Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Government, commercial, and foreign entities rely almost exclusively on information generated by the United States space surveillance network to reduce the risk of space collisions when launching and operating their respective space missions. The network is maintained and operated by the Air Force Space Command; surveillance data is processed and an unclassified portion is sent to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and made available to users. Currently, the Air Force Space Command is proposing a pilot study to replace the current NASA arrangement with one using a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC). The study would test the FFRDC's ability to support commercial and foreign entities with space surveillance information and to ensure there is a sufficient market for the data. If the study is approved by the Air Force and Department of Defense, and if authorizing legislation is enacted that includes providing space surveillance support to foreign and commercial entities as part of DOD's mission, the study will begin in about 1 year."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the roles and responsibilities of the General Services Administration's (GSA) Federal Supply Service (FSS) and Federal Technology Service (FTS). Specifically, (1) the possible impact of the current FSS/FTS overlap on the prices paid for and quality of the services provided customer agencies by FSS and FTS, (2) whether the use of streamlined practices and procedures could result in savings and increases in service effectiveness, and (3) whether the statement of work that governs the study of the FSS and FTS that GSA has under contract will likely result in the kind of information needed to assess whether the current organization needs to be restructured."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Title I of the Global AIDS and Tuberculosis Relief Act provided for the creation of a trust fund to be administered by the World Bank to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The act mandates that the Comptroller General of the United States submit a report to Congress evaluating the effectiveness of the fund within 2 years of enactment of the statute. In January 2002, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria was formally established, but as of May 2002, funds had not been disbursed to any project. GAO reviewed the status of the Global Fund and found that as of May 2002, the Global Fund had received more than $2 billion in pledges, with $700 million available for disbursement in 2002. The United States has pledged a total of $300 million to the Fund through fiscal year 2002, and the administration has requested an additional $200 million in its fiscal year 2003 budget request. At its first board meeting in January 2002, the Fund called for proposals for its first round of grants and had received 322 proposals for projects in 101 countries by the March deadline. …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) lacks management control of the Standard Procurement System (SPS). DOD has not (1) ensured that accountability and responsibility for measuring progress against commitments are clearly understood, performed, and reported; (2) demonstrated, on the basis of reliable data and credible analysis, that the proposed system solution will produce economic benefits commensurate with costs; (3) used data on progress against project cost, schedule, and performance commitments throughout a project's life cycle to make investment decisions; and (4) divided this large project into a series of incremental investment decisions to spread the risks over smaller, more manageable components. GAO found that DOD lacks the basic information needed to make informed decisions on how to proceed with the project. Nevertheless, DOD continues to push forward in acquiring and deploying additional versions of SPS. This testimony summarizes a July report (GAO-01-682)."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Congress established an Indian trust fund account reconciliation requirement in 1987 in response to tribes' concerns that the Department of the Interior had not consistently provided them with statements on their account balances, their trust fund accounts had never been reconciled, and Interior planned to contract with a third party to manage the accounts. Congress required that the accounts be audited and reconciled before the Bureau of Indian Affairs transferred funds to a third party. Interior's fiscal year 1990 appropriations act added a requirement that the accounts be reconciled to the earliest possible date and that Interior obtain an independent certification of the reconciliation work. The American Indian Trust Fund Management Reform Act of 1994 required Interior to provide tribes with reconciled account statements as of September 30, 1995. To fulfill these requirements, Interior contracted with two major independent public accounting firms, one to reconcile the trust accounts and the other to do an independent certification of the reconciliation. When Interior's reconciliation project was completed in January 1996, each tribe was provided a report that included unreconciled account statements with schedules of proposed adjustments based on results for …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Service Acquisition Reform Act of 2002 seeks to strengthen the acquisition workforce by moving toward a performance-based contracting environment and improving service acquisitions management. During the past decade, federal agencies have substantially increased their purchases of services, particularly for information technology and professional, administrative, and management support. In fiscal year 2001 alone, the federal government acquired $109 billion in services. This money, however, is not always well-spent. GAO continues to find that defense and civilian acquisitions are poorly planned, not adequately completed, and poorly managed. Some leading companies have changed their approach to acquiring services after finding themselves spending a lot of money on services without knowing how much was being spent and where these dollars were going. GAO found that these companies were able to turn this situation around by adopting a more strategic perspective to service spending. Each company focused more on what was good for the company as a whole rather than just individual business units, and each began making decisions using enhanced knowledge about service spending. The companies analyzed their spending services to answer basic questions about how much was being spent and …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has projected that the failure of Superior Bank could cost the deposit insurance fund as much as $526 million. A major reason for the failure was Superior Bank's business strategy of originating and securing subprime loans on a large scale. In addition to the concentration in risky assets, the bank did not properly value and account for the interests that it had retained in pooled home mortgages. Superior's external auditor, Ernst & Young, also failed to detect the improper valuation of Superior's retained interest until the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) and FDIC insisted that the issue be reviewed by the auditor's national office. Federal regulators did not identify and act on the bank's problems early enough to prevent a loss to the deposit insurance fund. Both OTS and FDIC were aware of the substantial concentration of retained interests that Superior held, but they took little action because of the apparently high level of earnings, the apparently adequate capital, and the belief that the bank's management was conservatively managing the institution."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "One-third of the 2.1 million cases of cash assistance provided under federal or state welfare programs in the fall of 2001 went to children. Because no adults in these families received either Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) or state maintenance-of-effort funds, work requirements and time limits did not apply. Welfare reform legislation passed in 1996 included a caseload reduction credit that reduces each state's mandated participation rate if its welfare caseload declines. Because of the dramatic declines in welfare caseloads since 1996, states have generally seen greatly reduced participation rates for TANF programs. After accounting for cases involving only children, states excluded 11 percent of the remaining 1.4 million families with an adult from federal or state time limits. States' experiences with work requirements and time limits highlight key issues Congress may wish to consider when reauthorizing TANF provisions, including the relatively few families who have reached their time limit so far and the future adequacy of the federal 20-percent extension."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Office of Justice Programs (OJP) provides grants to state and local governments, universities, and private foundations to help prevent and control crime, administer justice, and assist crime victims. OJP bureaus and program offices award both formula and discretionary grants. The monitoring of grant activities is a key management tool to ensure that funds awarded to grantees are being properly spent. In recent years, GAO and others, including OJP, have identified various grant monitoring problems among OJP's bureaus and offices. OJP has begun to work with its bureaus and offices to address these problems, but it is too early to tell whether its efforts will resolve the issues identified."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In 1978, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) established a regulatory process for recognizing tribes. The process requires tribes that are petitioning for recognition to submit evidence that they have continuously existed as an Indian tribe since historic times. Recognition establishes a formal government-to-government relationship between the United States and a tribe. The quasi-sovereign status created by this relationship exempts some tribal lands from most state and local laws and regulations, including those that regulate gambling. GAO found that the basis for BIA's tribal recognition decisions is not always clear. Although petitioning tribes must meet set criteria to be granted recognition, no guidance exists to clearly explain how to interpret key aspects of the criteria. This lack of guidance creates controversy and uncertainty for all parties about the basis for decisions. The recognition process is also hampered by limited resources; a lack of time; and ineffective procedures for providing information to interested third parties, such as local municipalities and other Indian tribes. As a result, the number of completed petitions waiting to be considered is growing. BIA estimates that it may take up to 15 years before all …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Federal, state, and local governments, and the private sector, are taking steps to strengthen the safety and security of the American people, including actions to strengthen border and port security, airport security, health and food security and to protect critical infrastructure. There are date, information-sharing, and technology challenges facing the country in developing and implementing a national preparedness strategy. The nature of the terrorist threat makes it difficult to identify and differentiate information that can provide an early indication of a terrorist threat from the mass of data available to those in positions of authority. Further, the nation faces considerable cultural, legal, and technical barriers in effectively collecting and sharing information. Many technologies key to addressing threats are not yet available, and many existing technologies have not effectively been adapted for the threats the country now faces. The real challenge, however, is not just to find the right solutions to each of these problems but to weave solutions together in an integrated and intelligent fashion."

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a parent has an unrestricted right of access to the school counseling records of his or her minor child (RQ-0506-JC)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a slaughterhouse in Texas that slaughters, processes, possesses, sells, or transports horse-meat to foreign countries to be consumed by humans there violates section 149.002 or 149.003 of the Agriculture Code, and related questions (RQ-0512-JC)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a bank may use information contained in the magnetic stripe of a driver's license (RQ-0514-JC)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a sheriff in a county that does not have a bail bond board has the authority to post in the county jail a list of preapproved bondsmen (RQ-0517-JC)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Meaning of "lifetime service credit for purposes of subchapter D of chapter 41 of the Government Code, which mandates longevity pay for certain assisstant prosecutors (RQ-0042-JC)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether a member of the City Council of the City of Watauga may appoint himself to the Board of Directors of the Watagua Crime Control and prevention District.(RQ-0452-JC).

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Authority of the Texas Board of Professional Land Surveying to require that all proposed oil and gas well locations be surveyed by a registered professional land surveyor(RQ-0440-JC).

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether the University of Texas System may adopt a mandatory infrastructure fee without express legislative authority.

Fax to Alice Woods from Al Daniels on June 7, 2002, discussing about contacting some of the Dallas volunteers.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Karl Williams. Williams joined the Navy in April of 1942, as a 3rd Class Yeoman. He completed training at San Diego and provides details of his training experiences, uniforms and general life at camp. While waiting on a ship assignment, Williams was transferred to Tiburon, California, making submarine harbor nets by hand. From June to October of 1942 he volunteered to attend school for additional Yeoman training in Bloomington, Indiana. He was transferred to Miami to complete further training through the middle of 1943. He then served as 2nd Class Yeoman aboard a submarine chaser. They were sent to Panama in August of 1943. He did not have any contact with enemy submarines during his service. They traveled to New Caledonia and Guadalcanal, where they were stationed through August of 1944, serving as a patrol ship around the island. They were sent to the Mariana Islands where they remained until the war ended. He was discharged in October of 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Ivan Brown. Brown joined the Army in 1942. He joined the 3rd Chemical Mortar Battalion. His job was working with the 4.2-inch mortar and poison gas. In April of 1943, they deployed to Oran, North Africa. They participated in the allied invasions of Sicily, Italy and southern France, and the Battle of the Ardennes. Brown was discharged in late 1945.

News release concerning DART's annual senior health fair, offering free health services and information on DART transportation options.

News release about DART's selection of ACT21 Joint Venture as its general engineering consultant.