A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "American Samoa employment and earnings have decreased since 2007, but employment increased slightly from 2011 to 2012. Since 2005, the American Samoa economy has had a flat or declining real gross domestic product (GDP)."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Over the past year, the overall size of DOD's major defense acquisition program portfolio decreased, from 85 programs to 80, while the estimated cost has increased by $14.1 billion. The average time to deliver initial capability to the warfighter also increased by 2 months. The slight cost increase can be attributed to the addition of one program, the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle. This furthers a trend for decreased portfolio size seen for the past three years. Although the overall cost of the 2013 portfolio increased, 50 of the 80 programs decreased costs, and 64 percent of programs increased their buying power. There are still some programs that have performed poorly, both over the past year and in the longer term. Fifty-five percent of the current portfolio funding has been appropriated, leaving approximately $682 billion needed for future funding. About forty-five percent of this remaining funding represents cost growth from initial estimates, a clear indicator that DOD needs to do more to control cost growth."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In fiscal years 2012 and 2013, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) awarded nearly $440 million in contracts to establish three Centers for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing (CIADM) and a network of facilities to provide packaging support for medical countermeasure distribution, known as the Fill Finish Manufacturing Network (FFMN). The contracts require the CIADMs to develop three activities to support flexible manufacturing for medical countermeasure development and production: the manufacture of pandemic influenza vaccines during an emergency; core services to support the development and production of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) medical countermeasures; and workforce training. During the contract base periods, each CIADM is to retrofit existing or build new facilities able to produce 50 million doses of pandemic influenza vaccine within 4 months of receipt of the influenza virus strain and to establish the capacity to provide core services, such as assisting countermeasure developers by manufacturing products to be used for clinical trials. The CIADMs are also required to develop workforce training programs, which are intended to increase expertise in CBRN medical countermeasure …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This is the Spanish language highlights associated with GAO-14-117."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "According to assessments by the National Research Council (NRC) and the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), U.S. energy infrastructure is increasingly vulnerable to a range of climate change impacts--particularly infrastructure in areas prone to severe weather and water shortages. Climate changes are projected to affect infrastructure throughout all major stages of the energy supply chain, thereby increasing the risk of disruptions. For example:"

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Total Direct Loan administrative costs grew from $314 million to $864 million from fiscal years 2007 to 2012, but federal costs per borrower have generally remained steady or fallen. The increase in total administrative costs largely results from an increase of over 300 percent in the number of Direct Loans during that same time period. One key factor contributing to this loan volume increase was a law that ended student loan originations under a federally guaranteed loan program resulting in new originations being made under the Direct Loan program. Loan servicing--which includes activities like counseling borrowers on selecting repayment plans, processing payments, and collecting on loans in delinquent status--is the largest category of administrative costs, comprising 63 percent of total Direct Loan administrative costs in fiscal year 2012. While total administrative costs have increased, costs per borrower and other unit costs have remained steady or declined. For example, the servicing cost per borrower has remained roughly $25 over the six-year period we examined. However, a number of factors, including a new payment structure for loan servicing contracts to reward servicers for keeping more borrowers in repayment …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Chief Human Capital Officers (CHCO) from 26 agencies reported that, from fiscal years 2008 through 2012, they spent almost $57 million (in constant 2012 dollars) on executive training provided by external providers. CHCOs reported using the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Federal Executive Institute and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government most often. Agencies are required to maintain records of training plans, expenditures, activities, and (since 2006) to report training data to OPM. However, half of the CHCOs reported data to GAO that they deemed incomplete, or with limitations. For example, two agencies did not include travel related costs; one did not include costs for course materials; another did not include costs from all components. OPM officials agree that training cost data reported by agencies continues to be unreliable, and is probably lower than actual agency expenditures. OPM officials said they are meeting with agencies to address data deficiencies. However, OPM has not set interim milestones for meeting with agencies or established a timeframe to improve reporting. One leading practice is to establish such interim milestones and timeframes, in order to demonstrate progress towards achieving goals. …

Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The forum's participants described nanomanufacturing as a future megatrend that will potentially match or surpass the digital revolution's effect on society and the economy. They anticipated further scientific breakthroughs that will fuel new engineering developments; continued movement into the manufacturing sector; and more intense international competition."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of the Interior (Interior) continues to face challenges hiring and retaining staff with key skills needed to manage and oversee oil and gas operations on federal leases. Interior officials noted two major factors that contribute to challenges in hiring and retaining staff: lower salaries and a slow hiring process compared with similar positions in industry. In response to GAO's survey, officials from a majority of the offices in the three Interior bureaus that manage oil and gas activities--the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE)--reported ongoing difficulties filling vacancies, particularly for petroleum engineers and geologists. Many of these officials also reported that retention is an ongoing concern as staff leave for positions in industry. Bureau of Labor Statistics data confirm a wide gap between industry and federal salaries for petroleum engineers and geologists. According to Office of Personnel Management (OPM) data, the fiscal year 2012 attrition rate for petroleum engineers at BLM was over 20 percent, or more than double the average federal attrition rate of 9.1 percent. However, the …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reported the range of base premiums prior to underwriting for individual market health insurance plans as displayed on the HealthCare.gov Plan Finder in January 2013. The base premiums were for individuals aged 19 and 64 in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The base premiums reflected information from data submitted by insurers to the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO) within the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). They represented the lowest premium amounts that would have been available to different categories of individuals at that time; however, actual premium amounts paid by consumers could have been higher as they would have been determined after more complete underwriting for health conditions and other factors, and some individuals could have been denied coverage. GAO also reported on base premiums prior to underwriting for an urban and rural zip code in four select states, one from each census region. The states included: Illinois, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Texas. This supplements data on base premiums in the individual market in January 2013 for other categories of individuals …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Maritime training--for domestic waterway and oceangoing operations--is available through many public and private entities. These entities include the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA), state maritime academies, community colleges, union-affiliated schools, and about 230 private sector schools. Private companies also provide training to their mariner employees, including training to operate the vessels in their domestic and oceangoing fleets."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Of the more than two million total participants in the Workforce Investment Act's (WIA) Adult and Dislocated Worker Programs, about 11 percent and 16 percent, respectively, received training in program year 2011, and about two-thirds of the training participants in each program attained a credential. Little is known, however, about how many participants got jobs related to their training. From program year 2006 through program year 2011, the percentages of training participants who earned a credential declined from about 74 percent to 58 percent for the Adult Program and from about 75 percent to 63 percent for the Dislocated Worker Program, according to data from the Department of Labor (DOL). Of those training participants who attained a credential in program year 2011, about 65 percent earned occupational credentials, such as a welding certificate, followed by lower percentages who earned occupational skill licenses and associate's degrees, among others. In contrast, GAO found training-related employment data unreliable primarily because a significant portion of the data was missing."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "While the General Services Administration (GSA) has used the National Broker Contract (NBC) program to assist with the agency's lease portfolio, it is unclear whether the program has resulted in the rental rate cost savings that GSA anticipated when proposing the program. GSA officials have stated that brokers should be able to obtain lower rental rates than in-house staff because brokers have greater market expertise and in addition are able to credit a portion of the broker's commission to the rental rate. In 2012, when GSA attempted to compare rental rates negotiated by brokers with those negotiated by in-house staff, the agency not only found little difference between the two, but also stated that the data were insufficient to conduct a meaningful comparison. In April 2013, GSA began requiring the use of a different market rent data report --"Bullseye"-- which includes market information, analysis, and insight regarding the local submarket. Officials said this new data would improve their ability to compare rental rates negotiated by brokers to market rental rates, but will likely not allow officials to determine whether brokers are negotiating better deals than in-house …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its components--such as the U.S. Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection (CBP)--have started or completed initiatives to address small vessel security risks, but DHS is not tracking the progress being made to address action items in the Small Vessel Security Strategy (SVSS) Implementation Plan. "Small vessels" are characterized as any watercraft--regardless of method of propulsion--less than 300 gross tons, and used for recreational or commercial purposes. DHS component officials GAO met with identified examples of key initiatives that they have completed or have under way to enhance small vessel security, including an initiative to help CBP better track small vessels arriving from foreign locations and another to assist the Coast Guard in assessing and monitoring small vessel launch sites. Although the SVSS Implementation Plan states that DHS is to assess and update the plan, DHS has not determined the progress its components and other relevant stakeholders--such as the Department of Defense--are making in completing the action items and has no current plans to do so. DHS officials stated that this is due, in part, to budget constraints that …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Multiple executive branch agencies are responsible for different steps of the multi-phased personnel security clearance process that includes: determination of whether a position requires a clearance, application submission, investigation, and adjudication. Agency officials must first determine whether a federal civilian position requires access to classified information. The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) are in the process of issuing a joint revision to the regulations guiding this step in response to GAO's 2012 recommendation that the DNI issue policy and guidance for the determination, review, and validation of requirements. After an individual has been selected for a federal civilian position that requires a personnel security clearance and the individual submits an application for a clearance, investigators--often contractors--from OPM conduct background investigations for most executive branch agencies. Adjudicators from requesting agencies use the information from these investigations and consider federal adjudicative guidelines to determine whether an applicant is eligible for a clearance. Further, individuals are subject to reinvestigations at intervals that are dependent on the level of security clearance. For example, top secret and secret clearance holders are to be reinvestigated every 5 …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "All 12 contracts GAO reviewed from the four Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) medical centers (VAMC) visited contained performance requirements consistent with VA acquisition policy. However, the performance requirements lacked detail in six categories: type of provider or care; credentialing and privileging; clinical practice standards; medical record documentation; business processes; and access to care. GAO identified these categories from reviews of VA acquisition regulations, VA policies, and hospital accreditation standards; and VA officials verified that these six categories were an accurate reflection of performance requirements that should be in VA clinical contracts. GAO found, for example, one VAMC cardiothoracic contract that had detailed performance requirements while another VAMC's cardiothoracic contract did not contain a statement describing the contract provider's responsibilities for reporting and responding to adverse events and patient complaints. GAO also found that contracting officials lack tools, such as standard templates, that provide examples of the performance requirements that should be included in common types of clinical contracts. Such tools would help ensure consistency in requirements across contracts."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins ""

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Army’s requirements for container handling equipment have changed since 1998 from focusing on "break bulk" to focusing on containerized distribution, and the Army has awarded contracts and issued delivery orders to reflect those changing requirements."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Coast Guard, a component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has made progress in developing its Common Operational Picture (COP) by increasing the information in the COP and increasing user access to this information. The Coast Guard has made progress by adding internal and external data sources that allow for better understanding of anything associated with the global maritime domain that could affect the United States. The COP has made information from these sources available to more COP users and decision makers throughout the Coast Guard. For example, in 2006, the ability to track the location of Coast Guard assets, including small boats and cutters, was added to the COP. This capability--also known as blue force tracking--allows COP users to locate Coast Guard vessels in real time and establish which vessels are in the best position to respond to mission needs. In addition to adding information to the COP, the Coast Guard has also made the information contained in the COP available on more computers and on more systems, which, in turn, has increased the number of users with access to the COP."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "An open systems approach, which includes a modular design and standard interfaces, allows components of a product (like a computer) to be replaced easily. This allows the product to be refreshed with new, improved components made by a variety of suppliers. Designing weapons as open systems offers significant repair, upgrade, and competition benefits that could translate to millions of dollars in savings as the weapons age."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The authority of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), to oversee drug compounding is unclear. Two federal circuit court decisions have resulted in differing FDA authority in different parts of the country. According to FDA officials, these inconsistent decisions and the agency's limited inspection authority over pharmacies have created challenges in FDA's ability to inspect and take enforcement action against entities engaging in drug compounding. For example, from 2002 through 2012, in order to inspect some facilities engaged in drug compounding, FDA officials said they had to obtain 11 warrants to gain access to drug compounders' facilities that had challenged FDA's inspection authority. GAO also found that while FDA and national pharmacy organization officials generally agreed that states regulate the practice of pharmacy and FDA regulates drug manufacturing, there was no consensus on whether compounding drugs in large quantities--in anticipation of individual prescriptions or without prescriptions--and selling those drugs across state lines falls within the practice of pharmacy or is a type of drug manufacturing that should be overseen by FDA. This lack of consensus …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO identified three leading practices for fleet management and found that selected federal agencies--the Departments of Agriculture (USDA), Homeland Security (DHS), the Interior (Interior), and Veterans Affairs (VA); the U.S. Air Force (Air Force); and the Army Corps of Engineers (Army Corps)--follow these practices to varying degrees. These practices are 1) maintaining a well-designed fleet-management information system (FMIS), 2) analyzing life-cycle costs to inform investment decisions, and 3) optimizing fleet size and composition. GAO identified these practices based on views provided by recognized fleet experts and determined that the practices align with legal requirements and General Services Administration (GSA) recommendations."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO found that numerous claims for damage have been addressed through legal settlements partly paid by commercial insurance reimbursements. Three of the four insurers with whom GAO spoke contributed to legal settlements by paying for CGL claims stemming from lawsuits against their policyholders, and one of these insurers also made payments for CGL claims separate from legal settlements. The legal settlements from defective drywall lawsuits involve hundreds of companies in the drywall supply chain (including importers, suppliers, and builders), and most of the lawsuits have been consolidated under multidistrict litigation in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. One of the legal settlements involves one of the two primary manufacturers of defective drywall and provides an uncapped amount of funds to address damage to affected homes, as well as $30 million for other expenses. This manufacturer's settlement is part of a group of settlements that guarantees more than $350 million to assist affected home owners, with the potential to increase."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) allocated funding for various DNA and other forensic science activities, with the majority of the available $691 million from fiscal years 2008 through 2012 going to state and local governments to reduce the DNA backlog. Specifically, over this 5-year period, 64 percent was allocated through initiatives that directly benefit state and local efforts to reduce DNA backlogs and build DNA analysis capacity. The largest initiative was NIJ's DNA Backlog Reduction Program, and other DNA backlog initiatives included DNA analysis of cold cases, among others. A smaller portion (31 percent) went to other forensic sciences initiatives, such as research and development and training, although NIJ officials stated that funding these initiatives may have long-term benefits for reducing the DNA backlog. The remainder of the funding went toward other activities, such as management and administration."