amounts and proportions of food safety expenditures for fiscal year 1998 were similar. Regarding the $1 billion in federal funds spent in fiscal year 1999, FSIS spent about 70 percent, overseeing about 20 percent of federally regulated foods; FDA spent about 30 percent, overseeing about 80 percent of federally regulated foods. These outlays reflect the regulatory approaches or inspection frequencies contained in the laws under which each agency operates."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "On-line trading continues to be an important part of the securities trading market. The industry reports investing greater resources to improve the performance of their systems, and regulators have made substantial progress in ensuring that investors receive better information in key investor protection areas. However, investors trading on-line continue to file many complaints about failures and delays in processing orders. GAO believes that providing complete information on the websites of on-line broker-dealers would allow investors to make more informed investment decisions."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In recent years, GAO has testified that personnel shortages, assignment priorities, and frequent peacekeeping deployments were undermining the combat readiness of the Army's five later-deploying divisions. In 2001, GAO reported on the Army Chief of Staff's manning initiative of October 1999, which seeks to ensure that all active Army units are assigned the numbers, grades, and skills needed to carry out wartime missions. Since then, terrorists have attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and the Bush administration has formulated a new military strategy. These developments may change how, when, and where these divisions will be used--as seen in the deployment of soldiers from the 40th Infantry Division in Operation Enduring Freedom. As of June 2001 the five divisions reported they were ready and able to perform all or most of their combat missions. Enlisted personnel levels were at or near 100 percent of their authorization compared with 93 percent in March 1998. However, staffing imbalances persist for some combat support skills. Each division met its training requirements for combat missions. The amount of equipment on hand and the serviceability of that equipment indicated that …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Credit cards offer clear advantages to college students because they provide an interest free loan until the payment is due and a convenient noncash payment option for both routine transactions and emergencies. If used responsibly, credit cards allow students to build up credit histories that will increase their access to credit in the future. However, if college students have not learned sound financial management skills in high school or from their parents, the disadvantages of credit cards can outweigh the advantages. GAO found that more than one-third of students had credit cards before they entered college, and another 46 percent acquired them during the first year. Except for charges for tuition and fees, their spending patterns resembled those of nonstudents. GAO did not find a uniform response to the controversial issue of on-campus credit card marketing among the universities GAO visited. In response to complaints about aggressive marketing techniques, a few universities have restricted credit card solicitation on campus. The credit card issuers that responded to GAO's inquiries participated actively in the student market, but they did not have a uniform set of policies or practices."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report discusses the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) contract with Boeing Reusable Space Systems to build the now-canceled follow-on propulsion module for the International Space Station. GAO found that the initial propulsion module project did not meet performance, cost, and schedule goals largely because NASA proceeded with Boeing's proposal without following fundamental processes involving project planning and execution. Once it was determined that Boeing's proposal was inadequate, NASA began to assess alternatives to the Boeing-proposed propulsion module. The assessment team defined mission success criteria, identified key design assumptions, and performed comparative analysis on competing designs. On the basis of its analyses, the team recommended a follow-on design. NASA acknowledged that its initial approach to developing a propulsion module was inadequate and contributed to the project's unsuccessful conclusion. NASA officials sought to learn lessons from the project in order to avoid similar problems in managing future programs."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "After the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact in 1991, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies and the United States sought new ways to cooperate with the political and military leadership of their former adversaries. In January 1994, NATO established the Partnership for Peace to increase defense cooperation with former Warsaw Pact members and other former communist states in Central and Eastern Europe. Supported by the United States through the Warsaw Initiative, the Partnership plays a key role in developing the capabilities of those states and reforming their defense establishments. Given the key role the Partnership for Peace has played in the transformation of NATO's relationship with these states, the significant U.S. involvement and investment in this program through the Warsaw Initiative, and the impending debate on potential NATO members drawn from the Partnership, this report (1) provides an historic overview of previous NATO accessions, (2) describes the cost and content of the Warsaw Initiative, and (3) describes the results and benefits of Warsaw Initiative programs."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In 1996, Congress authorized a test program that permits government buyers to use procedural discretion and flexibility, so that commercial items may be obtained in a simplified manner. This report discusses how federal agencies demonstrated whether the test program produced the desired results and (2) assesses how the authority provided under the test program was being used on selected contracts. GAO found that (1) the Office of Federal Procurement Policy did not collect data to provide a basis for measuring whether the test program produced the desired results and (2) government buyers did not always demonstrate that prices were fair and reasonable for the contracts included in GAO's review. However, OFPP's 1999 survey of procurement executives showed that these executives believed that the program has had a positive impact on the federal procurement process. These executives believed that the authority provided under the test program should be made permanent. However, OFPP's survey did not collect empirical data that would have supported these views."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Congress has questioned whether the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), formerly the Health Care Financing Administration, adequately implemented new payment methods, effectively safeguarded program payments, and adequately oversaw the quality of care provided to beneficiaries. CMS depends on hundreds of information technology (IT) systems to help manage the Medicare program. With year 2000 systems renovations successfully completed, CMS has focused on modernizing its IT systems. The agency's information systems are crucial to carrying out Medicare's core missions of claims processing and payment, program oversight, and administration of participating health plans. Medicare's major systems are aged, however, and many are incompatible with one another. To address these problems, CMS intends to modify, replace, or redesign systems on which key Medicare missions depend. CMS plans to make incremental system improvements while maintaining current functions and accommodating changes mandated by legislation. The agency's IT planning and management processes--intended to increase the likelihood that new systems will be successful and cost-effective--have shortcomings. The agency's blueprint documenting its existing and planned IT environments, also known as its enterprise architecture, is missing essential detail in critical parts, including well-documented business …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Developing fire protection standards and testing products against them are critical to promoting fire safety. Business offices, including federal facilities, experience thousands of fires, more than $100 million in property losses, and dozens of casualties each year. Knowing the number and types of fires in the workplace, as well as their causes, is critical to understanding and reducing fire risks. Some private-sector groups track the number and causes of fires in different types of buildings. Such information is used to manage risk and reduce property damage, injuries, and deaths. However, the federal government collects little information on the fire risks in its facilities. As a result, the federal government cannot provide standards-development organizations with timely information that could be used to develop or revise fire safety standards, testing procedures, and certification decisions. Collecting and analyzing such data would help the government to better protect its employees and would contribute to the production of better standards to protect the public from fire."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) seeks to apply the law fairly to all taxpayers. Under the continuous levy program, however, taxpayers who receive federal payments are treated differently depending on whether the payments are made by the Federal Management Service (FMS) on behalf of other agencies or directly by the agencies themselves. Delinquent taxpayers receiving payments from FMS generally are subject to continuous levy, while those receiving payments directly from federal agencies are not. Although it may prove impractical to treat similarly all delinquent taxpayers who receive federal payments, progress--and substantial additional revenues--could be achieved in this area. FMS plans to include salaries at the U.S. Postal Service and salaries and retirement payments at the Defense Department (DOD) in the continuous levy program. There are similar plans to include all vendor payments from the Postal Service, DOD, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Discussions among FMS, IRS, and the agencies could ensure that all of these payments all included in the continuous levy program as soon as possible. These discussions could also speed the inclusion of some categories of vendor payments. The continuous levy …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLBank) System is establishing a new capital structure that, if properly implemented, is likely to be an improvement over the historic structure. Capital will become more permanent, and new risk-based and leverage capital requirements will also be implemented. The new capital structure has the potential to address the risks associated with advances as well as the direct acquisition of mortgages. However, it is too early to assess the overall adequacy of the structure. So far, direct acquisition appears to provide regional diversification of mortgage acquisitions and incentives to member institutions for sound mortgage underwriting and servicing through the sharing of credit risks. However, risks could be affected if changes are made in the level of mortgage acquisition activity and in the risk-sharing agreements between the FHLBanks and their member institutions. Such changes might also increase the importance of risk-based capital requirements compared to the leverage requirements of the Federal Housing Finance Board (FHFB). Risks in the FHLBank System will increase because of expanded collateral provisions in the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and direct mortgage acquisition activity. Mitigation of that risk will depend on …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) actions to improve its capabilities to respond to terrorist incidents based on its response to lessons learned from the Oklahoma City bombing, requirements in Presidential Decision Directives 39 and 62, and its own guidance. Specifically, GAO determined the extent to which FEMA has (1) incorporated the lessons learned from the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing, (2) ensured the preparedness of states and federal agencies to respond to terrorist incidents, and (3) ensured that states' plans are tested through exercises. GAO found that FEMA (1) has made across the board improvements in those areas identified as needing action after the Oklahoma City bombing, (2) updated the Federal Response Plan to address how federal agencies, states, and localities would work together to respond to an act of terrorism, and (3) assessed states' capabilities for consequence management in 1995 and set up a system to continue monitoring those capabilities."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "One of the ways that federal regulatory agencies enforce applicable statutes and regulations is through the imposition of civil monetary penalties for violations of those statutes and regulations. The amounts of the penalties imposed can vary substantially, depending on the limits specified in the applicable statutes or regulations and the degree to which the agencies impose the maximum fines permitted. Congress provided agencies with substantial discretion in developing their Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA) policies. Not surprisingly, the agencies used that discretion and developed policies that vary substantially. The agencies also varied in how key terms were defined and in their policies' conditions and exclusions. This variability notwithstanding, all of the agencies' policies and programs that GAO reviewed were within the discretion afforded to them by the SBREFA Agencies were allowed to limit the scope of their programs to only a portion of their enforcement actions against small entities, and they could decide not to give small entities any additional penalty relief. Agencies were also allowed to establish whatever conditions or exclusions they wanted for participation in their programs, subject to the requirements and …