Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO updated its previous report on the city of Philadelphia's efforts to relocate and compensate Logan Triangle Area residents whose homes are sinking into a landfill, focusing on the: (1) total number of eligible owners and tenants who had been relocated or compensated; and (2) number of eligible property owners who have not been relocated or compensated, including whether these owners represented property owners who moved on their own without receiving compensation or had currently occupied properties."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on government to government transfers of U.S. small arms and light weapons, focusing on: (1) U.S. government monitoring and reporting policies regarding small arms and light weapons transfers; (2) the steps the U.S. government is taking at the international level to address the availability of small arms and light weapons; and (3) lessons identified regarding weapon collection programs."

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) efforts to implement its Joint Electronic Commerce Program, focusing on: (1) issues DOD needs to resolve to successfully implement its vision for electronic commerce; and (2) the implementation status and performance measures associated with key electronic commerce initiatives."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Federal Railroad Administration's (FRA) new rule on financing railroad rehabilitation. GAO noted that: (1) the final rule would implement the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing Program to provide direct loans and loan guarantees to state and local governments, government-sponsored authorities and corporations, railroads, and joint ventures that include at least one railroad; (2) the aggregate unpaid principal amounts of direct loans and loan guarantees made under this program cannot exceed $3.5 billion at any one time and not less than $1 billion is to be available solely for projects benefiting freight railroads other than Class I carriers; and (3) FRA complied with applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Army's largest ongoing initiatives integrating active and reserve combat units, focusing on the effects of these efforts on the Army's: (1) total costs; (2) force structure; (3) personnel tempo; and (4) risk in carrying out the national military strategy."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed four strategic goals for how it plans to support Congress in dealing with many complex issues and the challenges of government for the 21st Century."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) efforts to better ensure the integrity of providers who bill the Medicaid program, focusing on: (1) why it is important to take steps to ensure that only honest providers bill federal health care programs; (2) what Medicare is doing to strengthen its provider enrollment process; (3) what states are doing to ensure provider integrity in the Medicaid program; and (4) what additional opportunities exist to improve these efforts."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the regulatory standards used to protect the public from the risks of low-level nuclear radiation, focusing on: (1) whether current radiation standards have a well-verified scientific basis; (2) whether the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) have come closer to agreeing on exposure limits (how much radiation people can be safely exposed to) in the safety standards; and (3) how implementing these standards and limits may affect the costs of nuclear waste cleanup and disposal activities."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the Alan Guttmacher Institute and the Population Council, focusing on: (1) the amount of federal funding that supports these organizations; (2) federal agencies that receive and disburse the funds; and (3) congressional committees with jurisdiction to authorize or appropriate these funds."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Small Business Administration's (SBA) new rule on small business size standards for contractors. GAO noted that: (1) the final rule would establish new small business size standards for general building and heavy construction contractors, with certain exceptions; (2) the increases in the size standards are designed to adjust for inflation since the original standards became effective; and (3) SBA complied with applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the effect of competition from satellite providers on cable rates, focusing on: (1) the extent to which the level of subscribership (or penetration) of direct broadcast satellite (DBS) has influenced cable rates; and (2) other key factors that may influence the level of cable rates."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Oversight of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) generally comes from two select committees of Congress and the CIA's Inspector General. GAO has broad authority to evaluate CIA programs. In reality, however, GAO faces both legal and practical limitations on its ability to review these programs. For example, it has no access to some CIA "unvouchered" accounts and cannot compel its access to foreign intelligence and counterintelligence information. In addition, as a practical matter, GAO is limited by the CIA's level of cooperation, which has varied through the years. GAO has not actively audited the CIA since the early 1960s, when it discontinued such work because CIA was not providing it with enough access to information to allow GAO to do its job. The issue has arisen since then from time to time as GAO's work has required some level of access to CIA programs and information. However, given a lack of requests from Congress for GAO to do specific work at the CIA and its limited resources, GAO made a decision not to pursue the issue further. Today, GAO's dealings with the CIA are mostly limited to information …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In fiscal year 1999, the federal government provided housing assistance to about 5.2 million renter households at a cost of about $28.7 billion in outlays and tax credits. Of this amount, more than $15 billion supported housing units developed under production programs that no longer receive appropriations to produce new or rehabilitated units. This report focuses on six programs that continue to increase the number of households assisted by the federal government: the housing voucher program, which is the largest source of federal funds for housing assistance, and five production programs, that now receive federal funds to produce new or rehabilitate units. GAO found that production programs are more expensive than housing vouchers. GAO estimates that the total per-unit costs for housing production programs are from 32 to 59 percent greater than for housing vouchers in the first year and from 12 to 27 percent greater over 30 years. If costs were the only consideration, the production programs reviewed in this report should have been replaced with vouchers. However, in many markets, production programs are the only sources of new affordable rental units, and use restrictions will keep …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) has had longstanding problems in reconciling the transaction activity in its Fund Balance with Treasury accounts. These reconciliation problems hamper DOD's ability to prepare auditable financial statements and have prompted GAO to place DOD financial management on its list of government activities at high risk for waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement. In August 1998, DOD developed a strategic plan to improve the reconciliation process for the activity in its Fund Balance with Treasury accounts. DOD reported that the Defense Finance and Accounting Service's (DFAS) Denver Center, which provides support for the Air Force, has made the most progress in implementing this plan and that its process for reconciling the activity in the Air Force General Funds is more comprehensive than that of the other DOD components. This report reviews the Denver center's reconciliation processes to determine (1) the progress the Denver center has made in reconciling the transaction activity in the Air Force General Funds and (2) whether the Denver center's reconciliation concepts, policies, and practices could be used in reconciling the Fund Balance with Treasury activity of other DOD components. …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "During fiscal year 2001, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had a number of internal control issues that affected financial reporting, including safeguarding of assets. These concern policies and procedures over (1) receipt of taxpayer payments, (2) courier services that transport taxpayer data, (3) employee fingerprint records, (4) issuance of manual refunds, (5) release of tax liens, (6) recording of property and equipment transactions, (7) linking of property and accounting records, (8) software licenses, (9) reimbursable receivables, and (10) recording changes in administrative account balances."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Since its inception, the Transition Assistance Program has served more than one million separating and retiring military personnel through the coordinated efforts of the Departments of Defense, Transportation, Labor (DOL), and Veterans Affairs. In fiscal year 2001, the military branches and DOL spent $47.5 million to provide transition assistance to 222,000 separating and retiring service members. Although each branch provides required preparation counseling and offers transition assistance workshops to help service members transition to civilian life, not all eligible service members receive transition assistance. Because they have considerable flexibility in designing their programs, transition assistance varies in content and delivery across the military branches. In addition, service members experienced differences in access to transition assistance depending on their unique circumstances. Isolating the impact of transition assistance on employment, education, and other outcomes is difficult because of data inadequacies and methodological challenges."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses management challenges and program risks that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) faces in maintaining a skilled workforce, controlling costs, and providing effective oversight for important projects. NASA is taking on a major transformation aimed at eliminating stovepipes; becoming more integrated and results oriented; and reducing risks while working more economically, efficiently, and effectively. Successfully addressing each of four challenges will be critical for NASA in making sure that it is equipped to achieve its vision for the future. The first--strengthening human capital--will require a concerted and sustained effort by NASA's leadership to commit to change; ensure an appropriate mix of employees to meet future business needs; implement effective approaches for acquiring, developing, and retaining talent; develop and retain talent; and create a results-oriented culture. The remaining challenges facing NASA--controlling International Space Station costs; implementing a faster, better, cheaper approach to space exploration; and correcting weaknesses in contract management--are equally important. Without better oversight and management over its most important programs and acquisitions, NASA's transformation stands to lose credibility and support among its partners in industry, the international community, and academia as well as …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Mint and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP), which produce the nation's coins and currency, provide their own security and have experienced some problems with theft by employees. Although security is necessary to carry out the agencies' missions, their primary function is producing money. In light of these thefts, a congressional committee asked GAO whether the Mint and BEP should continue to provide their own security or whether the United States Secret Service should provide their security. Among the issues that GAO was asked to address were (1) how do the Mint, BEP, and other organizations that produce or handle large amounts of cash provide their security; (2) what thefts have occurred at the Mint and BEP and what steps have they taken to prevent thefts from recurring; and (3) what are the potential benefits and costs of having the Secret Service provide Mint and BEP security? The Mint said it generally agreed with the findings and conclusions that applied to the Mint. BEP and the Secret Service provided technical comments regarding the report, which GAO incorporated where appropriate, but had no overall …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The circumstances of armed conflicts in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan differed in many respects, but in all three cases the United States and the international community became involved in the wars and post-conflict assistance because of important national and international interests. Over the past 10 years, GAO has done extensive work assessing post-conflict assistance in Bosnia and Kosovo and, more recently, has evaluated such assistance to Afghanistan. GAO was asked to provide observations on assistance efforts in these countries that may be applicable to ongoing assistance in Iraq. Specifically, GAO assessed (1) the nature and extent of post-conflict assistance in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan; (2) essential components for carrying out assistance effectively; (3) challenges to implementation; and (4) mechanisms used for accountability and oversight."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Under section 1308 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001 (P.L. 106-398), the Department of Defense is to submit an annual report to Congress on its Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program no later than the first Monday in February of each year. The report should include a five-year plan that discusses the amount and purpose of funding needed over the term of the plan and a description of efforts conducted by the United States to ensure that CTR assistance is fully accounted for and used for its intended purposes. The Act requires the Comptroller General to assess this five-year plan and the description of efforts to account for CTR assistance within 90 days of the report's submission to Congress. The Department submitted its CTR annual report for fiscal year 2004 to Congress on April 18, 2003. We analyzed the 2004 report to determine whether (1) the five-year plan addressed the legislative requirements and presents accurate information, (2) the accountability section addressed legislative requirements and presents accurate information, and (3) the presentation and usefulness of the CTR annual report could be improved."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Telework--work done at a location other than a traditional office--has gained widespread attention over the past decade as a human capital flexibility offering various potential benefits to employers, employees, and society. Using such flexibilities as management tools can help the federal government address its human capital challenges. GAO did this study in response to a congressional request to assess the federal government's progress in implementing telework programs and to determine what else can be done to give federal employees the ability to telework under appropriate circumstances."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Two types of nonprofit organizations, cooperating associations and friends groups, provide substantial support to the national parks. GAO was asked to report on (1) the number of park units supported by nonprofits and the amount of their contributions, (2) the revenue-generating activities of nonprofits and how they compete with park concessioners, (3) factors that contribute to competition between nonprofits and for-profit concessioners, and (4) how park managers are held accountable for meeting goals for nonprofit financial support."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Data sharing can be a valuable tool for federal agencies in determining applicants' eligibility for benefit and loan programs. Congress has authorized the Department of Education, among others, to have limited access to federal taxpayer information collected by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Likewise, IRS is able to use personal information collected by outside sources to better ensure that taxpayers are meeting their tax obligations. GAO was asked to determine whether Education uses taxpayer information to verify information provided by student aid applicants, and the benefits of increasing data verification activities, and whether IRS uses personal information maintained by Education to ensure that taxpayers meet their tax obligations, and the benefits of increasing these activities."

Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Improving the economy and efficiency of federal programs has long been a key objective of the Government Accountability Office (GAO). To this end, GAO held a workshop on December 17, 2004, to discuss the use of economic analysis, such as benefit cost or cost effectiveness, for helping to measure the performance of federal programs. The workshop's purpose was to discuss the present state of economic performance measures and identify gaps in their application and the barriers and analytical issues that limit their use in helping assess the performance of federal programs and identify opportunities for the federal government and professional and academic institutions to improve (1) the use of economic performance measures for evaluating federal programs and (2) the general economic principles and guidance on which economic performance analysis is based."