A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the challenges facing the Financial Management Service (FMS) in implementing the cross-servicing provision of the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed how the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), in conjunction with the states, ensures the cost-effectiveness of projects funded under the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, focusing on: (1) the approaches FEMA and the states use to ensure that program grants are targeted to cost-effective mitigation projects; and (2) whether the approaches ensure that the mitigation measures are cost-effective."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the results of our investigation of the disability programs managed by the Social Security Administration (SSA). SSA administers two of the nation's largest cash benefit programs for people with disabilities: the Disability Insurance (DI) program, which provides benefits to workers with disabilities and their family members, and the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, which provides income for aged, blind, or disabled people with limited income and resources. In 2008, the DI program provided about $104 billion to some 9 million beneficiaries, and the SSI program provided about $38 billion in financial benefits to some 7.5 million recipients. Given the magnitude of these cash benefit payments, it is important for SSA to have effective fraud prevention controls in place to minimize fraudulent and improper payments. This statement summarizes our most recent report, describing cases of federal workers, commercial drivers, and commercial vehicle company owners who fraudulently or improperly received disability benefits. The objectives of the investigation were to (1) determine whether federal employees and commercial vehicle drivers and company owners may be improperly receiving disability benefits and (2) develop case study examples of individuals who fraudulently …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) efforts to safeguard Medicare payments, focusing on: (1) how Medicare program safeguard activities have changed from fiscal years (FY) 1995 to 1999 and what changes are planned for FY 2000; (2) HCFA's actions to better manage its program safeguard activities, which respond to key findings from GAO's previous audit reports and those of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG); and (3) the initial effects of the Medicare Integrity Program (MIP) on controlling Medicare fraud and abuse, including the adequacy of HCFA's data for measuring the effectiveness of its program safeguard activities."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Pipeline Safety Improvement Act of 2002 established a risk-based program for gas transmission pipelines--termed integrity management--which requires pipeline operators to identify areas where the consequences of a pipeline incident would be the greatest, such as highly populated areas. Operators must assess pipelines in these areas for safety threats (such as corrosion), repair or replace defective segments, and reassess their pipelines at least every 7 years. Under the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration's (PHMSA) regulations, operators must reassess their pipelines for corrosion at least every 7 years and for all safety threats at least every 10, 15, or 20 years. State pipeline safety agencies that assist PHMSA are eligible to receive matching funds up to 50 percent of the cost of their pipeline safety programs. This statement is based on ongoing work for Congress and for others. It focuses on three areas germane to current legislative reauthorization proposals: (1) an overall assessment of the integrity management program, (2) the 7-year reassessment requirement, and (3) provisions to increase state pipeline safety grants. GAO contacted more than 50 pipeline operators and a broad range of stakeholders and surveyed state …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the need to revamp the federal food safety system, focusing on: (1) an overview of GAO's work on the problems resulting from the fragmented food safety system; and (2) where in the federal government food safety inspection responsibilities should reside."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Food and Nutrition Service's (FNS) new rule on the Food Stamp Program's recipient claim establishment and collection standards. GAO noted that: (1) the final rule aims to improve claims management in the Food Stamp Program while providing state agencies increased flexibility in their efforts to increase claims collection; (2) the final rule incorporates changes mandated by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 and includes federal debt management regulations and statutory revisions into recipient claim management; and (3) FNS complied with applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In response to a Congressional request, we issued a report in June 2005 on the Department of Defense's (DOD) progress in determining and allocating resources needed to implement the New Triad today and in the future. In that report, we made recommendations to the Secretary of Defense to provide greater visibility of the projected spending and future investments for DOD's efforts to create the New Triad and acquire future capabilities. On April 28, 2005, we provided DOD with a draft of that report for review and comment. DOD did not provide comments in time to incorporate them in that report, which went to printing on June 24, 2005. DOD provided its comments to us on June 30, 2005. To present DOD's comments and provide our perspective on them, this report briefly summarizes our June 2005 report's objectives, results, and recommendations, along with DOD's comments and our evaluation of the comments."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the internal control and compliance issues related to the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) custodial activities, focusing on: (1) previously reported internal control and compliance issues and related recommendations; (2) new issues identified during GAO's fiscal year (FY) 1998 financial audit, along with new recommendations to address those issues; and (3) additional issues identified from GAO's ongoing FY 1999 financial audit."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined U.S. rule of law assistance programs in five Latin American countries--Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Panama, focusing on: (1) what U.S. rule of law assistance has helped each country achieve; (2) what factors have affected the implementation of reforms in the respective criminal justice systems; and (3) how U.S. missions in each country plan and coordinate their rule of law assistance programs."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the protection of children during disaster recovery and to provide highlights of our July 2009 report entitled Hurricane Katrina: Barriers to Mental Health Services for Children Persist in Greater New Orleans, Although Federal Grants Are Helping to Address Them. The greater New Orleans area has yet to fully recover from the effects of Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall on August 29, 2005. One issue of concern in the recovery is the availability of mental health services for children. In our report, we estimated that in 2008 about 187,000 children were living in the greater New Orleans area--which we defined as Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, and St. Bernard parishes. Many children in the greater New Orleans area experienced psychological trauma as a result of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, and studies have shown that such trauma can have long-lasting behavioral, psychological, and emotional effects on children. Poor children in this area may also be at additional risk, because studies have also shown that children who grow up in poverty are at risk for the development of mental health disorders. In 2007 the poverty rate for each of …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Department of Defense (DOD) costs for fixed-wing cargo airlift, passenger airlift, and aerial refueling for foreign trips by the President, Vice President, and First Lady and for White House-directed trips."