Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since 1997, GAO has identified information security as a governmentwide high-risk issue. This has been particularly true at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), where the department has been challenged in protecting the availability, confidentiality, and integrity of its information and systems. Since the 1990s, GAO has highlighted the challenges the department has faced, including the need to safeguard personal information. GAO was asked to testify on VA's progress in implementing information security and the department's compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA), a comprehensive framework for securing federal information resources. In preparing this testimony, GAO analyzed prior GAO, Office of Management and Budget, VA Office of Inspector General, and VA reports related to the department's information security program."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "After the Small Business Administration (SBA) was widely criticized for its performance following the 2005 Gulf Coast hurricanes, the agency took steps to reform its Disaster Loan Program. Congress also enacted the Small Business Disaster Response and Loan Improvements Act of 2008 (Act), which places new requirements on SBA to ensure it is prepared for catastrophic disasters. This testimony discusses (1) the extent to which SBA has addressed the Act's requirements, and (2) how SBA's response to major disasters in 2008 aligned with key components of its June 2007 Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP). In completing this statement, GAO reviewed and updated, as appropriate, the July 2009 report, Small Business Administration: Additional Steps Should Be Taken to Address Reforms to the Disaster Loan Program and Improve the Application Process for Future Disasters (GAO-09-755). In that report, GAO recommended that SBA should fulfill the Act's region-specific marketing and outreach requirements; complete its annual report to Congress; issue an updated DRP; develop an implementation plan for remaining requirements; and develop procedures to further improve the application process for the Disaster Loan Program."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The F-35 Lightning II, also known as the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), is the Department of Defense's (DOD) most costly and ambitious aircraft acquisition, seeking to simultaneously develop and field three aircraft variants for the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and eight international partners. The JSF is critical for recapitalizing tactical air forces and will require a long-term commitment to very large annual funding outlays. The estimated total investment cost is currently about $385 billion to develop and procure 2,457 aircraft. Because of a history of relatively poor cost and schedule outcomes, defense leadership over the past 15 months has directed a comprehensive restructuring of the JSF program that is continuing. This testimony draws substantially from our extensive body of work on the JSF including our April 2011 report, the latest annual review mandated in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010, Pub. L. No. 111-84 244 (2009). This testimony discusses (1) program cost and schedule changes and their implications on affordability; (2) progress made during 2010; (3) design and manufacturing maturity; and (4) test plans and progress. GAO's work included analyses of a wide range …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The past two years have seen the Congress and DOD take meaningful steps towards addressing long-standing weapon acquisition issues--an area that has been on GAO's high risk list since 1990. This testimony focuses on the progress DOD has made in improving the planning and execution of its weapon acquisition programs and the potential for recent acquisition reforms to improve program outcomes. The testimony includes observations about (1) DOD's efforts to manage its portfolio of major defense acquisition programs, (2) the knowledge attained at key junctures of a subset of 42 weapon programs from the 2009 portfolio, (3) other factors that can affect program execution, and (4) DOD's implementation of recent acquisition reforms. The testimony is based on the results of our annual assessment of weapon programs. To conduct the assessment, GAO analyzed data on the composition of DOD's portfolio of major defense acquisition programs. GAO also collected data from program offices on technology, design, and manufacturing knowledge, as well as on other factors that can affect program execution. GAO has made numerous recommendations on weapon system acquisition in prior work but is not making any new recommendations in …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In summary, TSA has completed its initial testing of the CAT/BPSS technology and has begun operational testing at three airports. We found the project’s associated life cycle cost estimate to be reasonably comprehensive and well documented, although we are less confident in its accuracy due to questions about the assumed inflation rate. In addition, we could not evaluate its credibility because the current version does not include an independent cost estimate or an assessment of how changing key assumptions and other factors would affect the estimate. Our past work has identified three key challenges related to TSA’s efforts to acquire and deploy technologies to address homeland security needs: (1) developing and meeting technology program requirements, (2) overseeing and conducting testing of new screening technologies, and (3) developing acquisition program baselines to establish initial cost, schedule, and performance parameters."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report provides data on the number and characteristics of large partnerships as well as Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audits of large partnership returns. For purposes of this report, GAO did not identify a statutory, IRS, or industry-accepted definition of a large partnership. Instead, GAO used a combination of criteria for partner size and asset size used by IRS to define large partnerships as those that reported having 100 or more direct partners and $100 million or more in assets. The number of large partnerships increased from 720 in tax year 2002 to 2,226 in tax year 2011. Large partnerships also increased in terms of the average number of direct partners and average asset size. IRS had data on two categories of large partnership return audits. First, the number of completed field audits of large partnership returns increased from 11 in fiscal year 2007 to 31 in fiscal year 2013. Second, IRS counted audits closed through its campus function, which increased from 42 to 143 over the same period. Unlike field audits, campus function audits generally do not entail a review of the books and records of the …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Over the last 5 years, Border Patrol has nearly doubled the number of its agents on patrol, constructed hundreds of miles of border fence, and installed surveillance equipment on and near lands managed by the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture along the southwestern border. In so doing, the agency has had to comply with federal land management laws, and some have expressed concern that these laws may limit agents' abilities to detect and apprehend undocumented aliens. GAO was asked to examine (1) key land management laws Border Patrol operates under and how it and land management agencies coordinate their responsibilities under these laws; (2) how Border Patrol operations are affected by these laws; and (3) the extent to which land management agencies collect and use data related to the environmental effects of illegal activities, such as human trafficking and drug smuggling. GAO reviewed key land management laws, interviewed agents-in-charge at 26 Border Patrol stations responsible for patrolling federal southwest borderlands, and interviewed managers of these lands."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The four Department of Defense (DOD) components GAO examined have active processes for referring identified cases of contractor misconduct for appropriate action, including suspension or debarment. The components identify numerous cases of actual or alleged contractor misconduct each year from various internal and external sources. The figure below shows the process for identifying and referring cases to the suspension and debarment official for consideration."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In response to a Congressional request for information on waivers related to TANF, we addressed the following questions:"

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) 10 major spaceflight projects discussed in this report have not yet fully implemented earned value management (EVM). As a result, NASA is not taking full advantage of opportunities to use an important tool that could help reduce acquisition risk. GAO assessed the 10 projects against three fundamental EVM practices that, according to GAO's best practices cost guide, are necessary for maintaining a reliable EVM system. GAO found shortfalls in two of three fundamental practices. Specifically, we found that"

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO was asked to review the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) strategic planning and management. Leading practices in this area include developing strategies to address management challenges and results-oriented performance measures, aligning activities and resources to strategic goals, and enhancing the use of performance information. In this report, GAO examined the extent to which (1) FDA's Strategic Action Plan contains strategies to address its management challenges, and the progress FDA has reported in addressing those challenges; (2) FDA's annual performance measures are results-oriented; (3) FDA has aligned its activities and resources to support its strategic goals; and (4) FDA managers report using performance information in decision making and applying key practices to encourage that use. GAO surveyed FDA managers; analyzed reports on FDA to identify its management challenges; reviewed FDA and other documents, prior GAO work, and surveys of federal managers; and interviewed FDA officials."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In fiscal years 2008-2012, $52.4 billion was appropriated out of the $62.2 billion authorized under the America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science Act of 2007 (COMPETES 2007) and the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 (COMPETES 2010). Almost all of these funds went to the entire budgets of three existing research entities--the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science (Science)--including all of the programs and activities the entities carry out. Appropriations for NSF, NIST, and Science generally increased under the acts but did not reach levels authorized by the acts. In addition to authorizing the budgets of these entities, COMPETES 2007 and COMPETES 2010 specifically authorized funding for 40 individual programs, including some programs within and some outside of these entities. Among those 40 programs, the 12 programs that existed before COMPETES 2007 received appropriations and continue to operate. Six of 28 newly authorized programs were also funded. Of these 6 programs, 1--DOE's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, set up to develop new energy technologies--is continuing operations, …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "For the past 2 years, the Department of Defense (DOD) has been implementing the Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act (Reform Act) requirements for systems engineering and developmental testing. These activities are important to DOD's ability to control acquisition costs, which increased by $135 billion over the past 2 years for 98 major defense acquisition programs. GAO was asked to determine (1) DOD's progress in implementing the Reform Act's requirements and (2) whether there are challenges at the military service level that could affect their systems engineering and developmental testing activities. To do this, GAO analyzed implementation status documents, discussed developmental testing office concerns with current and former DOD officials, and analyzed military service workforce growth plans and test range funding data.."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program (MGD Program) provides donations of U.S. agricultural products and financial and technical assistance for school feeding programs in the developing world. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), with about $200 million in funding in fiscal year 2010, the MGD Program served about 5 million beneficiaries in 28 countries. In 2006 and 2007, USDA's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) audited the department's food aid programs and identified significant weaknesses. This report examines (1) USDA's oversight of the MGD Program and (2) the extent to which USDA has addressed the program's internal control weaknesses. GAO conducted field work in Cambodia, Guatemala, and Kenya; reviewed USDA and implementing partners' documents and studies on school feeding; and interviewed officials from U.S. agencies and various organizations.."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Very little is known about sexual abuse among children that are regularly cared for by more than 1.3 million child care providers every week in the United States. In this context, GAO was asked to (1) provide an overview of federal and state laws related to the employment of sex offenders at child care facilities and (2) examine cases where individuals who were convicted of serious sexual offenses were subsequently employed or present at child care facilities. To provide an overview of selected laws, GAO searched for prohibitions against offenders being present at child care facilities, requirements for conducting criminal-history checks, and penalties for violating these requirements. The cases GAO examined focus only on individuals who were convicted of serious sexual offenses and cannot be generalized to all child care facilities. To identify the cases, GAO reviewed open-source information from 2000 to 2010. GAO also compared the years 2007 to 2009 in employment databases from 20 states and the District of Columbia to data in the National Sex Offender Registry. GAO ultimately selected 10 cases from eight states and the District of Columbia for review. For …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins ""

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Little is known about lithium-7 production in China and Russia and whether their supplies can meet future domestic demand. According to industry representatives, China and Russia produce enough lithium-7 to meet demand from U.S. pressurized water reactors, a type of commercial nuclear power reactor that requires lithium-7 for safe operation. However, China's continued supply may be reduced by its own growing demand, according to an expert that is familiar with China's plans. Specifically, China is building several pressurized water reactors and developing a new type of reactor that will require 1,000s of kilograms of lithium-7 to operate, rather than the 300 kilograms needed annually for all 65 U.S. pressurized water reactors. Relying on two producers of lithium-7 leaves U.S. pressurized water reactors vulnerable to lithium-7 supply disruptions."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of the Treasury announced changes in January 2012 to its Making Home Affordable (MHA) programs, which are funded by the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), to address barriers to borrower participation. These changes include expanding eligibility criteria and extending application deadlines through 2013. Not enough time has passed to assess the extent to which these changes will increase participation. Several large servicers were not able to fully implement the changes by the June 1, 2012, effective date, and servicers that GAO queried had mixed views about possible effects. Treasury consulted with servicers, investors, and federal banking regulators before implementing the changes but did not perform a comprehensive risk assessment for the changes or develop meaningful performance measures in accordance with standards for internal control. As a result, Treasury may have difficulty mitigating potential risks, such as an increase in redefaults or the misuse of funds; effectively assessing program outcomes; or holding servicers accountable."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has taken steps to include auto industry employees in its Whistleblower Protection Program and has coordinated with the Department of Transportation (DOT) on whistleblower issues, but interagency collaborative mechanisms could be strengthened. Among other steps, OSHA is developing procedures for how it will investigate claims from auto employees and estimates most of its efforts will be completed in 2014. OSHA documents its collaboration with DOT's component agencies on whistleblower protections by developing memorandums of agreements (MOA), and currently MOAs cover aviation and rail employees; the agencies are considering developing MOAs to cover other transportation sectors such as commercial motor-carrier employees. Officials from both OSHA and DOT believe it is important to identify or refer potential claims of retaliation and safety violations to each other. In September 2012, GAO concluded that collaboration is critical when meaningful results that the federal government seeks to achieve require the coordinated efforts of more than one federal agency. Among others, key practices of effective collaboration include clearly delineating roles and responsibilities and monitoring progress. OSHA and DOT officials agree that following GAO's key practices …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "From August 2005 to September 2010, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) awarded five contracts to reconstruct a major coastal road in Aceh Province, Indonesia. Three of the contracts were for construction, one contract was for design and supervision, and one contract was for project management. Several factors delayed the road’s completion and increased costs. For example, according to USAID, when one contractor did not make acceptable progress, the agency reduced the scope of work, terminated construction of an 8-mile road section, and hired another contractor to complete the section. Other factors included the Indonesian government’s difficulty in acquiring land for the road and local opposition to the new road alignment."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Workforce board officials and their partners in the 14 initiatives cited a range of factors that facilitated building innovative collaborations. Almost all of the collaborations grew out of efforts to address urgent workforce needs of multiple employers in a specific sector, such as health care, manufacturing, or agriculture, rather than focusing on individual employers. Additionally, the partners in these initiatives made extra effort to understand and work with employers so they could tailor services such as jobseeker assessment, screening, and training to address specific employer needs. For example, in Greensboro, North Carolina, board staff provided expedited services for an aircraft company that just moved to the area by designing a web-based recruitment tool and customized assessment process within 48 hours and screening over 2,400 initial applicants. In all the initiatives, partners remained engaged in these collaborative efforts because they continued to produce a wide range of reported results, such as an increased supply of skilled labor, job placements, reduced employer recruitment and turnover costs, and averted layoffs. For example, in Cincinnati, Ohio, employers who participated in the health care initiative realized almost $5,000 in estimated cost …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Social Security Administration (SSA) has taken steps that hold promise for improving the process for updating its medical criteria, but continues to face challenges ensuring timely updates. SSA now uses a two-tiered system for ongoing revisions to its medical listings. First, it completes a comprehensive review of all medical conditions listed within each of 14 body systems, making needed revisions. For subsequent updates for a body system, the agency uses a targeted approach, selecting for review and revision only those medical conditions most in need of change. To date, SSA has completed comprehensive revisions for 8 of the 14 body systems and now is reviewing conditions under them to determine where targeted revisions are appropriate. However, some of these targeted revisions have experienced delays. Moreover, SSA has yet to complete comprehensive revisions for six body systems that have been ongoing for 19 to 33 years. SSA officials attributed delays to a lack of staff and expertise, along with the complexity and unpredictability of the regulatory process."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Of the $595 million identified by Labor as having been appropriated or allocated specifically for green jobs activities since 2009, approximately $501 million went toward efforts with training and support services as their primary objective, with much of that funding provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act). Because the Recovery Act directed federal agencies to spend funds quickly and prudently, Labor implemented a number of high-investment green jobs efforts simultaneously. As a result, in some cases, Recovery Act training programs were initiated prior to a full assessment of the demand for green jobs, which presented challenges for grantees. While Labor's internal agencies initially communicated with each other and with other federal agencies after the Recovery Act was passed, most Recovery Act grants have ended or are winding down."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The General Services Administration's (GSA) 218 high-value leases GAO reviewed represented only about 3 percent of the total number of GSA leases, yet made up about one-third of its leased portfolio in terms of cost and size. GSA has reduced the costs of its high-value leases in line with the administration's goal to reduce real property costs. GSA's efforts include helping agencies improve space utilization. However, for leases nearing expiration, GSA and tenant agencies have faced challenges in funding space renovations and moving costs. This lack of funds has contributed to delays and some cases in which GSA continues to occupy space after the lease expires."