Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) authorized $10.6 and $10.7 billion for fiscal years 2013 and 2014, respectively, for public transit, but did not address long-term funding. Federal funds available for FTA's transit programs come from the general fund of the U.S. Treasury and the Mass Transit Account of the Highway Trust Fund. The Highway Trust Fund supports surface transportation programs, including highways and transit, and is funded through motor fuel and other highway use taxes; however, revenues have eroded over time because federal fuel tax rate stagnation, fuel efficiency improvements, and the use of alternative fuel vehicles. In May 2013, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that to maintain current spending levels plus inflation between 2015 and 2022, the Fund will require over $132 billion more than it is expected to take in over that period. GAO reported that while Congress transferred over $50 billion in general revenues to the Fund since fiscal year 2008, this approach may not be sustainable given competing demands for funding. For these reasons funding surface transportation remains on GAO's High-Risk List."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has made progress in improving its processes for monitoring NFIP contracts since GAO last reported on these issues in 2008 and 2011. For example, GAO recommended in 2011 that FEMA complete the development and implementation of its revised acquisition process to be consistent with a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) directive. FEMA updated its contract management guidance and revised its handbook for contracting officer's representatives to be consistent with DHS directives. The updated handbook also contained many of the elements identified in a federal guide to best practices for contract administration. Furthermore, the FEMA division that manages the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) developed a contract management reference guide that followed FEMA's handbook and federal best practices guidance."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Over the last 50 years, the composition and work patterns of the American household have changed dramatically. During this period, the proportion of unmarried and never-married individuals in the population increased steadily as couples chose to marry at later ages and live together prior to marriage. At the same time, the proportion of single-parent households more than doubled. These trends were more pronounced for individuals with lower levels of income and education and for certain racial and ethnic groups. Over the same period, labor force participation among married women nearly doubled."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO's work at four VAMCs found that these VAMCs did not always follow VHA requirements for documenting open-market purchases of surgical implants. Specifically:"

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since GAO reported on this issue in December 2012, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has developed application guidance for airport operators applying to the Screening Partnership Program (SPP). In December 2012, GAO reported that TSA had not provided guidance to airport operators on its application and approval process, which had been revised to reflect requirements in the Federal Aviation Administration Modernization and Reform Act of 2012. Further, airport operators GAO interviewed at the time generally stated that they faced difficulties completing the revised application, such as how to obtain cost information. Therefore, GAO recommended that TSA develop application guidance, and TSA concurred. To address GAO's recommendation, TSA updated its SPP website in December 2012 by providing general application guidance and a description of the criteria and process the agency uses to assess airports' SPP applications. The guidance provides examples of information that airports could consider providing to TSA to help assess their suitability for the program and also outlines how the agency will analyze cost information. The new guidance addresses the intent of GAO's recommendation and should help improve transparency of the SPP application process as well as …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "About half of the almost 17,000 veterans who entered the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (VR&E) program in fiscal year 2003 and received employment-related services were placed in suitable jobs, one-third left the program, and most of the others are still participating. It often took veterans 6 years or more to achieve success, due in part to veterans often leaving the program temporarily. Interviews with VR&E staff and participants and administrative data GAO reviewed suggest veterans face numerous challenges that affect their ability to obtain employment, especially related to mental health conditions, working with multiple VR&E counselors over time, and civilian employers' limited understanding of military work experience."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is responsible for developing guidelines and providing assistance to agencies on implementing the Computer Matching Act, while agencies have a variety of implementation responsibilities. Agency responsibilities include (1) developing computer matching agreements (CMA) containing specific elements for each proposed matching program and notifying Congress, OMB, and the public of such activities; (2) conducting cost-benefit analyses for proposed matching programs; and (3) establishing data integrity boards to oversee matching programs."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) annual ammunition purchases have declined since fiscal year 2009 and are comparable in number to the Department of Justice's (DOJ) ammunition purchases. In fiscal year 2013, DHS purchased 84 million rounds of ammunition, which is less than DHS's ammunition purchases over the past 5 fiscal years, as shown in the figure below. DHS component officials said the decline in ammunition purchases in fiscal year 2013 was primarily a result of budget constraints, which meant reducing the number of training classes, and drawing on their ammunition inventories. From fiscal years 2008 through 2013, DHS purchased an average of 109 million rounds of ammunition for training, qualification, and operational needs, according to DHS data. DHS's ammunition purchases over the 6-year period equates to an average of 1,200 rounds purchased per firearm-carrying agent or officer per year. Over the past 3 fiscal years (2011-2013), DHS purchased an average of 1,000 rounds per firearm-carrying agent or officer and selected DOJ components purchased 1,300 rounds per firearm-carrying agent or officer."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "On October 11, 2013, DOD submitted to the congressional defense committees the OPIR Technology report. Upon reviewing the report, we determined that the OPIR report was comprehensive and appropriately identified its limitations. In particular, DOD, in consultation with the IC, provided a description of (1) the plan and budget for current and next generation OPIR systems and (2) OPIR technology requirements. The report elaborated on current cooperative efforts between the DOD and IC communities and identified potential future opportunities for further cooperation. Further details remain classified."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Clinicians at the four Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Centers (VAMC) GAO visited said that patient need and their clinical expertise were the main factors influencing their decisions of which surgical implants to use. Also, clinicians in certain specialties said they typically used one of the implants available on VA-negotiated national committed-use contracts, which generally establish a fixed price for several models of nine types of surgical implants that the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) commits to using nationally. VHA recognizes the need for expanding items covered under these contracts to fully leverage its purchasing power but, as of October 2013, had not identified additional implants to include on such contracts or established timelines for doing so. GAO also found that the availability of implants on VA-negotiated federal supply schedule (FSS) contracts rarely influenced clinicians' decisions on which implant to use. Clinicians were often not aware of the availability of surgical implants on FSS contracts, which are negotiated by one of VA's contracting offices, but for which VHA clinicians have little or no input. Clinicians told GAO that in some cases they may avoid implants on FSS …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the agency within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that administers Medicare, uses data checks and quality measures to oversee the accuracy of Part D plan pricing information on the Plan Finder interactive website. Part D sponsors may have multiple contracts with CMS to provide drug coverage, with each contract covering one or more distinct Part D plans, and CMS is responsible for overseeing plan sponsors' compliance with their Part D contracts. CMS requires Part D plan sponsors to submit drug pricing information for their plans, which Plan Finder uses to estimate beneficiaries' cost-sharing amounts and expected annual drug costs. To ensure the accuracy of this information,"

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2012, amended the Clean Air Act to transfer regulatory authority for air emissions on the outer continental shelf (OCS) off Alaska's north coast, including the Chukchi and Beaufort seas, from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to the Department of the Interior. Since the act was passed on December 23, 2011, there has been limited activity subject to air emission regulations or permitting on the OCS off Alaska's north coast, according to officials at the EPA and Interior. EPA officials stated that, before the act was passed, EPA had issued to Shell Gulf of Mexico Inc. and Shell Offshore, Inc., collectively, three air emission permits for drilling and other activities on the OCS off Alaska's north coast. Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is responsible for reviewing and approving plans for exploration, development, and production activities; this process includes projections of air emissions. According to a BOEM official, after the act passed, Shell conducted exploratory drilling on the OCS off Alaska's north coast in 2012, but it did so under its existing air emissions permits from EPA. Ancillary activities, such as surveys of the …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has implemented all of the recommendations GAO made in its May 2011 report to improve the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR) program. In that report, GAO recommended that EPA (1) monitor for the full 30 contaminants allowed by statute, (2) monitor for most or all contaminants using a more robust monitoring approach, and (3) select sufficiently sensitive minimum reporting levels (MRL) for monitoring contaminants. EPA now requires public water systems to monitor for 30 contaminants in the UCMR3 program, using its most robust monitoring approach for a majority of these contaminants, and setting MRLs as low as can be reliably measured, according to EPA. The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) requires EPA to vary the monitoring frequency based on the type of contaminant likely to be found, but EPA used a standard monitoring frequency for all contaminants. This may result in inaccurate estimates of the occurrence of sporadically occurring microbes (e.g., viruses) or pesticides, according to experts GAO surveyed and studies it reviewed. In such cases, the monitoring data may not provide reliable estimates of contaminant occurrence."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO found that from 2007 through 2009, the federal government's actions to stabilize the financial system provided significant funding support and other benefits to bank holding companies and their subsidiaries. The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal Reserve Board), the Department of the Treasury (Treasury), and FDIC introduced new programs with broad-based eligibility that provided funding support to eligible institutions, which included entities that were part of a bank holding company and others. Programs that provided the most significant support directly to bank holding companies or their subsidiaries included Treasury's capital investment programs, the Federal Reserve System's lending programs, and FDIC's guarantee programs. Some large institutions benefited from special assistance specific to their institution."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) project is generally executing to its September 2011 revised cost and schedule baseline; however, several challenges remain that could affect continued progress. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has requested funding that is in line with the rebaseline and the project is maintaining 14 months of schedule reserve prior to its launch date. Performance data from the prime contractor indicate that generally work is being accomplished on schedule and at the cost expected; however, monthly performance declined in fiscal year 2013. Project officials have maintained and enhanced project oversight by, for example, continuing quarterly NASA and contractor management meetings and instituting a tool to update cost estimates for internal efforts. Program officials, however, are not planning to perform an updated integrated cost/schedule risk analysis, as GAO recommended in 2012, stating that the project performs monthly integrated risk analyses they believe are adequate. Updating the more comprehensive analysis with a more refined schedule and current risks, however, would provide management and stakeholders with better information to gauge progress."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In fiscal years 2007 through 2011, the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) spent at least half their compact sector funds in the education and health sectors. Because both countries spent significant amounts of compact funds on personnel in those sectors, the U.S.-FSM and U.S.-RMI joint management and accountability committees capped budgets for personnel in those sectors at fiscal year 2011 levels due to concerns about the sustainability of sector budgets as compact funding continues to decline through fiscal year 2023. As required by the committees, the FSM states completed plans to address annual decreases in compact funding; however, as of August 2013, the FSM National Government and the RMI had not submitted plans to address the annual decreases. Without such plans, the countries may not be able to sustain essential services in the education and health sectors."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO's review of open sources published between October 1, 2012, and November 7, 2013, identified four foreign firms that were reported to have engaged in commercial activity in Iran's energy sector during this time period, including one previously-unidentified firm--China Oilfield Services Limited. In addition, since the last report issued in December 2012, GAO moved four firms--INA, ONGC Videsh Ltd., Petronet LNG, and Sasol--to the "Withdrawn" category. For eight additional firms that GAO previously identified as reported to have engaged in commercial activity in Iran's energy sector, GAO found insufficient information to indicate that they had either continued or ceased such activity during the specified time period."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "For each of the four phases of capital investments, USPS's conformance with leading practices varied. There are several practices within each of the phases. GAO assessed conformance as "substantial" if USPS's policy conformed to all or almost all elements of the practice, and as "partial" if USPS's policy conformed to some elements, or GAO identified cases in the five projects reviewed where the policies were not consistently applied."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2012, federal agencies reported to the Federal Real Property Council (FRPC)--an organization comprised of all real property holding federal agencies--that they are responsible for operating over 480,000 federally owned structures. Information about these structures is recorded in the FRPC's Federal Real Property Profile (FRPP), the government's comprehensive database that describes the nature, use, and extent of federal real property. About 176,000 of those structures are operated by civilian federal agencies. The federal government manages a wide variety of structures. Some of these are common across agencies, such as roads and parking structures, while some are more specific to agencies' missions, such as historic structures or particle accelerators."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "We reported the number of 2008 tax returns by state for IRS's 2009 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP) participants. OVPD offered incentives for taxpayers to disclose their offshore accounts and pay delinquent taxes, interest and penalties. Generally, the program offered somewhat reduced penalties and no risk of criminal prosecution, if eligible taxpayers fully disclosed their previously unreported offshore accounts, and paid taxes due plus interest. To safeguard taxpayer identifies, we suppressed the totals for any state with fewer than 10 OVDP participants."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Among the 9 states and 35 services examined, GAO found that all states varied Medicaid payments for at least some services. However, the states differed in the number of services for which they varied payments, in the factors that accounted for variation, and in the magnitude of the variation. Many of the states varied payment rates by at least one of the factors GAO was able to explore in detail: provider type, service setting, and/or patient age. Some states also varied their payment rates for other reasons, such as by geographic region or by physician specialty. GAO also found that most of the median Medicaid payment rates calculated from claims data generally confirmed payment rates published in studies of fee schedules conducted by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Urban Institute; however, some of the published fee schedule rates were rarely used in practice. Collectively, GAO's findings demonstrate that Medicaid fee-for-service claims data can be a useful source of information for analyzing provider payments. These data have the potential to provide a more complete representation of provider payment than do fee schedules, as claims data can capture …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Sponsorship identification statutes and regulations, overseen by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), require broadcasters to identify commercial content--usually an advertisement, an embedded advertisement, or a video news release--that has been broadcast in exchange for payment or other consideration. A written or verbal sponsorship announcement must be made at least once during any sponsored commercial content except when the sponsor is obvious. For content considered political or that discusses a controversial issue, broadcasters must follow all requirements for commercial content and additional requirements, such as identifying officials associated with the entity paying for an advertisement. In addition, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) enforces federal election law that requires all political communications for a federal election, including television and radio advertisements, to include a disclaimer statement. FEC also oversees requirements to report campaign funding and expenditures, including funding for political advertising. FCC has guidance that helps broadcasters determine when a sponsorship announcement is needed, such as when a deejay receives a payment for airing specific content. While broadcasters consider this guidance useful, it addresses older technology that in some cases is no longer used. Furthermore, some broadcasters indicated …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Methamphetamine (meth) lab incidents--seizures of labs, dumpsites, chemicals, and glassware--declined following state and federal sales restrictions on pseudoephedrine (PSE), an ingredient commonly found in over-the-counter cold and allergy medications, but they rose again after changes to methods in acquiring PSE and in the methods to produce meth. According to Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) data, the number of lab incidents nationwide declined through 2007 after the implementation of state and federal regulations on PSE product sales, which started in 2004. The number of meth lab incidents reported nationally increased after 2007, a trend primarily attributed to (1) the emergence of a new technique for smaller-scale production and (2) a new method called smurfing--a technique used to obtain large quantities of PSE by recruiting groups of individuals to purchase the legally allowable amount of PSE products at multiple stores that are then aggregated for meth production."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO found that the cumulative impact of coding differences on risk scores increased from 2010 through 2012 and was greater than the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) risk score adjustment of 3.4 percent for each of the 3 years. In updating the analysis from its January 2012 report, GAO estimated that cumulative Medicare Advantage (MA) risk scores in 2010 were 4.2 percent higher than they likely would have been if the same beneficiaries had been enrolled continuously in Medicare fee-for-service (FFS). For 2011, GAO estimated that differences in diagnostic coding resulted in risk scores that were 4.6 to 5.3 percent higher than they likely would have been if the same beneficiaries had been continuously enrolled in FFS. This upward trend continued for 2012, with estimated risk scores 4.9 to 6.4 percent higher."