Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Recognizing the changing demographics of the federal workforce--significant portions of the workforce are aging, facing the need to care for elderly parents, and are or will be retiring, and in turn likely to be replaced by a younger workforce with child care needs--the Congress was interested in understanding the dependent care needs of the federal workforce and to what extent employees were using or could use federal programs and benefits designed to help meet these needs. We have previously reported that work-life programs, such as alternative flexible work schedules and child care centers and assistance, are viewed by agency officials as being among the most effective programs used to help manage their workforce. In response to these trends, the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations, included a mandate in its Conference Report 108-792 directing GAO to: (1) provide technical assistance to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the General Services Administration (GSA) in their efforts to gather data on federal employee child care needs and analyze options to meet those needs, and (2) review the data and analysis generated and provide the results to the Committees. This …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "To meet the mandate to screen all checked baggage for explosives by December 31, 2003, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) placed minivan-sized explosive detection systems (EDS) and other screening equipment in airport lobbies. However, these interim lobby solutions have caused operational inefficiencies, in part because they require a large number of screeners. According to TSA, in-line baggage screening--where EDS machines are integrated with an airport's baggage conveyor system--can be a more cost-effective and efficient alternative to lobby-based, stand-alone equipment. For example, in-line systems can increase the efficiency of airport, airline, and TSA operations, and lower costs by reducing the number of screeners. Moreover, in-line explosive detection systems can enhance security because they reduce congestion in airport lobbies, thus removing a potential target for terrorists. However, installing in-line systems can have large up-front costs, related to the need for airport modifications. To help defray these costs, in 2003, Congress authorized TSA to reimburse airports up to 75 percent of the cost to install these systems by entering "letter of intent" (LOI) agreements. An LOI, though not a binding commitment of federal funding, represents TSA's intent to provide …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Over the next several years, the Department of Defense (DOD) plans to invest $1.4 trillion in major weapons programs. While DOD produces superior weapons, GAO has found that the department has failed to deliver weapon systems on time, within budget, and with desired capabilities. While recent changes to DOD's acquisition policy held the potential to improve outcomes, programs continue to experience significant cost and schedule overruns. GAO was asked to examine how DOD's processes for determining needs and allocating resources can better support weapon system program stability. Specifically, GAO compared DOD's processes for investing in weapon systems to the best practices that successful commercial companies use to achieve a balanced mix of new products, and identified areas where DOD can do better. In conducting its work, GAO identified the best practices of: Caterpillar, Eli Lilly, IBM, Motorola, and Procter and Gamble."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), a statistical agency of the Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs, produces a recurring national Police-Public Contact Survey documenting contacts between the police and the public, including instances involving the use or threat of force by police. BJS issues public reports and sometimes press releases from survey results. For reports and a press release issued from the 1999 and 2002 surveys (the most recent available), GAO reviewed (1) the extent to which BJS followed quality guidelines to ensure the accuracy and integrity of its survey-related products, and (2) factors that affected whether and how BJS followed available guidelines. GAO reviewed applicable federal data quality guidelines, policy and procedure documents, and interviewed current and former officials familiar with BJS."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report is GAO's fifth annual assessment of selected weapon programs. From 2001 to the present, the Department of Defense (DOD) has doubled its planned investment in new systems from approximately $750 billion to almost $1.5 trillion. While DOD expects these systems to transform military operations, their acquisition remains a high-risk area. GAO's reviews of weapons over three decades have found consistent cost increases, schedule delays, and performance shortfalls. The nation's growing long-range fiscal challenges may ultimately spur Congress to pressure DOD to cut spending on new weapons and to redirect funding to other priorities. In response, DOD might be compelled to deliver new weapon programs within estimated costs and to obtain the most from its investments. This report provides congressional and DOD decision makers with an independent, knowledge-based assessment of selected defense programs, identifying potential risks and needed actions when a program's projected attainment of knowledge diverges from the best practices. Programs assessed were selected using several factors: high dollar value, acquisition stage, and congressional interest. This report also highlights issues raised by the cumulative experiences of individual programs. GAO updates this report annually under …

This report assesses factors that adversely affect the NASA's ability to fly up to sixteen missions between late 2006 and 2010, which include Hurricane Katrina and the aging of the shuttle program workforce. The report also offers findings and recommends strategies for consideration by NASA and its major contractors. (p. 1).

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "During emergencies, the public needs accurate and timely information. Through the Emergency Alert System (EAS), the media play a pivotal role, assisting emergency management personnel in communicating to the public. GAO reviewed (1) the media's ability to meet federal requirements for participating in EAS, (2) stakeholder views on the challenges facing EAS and potential changes to it, and (3) the progress made toward developing an integrated alert system. GAO reviewed the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) proposed rulemaking on EAS and interviewed media outlets, state emergency management officials, and federal agencies responsible for EAS, including FCC and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Many U.S. workers receive health and pension benefits from employers, and the cost of these benefits represents a growing share of workers' total compensation. Employers have made changes to control these rising costs, contending that these changes will allow them to remain competitive, particularly in an increasingly global market. Some advocacy groups are concerned that workers may receive reduced benefits or incur additional costs as a result of employers' cost-control strategies. Moreover, they contend that these changes may disadvantage certain groups of workers, such as sicker, older, or low-wage workers. GAO was asked to examine the practices employers are using to control the costs of benefits. To evaluate changing employer benefit practices and their potential implications, GAO examined: (1) current and emerging practices employers are using to control the costs of health care benefits; (2) current and emerging practices employers are using to control the costs of retirement benefits; and (3) employers' workforce restructuring changes. GAO reviewed studies of employer benefit trends; interviewed representatives of business, government, labor, and consumer advocacy and research organizations; and reviewed and analyzed data from surveys of employee benefits. The Department …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report presents the results of our audits of expenditures reported by one office of independent counsel and one office of special counsel for the 6 months ended September 30, 2006. The Department of Justice and the independent counsels are required under 28 U.S.C. 594 (d)(2), (h) and 596 (c)(1) to report on a semiannual basis the expenditures from a permanent, indefinite appropriation established within the Department of Justice to fund independent counsel activities. Under 28 U.S.C. 596 (c)(2), we are required to audit the statements of expenditures prepared by the independent counsels. We also audited the statement of expenditures of Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald, who is authorized by the Department of Justice to fund his operation from the permanent, indefinite appropriation."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for approving medical devices--such as catheters and artificial hearts--to provide reasonable assurance of their safety and effectiveness. As part of this responsibility, FDA, an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), reviews applications submitted by medical device companies for devices they wish to market in the United States, including devices that are new or those that constitute modifications to already approved devices. Prior to 2002, members of Congress, representatives of the medical device industry, and others expressed concern that FDA lacked the resources necessary to complete such reviews in a timely manner to ensure that patients have access to useful, possibly life-saving, devices. In response, Congress enacted the Medical Device User Fee and Modernization Act of 2002 (MDUFMA), which authorizes FDA to charge user fees for some device applications and not others. Revenues from the user fees, together with additional appropriations that were also authorized by MDUFMA, were intended to provide additional resources to FDA for improving the timeliness of device review. To help ensure that user fees are not financially prohibitive for small medical device companies, …

Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This document describes the forces that are likely to shape our nation's future, its place in the world, and the changing role of the federal government. This document is an integral part of GAO's strategic plan for serving the Congress for fiscal years 2007 through 2012. Our plan describes our proposed goals and strategies for supporting the Congress and the nation in facing the challenges of a rapidly changing world. In keeping with our commitment to update the plan every 3 years, we have identified seven key themes that provide the context for our plan. These themes are ensuring the nation's readiness to face changing security threats; addressing a range of sustainability challenges from fiscal challenges to environmental challenges; maintaining economic growth and competitiveness; recognizing global interdependencies related to people, information, goods, and capital; adapting to societal changes resulting from demographic and other shifts; maintaining U.S. citizens' quality of life; and managing advancements in science and technology."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Pub. L. No. 109-102, section 567, mandated that GAO analyze U.S. international basic education efforts overseas. In this report, GAO (1) describes U.S. agencies' basic education activities and how the agencies plan them; (2) examines U.S. coordination of basic education efforts among U.S. agencies, and with host governments and international donors; and (3) examines how U.S. agencies assess the results of their basic education programs. In conducting this work, GAO obtained and analyzed relevant agencies' documents and met with U.S. and foreign government officials and nongovernmental organizations, traveling to selected recipient countries."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) establishes that federal agencies must provide access to their information, enabling the public to learn about government operations and decisions. To help ensure proper implementation, the act requires that agencies report annually to the Attorney General, giving specific information about their FOIA operations, such as numbers of requests received and processed and median processing times. Also, a recent Executive Order directs agencies to develop plans to improve FOIA operations, including decreasing backlog. For this study, GAO was asked to examine the status and trends of FOIA processing at 25 major agencies as reflected in annual reports, as well as the extent to which improvement plans contain the elements emphasized by the Executive Order. To do so, GAO analyzed the 25 agencies' annual reports and improvement plans."

Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This publication supersedes GAO-04-534SP, GAO Strategic Plan 2004-2009, March, 2004 and has been superseded by GAO-10-559SP, U.S. Government Accountability Office: Strategic Plan 2010-2015, July 2010. In keeping with GAO's commitment to update its strategic plan at least once every 3 years--consistent with the Government Performance and Results Act--this strategic plan describes our proposed goals and strategies for serving the Congress for fiscal years 2007 through 2012. As expected, with the Congress and the nation facing such challenges as the large and growing long-term fiscal imbalance and increased concerns about meeting the health care needs of American citizens, this plan includes bodies of work that address anticipated requests for evaluations of those and other major issues. In addition, our plan covers anticipated work related to major government transformation efforts, especially in the areas of homeland security and defense. Since our last update to the strategic plan, many challenges continue and others have emerged. For example, the war on terrorism has continued, as has the nation's involvement in Iraq and the ensuing reconstruction effort that is still unfolding. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and predictions of an influenza pandemic …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Border Patrol is responsible for patrolling 8,000 miles of the land and coastal borders of the United States to detect and prevent the illegal entry of aliens and contraband, including terrorists and weapons of mass destruction. Although the Border Patrol apprehends hundreds of thousands of people entering the country illegally each year, several hundreds of thousands more individuals successfully enter the country illegally and undetected each year. In May 2006, the President called for comprehensive immigration reform that included strengthening control of the country's borders by, among other things, adding 6,000 new agents to the Border Patrol by the end of December 2008. This would increase the total number of agents from 12,349 to 18,319, an unprecedented 48 percent increase over the next 2 years. The Border Patrol plans to add these new agents to the southwest border while transferring up to 1,000 experienced agents to the northern border. Concerned about the ability of the Border Patrol's basic training program to accommodate this significant increase in Border Patrol agent trainees, Congress requested that we provide information on the content, quality, and cost of the Border Patrol's …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In fiscal year 2006, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) collected about $2.5 trillion in tax payments and paid about $277 billion in refunds. Because IRS relies extensively on computerized systems, effective information security controls are essential to ensuring that financial and taxpayer information is adequately protected from inadvertent or deliberate misuse, fraudulent use, improper disclosure, or destruction. As part of its audit of IRS's fiscal years 2006 and 2005 financial statements, GAO assessed (1) IRS's actions to correct previously reported information security weaknesses and (2) whether controls were effective in ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of financial and sensitive taxpayer information. To do this, GAO examined IRS information security policies and procedures, guidance, security plans, reports, and other documents; tested controls over five critical applications at three IRS sites; and interviewed key security representatives and management officials."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The costs of Medicaid--the federal-state program financing health care for about 60 million low-income people--totaled about $317 billion in fiscal year 2005. Increasing budgetary pressures have created tension between the states and the federal government, in part because some states have used inappropriate financing arrangements to collect federal matching funds when payments were not retained by the providers. In August 2003, the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) began an initiative to end inappropriate arrangements. GAO was asked to examine the (1) number, and fiscal effects, of states ending particular financing arrangements; (2) extent to which CMS's initiative represents a change in agency approach or policy; and (3) transparency and consistency of the initiative. For states ending arrangements, GAO surveyed state officials, reviewed CMS documents, and interviewed CMS and state officials."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2006, GAO reported that many large wastewater facilities have responded to this risk by voluntarily conducting vulnerability assessments and converting from chlorine gas to other disinfection methods. The Clean Air Act requires all wastewater facilities that use threshold quantities of chlorine gas to prepare and implement risk management plans to prevent accidental releases and reduce the severity of any releases. In this study, GAO was asked to provide information on (1) the range of costs large wastewater treatment facilities incurred in preparing vulnerability assessments and risk management plans, and (2) the costs large wastewater treatment facilities incurred in converting from chlorine gas to alternative disinfection processes. To answer these questions, GAO conducted structured telephone interviews with a number of facilities surveyed for the 2006 report. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) agreed with the report and provided several technical changes and clarifications."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Much offshore financial activity is not illegal, but numerous illegal offshore schemes have been devised to hide or disguise the true ownership of income streams and assets. IRS studies show lengthy development times for some offshore cases, which suggests that time or the lack thereof could be an impediment to effectively addressing offshore schemes. GAO was asked to (1) compare offshore and nonoffshore examination cases and determine whether the 3-year statute of limitations reduces offshore assessments, (2) compare enforcement problems posed by offshore cases to those where Congress has previously granted an exception to the statute, and (3) identify possible advantages and disadvantages of an exception to the statute for offshore cases. To address these objectives, GAO analyzed IRS data, reviewed examination files and other documents, and interviewed IRS officials and others in the tax practitioner and policy communities."

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2005, about 10 million working-age people with disabilities were beneficiaries of federal income support programs administered by the Social Security Administration (SSA)--namely the Disability Insurance (DI) program and the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. Both of these programs have grown dramatically over the past decade and the federal government's cost of providing these benefits was almost $101 billion in 2005. This growing cost and the need to redefine the relationship between impairments and the ability to work prompted us in 2003 to put federal disability programs on GAO's high-risk list. As we have previously reported, the percentage of SSA beneficiaries who could return to work is unknown. Some beneficiaries are unlikely to work because of the severity of their disabilities. Those who do return to the workforce may face additional challenges to their ability to leave the disability rolls. These include a potential loss of health care insurance coverage, lack of access to technologies, and transportation difficulties. Nevertheless, we have reported in the past that some beneficiaries who do participate in the workforce have credited vocational rehabilitation services, in part, for their return. Administered by …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In September and October 2001, contaminated letters laced with Bacillus anthracis were sent through the mail to two U.S. senators and members of the media. Postal facilities in New Jersey, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere became heavily contaminated. The anthrax incidents highlighted major gaps in civilian preparedness to detect anthrax contamination in buildings. GAO was asked to describe and assess federal agencies' activities to detect anthrax in postal facilities, assess the results of agencies' testing, and assess whether agencies' detection activities were validated."

This report is categorized into six categories: (I) What is Avian Influenza?, (II) Status of Avian Influenza Outbreaks, (III) Transmission, (IV) Control, (V) Economic Impacts, and (VI) Legislative Actions.

This report presents a side-by-side comparison of the major provisions of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, and includes a glossary of common terms.