A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) of 1994 protects millions of people, largely National Guard and Reserve members, as they transition between their federal duties and their civilian employment. The act is intended to eliminate or minimize employment disadvantages to civilian careers that can result from service in the uniformed services. This report examines the extent to which the Departments of Defense (DOD), Labor (DOL), Justice (DOJ), and the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) have achieved this purpose, specifically, the extent to which the agencies (1) have data that indicate the level of compliance with USERRA, (2) have efficiently and effectively conducted educational outreach, and (3) have efficiently and effectively addressed servicemember complaints."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Department of Defense (DOD) has increased its reliance on its National Guard and reserve forces to support the Global War on Terrorism, and particularly Operation Iraqi Freedom. Congress has been interested in making improvements and enhancements to compensation and benefit programs for reserve component members. When reserve component members are activated for more than 30 days under federal authorities, they are covered under TRICARE, DOD's health care system. While reserve component members are automatically covered by TRICARE when activated, their spouses and other dependents have the option of using either TRICARE or their private health insurance. However, our prior work found that dependents of reserve component members who had dropped their private health insurance reported problems accessing the TRICARE system--such as difficulty finding a health care provider, establishing eligibility, understanding TRICARE benefits, and knowing where to go when questions and problems arise. In addition, maintaining continuity of care with the same health care providers, especially for dependents with chronic medical conditions, may be problematic after switching to TRICARE. To address these concerns, some legislative proposals would give reserve component members …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Joint Strike Fighter Program (JSFP), the military's most expensive aircraft program, is intended to produce affordable, next-generation aircraft to replace aging aircraft in military inventories. Although JSFP has made good progress in some technology areas, the program may not meet its affordability objective because critical technologies are not projected to be matured to levels GAO believes would indicate a low risk program at the planned start of engineering and manufacturing development in October 2001."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In January 2007 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported the results of its study that assigned the fiscal year 2005 costs of its Air Traffic Organization (ATO) to users. FAA used this study to support the President's proposal to replace many current excise taxes with cost-based fees for commercial aviation users and higher fuel taxes for general aviation users. GAO assessed (1) the consistency of FAA's cost assignment methodology with established standards and guidance, (2) the support for selected cost assignment assumptions and methods, and (3) the impact of including budgeted capital costs in the cost baseline. GAO compared FAA's methodology to federal accounting standards and international guidance, reviewed available documents and analyses supporting FAA's assumptions and methods, and interviewed FAA officials and consultants."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is among the largest federal acquisition agencies, spending $7.3 billion on product and service acquisitions in 2004 alone. Recent reports by VA and other organizations identified weaknesses in the agency's acquisition function that could result in excess costs to the taxpayer. One report by the Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP) made 24 recommendations to improve VA's acquisition function. VA has accepted these recommendations. GAO was asked to review the progress VA has made in implementing the key NAVSUP recommendations. GAO identified 7 of the 24 recommendations as key, based primarily on its professional judgment and prior experience."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since 1988, the Department of State (State) has ordered over 270 evacuations from overseas posts due to civil strife, terrorist incidents, natural disasters, conventional war threats, and disease outbreaks. To prepare for evacuation, overseas posts rely on a variety of guidance, plans, and training, such as Emergency Action Plans (EAP). GAO was asked to assess State's (1) guidance and plans to prepare for evacuation, (2) training and exercises to prepare post staff for crisis, and (3) efforts to collect, analyze, and incorporate evacuation lessons learned into guidance and training. GAO examined State and Department of Defense (DOD) documents, spoke with State and DOD officials, conducted a survey of 243 overseas posts, and completed 22 structured interviews with State personnel."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Prices for four energy commodities--crude oil, heating oil, unleaded gasoline, and natural gas--have risen substantially since 2002. Some observers believe that higher energy prices are the result of changes in supply and demand. Others believe that increased futures trading activity has also contributed to higher prices. This report, conducted under the Comptroller General of the United States' authority, examines (1) trends and patterns in the physical and energy derivatives markets, (2) the scope of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC) regulatory authority over these markets, and (3) the effectiveness of CFTC's monitoring and detection of market abuses and enforcement. For this work, GAO analyzed futures and large trader data and interviewed market participants, experts, and officials at six federal agencies."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Public assessments by Department of Defense (DOD) officials have emphasized the seriousness of the military threat from chemical and biological (CB) weapons. However, neither DOD nor the services have systematically examined the adequacy of the current specialty mix of medical personnel for CB defense. Although some of the services have begun to review the adequacy of staffing of deployable medical units that would manage the consequences of chemical warfare scenarios, they have not done so for biological warfare scenarios. Joint protocols for treating CB casualties have recently been completed, but the services have not yet agreed on which health care providers should provide treatment. Relatively few military health care providers are trained to a standard of proficiency in providing care to CB casualties. The service surgeons general have begun integrating chemical and a few biological scenarios into their medical exercises, but no realistic field exercise of medical support for CB warfare had been concluded. DOD and the services have not fully addressed weaknesses and gaps in modeling, planning, training, tracking, or proficiency testing for the treatment of CB casualties. The resulting medical structure has not been …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The first Internet pharmacies began online service in early 1999. Public health officials are concerned about Internet pharmacies that do not adhere to state licensing requirements and standards. Public officials are also concerned about the validity of prescriptions and international drugs that are not approved in the United States being sent by mail. The unique qualities of the Internet pose new challenges for enforcing state pharmacy and medical practice laws because they allow pharmacies and physicians to reach consumers across state and international borders and remain anonymous. Congress is considering legislation to strengthen oversight of Internet pharmacies."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program was created to increase the use of small businesses to meet federal research needs and commercialize the results of this research. To monitor the program, the Small Business Administration (SBA) requires participating agencies to provide, in a standard format, specific data on all SBIR awards they make. SBA then compiles these data into a database known as Tech-Net. Congress also required SBA to create, by 2001, a restricted and more comprehensive database that would provide information for government agencies to use in evaluating the program. GAO was asked to identify the (1) types of data that agencies report to SBA for inclusion in the Tech-Net database, (2) extent to which these data are provided in a standard format, (3) extent to which SBA has established the government-use database, and (4) extent to which SBIR agencies have developed and implemented techniques to track commercialization of SBIR projects. GAO reviewed 8 of the 11 agencies participating in SBIR."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has decided to move its technical training center from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to near its headquarters in Rockville, Maryland. The relocation is intended to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the agency's operations. The center provides diverse training curricula on such topics as nuclear power plant technology augmented by training on simulators, risk assessment, radiation protection, and regulatory skills. NRC used a reasonable methodology to determine the costs of relocating its facility. It considered costs related to staff salaries, travel costs for center participants, and lease payments. However, NRC used several assumptions that, if changed, would affect the cost of the move. For example, a change in the number of staff who would relocate would have an impact on costs. According to NRC, the objective of the move was not to minimize the cost of operating the center but rather to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the agency's operations. NRC believes that the move would yield many benefits, including greater access to training facilities by its headquarters staff and frequent use of simulators in investigations. NRC needs to resolve several issues …

Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This document presents selected results of GAO's survey of all 243 Emergency Action Committees (EAC) at State embassies and consulates (posts) worldwide. EACs are responsible for crisis management at post and are therefore best qualified to discuss crisis management activities, including preparing for and implementing evacuations. The survey consisted of 49 questions covering a range of topics on how posts plan, prepare for, and implement evacuations, as well as how lessons learned are reported. The survey was sent to the principal officer at each post (typically the deputy chief of mission or consul general). GAO requested that the survey be completed collectively by members of a post's EAC, and completed surveys were intended to reflect the views of the EAC as a whole. We received 210 completed surveys, for an overall response rate of 86 percent. We did not include responses for all survey questions; specifically, this document does not include narrative responses that we received. The percentages in each survey response may not sum to 100 in all cases, due to rounding. A more detailed discussion of our scope and methodology is contained in our …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This is a follow-on to GAO's report on its audit of the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) fiscal year 2000 financial statements. Many of the issues raised in this report have persisted for years. IRS believes that the solution to many of these issues may lie in systems modernization. IRS plans to implement a new financial system that includes a cost accounting module as well as integrated administrative and custodial general ledgers that are supported by subsidiary ledgers containing the transactional details for key accounts, such as taxes receivable and property and equipment. IRS continues to make progress in addressing its financial management challenges. The strong commitment by IRS senior management to financial management reform has played a crucial role in the agency's progress so far and is critical for future improvements. IRS has developed many workaround processes that allowed it to produce reliable financial statements for fiscal year 2000. However, these processes take considerable time, effort, and expense and do not fix many of the fundamental financial management issues that continue to plague IRS."