A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Newly available data from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) show the extent and some characteristics of locally administered projects, but other key data are not being collected. From July 2012 to June 2013, local agencies administered about 12 percent or $3.8 billion of the $31 billion in federal-aid funding obligated during that period. The federal share was less than $250,000 for over half of the projects. However, FHWA neither collects information on which local agencies are administering federal-aid projects nor the capabilities of those agencies--information that would allow FHWA to identify the extent and magnitude of its risks and more effectively target its oversight of the states."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Surplus lines insurers' premiums written have increased modestly and the companies have generally remained profitable. From 2008 through 2012 premiums written by surplus lines insurers, who sell property/casualty insurance through brokers in states where they are not licensed, grew slightly from $24.8 billion to $25.2 billion and remained stable at around 5 percent of the property casualty market as a whole. Over this time, surplus lines insurers' premiums generally exceeded their claims and underwriting expenses and they remained profitable. Surplus lines insurers also saw capital gains over this period."

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."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "DOD officials stated that their policy is to accommodate children with special needs unless those accommodations fundamentally alter the nature of the program. However, DOD does not centrally collect or maintain data on accommodation decisions; instead they are kept at the installation level. Two services--Army and Air Force--have begun or plan to collect specific data at the service level to monitor and track services to children with special needs across their installations by 2013. Further, the services have different definitions of special needs, although officials told us DOD is working on a standard definition. According to OSD officials, each service has established an assessment process to determine how to accommodate children with special needs in DOD's child care programs. This assessment process is the primary means through which parents can address concerns related to finding appropriate child care for their children with special needs, as well as to help identify support and outreach programs for the family. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 created the Office of Special Needs, which is responsible for enhancing and improving support for families of children with special needs. Although …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The 2007-2009 financial crisis has been associated with large economic losses and increased fiscal challenges. Studies estimating the losses of financial crises based on lost output (value of goods and services not produced) suggest losses associated with the recent crisis could range from a few trillion dollars to over $10 trillion. Also associated with the crisis were large declines in employment, household wealth, and other economic indicators. Some studies suggest the crisis could have long-lasting effects: for example, high unemployment, if persistent, could lead to skill erosion and lower future earnings for those affected. Finally, since the crisis began, federal, state, and local governments have faced greater fiscal challenges, in part because of reduced tax revenues from lower economic activity and increased spending to mitigate the impact of the recession."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In its fiscal year 2012 report, the Army included information that responded to some of the statutory reporting requirements, but did not include required information on the risks associated with, and mitigation strategies for, any shortfalls in key enabler personnel and equipment and a schedule for meeting personnel and equipment needs. The report included, among other things, an assessment of the status of key enabler personnel and equipment and information on assessments of modular force capabilities. However, the Army did not present the information it included in a way that clearly demonstrated the extent of progress toward meeting modular force requirements. While not explicitly required by law, there were also a number of ways in which the Army could have presented the information to better demonstrate the extent of progress toward meeting modularity requirements. For example, the Army could have provided more explicit comparisons with prior years to demonstrate the trend toward meeting key enabler equipment and personnel requirements, but instead presented limited data for only one year. Army officials agreed that some of the required information was omitted and that some of the information could have been …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "During fiscal years 2009 through 2011, four administrations within DOT obligated about $144 billion from the HTF. FHWA obligated the largest share--about 81 percent--of this total, specifically:"

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Emissions from mobile sources, such as automobiles and trucks, contribute to air quality degradation and can threaten public health and the environment. Under the Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates these emissions. The act generally allows one set of federal standards for new motor vehicle emissions and pre-empts states from adopting or enforcing their own standards. However, it also authorizes the EPA Administrator to waive this provision to allow the state of California1 to enact and enforce emission standards for new motor vehicles that are as protective, in the aggregate, as federal government standards. Other states may also adopt California's standards if they choose. The waiver provision was added to the Federal Air Quality Act (one of the precursors of the current Clean Air Act) in 1967 because of California's severe air pollution problems and because the state had already established its own emission standards for mobile sources. California has used this waiver provision regularly to establish and enforce standards for vehicle emissions more stringent than those required by federal law. However, California must request a waiver of federal pre-emption and the EPA Administrator must …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "To provide safe and secure workplaces for overseas posts, the Department of State (State) has built 64 new embassy compounds (NEC) and other facilities since 1999, has 31 ongoing projects, and plans to build at least 90 more. In 2007, State reported the U.S. contractor pool for building NECs had reached its limit and proposed legislation to amend the criteria to qualify for NEC awards. GAO was asked to examine (1) how contractor participation in the NEC program changed in recent years, (2) the degree to which State assessed the need for and potential outcomes of its proposed amendment, (3) factors contractors consider when deciding to participate in the program, and (4) actions State has taken to address reported declines in contractor participation. GAO examined two indicators of contractor participation; reviewed State documents and proposed legislation; and interviewed State officials and U.S. firms that won NEC awards from 2001-2007."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Over the years, the traveling public, flight attendants, and the medical community have raised questions about how airliner cabin air quality contributes to health effects, such as upper respiratory infections. Interest in cabin air quality grew in 2003 when a small number of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) infections may have occurred on board aircraft serving areas that were experiencing outbreaks of the disease. In 2001, a National Research Council report on airliner cabin air quality and associated health effects recommended that additional research be done on the potential health effects of cabin air. GAO reviewed what is known about the health effects of cabin air, the status of actions recommended in the 2001 National Research Council report, and whether available technologies should be required to improve cabin air quality."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In fiscal year 2002, the federal government spent nearly $100 billion on capital investments intended to yield long-term benefits for its own operations. Interested in ensuring that good investment decisions are made, the Chairman and Ranking Minority Member, Subcommittee on Government Efficiency and Financial Management, House Committee on Government Reform, asked GAO to evaluate agency experiences with the capital planning principles embodied in the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Capital Programming Guide and GAO's Executive Guide on leading state, local, and private sector capital investment practices. This report examines selected agencies' implementation of this guidance and OMB's use of long-term capital planning data."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Corporation for National and Community Service (the Corporation) was created to help meet community needs and expand educational opportunity by providing education awards to participants. The Corporation oversees and funds the AmeriCorps program as well as the National Service Trust (the Trust), which pays the education awards. From November 2002 to March 2003 the Corporation suspended AmeriCorps enrollments because there would not have been sufficient funds in the Trust to pay education awards. GAO was asked to determine (1) if all AmeriCorps enrollments were accurately recorded, (2) how the Corporation estimated its funding needs, and (3) if the Corporation made changes to prevent another enrollment suspension and to address requirements established in the Strengthen AmeriCorps Program Act. GAO analyzed laws, reviewed documents, interviewed officials, assessed the reliability of the Trust database, examined the model used to estimate funding needs, and surveyed Americorps grantees."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Environmental reviews of complex federally funded highway construction projects may take years. The Congress has an interest in identifying and, if necessary, addressing the reasons to expedite highway projects. To better understand these reasons, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) surveyed its 55 division offices to determine why the environmental review of certain highway projects took more than 5 years. The Chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure requested that we determine (1) the reasonableness of FHWA's survey methodology and offer suggestions for improvement, if appropriate, and (2) the feasibility of resurveying the same projects to gain an additional understanding about why environmental reviews took more than 5 years. To carry out this work, we interviewed FHWA officials about how they selected projects, surveyed their division offices, and analyzed the responses they obtained. In addition, we applied the lessons learned from FHWA's original approach to assess the feasibility of resurveying the same projects."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Congress is concerned that waste from animal feeding operations continues to threaten water quality. In light of this concern, GAO was asked to review the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) administration of its regulatory program for animal feeding operations and to determine the potential challenges states and EPA may face when they begin to implement the revisions to this program. GAO surveyed all EPA regional offices and four states with large numbers of animal feeding operations that may be subject to EPA regulations."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report contains GAO's assessment of the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) efforts to revise OMB Circular A-76, which prescribes policies and procedures agencies must use when considering the transfer of commercial activities between the public and private sectors. The proposed revision was issued for public comment on November 19, 2002. GAO found the proposed revision consistent in many ways with the sourcing principles and recommendations adopted by the Commercial Activities Panel. There are several areas, however, where the proposed revisions to the Circular are not consistent with the principles or recommendations of the Commercial Activities Panel. Specifically, these include the absence of a link between sourcing policy and agency missions, unnecessarily complicated source selection procedures, certain unrealistic time frames, and insufficient guidance on calculating savings."

A briefing report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Agriculture provided $15 billion in food stamp benefits to 17 million recipients in 2000. Until the mid-1990s, most recipients received paper coupons that they could use to buy food; today, 80 percent of all benefits are provided electronically. Recipients use cards, much like debit cards, to pay for their groceries at the checkout counter, and the costs are deducted from the recipients' monthly allocation. GAO found that 42 of the 53 jurisdictions it studied will likely meet the October 1, 2002, deadline for implementing a statewide electronic benefit transfer (EBT) system. Thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia had already implemented a statewide EBT system by October 2001, and six other states had signed EBT contracts and were on track to meet the October 2002 deadline for statewide implementation. GAO did not identify any technical barriers to statewide implementation of EBT systems that are interoperable and portable."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, which formally ended the Mexican-American War, the United States assumed control over vast new territories, including much of what is now the state of New Mexico. The United States agreed to recognize ownership of property, including the ownership of land grants, in the ceded areas. Whether the United States carried out the provisions of the treaty, especially with regard to community land grants, has been a controversial issue for generations. Land grant documents contain no direct reference to "community land grants," nor do Spanish and Mexican laws define or use this term. GAO did find, however, that some grants refer to lands set aside for general communal use or for specific purposes, such as hunting, maintaining pastures, wood gathering, or watering. Scholars, the land grant literature, and popular terminology commonly use the phrase "community land grants" to denote land grants that set aside common lands for the use of the entire community. GAO used this broad definition to determine which Spanish and Mexican land grants could be identified as community land grants. GAO identified 152 community land grants …