Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The decline of home prices in many parts of the country has left millions of homeowners with negative home equity, meaning that their outstanding mortgage balances exceed the current value of their homes. As we reported to you previously, a substantial proportion of borrowers with active nonprime mortgages (including subprime and Alt-A loans) had negative equity in their homes as of June 30, 2009. For example, among the 16 metropolitan areas examined, we estimated that the percentage of nonprime borrowers with negative equity ranged from about 9 percent (Denver, Colorado) to more than 90 percent (Las Vegas, Nevada). Research indicates that negative home equity substantially increases the risk of mortgage delinquency, making it an important dimension of ongoing problems in the nonprime market. To provide insight into how negative equity and loan performance among nonprime borrowers have varied by location and over time, this report examines, at the state level, the estimated proportion of nonprime borrowers with active loans that were in a negative equity position and the proportion that were seriously delinquent on their loan payments from 2006 through the end of 2009. This report is part …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This letter responds to a request by the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, that we provide answers to questions relating to our March 17, 2004, testimony. At that hearing, we discussed the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) and Department of Defense's (DOD) progress toward defining a detailed strategy and developing the capability for a two-way exchange of patient health information."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Overall, orthopedic IMD admission rates were substantially higher in 2009 compared with 2003, while admission rate patterns among cardiac IMDs were mixed. Admission rates rose for each of the orthopedic IMDs in our study, with knee replacement rates growing 6.7 percent per year. The picture for inpatient cardiac IMD procedures was more mixed; admission rates for dual-chamber pacemakers decreased steadily while rates for AICDs and drug-eluting stents increased through 2006 and generally declined thereafter, in part reflecting a shift of surgeries to the outpatient setting. While the proportion of both orthopedic and cardiac IMD beneficiaries in poor or very poor health grew throughout our period of study, this trend was far more evident for cardiac IMD beneficiaries after 2007."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "For decades, the United States has worked toward the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, most recently under the 2003 Roadmap for Peace, which calls for an independent Palestinian state coexisting peacefully with the State of Israel. The United States had obligated more than $2.9 billion in bilateral assistance to the West Bank and Gaza focused on further developing the Palestinian economic, social services, and civil society sectors and on strengthening the processes, governance, and security-providing capacity of Palestinian Authority (PA) institutions from fiscal years 1993 through 2009. An additional $400.4 million is planned for fiscal year 2010. Since June 2007, when Hamas-a U.S. designated terrorist organization-seized control of the Gaza Strip, the United States has directed most of its assistance to the West Bank. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is primarily responsible for administering Economic Support Fund (ESF) appropriations. Fiscal year 2008 and 2009 ESF funds support, among other things, priority needs identified in the 2007 Palestinian Reform and Development Plan, as well as humanitarian needs in Gaza following the Israeli-Hamas conflict there from December 2008 through January 2009. For fiscal years 2008 and 2009, the …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the National Woman's Relief Corps, Auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic, Incorporated, for the fiscal year ended August 31, 1997, focusing on whether the audit report complied with the financial reporting requirements of the law."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Energy (DOE) is unusual among federal agencies in that it regulates and inspects its own facilities to protect the safety and health of its workers and of the communities surrounding its vast complex of research laboratories. With few exceptions, all other federal facilities must comply with national standards set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for nuclear safety and by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for worker safety and health. DOE asserts that, for the most part, its safety and health standards meet or exceed those promulgated for facilities regulated by NRC and OSHA. At DOE's 10 science laboratories, which are run by management and operating (M&O) contractors, the department and its contractors use a contract administration process to select standards appropriate to current worker hazards and public safety issues. Both DOE and the M&O contractors are involved in safety and health activities. DOE's field offices, most of which are located at the laboratories, provide continuous safety and health oversight of the M&O contractors. DOE headquarters offices provide policy guidance to the field offices and also conduct some oversight of the laboratories. Safety …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The District of Columbia's (the District) transportation system is critical to the District's residents and businesses, the federal government, and the millions of tourists who visit the nation's capital annually. To help build and maintain its bridges and roads, the District receives federal highway funds from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). All of the District's bridges and about 30 percent of its roads are eligible for these funds; the remaining roads are maintained under the local transportation program using District funds. In 2003, the District expended a total of about $242 million on its bridge and road infrastructure, of which almost $158 million were federal-aid expenditures. To better manage its transportation services, the District reorganized its transportation infrastructure functions, creating a stand-alone Department of Transportation in 2002. According to the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center), a lack of resources and inadequate attention to emerging infrastructure problems allowed local road conditions to decay to the point that in 1999, nearly 50 percent of local roads were rated fair or poor by FHWA. In addition, the District Department of Transportation's (DDOT) stakeholders believed that the organization was reactive, …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) fiscal year (FY) 1998 financial audit report."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Human activities--especially the federal government's decades-old policy of suppressing all wildland fires--have resulted in dangerous accumulations of brush, small trees, and other vegetation on federal lands. This vegetation has increasingly provided fuel for large, intense wildland fires, particularly in the dry, interior western United States. The scale and intensity of the fires in the 2000 wildland fire season made it one of the worst in 50 years. That season capped a decade characterized by dramatic increases in the number of wildland fires and the costs of suppressing them. These fires have also posed special risks to communities in the wildland-urban interface--where human development meets or intermingles with undeveloped wildland--as well as to watersheds and other resources, such as threatened and endangered species, clean water, and clean air. The centerpiece of the federal response to the growing threat of wildland fires has been the development of the National Fire Plan. This plan advocates a new approach to wildland fires by shifting emphasis from the reactive to the proactive--from attempting to suppress wildland fires to reducing the buildup of hazardous vegetation that fuels fires. The plan recognizes that unless these …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "With health care spending increasing, Congress enacted legislation effective in 2004 establishing Health Savings Accounts (HSA) to be coupled with eligible high-deductible health plans. The novel structure of eligible health plans coupled with HSAs has raised questions about who selects them and how they are used. Proponents contend that the lower premiums of the health plans and the tax-free savings potential of HSAs appeal to consumers, while the health plans' high deductibles encourage enrollees to be more astute health care consumers. However, critics are concerned that HSA-eligible plans may attract enrollees who seek lower premiums but lack the resources to contribute to an HSA, and wealthy enrollees who may use the HSA primarily to accumulate tax-advantaged savings. This statement focuses on (1) participation in HSA-eligible high-deductible health plans and HSAs, (2) the income characteristics of HSA account holders, and (3) the funding and use of HSAs. This statement is based primarily on findings from GAO's April 2008 report entitled Health Savings Accounts: Participation Increased and Was More Common among Individuals with Higher Incomes (GAO-08-474R). For that report GAO reviewed industry data on the participation in HSA-eligible plans and …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "As part of the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) oversight of the safety and effectiveness of medical devices marketed in the United States, it inspects certain foreign and domestic establishments where these devices are manufactured. To help FDA address shortcomings in its inspection program, the Medical Device User Fee and Modernization Act of 2002 required FDA to accredit third parties to inspect certain establishments. In response, FDA has implemented two voluntary programs for that purpose. This statement is based primarily on GAO testimonies from January 2008 (GAO-08-428T) and April 2008 (GAO-08-701T). In this statement, GAO assesses (1) FDA's program for inspecting foreign establishments that manufacture medical devices for the U.S. market and (2) FDA's programs for third-party inspections of those establishments. For GAO's January and April 2008 testimonies, GAO interviewed FDA officials, analyzed information from FDA, and updated GAO's previous work on FDA's programs for inspections by accredited third parties. GAO updated selected information for this statement in early May 2008."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Congress is considering expanding the number of federal agencies required to prepare audited financial statements to include all executive branch agencies that have budget authority of $25 million or more. The Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996 builds on the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act by encouraging agencies to have systems that generate timely, accurate, and useful information with which to make informed decisions on an ongoing basis. The 26 non-CFO Act agencies that GAO surveyed reported that they anticipate significant benefits from audited financial statements."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) spent $21 billion in fiscal year 2001 to treat 3.8 million veterans--most of whom had service-connected disabilities or low incomes. Since 1997, VA has used the Veterans Equitable Resource Allocation (VERA) system to allocate most of its medical care appropriation. GAO found that VERA has had a substantial impact on network resource allocations and workloads. VERA shifted $921 million from networks primarily in the northeast and midwest to networks in the south and west in fiscal year 2001. VERA, along with other VA initiatives, has provided an incentive for networks to serve more veterans. In GAO's view, VERA's overall design is a reasonable approach to allocating resources according to workloads. It provides a predetermined dollar amount per veteran served to each of VA's 22 health care networks. This amount varies depending upon the health care needs of the veteran served and local cost differences. However, GAO identified weaknesses in VERA's implementation. First, VERA excludes about one fifth of VA's workload in determining each network's allocation. Second, VERA does not account well for cost differences among networks resulting from variation in their patients' …

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO commented on whether actions taken by employees of the Forest Service to implement a Communication Plan for the Forest Service Natural Resource Agenda violated section 303 of the 1998 Interior Department Appropriations Act, which prohibited the expenditure of funds for certain lobbying activities undertaken by covered federal officials. GAO noted that: (1) expenditure of funds by the Forest Service for certain activities undertaken to implement a Forest Service Natural Resource Agenda Communication Plan violated section 303 of the 1998 Interior Department Appropriations Act; and (2) activities included: (a) urging members of the public during a meeting and to contact Congress in support of road funding initiatives in legislation and in the budget; and (b) a campaign to promote public support for a budget proposal seeking to change the way certain payments to states from Forest Service revenues are calculated."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO commented on whether the Fish and Wildlife Service's Record of Decision (ROD) entitled "Trinity River Mainstem Fishery Restoration" is a "rule" under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) provisions of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act. GAO held that, under CRA, a rule is an agency action that constitutes a statement of general or particular applicability and future effect designed to implement, interpret, or prescribe law or policy. The Trinity ROD clearly constituted a rule since its essential purpose was to set policy for the future."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In light of the fourth anniversary of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998, which established Congress' expectation that IRS modernize to better meet taxpayer needs, GAO gave an overview of IRS's current performance and resources and then assessed the progress that IRS has made modernizing and the risks to continued progress. Overall, IRS has seen increased workload, decreased staffing, and significant changes in the allocation of resources between taxpayer assistance programs and its compliance and collection programs. Between 1995 and 2001, IRS's workload, measured by returns filed, increased by 10 percent while aggregate staffing declined by 14 percent. Over the same time, there was a significant internal reallocation of resources with a disproportionate decline in compliance and collection program staffing to accommodate more emphasis on taxpayer service, such as telephone assistance, and to information systems operation and investment. Electronic filing of returns increased but not enough to reduce paper returns sufficiently to free significant processing resources for use elsewhere. The reallocation of resources shows signs of beginning to produce more accurate service for taxpayers, but the compliance and collection programs have seen large …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses fluid milk prices and the factors that impact them. GAO found that although the farm price of milk has some influence on the retail price, other factors may ultimately have a greater impact on the retail price. Given that farm prices account only for about 40 percent of the retail price, other factors, such as wholesale processing costs and retail pricing strategies, can significantly influence the retail price. This testimony summarized an October 1998 report (GAO/RCED-99-4)."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Under personnel reform legislation enacted in 1995, the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) implemented a new personnel management system. The system is exempt from most governmentwide personnel laws, but is subject to change only if the Administrator consults and negotiates those changes with the exclusive bargaining representatives of FAA's employees. When FAA and labor cannot reach an agreement regarding changes in the personnel management system, the legislation requires that the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service be used to reach an agreement, and if that step is unsuccessful, FAA's proposed changes become effective 60 days after FAA transmits its proposed changes, along with labor's objections and its reasons for the objections, to Congress. FAA's first labor negotiation following the reform legislation was with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), which represents, among others, FAA's 15,000 Air Traffic Controllers, Traffic Management Coordinators, and Traffic Management Specialists. Congress' letter asked us to review FAA's human capital system. Congress also raised several questions, including (1) How personnel reforms have affected FAA's budget and how compensation for FAA's unionized workforce compares with other government employees? and (2) What has FAA …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the National Society Daughters of the American Colonists for the fiscal year ended February 28, 1998, focusing on whether the audit report complied with the financial reporting requirements of the law."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The 24 agencies participating in the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative made progress towards the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) goal to close 40 percent, or 1,253 of the 3,133 total federal data centers, by the end of 2015, but OMB has not measured agencies’ progress against its other goal of $3 billion in cost savings by the end of 2015. Agencies closed 420 data centers by the end of December 2012, and have plans to close an additional 548 to reach 968 by December 2015—285 closures short of OMB’s goal. OMB has not determined agencies’ progress against its cost savings goal because, according to OMB staff, the agency has not determined a consistent and repeatable method for tracking cost savings. This lack of information makes it uncertain whether the $3 billion in savings is achievable by the end of 2015. Until OMB tracks and reports on performance measures such as cost savings, it will be limited in its ability to oversee agencies’ progress against key goals."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "On February 18, 2004, we issued a report updating the appropriations and expenditure data for the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Superfund program that we included in our July 2003 report on the status of the program. To supplement this information, Congress requested that we provide a breakdown of the appropriations data, showing the amounts for the Superfund program, amounts designated for the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), and the Brownfields program. Superfund program operations are funded by appropriations from the general revenue fund and the Superfund trust fund. Historically, a tax on crude oil and certain chemicals and an environmental tax on corporations were the primary sources of revenues for the trust fund; however, the authority for these taxes expired in 1995. The trust fund continues to receive revenues in the form of cost recoveries, interest on the fund balance, fines and penalties, and general revenue fund appropriations that supplement the trust fund balance."

Our multidisciplinary research team for this project involved collaboration between the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) and the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center (UNM HSC). Our research team in Wisconsin was led by Laura Roberts, M.D., Principal Investigator, and included Scott Helberg, MLS (Project Coordinator), Kate Green Hammond, Ph.D. (Consultant), Krisy Edenharder (Research Coordinator), and Mark Talatzko (Research Assistant). Our New Mexico-based team was led by Teddy Warner, Ph.D., Co-Principal Investigator and UNM Site Principal Investigator, and included Suzanne Roybal (Project Assistant), Darlyn Mabon (Project Assistant), Kate Green Hammond, PhD (Senior Research Scientist on the UNM team from 2004 until January, 2007), and Paulette Christopher (Research Assistant). In addition, computer technical and web support for the web-based survey conducted on a secure server at the University of New Mexico was provided by Kevin Wiley and Kim Hagen of the Systems and Programming Team of the Health Sciences Center Library and Information Center. We stated 3 aims in the grant proposal: (1) To collect web survey reports of the ethical perspectives, concerns, preferences and decision-making related to genetic testing using surveys from employees …

A letter from Sharon Boyd to election administrator, Bruce Sherbet, voicing her disagreement with the redrawing of district lines before city council elections.

The bulletin from the funeral service for Fanny Mae Tyson Caldwell at St. John Regular Baptist Association Tabernacle. Mrs. Caldwell was a long-time educator in Pflugerville, TX. Included in the bulletin are: one of her favorite poems, "The House by the Side of the Road", the order of the service, her obituary, a Litany of Gratitude in her honor, and a family tribute.