A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "On December 9, 2002, GAO convened a governance and accountability forum to discuss challenges facing regulators, the accounting profession, and boards of directors and management of public companies in effectively implementing the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and related regulatory actions to improve public confidence in U.S. corporate governance and accountability systems. Major accountability breakdowns recent years, exacerbated in the last 2 years by the unprecedented massive breakdowns and bankruptcy of Enron and WorldCom, have contributed to the decline in investor confidence in U.S. capital markets. The forum focused on the four interrelated areas of corporate governance, the financial reporting model, the accounting profession, and regulation and enforcement that the accountability breakdowns have surfaced as critical areas to be strengthened. Addressing these challenges will involve the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors. In general, there must be the proper incentives, transparency, and accountability mechanisms in place to ensure the effectiveness of any system. As a result, these overarching principles were considered in connection with the issues discussed. Forum participants included individuals from federal and state government, the private sector, standards setting and oversight bodies, and a variety of …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Over 70 million American households receive television service from a cable television operator. In recent years, rates for cable service have increased at a faster pace than the general rate of inflation. GAO agreed to (1) examine the impact of competition on cable rates and service, (2) assess the reliability of information contained in the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) annual cable rate report, (3) examine the causes of recent cable rate increases, (4) assess the impact of ownership affiliations in the cable industry, (5) discuss why cable operators group networks into tiers, and (6) discuss options to address factors that could be contributing to cable rate increases."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The federal fire community's decades old policy of suppressing wildland fires as soon as possible has caused a dangerous increase in vegetation density in our nation's forests. This density increase combined with severe drought over much of the United States has created a significant threat of catastrophic wildfires. In response to this threat, the Forest Service performs activities to reduce the buildup of brush, small trees, and other vegetation on national forest land. With the increased threat of catastrophic wildland fires, there have been concerns about delays in implementing activities to reduce these "forest fuels." Essentially, these concerns focus on the extent to which public appeals and litigation of Forest Service decisions to implement forest fuels reduction activities unnecessarily delay efforts to reduce fuels. The Forest Service does not keep a national database on the number of forest fuels reduction activities that are appealed or litigated. Accordingly, GAO was asked to develop this information for fiscal years 2001 and 2002. Among other things, GAO was asked to determine (1) the number of decisions involving fuels reduction activities and the number of acres affected, (2) the number …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Social Security Administration (SSA) has had difficulty in conducting timely reviews of beneficiaries' cases to ensure they are still eligible for disability benefits. SSA has been taking steps to improve the cost-effectiveness of its review process. SSA has linked the review process to eligibility for a new benefit that provides return-to-work services. This report looks at SSA's ability to stay current with future reviews, identifies potential improvements to the review process, and assesses the review process--return-to-work link."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Passenger screening is critical to the security of our nation's aviation system, particularly in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is tasked with securing all modes of transportation, including the screening of airline passengers. TSA has met numerous requirements in this regard, such as deploying more than 50,000 federal screeners at over 440 commercial airports nationwide. To determine whether TSA's passenger screening program is achieving its intended results, GAO is conducting an ongoing evaluation of TSA's efforts to (1) ensure that passenger screeners are effectively trained and supervised, (2) measure screener performance in detecting threat objects, and (3) implement and evaluate the contract screening pilot program."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Ineffective oversight and management of the Department of Defense's (DOD) travel card program, which GAO has previously reported on, have led to concerns about DOD's use of first and business class airfares. GAO was asked to (1) identify the magnitude of premium class travel, (2) determine if DOD's key internal control activities operated effectively and provide examples of control breakdowns, and (3) assess DOD's monitoring and key elements of the control environment."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Some economists predict that by 2030, the United States could experience a labor shortage of 35 million workers. As the shortage approaches, one option available is to encourage people to work beyond traditional retirement ages, especially because people who are age 55 or older will constitute nearly a third of the poppulation. Accordingly, increasing demands will be made on the workforce development system to help ensure that older workers are provided opportunities to help address the anticipated labor shortage. Concerned that the existing workforce development system may not meet the needs of older workers, the Subcommittee's Ranking Minority Member asked GAO to determine the extent that older workers are enrolled in federal employment and training programs, what services are provided, and how performance measures affect such services."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In fiscal year 2000, about $283 billion in federal grant money was distributed to state and local governments by formula, about half of it through four formula grant programs--Medicaid, Foster Care Title IV-E, Adoption Assistance, and the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG). States receive money based in part on factors such as annual population estimates derived from the previous decennial census, which is conducted by the Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. GAO was asked to measure the effect that using the 2000 census data has on redistributing funding for federal formula grant programs. To do this, GAO analyzed the change in the U.S. and state populations between 1999 and 2000 that was the result of correcting prior population estimates and estimated for the four programs the extent of any redistribution of federal funding among states."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO and other budget experts have discussed that the current time horizons and content of the federal budget could be enhanced to more comprehensively reflect the government's commitments or signal emerging problems. GAO was asked to (1) provide information on the range and nature of responsibilities, programs, and activities that may explicitly or implicitly expose the government to future spending and (2) present and discuss options for increasing the attention paid to these items in the budget and budget process. GAO recommends that OMB report annually on fiscal exposures. Where possible, OMB should report the estimated costs-"exposure level"-of certain activities in the Program and Financing schedules of the budget. In a few select areas, the ultimate objective might be to include costs directly in the budget when doing so would enhance up-front control of spending. Congress may wish to consider exploring options for improving the budgetary information and the attention given to fiscal exposures. If more explicit congressional consideration is desired, as estimates improve, Congress may wish to develop budget process mechanisms that prompt more deliberation."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Cerro Grande Fire Assistance Act (CGFAA) mandated that GAO annually audit all claim payments made to compensate the victims of the Cerro Grande Fire in northern New Mexico. For this third report on this topic, GAO determined whether the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is now a part of the Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate of the Department of Homeland Security, (1) paid fire claims in accordance with applicable guidance and (2) implemented corrective actions to address prior GAO recommendations, including determining if FEMA properly reported claim payments to the Congress."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) provides federal law enforcement training for 75 Partner Organizations (agencies) primarily at four domestic facilities located at Glynco, Ga; Artesia, N. Mex.; Charleston, S.C.; and Cheltenham, Md.. Given the post-terrorist attack security environment, coupled with the increased demand for training, concerns have been raised about FLETC's continued ability to meet this training demand. Because of these concerns, GAO was asked to issue a report on (1) how FLETC plans to meet the projected demand for training; (2) FLETC's ability to efficiently coordinate and schedule training activities; and (3) whether oversight and governance structures provide the guidance it needs to address its capacity and planning challenges."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Although environmental liabilities resulting from federal programs and activities represent the third largest category of the federal government's liabilities, the current cash- and obligation-based budget does not provide information on estimated cleanup costs before waste-producing assets are purchased. As a result, policymakers do not have the opportunity to weigh the full costs of a proposal with their judgment of its benefits. The Chairman of the House Committee on the Budget asked GAO to examine and report on various ways budgeting might be improved for environmental cleanup costs, including some of the benefits, limitations, and challenges associated with each."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) uses contractors to provide a wide variety of services for U.S. military forces deployed overseas. We were asked to examine three related issues: (1) the extent of contractor support for deployed forces and why DOD uses contractors; (2) the extent to which such contractors are considered in DOD planning, including whether DOD has backup plans to maintain essential services to deployed forces in case contractors can no longer provide the services; and (3) the adequacy of DOD's guidance and oversight mechanisms in managing overseas contractors efficiently."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Policy makers need valid, reliable, and timely information on the outcomes of criminal justice programs to help them decide how to set criminal justice funding priorities. In view of previously reported problems with selected outcome evaluations managed by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), GAO assessed the methodological quality of a sample of completed and ongoing NIJ outcome evaluation grants."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In fiscal year 2002, the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) paid about $22.4 billion in disability compensation to over 2.6 million veterans and their survivors and about $3.3 billion in pension benefits to about 581,000 veterans and their survivors. To ensure that VBA makes proper payments under these programs, we reviewed the effectiveness of VBA efforts to prevent payments to deceased veterans by matching its Compensation and Pension (C&P) Master Records database of current beneficiaries with the Social Security Administration's (SSA) Death Master File."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Created in 1984, the United States Sentencing Commission (USSC) was charged with developing the federal sentencing guidelines to limit disparities in sentencing among offenders with similar criminal backgrounds found guilty of similar crimes. Judges determine a specific sentence based on an applicable sentencing guideline range, such as 57 to 71 months, provided in the guidelines. Judges may impose sentences that fall anywhere within the range, above it (upward departures), or below it (downward departures). For some offenses, Congress established mandatory minimum sentences. Judges may also sentence below the minimum in certain circumstances. We examined the differences in drug offense departures from sentencing guidelines and mandatory minimum sentences among federal courts and the documents the USSC used to record and analyze sentences."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In addition to potentially costing hundreds or thousands of lives, a natural or terrorist catastrophe in the United States could place enormous financial demands on the insurance industry, businesses, and taxpayers. Given these financial demands, interest has been raised in bonds that are sold in the capital markets and thereby diversify catastrophe funding sources. GAO was asked to update a 2002 report on "catastrophe bonds" and assess (1) their progress in transferring natural catastrophe risks to the capital markets, (2) factors that may affect the issuance of catastrophe bonds by insurance companies, (3) factors that may affect investment in catastrophe bonds, and (4) the potential for and challenges associated with securitizing terrorism-related financial risks."

This report examines the federal laws and regulations relevant to entering into Government employment from the private sector. It is intended to provide those conducting congressional oversight with an outline of some of the issues, rules, regulations, ad oversight tools that may be available regarding this subject.

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Terrorists and countries of concern may be able to gain access to poorly secured weapons of mass destruction at sites throughout Russia. To address this threat to U.S. national security, the Departments of Defense (DOD) and Energy (DOE) have obligated more than $1.8 billion since 1992. GAO was asked to report on U.S. programs to help improve security at sites where Russia stores (1) weapons-usable nuclear material, (2) nuclear warheads, (3) dangerous biological pathogens, and (4) chemical weapons. For each area, GAO assessed U.S. plans to address security threats at sites in Russia, U.S. progress in implementing those plans, and the primary challenges facing DOD and DOE."

This report provides information to policymakers considering a new, smaller, or larger agricultural guestworker program and examines selected labor market, social, and demographic characteristics of the agricultural labor force in the United States for each year from 1996 through 2001.

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This report examines various issues pertaining to foreign students in the United States. Since the Immigration Act of 1924, the United States has expressly permitted foreign students to study in U.S. institutions. Most foreign students are at least 18 years old and are enrolled in higher education programs. Foreign students are generally considered to enrich cultural diversity of the educational experience for U.S. residents as well as enhance the reputation of U.S. universities as world-class institutions. Concerns have arisen in recent years that have caused Congress to take a new look at the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) provisions that govern their admission.

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This report summarizes major provisions of federal law and offers a chronology of key legislative and judicial actions which govern financial activity of federal election campaigns. The laws are based on two principal statutes: the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) of 1971, as amended in 1974, 1976, 1979, and 2002, and the Revenue Act of 1971.