Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Forest Service consolidated its Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station with its Intermountain Research Station. The resulting consolidated station was renamed the Rocky Mountain Research Station and was relocated to Fort Collins, Colorado. The Forest Service originally proposed consolidating the two stations in 1992 but delayed taking any action until it completed its reorganizational assessment in May 1997. The Forest Service cut 18 managerial and administrative staff positions during the consolidation. The positions that were eliminated were either transferred to other Forest Service units or were vacated through retirement or employee buyouts. Since 1992, the research funding available to the merged station has remained relatively constant, about 15 percent of the Forest Service's budget for research stations, and the number of employees has remained relatively stable."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the performance of the information systems that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) uses to process tax returns for individual taxpayers, focusing on: (1) IRS' tax processing systems performance in the 2000 filing season as reported by IRS compared to the 1999 filing season; and (2) whether IRS had taken actions to address problems affecting individual taxpayers."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) paperwork burden, focusing on: (1) the general dimensions of EPA's paperwork requirements and the agency's progress toward reducing the burden that those requirements impose; (2) the process that EPA used to develop paperwork burden-hour estimates for its largest information collections as of September 30, 1998, and gauge the credibility of those estimates; (3) EPA's largest paperwork burden-hour reductions between September 30, 1995, and September 30, 1998, and gauge the credibility of those reductions; and (4) EPA's Reinventing Environmental Information initiative and the agency's new Office of Environmental Information."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO followed up on its previous report on the status of China's World Trade Organization (WTO) membership negotiations, focusing on the: (1) results of the November 1999 bilateral Agreement on Market Access between China and the United States; and (2) status of China's ongoing multilateral negotiations in the WTO."

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 Aviation Hall of Fame for the years ended December 31, 1997 and 1998, focusing on whether the audit reports 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 reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the Agricultural Hall of Fame for the years ended December 31, 1997 and 1998, 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 reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the National Fund for Medical Education for the year ended December 31, 1998, focusing on whether the audit report complied with the financial reporting requirements of the law."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) efforts to address GAO's recommendations to improve VA's information technology (IT) program."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Department of Defense's (DOD) funding for activities sponsored by the Southeastern Europe Defense Ministerial during fiscal years 1999 and 2000 and the sources of this funding."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This correspondence discusses financial weaknesses reported in the Department of Education's fiscal year 1999 financial statement audit. A major area needing improvement involves internal controls, which provide the framework for the accomplishment of management objectives, accurate financial reporting, and compliance with laws and regulations. This lack of good internal controls puts Education at risk of waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement. Corrective actions undertaken by Education in response to the identified weaknesses indicate that it is making progress in working towards financial accountability. These corrective actions include purchasing a new general ledger system, acquiring a software tool to help automate the reconciliation process, improving computer controls, and establishing a process to transfer certain excess Federal Family Education Loan Program funds to the Treasury. The effectiveness of the corrective actions will be determined as part of the fiscal year 2000 financial statement audit."

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 National Society Daughters of the American Colonists for the fiscal year ended February 28, 1999, 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 provided information on the U.S. Export-Import Bank's (Eximbank) draft fiscal years 2001-2006 strategic plan, focusing on the: (1) improvements made to the February 1999 draft strategic plan; and (2) areas where Eximbank's draft strategic plan could better meet the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 and related guidance."

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 National Conference on Citizenship for the fiscal years ended June 30, 1998 and 1999, focusing on whether the audit report complied with the financial reporting requirements of the law."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Department of Justice's (DOJ) policy and guidance for selecting structured settlement brokers, focusing on: (1) the policies and guidance for selecting structured settlement brokers used by DOJ and six selected agencies; and (2) a list of the structured settlement brokerage companies used by DOJ and the number of settlements awarded to each company since May 1997."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) single family housing program, focusing on the implementation of its management and marketing contracts."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the status of efforts by the Forest Service to achieve accountability for the tax dollars appropriated to carry out its mission, focusing on: (1) actions the agency has taken to improve its financial and performance accountability; (2) the remaining hurdles to those improvements; and (3) strategies the agency is developing to address these hurdles."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed options for increasing Medicare beneficiaries' access to prescription drugs, focusing on the: (1) factors contributing to the growth in prescription drug spending and efforts to control that growth; and (2) design and implementation issues to be considered regarding proposals to improve seniors' access to affordable prescription drugs."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Some of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) regulations set standards that limit environmental contaminants to levels that are determined, in large part, on the basis of the health risks they pose. When EPA assesses the health risks of contaminants, however, the agency is faced with uncertainties and gaps in scientific knowledge and data. This report summarizes GAO's findings on whether EPA's benefits estimates for major environmental regulations that establish health-based standards reflect precautionary assumptions about health risks. Three key factors influence EPA's use of precautionary assumptions in assessing health risks. First, EPA is influenced by its mission to protect human health and safeguard the natural environment. Second, EPA is influenced by the nature and extent of relevant data. Finally, EPA is influenced by the nature of the health risk being evaluated."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Under U.S. patent law, a patent must describe the subject invention in enough detail for someone skilled in that field to use or make it. In cases involving biological materials, the inventor may have to submit a sample. Some members of the biotechnology industry believe that biological deposits make patent infringement easier, reasoning that a person or organization can obtain a sample of the deposit and then reproduce the invention with minimal effort and expense. GAO found that access to biological deposits once a patent is granted has not increased the risk of patent infringement for the biotechnology industry. These concerns persist especially since the passage of the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999, which publishes the patent application 18 months from the date of filing and is made available to the public at that time rather than at the time the patent is granted."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report discusses the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) efforts to resolve serious internal control weaknesses. During the past several years, serious internal control weaknesses and other deficiencies have plagued HUD's activities. In 1997, HUD announced its 2020 Management Reform Plan to overcome the agency's problems. HUD has made reasonable progress toward resolving material internal control weaknesses, but more remains to be done. Major steps that remain include bringing core financial systems into compliance with federal financial systems requirements, ensuring that rental subsidies are based on correct tenant income, improving the Federal Housing Administration's (FHA) multifamily project monitoring, improving budgetary and financial accounting controls, and enhancing support in the FHA business processes."

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) use of nonaudit contacts with taxpayers, focusing on: (1) the frequency of use, variation in timing, and types of taxpayer responses for three major types of nonaudit contacts; and (2) analyzing the IRS' use of data from the three types of nonaudit contacts to improve compliance and service to taxpayers."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the results of its review of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft program, focusing on whether the acquisition strategy: (1) is designed to demonstrate to a low level of technical risk those critical technologies, processes, and system characteristics necessary to produce an affordable family of strike aircraft that meets all participants' needs before entering engineering and manufacturing development; and (2) is being implemented in a manner that will ensure that this objective will be achieved."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Defense Security Service's (DSS) personnel security investigations, focusing on the: (1) completeness and timeliness of the agency's investigations; and (2) factors that contributed to the deficiencies GAO found."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) International Space Station, focusing on: (1) areas where the Russian-built Zarya and Service Module do not comply with safety requirements; (2) NASA's review and approval of noncompliances; and (3) whether NASA was due any compensation from the Zarya contractor for noncompliance or performance problems."