Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Protective Service (FPS), which is within the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD), is responsible for protecting the more than 1 million federal employees and members of the public who work in and visit the over 9,000 federal facilities owned or leased by the General Services Administration (GSA) from a potential terrorist attack or other acts of violence. To accomplish its facility protection mission, FPS has about 1,200 full-time employees and approximately 13,200 contract security guards. FPS has an annual budget of about $1 billion and receives its funding from the revenues and collections of security fees charged to tenant agencies for protective services such as facility security assessments (FSA) and providing contract security guard services. Since 2008, we have issued numerous reports that address major challenges FPS faces in protecting federal facilities. For example, in 2009 and 2010 we reported that FPS had problems completing high-quality FSAs in a timely manner and did not provide adequate oversight of its contract guard program. In September 2007, FPS decided to address the challenges with its legacy security assessment and guard management systems …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Lewis and Clark Rural Water Project, focusing on: (1) federal assistance criteria for rural water projects and; (2) potential benefits of rural water projects such as Lewis and Clark."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Air Force launched an acquisition program to develop and produce a revolutionary laser weapon system, known as the Airborne Laser, in 1996. Being developed for installation in a modified Boeing 747 aircraft, it is intended to destroy enemy ballistic missiles almost immediately after their launch. The Air Force originally estimated development costs at $2.5 billion and projected fielding of the system in 2006. However, by August 2001, the Air Force determined that the development cost estimate rose 50 percent to $3.7 billion, and the fielding date slipped to 2010. The Department of Defense transferred responsibility for the Airborne Laser in October 2001 to the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization. Subsequently, the Defense Secretary designated the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization as the Missile Defense Agency and granted the agency expanded responsibility and authority. The Air Force was unable to meet the Airborne Laser's original cost and schedule goals because it did not fully understand the level of effort that would be required to develop the critical system technology needed to meet the user's requirements. The Missile Defense Agency's new strategy for developing the Airborne Laser incorporates some knowledge-based practices …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO and the Department of Education's Office of Inspector General have issued many reports in recent years on the Department's financial management problems, including internal control weaknesses that put the Department at risk for waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement. In an April 2001 assessment of the internal control over Education's payment processes and the associated risks for improper payments, GAO identified four broad categories of internal control weaknesses: poor segregation of duties, lack of supervisory review, inadequate audit trails, and inadequate computer systems' applications controls. This testimony discusses how these weaknesses make Education vulnerable to improper payments in grant and loan payments, third party drafts, and government purchase card purchases. GAO found that Education's student aid application processing system for grants and loans lacks an automated edit check that would identify potentially improper payments from students who were much older than expected, a single social security number associated with two or more dates of birth, grants to recipients in excess of statutory limits, and searches for invalid social security numbers. GAO also found problems with Education's third party draft system. Specifically, Education (1) circumvented a system's application control …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the management and oversight of the Fish and Wildlife Service's Wildlife Restoration Program, focusing on: (1) how administrative funds are used and monitored; and (2) whether there is adequate oversight of the funds provided to the states."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the planning-related provisions of titles I and II of S. 1320--the Public Lands Planning and Management Improvement Act of 1999, focusing on the: (1) statutory basis for the Forest Service's mission priorities; (2) clarity of the mission statement in S. 1320; and (3) extent to which the bill addresses identified planning deficiencies."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed performance budgeting in the federal government, focusing on the: (1) postponement of the performance budgeting pilots that are required by the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA); and (2) challenges that confront these pilots and any effort to more closely relate performance expectations and spending estimates."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the various schemes used to defraud the Medicare and Medicaid programs and private insurance companies and how the proposed legislation contained in H.R. 3461 and S.1231 could strenghten federal and state health care programs."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) hazardous waste ombudsman was first established within the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response as a result of the 1984 amendments to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Over time, EPA expanded the national ombudsman's jurisdiction to include Superfund and other hazardous waste programs managed by the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, and, by March 1996, EPA had designated ombudsmen in each of its 10 regional offices. Although the national ombudsman's activities ranged from providing information to investigating the merits of complaints, in recent years, the ombudsman played an increasingly prominent role through his investigations of citizen complaints. Pending legislation would reauthorize an office of the ombudsman within EPA. In November 2001, the EPA Administrator announced that the national ombudsman would be relocated from the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response to the Office of Inspector General (OIG) and would address concerns across the spectrum of EPA programs. Although there are no federal requirements or standards specific to the operation of ombudsman offices, several professional organizations have published standards of practice relevant to ombudsmen who deal with inquiries from …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed proposals for reorganizing the Department of Energy (DOE), focusing on: (1) longstanding weaknesses in DOE's management that GAO has identified over the past several years; (2) the effect that the proposals to deal with national security weaknesses would have on addressing these weaknesses; and (3) a framework for evaluating DOE's missions and possible reorganization."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed ways to distribute Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act funds to states and localities, focusing on the: (1) potential for distributing funds on the basis of counts of persons with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in each geographic area rather than on counts of only persons whose disease has progressed to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS); (2) differences in funding for states with and without an eligible metropolitan area (EMA); and (3) current effect of the hold-harmless provision adopted in the 1996 reauthorization, when the method of counting living AIDS cases replaced the practice of counting cumulative AID cases."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the regulatory standards used to protect the public from the risks of low-level nuclear radiation, focusing on: (1) whether current radiation standards have a well-verified scientific basis; (2) whether the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) have come closer to agreeing on exposure limits (how much radiation people can be safely exposed to) in the safety standards; and (3) how implementing these standards and limits may affect the costs of nuclear waste cleanup and disposal activities."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed: (1) the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) claims history for tribal self-determination contracts for fiscal years 1997 through 1999; and (2) FTCA coverage issues that are unique to tribal contractors."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the challenges of developing effective information sharing and coordination strategies needed to deal with computer security threats."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Small Business Administration's (SBA) efforts to identify its current and future workforce needs, budget for them and manage them strategically."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) efforts to implement the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998, focusing on IRS': (1) reorganization processes; (2) performance management system; and (3) systems modernization efforts."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the feasibility of allowing some families with children with disabilities to purchase Medicaid coverage, focusing on: (1) what role Medicaid plays in providing health care coverage for children with disabilities; (2) the extent to which private insurance offers coverage of needed services for children with disabilities; and (3) the benefits and services available to children under the Medicaid program."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975 encourages tribes to participate in and manage programs that for years had been administered on their behalf by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of the Interior. The act authorizes tribes to take over the administration of such programs through contractual arrangements with the agencies that previously ran them: HHS' Indian Health Service and Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs. For the Indian Health Service, the programs include mental health, dental care, hospitals and clinics. For the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the programs that can be contracted by tribes include law enforcement, education, and social services. Under the first 15 years of the Self-Determination Act, tribal contractors generally assumed liability for accidents or torts (civil wrongdoings) caused by their employees. However, in 1990, the federal government permanently assumed this liability when Congress extended the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) coverage to tribal contractors under the Self-Determination Act. Originally enacted in 1946, FTCA established a process by which individuals injured by federal employees could seek compensation from the federal government. As a result of extending this …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Title III of the proposed Department of Homeland Security legislation would task the new department with developing national policy and coordinating the federal government's research and development efforts for responding to chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats. It would also transfer to the new department responsibility for certain research and development programs and other activities, including those of the Department of Energy (DOE). If properly implemented, this proposed legislation could lead to a more efficient, effective and coordinated research effort that would provide technology to protect our people, borders, and critical infrastructure. However, the proposed legislation does not specify that a critical role of the new department will be to establish collaborative relationships with programs at all levels of government and to develop a strategic plan for research and development to implement the national policy it is charged with developing. In addition, the proposed legislation is not clear on the role of the new department in setting standards for the performance and interoperability of new technologies so that users can be confident that the technologies they are purchasing will perform as intended. Some of the proposed transfers of …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Medicare subvention demonstration proposal, focusing on: (1) comparing the 1998 House Ways and Means Committee bill on VA subvention with the Senate Finance Committee proposal; (2) the unique characteristics of VA health care that bear on subvention; and (3) the lessons learned from the design and early implementation of the Department of Defense's (DOD) demonstration that may be relevant to VA's proposed demonstration."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed aspects of S. 2805--the Federal Property Asset Management Reform Act--and H.R. 3285--the Federal Asset Management Improvement Act."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) Program and the North American Free Trade Agreement Transitional Adjustment Assistance (NAFTA-TAA) Program are designed to help dislocated workers, communities, and firms adjust to the rapid economic changes that characterize the globalization of national economies. Although globalization has increased the importance of technology and service sector jobs, it has also resulted in the loss of many manufacturing jobs as companies that cannot compete with lower-priced imports go out of business or relocate abroad. The federal government recognizes that although the benefits of increased trade are widely dispersed across the economy, the costs of worker dislocation effects are more localized. This has heightened concerns about the efficacy of federal trade adjustment assistance efforts. This testimony discusses (1) the nature of trade impacts on communities and the use of benefits and services under TAA and the NAFTA-TAA programs, (2) the structural problems that impede effective delivery of those services and benefits, and (3) the longer-term challenges facing trade-impacted communities."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In fiscal year 2001, the Army had 430,000 individually billed travel card accounts, and about $619 million in related charges. Most Army cardholders properly used their travel cards and promptly paid amounts owed. However, the Army's delinquency rate is higher than any other Department of Defense (DOD) component or executive branch agency. GAO also identified numerous instances of potentially fraudulent and abusive activity related to the travel cards. During fiscal year 2001, at least 200 Army employees wrote three or more nonsufficient funds or "bounced" checks to Bank of America as payment for their travel bills--potentially fraudulent acts. GAO found little evidence of documented disciplinary action against Army personnel who misused the card, or that Army travel program managers or supervisors were even aware that travel cards were being used for personal use. For fiscal year 2001, the Army had significant breakdowns in key internal controls over individually billed travel cards that stemmed from a weak overall environment, flawed policies and procedures, and a lack of adherence to valid policies and procedures. These breakdowns contributed to the significant delinquencies and charge-offs of Army employee account balances and potentially …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the impact of fraudulent documents on the effectiveness of the employment verification system established by the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 and efforts to reduce such fraudulent use."