A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO provided information on the: (1) design components of retirement programs that states offer to their general employees and compared them to the design components of the two principal retirement programs for federal employees; and (2) changes states have considered and made to their retirement programs."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the outcome of the 1996 World Food Summit, focusing on factors that could affect progress toward meeting world food security goals."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on how states implement the federal requirement that establishes a process for nursing home complaint investigations, focusing on the: (1) effectiveness of state complaint investigation practices as a component of the system to ensure sustained compliance with federal nursing home quality-of-care standards; and (2) Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) role in establishing standards and conducting oversight of states' complaint investigation practices and in using information about the results of complaint investigations to ensure compliance with nursing home standards."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the effect of scab and vomitoxin on North Dakota barley crops, focusing on: (1) the financial impact from scab and vomitoxin on barley farmers; (2) the performance of vomitoxin test methods; and (3) short- and long-term actions that could help reduce the impact of scab and vomitoxin on North Dakota barley farmers."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided an update to its report on the nonpayment of U.S. income taxes by foreign-controlled corporations (FCC) and U.S.-controlled corporations (USCC), focusing on comparisons of: (1) the percentages of FCCs and USCCs that filed income tax returns showing no tax liabilities for 1989 through 1995, the latest years for which data were available; and (2) selected characteristics, including age, industrial sector, and certain cost ratios, of large corporations--those with assets of $250 million or more or gross receipts of $50 million or more."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on: (1) the guidance the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration used to ensure that the recipients of grants and cooperative agreements for scientific research provide management controls over the equipment they acquire with federal funds; and (2) whether four NSF recipients from the Washington, D.C., area had acquired equipment under 14 awards of varying dollar amounts."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on: (1) the level of Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) accountability and control over its Housing Credit Assistance (HCA) program direct loan and loan sale activities: and (2) actions needed to improve VA's internal control environment and financial and budgetary reporting for these activities."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) barracks program in the United States, focusing on: (1) the status of the services' implementation of the 1 plus 1 barracks design standard, which calls for more space and increased privacy in new barracks; (2) DOD's rationale for adopting the standard; (3) the costs of alternatives for the 1 plus 1 standard; and (4) service views of the impact of the standard from a team-building, individual isolation, or similar perspective."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the U.S. Marshals Service's (USMS) asset forfeiture programs, focusing on: (1) controls over selected categories of seized assets--namely vehicles, vessels, real property, financial instruments, and general property--at four large USMS districts: the Central District of California, the Southern District of Florida, and the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York; and (2) whether selected seized assets at the test locations under USMS control were accurately accounted for and safeguarded against theft, loss, and deterioration."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on: (1) the extent and nature of any fraud the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and the Department of State have identified in the religious worker visa program; and (2) any steps INS and State have taken or plan to take to change the visa screening process."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the retirement education that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and agencies provide to federal civilian employees covered by the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) or the Federal Employees' Retirement System (FERS)."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on housing prices from sources other than the Federal Housing Finance Board, focusing on: (1) comparing data on house prices from the Finance Board with data the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) collects to measure house price changes; (2) views of officials of the agencies involved on the results of this analysis; (3) the effect on median prices of supplementing the Finance Board's and OFHEO's data with information each does not already include on lower-priced homes with government-insured mortgages; and (4) the Federal Housing Administration's (FHA) recent efforts to explore alternative sources of data for measuring median home prices."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO investigated the reports that the blood samples of some ill Gulf War-era veterans contained antibodies for squalene, a component of adjuvant formulations used in some experimental vaccines but not in any licensed vaccines, focusing on whether: (1) the Department of Defense (DOD) or the National Institutes of Health (NIH) performed or sponsored research using squalene; (2) DOD considered using adjuvant formulations in vaccines administered to Gulf War-era veterans; and (3) any research has detected the presence of squalene in ill Gulf War-era veterans."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO evaluated the Customs Service's efforts to address its year 2000 computing problem, focusing on whether Customs has established effective management structures and processes for managing and reporting on key aspects of its Year 2000 program."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Immigration and Naturalization Service's (INS) and the U.S. Customs Service's efforts to address employee corruption on the Southwest Border, focusing on: (1) the extent to which INS and Customs have and comply with policies and procedures for ensuring employee integrity; (2) identifying and comparing the Department of Justice's (DOJ) and Department of the Treasury's organizational structures, policies, and procedures for handling allegations of drug-related employee misconduct and whether the policies and procedures are followed; (3) the types of illegal drug-related activities in which INS and Customs employees on the Southwest Border have been involved; and (4) the extent to which lessons learned from corruption cases closed in fiscal years 1992 through 1997 have led to changes in policies and procedures for preventing the drug-related corruption of INS and Customs employees."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the: (1) reliability of the Bureau of Reclamation's and Army Corps of Engineers' hydropower plants in generating electricity compared with the reliability of nonfederal hydropower plants; (2) reasons why the Bureau's and the Corps' plants may be less reliable than nonfederal plants and the potential implications of reduced reliability; and (3) actions taken to obtain funding to better maintain and repair the Bureau's and the Corps' plants."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) implementation of the Taxpayer Browsing Protection Act, focusing on: (1) actions IRS has taken to implement the law; and (2) the number of potential and proven incidents of unauthorized access by IRS employees that IRS has identified since enactment of the law, as well as penalties imposed in cases where unauthorized access was proven."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) progress in establishing adequate mechanisms for coordinating cruise missile defense programs, focusing on the: (1) organizational structure and mechanisms for coordinating cruise missile defense efforts; (2) potential measures of the progress of coordination efforts; (3) progress of coordination using these measures; (4) challenges that DOD officials believe still must be overcome; and (5) defense against land attack cruise missiles."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) programs to develop laser weapons for missile defense, focusing on: (1) what laser weapons are being considered for missile defense and the coordination among the program offices developing the systems; (2) the status and cost of each system; and (3) the technical challenges each system faces as determined by DOD program managers and analysts and other laser system experts."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed selected aspects of the Navy's management procedures for controlling items in transit, focusing on the: (1) reported value and types of inventory in transit within and between storage and repair activities, vendors, and end users that were unaccounted for (or lost); and (2) Navy's adherence to procedures for controlling such in-transit inventory."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the annual audited financial statements for 24 major departments and agencies of the U.S. government."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO presented the results of its audits of expenditures reported by seven offices of independent counsel for the 6 months ended September 30, 1998, focusing on whether the statements of expenditures complied with the financial reporting requirements of the law."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) program to audit income tax returns through correspondence, focusing on: (1) the number, results, and duration of correspondence audits as well as the characteristics of the audited returns; and (2) processes and requirements that IRS has had for years to govern correspondence audits."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the Department of Defense's (DOD) efforts to develop future warfighting capability, focusing on the: (1) status of DOD's efforts to implement its joint experimentation program; (2) factors that GAO believes contribute to the success of a joint experimentation program; and (3) extent of DOD's support for future warfighting."