A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2004, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) estimated that 29,400 deaths in the United States were related to consumer products. As required under Section 107 of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, this study reviews what is known about the relative incidence of preventable injuries and deaths among minority children associated with products intended for children's use and also examines what actions CPSC has taken through its public information and education initiatives to minimize these injuries and deaths. To address these issues, we assessed injury and death data sources used by CPSC, compared CPSC's consumer education efforts with key practices, and interviewed federal officials and groups representing the health and consumer interests of minority populations."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) operates one of the nation's largest health care systems. In 1999, GAO reported on VA's aged, obsolete capital assets, noting that better management of these assets could significantly reduce VA's operating costs. GAO also noted that VA could reinvest the savings to enhance veterans' health care. In response, VA initiated its Capital Asset Realignment for Enhanced Services (CARES) process to identify what health care services it should provide in which locations through fiscal year 2022. CARES resulted in decisions to realign inpatient services at some VA facilities and to leave services as currently aligned at others. VA did not complete inpatient alignment decisions across VA for long-term care and mental health services and for inpatient services at some facilities because VA lacked sufficient information on demand for such care and other factors. GAO was asked to examine key challenges VA will face in completing and implementing CARES. This report discusses three key challenges: (1) developing information to complete inpatient alignment decisions, (2) improving management of excess property, and (3) determining priorities for purchasing care to improve access. GAO's analysis is …

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO: (1) examined the estimates of social security's implicit rates of return for different birth years, earning levels, household configurations, and other demographic groupings; (2) examined rates of return available on private market investments; and (3) discussed the issues that arise from comparing social security and market investment returns."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Iraq has an estimated 115 billion barrels of crude oil reserves, the third largest in the world. Oil export revenues are critical to Iraq's reconstruction, accounting for over 90 percent of the Iraqi government's revenues. In June 2008, GAO reported low 2007 spending rates by the Iraqi government for some critical sectors in the face of declining U.S. investments in these sectors. This report examines (1) Iraq's estimated revenues from 2005 through 2008, (2) Iraq's estimated expenditures from 2005 through 2008, (3) Iraq's financial deposits through 2007 and budget surpluses, (4) U.S. cumulative expenditures on stabilization and reconstruction activities in Iraq since 2003, and (5) factors affecting Iraq's efforts to accelerate spending. GAO analyzed relevant data and reviewed documents, including Central Bank of Iraq oil receipts data, International Monetary Fund's (IMF) reports, translated copies of Iraqi budget and expenditures, and U.S. agency funding data and reports. GAO also interviewed officials from the Departments of Defense (DOD), Energy, State, Treasury, and the IMF. This report contains no recommendations. Treasury agreed with the report's findings and stated that Iraq has adequate funds to make and maintain capital investments …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "U.S. airlines are increasingly relying on code-share partnerships with foreign carriers to provide additional sources of revenue. Code-sharing is a marketing arrangement in which an airline places its designator code on a flight operated by another airline and sells and issues tickets for that flight. To determine whether the foreign code-share partners of U.S. airlines meet an acceptable level of safety, in 2000, the Department of Transportation (DOT) established the Code-Share Safety Program, which requires U.S. airlines to conduct safety audits of their foreign code-share partners as a condition of code-share authorization. GAO's objective was to assess the federal government's efforts to provide reasonable assurance of safety and security on foreign code-share flights. GAO reviewed (1) the extent to which DOT's code-share authorization process is designed to consider safety and security, (2) the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) management of the Code-Share Safety Program, and (3) the implementation of the program by airlines and the results."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "A provision in the 2002 Farm Bill requires grocery stores to identify certain commodities--beef, pork and lamb, fish and shellfish, fruits and vegetables, and peanuts--by country of origin. This provision also requires that an initial voluntary program be followed by a mandatory program by September 30, 2004. GAO was asked to identify existing programs that might be useful to USDA in crafting the new program, to update a 1998 USDA survey of major U.S. trading partners' country-of-origin labeling practices, and to assess the reasonableness of the assumptions and methodology USDA used for estimating first year record-keeping costs."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on federal agencies' reporting to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on the year 2000 status of their classified systems, focusing on: (1) whether agencies are including classified systems in their quarterly reports to OMB; (2) whether agencies are separately reporting to OMB on the status of their classified systems; and (3) for those agencies not reporting to OMB, the status of those systems."