Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In recent years, several Hawaii-based conservation advocacy organizations and others have raised a variety of concerns about the conduct of members and staff of the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council (Western Pacific Council) related to lobbying and conflicts of interest, among other things. The Western Pacific Council is one of eight regional fishery management councils established by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act). The council is responsible for developing management plans for fisheries in federal waters off Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and other U.S. Pacific islands. The council has 13 voting members--including 5 designated state and federal fishery managers and 8 members of the public with expertise in commercial and recreational fishing and marine conservation who are appointed by the Secretary of Commerce. The council employs an executive director with a staff of 13 to assist in the performance of its functions. An attorney from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), an agency within the Department of Commerce, advises the council on regulatory and procedural matters and attends all council meetings. The Western Pacific Council currently finances all of its …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses issues related to girls' delinquency--a topic that has attracted the attention of federal, state, and local policymakers for more than a decade as girls have increasingly become involved in the juvenile justice system. For example, from 1995 through 2005, delinquency caseloads for girls in juvenile justice courts nationwide increased 15 percent while boys' caseloads decreased by 12 percent. More recently, in 2007, 29 percent of juvenile arrests--about 641,000 arrests--involved girls, who accounted for 17 percent of juvenile violent crime arrests and 35 percent of juvenile property crime arrests. Further, research on girls has highlighted that delinquent girls have higher rates of mental health problems than delinquent boys, receive fewer special services, and are more likely to abandon treatment programs. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) is the Department of Justice (DOJ) office charged with providing national leadership, coordination, and resources to prevent and respond to juvenile delinquency and victimization. OJJDP supports states and communities in their efforts to develop and implement effective programs to, among other things, prevent delinquency and intervene after a juvenile has offended. For example, from fiscal years 2007 …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The nation's 1.4 million nursing home residents are a highly vulnerable population of elderly and disabled individuals for whom remaining at home is no longer feasible. The federal government plays a key role in ensuring that nursing home residents receive appropriate care by setting quality requirements that nursing homes must meet to participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs and by contracting with states to conduct routine inspections--called standard surveys--and complaint investigations. To encourage compliance with quality requirements, Congress has authorized certain enforcement actions, known as sanctions, such as civil money penalties or termination from participating in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is responsible for imposing federal sanctions, typically on the basis of states' recommendations. One sanction--temporarily replacing a home's management--has been used infrequently. According to CMS guidance, temporary management may be used instead of termination in cases where nursing homes place residents at risk of death or serious injury--referred to as immediate jeopardy--or place residents at widespread risk of actual harm. CMS requires that a nursing home remove any immediate jeopardy within a short time frame of 23 calendar …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Government Printing Office (GPO), within the legislative branch, is the federal government's primary resource for gathering, producing, and preserving published federal information. GPO's main facility --located 5 blocks from the U.S. Capitol--encompasses about 1.5 million square feet and consists of four buildings that range in age from 68 to 105 years. According to GPO officials, the facility is inefficiently configured, aging, and much larger than needed. As a result, GPO has examined several options for obtaining a new facility. In 1982, GAO recommended that GPO conduct a cost-benefit analysis of the various options available to address the inefficiencies in its facilities. GAO was asked to examine GPO's efforts to obtain a new facility. Accordingly, this briefing provides preliminary information on (1) GPO's analysis of options to obtain a new facility and the extent to which GPO has followed leading practices for capital decision-making and (2) issues, if any, that impede GPO's efforts to obtain a new facility. To conduct this work, GAO analyzed GPO studies and interviewed GPO and District government officials, among others. GPO officials reviewed a draft of this briefing and generally agreed with the …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "On April 22, 2009, GAO testified before the subcommittee at a hearing entitled, "Eliminating Waste and Fraud in Medicare and Medicaid." This letter responds to a May 29, 2009, request for responses to questions for the record related to our April 22, 2009, testimony. The questions are as follows: (1) What do you see as the biggest challenge for CMS to provide an estimate for improper payments under Medicare Part D? (2) Has GAO identified any problems with the current process for reviewing and paying Medicare claims that would make the program more vulnerable to fraudulent claims? (3) Is there any reason CMS cannot include penalties in its Medicare Administrative Contractor contracts for paying improper or fraudulent claims that you are aware of?"

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) insures the retirement future of nearly 44 million people in over 29,000 private-sector defined benefit pension plans. In July 2003, GAO designated PBGC's single-employer pension insurance program--its largest insurance program--as "high risk," including it on GAO's list of major programs that need urgent Congressional attention and agency action. The program remains on the list today with a financial deficit of just over $11 billion, as of September 2008. The committee asked GAO to discuss our recent work on PBGC. Specifically, this testimony addresses two issues: (1) PBGC's financial vulnerabilities, and (2) the governance, oversight, and management challenges PBGC faces. To address these objectives, we are relying on our prior work assessing PBGC's long-term financial challenges, and several reports that we have published over the last two years on PBGC governance and management. GAO has made a number of recommendations and identified matters for Congressional consideration in these reports, and PBGC is implementing some of these recommendations. No new recommendations are being made as part of this testimony."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This letter responds to a congressional request that we address questions submitted for the record related to the March 18, 2009, hearing entitled ATC Modernization: Near-Term Achievable Goals. Our attached responses to these questions are based on a review of literature on avionics and equipage incentives, interviews with Federal Aviation Administration officials, interviews with stakeholders and developers of avionics with knowledge of the maturity and costs of avionics equipment, and our knowledge of the areas addressed by the questions. We conducted this work from April 2009 to May 2009 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The recession accelerated declines in mail volume in fiscal year 2008 and flattened revenues despite postal rate increases. That year, mail volume fell by 9.5 billion pieces, or 4.5 percent, and resulted in a net loss of $2.8 billion as the U.S. Postal Service's (USPS) cost-cutting did not close the gap between revenues and expenses. We testified this March before this subcommittee that USPS's financial condition has continued to deteriorate in the first 5 months of fiscal year 2009, with accelerating declines in mail volume and financial losses. USPS projected its financial condition to continue deteriorating for the rest of the fiscal year and to result in an unprecedented cash shortfall of $1.5 billion, assuming that ambitious cost-cutting targets are achieved. This testimony updates that information and focuses on (1) how USPS's financial viability is challenged given current economic conditions and whether USPS can cover its expenses and financial obligations, (2) USPS's opportunities to rightsize its retail and mail processing networks, and (3) what options and trade-offs need to be considered to address mail volume and revenue declines. It is based on GAO's past work and updated information …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program is the Department of Defense's (DOD's) most costly acquisition, seeking to simultaneously develop, produce, and field three aircraft variants for the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and eight international partners. The total expected U.S. investment is now more than $300 billion to develop and procure 2,456 aircraft over the next 25 years. GAO's most recent report in March of this year discussed increased development costs and schedule estimates, plans to accelerate procurement, manufacturing performance and delays, and development test strategy. A recurring theme in GAO's work has been concern about what GAO believes is undue concurrency of development, test, and production activities and the heightened risks it poses to achieving good cost, schedule, and performance outcomes. This testimony discusses: (1) current JSF cost and schedule estimates; (2) engine development; (3) manufacturing performance; (4) contracting issues for procurement of aircraft; (5) and test plans. This statement draws from GAO's March 2009 report, updated to the extent possible with new budget data and a recently revised procurement profile directed by the Secretary of Defense."

Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This is a supplement to GAO-10-82. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) comprises 15 agencies in several broad mission areas responsible for, among other things, assisting farmers and rural communities, overseeing the safety of meat and poultry, giving low-income families access to nutritious food, and protecting the nation's forests. USDA's 12 staff offices support these mission activities. In 1965 Congress gave USDA transfer of funds authority that allows it to charge the appropriations accounts of its agencies and staff offices in order to provide certain programs centrally that benefit those agencies and offices. USDA has used this authority to support several e-government, educational, and presidential initiatives, and the USDA visitors' information center; and to fund programs that provide activities and services that USDA's agencies and staff offices would otherwise have to obtain individually, such as sign language interpreter services and a drug testing program. The Senate report accompanying USDA's fiscal year 2008 appropriations, as reported out by the Senate Appropriations Committee, expressed concern that these charges--referred to as "Greenbook" charges--have grown excessively over the last few years. Noting that the disclosure of these charges to Congress …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Despite a growing investment in space, the majority of large-scale acquisition programs in the Department of Defense's (DOD) space portfolio have experienced problems during the past two decades that have driven up cost and schedules and increased technical risks. The cost resulting from acquisition problems along with the ambitious nature of space programs has resulted in cancellations of programs that were expected to require investments of tens of billions of dollars. Along with the cost increases, many programs are experiencing significant schedule delays--at least 7 years--resulting in potential capability gaps in areas such as positioning, navigation, and timing; missile warning; and weather monitoring. This testimony focuses on (1) the condition of space acquisitions, (2) causal factors, and (3) recommendations for better positioning programs and industry for success. In preparing this testimony, GAO relied on its body of work in space and other programs, including previously issued GAO reports on assessments of individual space programs, common problems affecting space system acquisitions, and DOD's acquisition policies."

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, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Authority of a country attorney to issue commissions for reserve or nonpaid peace officers (RQ-0730-GA).

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, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Authority of a water company to paint the fire hydrants black under certain circumstances (RQ-0750

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, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services may authorize assissted living facilities to provide nursing services to the termiallly ill and other residents (RQ-0794-GA)

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, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether a county auditor may require the county treasurer to obtain prior approval of a transfer of county funds from one account in the county depository to another, or from one investment to another (RQ-0800-GA)

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, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether a justice of the peace may defer the adjudication of a charge of violating the Parks and Wildlife Code and impose a special expense without assessing a fine and, if so, whether any portion of the special expense must be remitted to the Parks and Wildlife Department (RQ-0802-GA)

An invoice from Texas Stonewall Democratic Caucus to Cahrles R. Gallimore of $50.00 on May 20, 2009.

An invoice from Elida Barraza, the Printing Services Coordinator at the Printing Services department to Mr. Stallings of $11.44 on February 25, 2009.

An invoice from Texas Stonewall Democratic Caucus to Linda Allen of $100.00 on May 20, 2009.

An invoice from Texas Stonewall Democratic Caucus to Dan Graney of $135.00 on May 20, 2009.

An invoice from Texas Stonewall Democratic Caucus to Lt. Col. Patricia J. McGuire of $20.00 on May 20, 2009.

An invoice from Texas Stonewall Democratic Caucus to Marilyn P. Graham of $100.00 on May 20, 2009.

An invoice from Elida Barraza, the Printing Services Coordinator at the Printing Services department to Mr. Stallings of $4.22 on February 20, 2009.

An invoice from Texas Stonewall Democratic Caucus to Roberto Flores of $60.00 on May 20, 2009.