Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since October 1994, the U.S. Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) has had statutory authority to provide loans, guarantees, and insurance to help finance U.S. exports of dual-use (military and civilian) defense articles and services, provided that it determines these items are nonlethal and meant primarily for civilian use. These dual-use exports include such items as vehicles that are used by the military for civilian or humanitarian purposes. The legislation also requires us to report annually on the end uses of the dual-use exports financed by Ex-Im during the second preceding fiscal year--which, for the purposes of this letter, corresponds to 2005. Since we last issued a letter in 2001 reporting on Ex-Im financed dual-use exports, the enclosure to this letter provides detailed information regarding the dual-use exports financed during fiscal years 2002 through 2004."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) reports on federal funding for climate research and to develop technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, among other things. The Climate Change Science Program (CCSP), which coordinates many agencies' activities, also reports on science funding. The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Climate Leaders and the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Climate VISION programs aim to reduce such emissions through voluntary industry efforts. This testimony is based on GAO's August 2005 report Climate Change: Federal Reports on Climate Change Funding Should Be Clearer and More Complete (GAO-05-461) and its April 2006 report Climate Change: EPA and DOE Should Do More to Encourage Progress Under Two Voluntary Programs (GAO-06-97), which addressed (1) reported changes in federal climate change funding and (2) the status and progress of two federal voluntary climate programs."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Telecommuting, or telework--meaning work that is performed at an employee's home or at a work location other than a traditional office--has gained widespread attention over the past decade in both the public and private sectors, offering a variety of potential benefits to employers, employees, and society. On July 29, 2005, we briefed Congress on the results of our review of telework methodologies at the Departments of Commerce (DOC), Justice (DOJ), State, the Small Business Administration (SBA), and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This report transmits the information provided during that briefing. Specifically, Congress had asked us to provide information on and analysis of the methodology that each of the five agencies used to define employees eligible to telecommute, the methods each agency used to make telecommuting opportunities available to eligible employees and what those opportunities are, and how each agency defines and measures telecommuting participation rates."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Department of Defense's Transportation Command's efforts to evaluate alternatives to the current personal property program."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposal to reduce the number of full-time employees from its enforcement budget for compliance monitoring and civil enforcement activities to evaluate EPA's statements that (1) the jobs being eliminated are ones that EPA has allowed to lapse or has been unable to fill and (2) the reductions will be managed through normal attrition, without any loss of enforcement expertise and without shifting staff to nonenforcement functions. GAO found that EPA received a total of 1,464.8 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions for civil enforcement and compliance-monitoring functions under its Environmental Program and Management appropriation. EPA's fiscal year 2001 operating plan included full funding for the FTE positions provided for civil enforcement and compliance-monitoring activities. According to Office of Compliance and Enforcement (OECA) officials, the agency had no specific plans to leave vacancies open in anticipation of planned reductions in the workforce for compliance monitoring and civil enforcement. According to EPA officials, the agency does not assume or use any attrition rate in developing its annual budget. Instead, EPA establishes FTE ceilings for each of its program offices, which are expected to manage their …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) submitted to the Congress on July 29, 2005 a report entitled Defense Commercial Communications Satellite Services Procurement Process. In response to direction from the Committee on Armed Services, United States Senate, we reviewed DOD's report to determine the extent to which it addressed the seven recommendations contained in our December 2003 report on how DOD procures fixed commercial satellite bandwidth services. On September 2, 2005, we briefed the Committee on the results of our review. This letter summarizes and transmits that briefing."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Federal government purchases of goods and services have grown to more than $300 billion annually. The Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation (FPDS-NG) is the only governmentwide system for obtaining information on how these funds are being spent. The FPDS-NG was intended to improve the prior FPDS system in several ways, including providing more timely and accurate data; enabling users to generate their own reports; and providing easier user access to data. The system was developed by Global Computer Enterprises, Inc., (GCE) under contract with the General Services Administration (GSA). The FPDS-NG is currently in a transition period, which is scheduled to end by October 2005. We initiated a review to assess the extent to which FPDS-NG has demonstrated the intended improvements, and to determine whether the FPDS-NG is currently capable of collecting and reporting on interagency contracting data. We reviewed documents related to FPDS-NG; held discussions with officials from GSA, GCE, and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and with private sector and government users. We also made numerous attempts to use the system to generate reports."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Congress has long stressed the importance of proper treatment of taxpayers by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). This emphasis was a major impetus for the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998, which included numerous additional protections for taxpayers. Among these was Section 1203, which defines 10 acts or omissions for which an IRS employee is to be fired. Most, but not all, of the acts or omissions involve mistreatment of taxpayers, such as by falsifying information or by harassing them. At the same time, Congress has been concerned about IRS's ability to administer the tax laws, including whether the Section 1203 provisions could hamper IRS's enforcement efforts by having a "chilling effect" on IRS employees' willingness to take appropriate enforcement actions against noncompliant taxpayers. Related concerns are whether the IRS and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) process for reviewing allegations made against employees is too time consuming and inconsistent, and whether all the Section 1203 provisions should be retained. In February 2003, we recommended that IRS evaluate the effectiveness of changes it made to speed up and otherwise improve the review of Section 1203 …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Subcommittee on Health of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs asked GAO to discuss its recent work on the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) Homeless Providers Grant and Per Diem (GPD) program. GAO reported on this subject in September 2006, focusing on (1) VA's estimates of the number of homeless veterans and transitional housing beds, (2) the extent of collaboration involved in the provision of GPD and related services, and (3) VA's assessment of program performance."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The possibility that terrorists and criminals might exploit border vulnerabilities and enter the United States poses a serious security risk, especially if they were to bring radioactive material or other contraband with them. Although Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has taken steps to secure the 170 ports of entry on the northern and southern U.S. borders, Congress is concerned that unmanned and unmonitored areas between these ports of entry may be vulnerable. In unmanned locations, CBP relies on surveillance cameras, unmanned aerial drones, and other technology to monitor for illegal border activity. In unmonitored locations, CBP does not have this equipment in place and must rely on alert citizens or other information sources to meet its obligation to protect the border. Today's testimony will address what GAO investigators found during a limited security assessment of seven border areas that were unmanned, unmonitored, or both--four at the U.S.-Canada border and three at the U.S.-Mexico border. In three of the four locations on the U.S.-Canada border, investigators carried a duffel bag across the border to simulate the cross-border movement of radioactive materials or other contraband. Safety considerations prevented GAO investigators …

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO commented on the U.S. Trade Deficit Review Commission's authority to compensate an executive level IV Export-Import Bank employee that it would like detailed to it to serve as its executive director. The Commission's statute provides authority to appoint staff without regard to civil service laws and regulations, but it limits the compensation the Commission may pay to executive schedule level. To detail the employee under the Economy Act with full reimbursement to the Bank would violate the pay limitation. However, the Commission's statute also provides authority for any federal employee to be detailed to the Commission without reimbursement and without loss of civil service status or privilege. To avoid violating the compensation limitation, the Commission proposes to reimburse the Bank for the employee's compensation at the level V rate, with the Bank providing the amount over level V. Since this arrangement appears to satisfy the language and intent of the pay limitation and the detail provisions, GAO has no objection."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO, the Department of the Interior, and others have reported on the National Park Service's efforts to develop an effective maintenance management process that would, among other things, enable the agency to accurately and reliably estimate the amount of deferred maintenance on its assets. Over the years, the agency's estimates of the cost of its deferred maintenance have varied widely--sometimes by billions of dollars. Currently, the agency estimates that its deferred maintenance backlog will cost over $5 billion. In April 2002, GAO reported on the status of efforts to develop better deferred maintenance data. (National Park Service: Status of Efforts to Develop Better Deferred Maintenance Data,GAO-02-568R (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 12, 2002)) This testimony presents the results of GAO's April report and updates the progress the Park Service is making in implementing its new asset management process."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Veterans' Employment and Training Service (VETS) and its planning activities under the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, focusing on: (1) VETS' strategic plan for fiscal year (FY) 2000 through FY 2005 and its FY 2001 performance plan; (2) the adequacy of VETS' plans to address how it will operate in the one-stop center environment; and (3) issues related to the quality of VETS' performance data."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Commercial Activities Panel is a congressionally mandated panel to study and make recommendations for improving the policies and procedures governing the transfer of commercial activities from government to contractor personnel. The growing controversy surrounding competitions, under the Office of Management and Budget's Circular A-76 to determine whether the government should obtain commercially available goods and services from the public or private sectors, led to the establishment of this Panel. In establishing the Panel, several steps were taken to ensure representation from all major stakeholders as well as to ensure a fair and balanced process. To ensure a broad range of views on the Panel, a Federal Register notice was used to seek suggestions for the Panel's composition. As the Panel began its work, it recognized the need for a set of principles for sourcing decisions. These principles provide for an assessment of what does or does not work in the current A-76 process and provide a framework for identifying needed changes. Many of the Panel's recommendations can be accomplished administratively under existing law, and the Panel recommends that they be implemented as soon as practical. The Panel …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The federal government must have the capacity to plan more strategically, react more expeditiously, and focus on achieving results. Critical to the success of this transformation are the federal government's people--its human capital. Yet, in many cases the federal government has not transformed how it classifies, compensates, develops, and motivates its employees to achieve maximum results within available resources and existing authorities. A key question is how to update the federal government's compensation system to be market-based and more performance-oriented. To further the discussion of federal pay reform, GAO partnered with key human capital stakeholders to convene a symposium in March 2005 to discuss public, private, and nonprofit organizations' successes and challenges in designing and managing market-based and more performance-oriented pay systems. This testimony presents the strategies that organizations considered in designing and managing market-based and more performance-oriented pay systems and describes how they are implementing them."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The transition to the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NGATS)--a system intended to safely accommodate a possible tripling of air traffic by 2025--will become one of the federal government's most comprehensive and technically complex undertakings, and a preliminary estimate indicates it will also be expensive. However, the current approach to managing air transportation is becoming increasingly inefficient and operationally obsolete. In 2003, Congress authorized the creation of the Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO) to coordinate the efforts of several federal partner agencies--including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), in which JPDO is housed--to plan for and develop NGATS. GAO's testimony addresses (1) the current estimate and uncertainties over NGATS costs, (2) advantages and concerns that stakeholders have raised about the current approach to collecting revenues from national airspace users to fund FAA, (3) the advantages and disadvantages of adopting alternative funding options for FAA, and (4) the advantages and disadvantages of authorizing FAA to use debt financing for capital projects. This testimony is based in part on GAO's analysis of FAA and JPDO documents and interviews with officials of those two agencies."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed Department of Agriculture (USDA) financial management issues, focusing on USDA's challenges in: (1) implementing the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990 and related accounting standards; (2) reconciling its Fund Balance with Treasury accounts; (3) addressing weaknesses in the Forest Service's financial accounting and reporting; and (4) correcting certain other material internal control weaknesses."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) computer security weaknesses, focusing on: (1) FAA's history of computer security weaknesses; (2) the adequacy of FAA's efforts to prevent unauthorized access to data--specifically focusing on personnel security, facilities' physical security, systems security, security program planning and management, and service continuity; and (3) the effectiveness of processes implemented by the agency for detecting, responding to, and reporting anomalies and computer misuse."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) progress in addressing its year 2000 computing challenges."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) is a block grant program with recent annual funding of about $2 billion that provides fuel payment assistance and payments for home energy efficiency improvements for low-income households. As energy prices continue to rise, this assistance is growing more important to mitigate the impact of higher prices on low-income households. HHS awards LIHEAP funds by formula to all 50 states and the District of Columbia, federally or state-recognized Indian tribes and tribal organizations, and territories. These grantees then provide energy assistance payments to low-income households. Within LIHEAP, the Residential Energy Assistance Challenge Option (REACH) program funds demonstration projects to help low-income families reduce their energy usage. GAO was asked to provide information on (1) HHS's oversight of LIHEAP payments made by grantees and (2) GAO's 2001 review of LIHEAP's REACH program."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In general, a fusion center is a collaborative effort to detect, prevent, investigate, and respond to criminal and terrorist activity. Recognizing that fusion centers are a mechanism for information sharing, the federal government--including the Program Manager for the Information Sharing Environment (PM-ISE), who has primary responsibility for governmentwide information sharing, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Department of Justice (DOJ)--is taking steps to partner with fusion centers. This testimony is based on GAO's draft report on state and local fusion centers. It addresses (1) the status and characteristics of the centers and (2) to what extent federal efforts help alleviate challenges fusion centers identified. In conducting this work GAO reviewed center-related documents and conducted interviews with officials from DHS, DOJ, and the PM-ISE, and semistructured interviews with 58 state and local fusion centers."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) audits and investigates the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) operations to (1) promote economy and efficiency and detect and prevent fraud and abuse and (2) recommend actions for improvement. TIGTA was established by the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 (IRS Reform Act), which amended the Inspector General Act of 1978 (IG Act), to include an independent inspector general (IG) to provide oversight of IRS's activities, programs, and offices. This report responds to a Congressional request that we review the activities of TIGTA. We are providing information regarding (1) TIGTA's budget and staffing levels; (2) TIGTA's audit and investigative coverage of IRS, including oversight of IRS's offices and identified weaknesses in IRS's operations, and audit coverage of specific requirements of the IRS Reform Act; (3) TIGTA's audit and investigative accomplishments; (4) the quality assurance program, including the results of peer reviews; and (5) the audit follow-up process to track IRS's implementation of TIGTA's audit recommendations."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) funding for noise-related projects, focusing on: (1) the total historical funding of noise-related projects through both the Airport Improvement Program (AIP) and the Passenger Facility Charge (PFC) programs, by FAA region; and (2) comparing the amount of AIP funds set aside for noise-related projects in the AIP appropriation for fiscal year (FY) 2000 and the authorized amounts for the AIP for fiscal years 2001 through 2003 with the projected costs of noise-related projects planned in the current National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS)."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Effective human capital planning can enable the Department of Defense (DOD) to have the right people, with the right skills, doing the right jobs, in the right places, at the right time by making flexible use of its internal workforce and appropriately using contractors. According to the department, as of March 2010, DOD's total civilian workforce included about 718,000 full-time civilians, including more than 2,900 civilians in the senior management, functional, and technical personnel workforce (hereafter referred to as senior leader workforce). Further, DOD reported that, as of the end of September 2009, there were more than 118,000 civilians in DOD's acquisition workforce. DOD has acknowledged, however, that with approximately 30 percent of its workforce eligible to retire by March 31, 2015, and the need to reduce its reliance on contractors to augment the current workforce, it faces a number of significant challenges. For example, in its 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), DOD stressed the need for leadership in human capital management, to improve its capabilities for contributing to civilian-led activities and operations supporting "unity of effort" in homeland security, and an appropriately sized cadre of acquisition personnel …