A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "As part of a broad congestion relief initiative, the Department of Transportation awarded about $848 million from 10 grant programs to five cities (Miami, Minneapolis, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle) in 2007 as part of the Urban Partnership Agreements (UPA) initiative. The UPA initiative is intended to demonstrate the feasibility and benefits of comprehensive, integrated, and innovative approaches to relieving congestion, including the use of tolling (congestion pricing), transit, technology, and telecommuting (4Ts). Congestion pricing involves charging drivers a fee that varies with the density of traffic. This report addresses congressional interest in (1) how well the department communicated UPA selection criteria, (2) whether it had discretion to allocate grant funds to UPA recipients and consider congestion pricing as a priority selection factor, and (3) how it is ensuring that UPA award conditions are met and results are assessed. GAO reviewed departmental documents, statutes and case law, and interviewed department officials and UPA applicants."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) estimates it will provide health care to 5.8 million patients with appropriations of $41.2 billion in fiscal year 2009. The President has proposed an increase in VA's health care budget for fiscal year 2010 to expand services for veterans. VA's patient population includes aging veterans who need services such as long-term care-- including nursing home and noninstitutional care provided in veterans' homes or community-- and veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq. Each year, VA formulates its medical care budget, which involves developing estimates of spending for VA's health care services. VA is also responsible for budget execution-- spending appropriations and monitoring their use. GAO was asked to discuss challenges related to VA's health care services budget formulation and execution. This statement focuses on (1) challenges VA faces in formulating its health care budget, and (2) challenges VA faces in executing its health care budget. This testimony is based on three GAO reports: VA Health Care: Budget Formulation and Reporting on Budget Execution Need Improvement (GAO-06-958) (Sept. 2006); VA Heath Care: Spending for Mental Health Strategic Plan Initiatives Was Substantially Less Than Planned …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Although the pay gap between men and women in the U.S. workforce has narrowed since the 1980s, numerous studies have found that a disparity still exists. In 2003, we found that women in the general workforce earned, on average, 20 cents less for every dollar earned by men in 2000 when differences in work patterns, industry, occupation, marital status, and other factors were taken into account. Other research indicates that this disparity existed for federal workers as well. For example, a 1998 study showed that the pay gap between men and women in the federal workforce decreased significantly between 1976 and 1995, but in 1995 white women still earned 14 cents less for every dollar earned by white men and African-American women earned 8 cents less for every dollar earned by African-American men after available factors related to pay were taken into account. In light of concerns that a pay gap may continue to exist between men and women in the workplace, Congress asked us to examine pay disparity issues and the role the federal government has played in enforcing anti-discrimination laws. In agreement with Congressional …