Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report focuses on the federal involvement in acquiring human fetal tissue for preclinical research. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) officials reported that the National Institute for Health (NIH) is the only federal agency under the Senate Labor, HHS, and Education Subcommittee's jurisdiction that sponsors research using human fetal tissue. According a GAO survey, 12,116 human fetal tissue samples were acquired during fiscal years 1997 through 1999 for use in NIH-sponsored research. In fiscal year 1999, three fetal tissue suppliers received federal funding. For therapeutic transplantation research, the NIH Revitalization Act requires written statements by the donor, the physician who obtained the tissue, and the researcher receiving the tissue to ensure that the provisions of the law are met. It also requires that all applicable and local laws must be followed. The costs to acquire human fetal tissue were low. Principal investigators reported that quality of tissue and compliance with federal regulations were their primary criteria for choosing a human fetal tissue supplier."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "To identify areas facing shortages of health care providers, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) relies on its health professional shortage area (HPSA) designation system. HHS designates geographic, population-group, and facility HPSAs. HHS also gives each HPSA a score to rank its need for providers relative to other HPSAs. The Health Care Safety Net Amendments of 2002 required GAO to report on the HPSA designation system. GAO reviewed (1) the number and location of HPSAs and federal programs that use HPSA designations to allocate resources or provide benefits, (2) available research on HPSA designation criteria and methodology, and (3) the impact of a 2002 provision that automatically designates federally qualified health centers and certain rural health clinics as facility HPSAs. GAO obtained and analyzed HHS's data on primary care HPSA designations as of September 2005 and January 2006 and identified reports on HPSA criteria and methodology through a literature search of peer-reviewed journals and other reports published since 1995."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "U.S. intercountry adoptions nearly tripled from more than 8,000 to more than 22,000 between fiscal years 1994 and 2004. While the Department of State (State) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) manage the process, factors ranging from corruption to inadequate legal frameworks in foreign countries could lead to abuses such as the abduction of children. GAO (1) describes the U.S. intercountry adoption process, (2) assesses the U.S. government's efforts to manage the intercountry adoption process, (3) assesses U.S. efforts to strengthen safeguards and mitigate against the potential for fraudulent adoptions, and (4) describes the Hague Convention (Convention) and the statuses of U.S. and top sending countries' implementation of the Convention."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In spring 2007, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and state and local health officials worked together to interdict two individuals with drug-resistant infectious tuberculosis (TB) from crossing U.S. borders and direct them to treatment. Concerns arose that HHS's and DHS's responses to the incidents were delayed and ineffective. GAO was asked to examine (1) the factors that affected HHS's and DHS's responses to the incidents, (2) the extent to which HHS and DHS made changes to response procedures as a result of the incidents, and (3) HHS's and DHS's efforts to assess the effectiveness of changes made as a result of the incidents. GAO reviewed agency documents and interviewed officials about the procedures in place at the time of the incidents and changes made since."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In recent years, global demand for petroleum products such as gasoline and diesel fuel has grown more quickly than the capacity to produce them, creating a tight market. U.S. refiners have been running near capacity, particularly during peak summer demand. In such conditions, unexpected refinery outages can result in price increases that adversely affect consumers. GAO was asked to evaluate (1) the trends in U.S. refinery outages over the last 5 years, in terms of reduced production capacity, frequency, and geographic location, and (2) the federal requirements for reporting outages at U.S. refineries. To evaluate these objectives, GAO obtained and analyzed Energy Information Administration (EIA) and commercial data, and obtained and analyzed federal legislation and policies, and interviewed federal agency, academic, and industry trade group officials."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Congress and the administration set forth energy objectives for federal fleets with 20 or more vehicles. Agencies are to (1) acquire alternative fuel vehicles (AFV) as 75 percent of all new light-duty vehicle acquisitions; (2) use only alternative fuel in AFVs, unless granted a waiver; (3) increase overall alternative fuel use by 10 percent annually; (4) reduce petroleum consumption by 2 percent annually through 2015; and (5) purchase plug-in hybrid electric vehicles when available and at a reasonable cost. The first two objectives are requirements in the Energy Policy Acts (EPAct) of 1992 and 2005. The last three are goals set by Executive Order 13423. GAO was asked to determine agencies' compliance with these objectives for fiscal year 2007 and how agencies are poised to meet them in the future. GAO obtained and analyzed information from the Department of Energy's (DOE) automotive database and other sources and interviewed agency officials."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Many countries, including the United States, are grappling with demographic change and its effect on their national pension systems. With rising longevity and declining birthrates, the number of workers for each retiree is falling in most developed countries, straining the finances of national pension programs, particularly where contributions from current workers fund payments to current beneficiaries--known as a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) system. Although demographic and economic challenges are less severe in the United States than in many other developed countries, projections show that the Social Security program faces a long-term financing problem. Because some countries have already undertaken national pension reform efforts to address demographic changes similar to those occurring in the United States, we may draw lessons from their experiences. The current and preceding Chairmen of the Subcommittee on Social Security of the House Committee on Ways and Means asked GAO to study lessons to be learned from other countries' experiences reforming national pension systems. GAO focused on (1) adjustments to existing PAYG national pension programs, (2) the creation or reform of national pension reserve funds to partially prefund PAYG pension programs, and (3) reforms involving …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2004, an estimated 23 billion pounds of air cargo was transported within the United States, about a quarter of which was transported on passenger aircraft. Within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is responsible for ensuring the security of commercial aviation, including the transportation of cargo by air. To evaluate the status of TSA's efforts to secure domestic air cargo, GAO examined (1) the extent to which TSA used a risk management approach to guide decisions on securing air cargo, (2) the actions TSA has taken to ensure the security of air cargo and the factors that may limit their effectiveness, and (3) TSA's plans for enhancing air cargo security and the challenges TSA and industry stakeholders face in implementing these plans."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998 authorizes Haitian nationals and their dependents to apply to change their status to legal permanent residence. This report, the fourth done in response to the act, contains a breakdown on the numbers of Haitians who applied and the number who were approved as asylum applicants, parolees, children without parents, orphaned children, abandoned children, or as the eligible dependents of these applicants (i.e., spouses, children, and unmarried sons or daughters). The Immigration and Naturalization Service had received a total of 35,257 applications under the act and had approved 263 of these applications. The Executive Office for Immigration Review had 95 applications filed and had approved 65 of them."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the audit reports covering the financial statements of the Navy Club of the United States of America for Fiscal Years 2003. GAO found no reportable instances of noncompliance. The audit reports included the auditors' opinions that the financial statements of the corporation were presented fairly in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Questions about the financial status of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) have increased since the 2005 hurricanes, which left the program with an unprecedented $17.4 billion deficit--a debt that resulted in GAO placing NFIP on its high-risk list in March 2006. Among the concerns are the subsidized rates NFIP must provide for about 25 percent of the policies, mostly for older buildings in high-risk flood zones. And although fully risk-based rates are supposed to reflect actual flood risk, concerns have been raised that they do not. This report evaluates (1) the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) process for setting full-risk rates to determine whether it produces rates that accurately reflect the risk of flooding and (2) the process that FEMA uses to set subsidized rates and their effect on the financial condition of NFIP. To do this work, GAO evaluated the NFIP rate model, examined data from FEMA, surveyed relevant literature, and interviewed other relevant agencies and risk-modeling firms."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Labor (DOL) Black Lung Benefits Program provides medical and income assistance to coal miners who suffer total disability or death due to lung disease caused by coal dust. To provide insight into DOL's administration of the Black Lung Benefits Program, GAO is reporting on (1) how long it takes to process and resolve black lung benefits claims; (2) at what rate and for what reasons black lung claims and appeals are denied by DOL; and (3) what barriers, if any, confront miners or their survivors in pursuing their claims. GAO collected and analyzed black lung claims and appeals data and interviewed officials at relevant federal agencies, national organizations, and selected local organizations at two sites."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Some U.S.-based multinational companies have found that the effective tax rate on income earned from foreign sources can be reduced if they are incorporated in countries that either do not tax corporate income at all or tax the income at a lower rate than the U.S. corporate tax rate. Consequently, some U.S.-based companies incorporate from the outset in these so-called "tax haven" countries. In addition, some companies that were incorporated in the United States have reincorporated in tax haven countries through "corporate inversion transactions." According to the Department of the Treasury, the term "inversion" is used to describe a transaction through which a U.S.-based multinational company restructures its corporate group so that after the transaction the ultimate parent of the corporate group is a foreign corporation. After an inversion transaction, shareholders of the former U.S. parent company hold stock of the newly formed foreign parent, and the operations of the company are unchanged. Treasury also noted that there has been a marked increase recently in the frequency, size, and profile of inversion transactions. Four of the top 100 federal contractors that are publicly traded corporations are incorporated in …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Social Security Protection Act of 2004 temporarily expanded the practice of paying representatives' fees directly out of a claimant's benefits. This practice, known as fee withholding, was previously available only to attorneys in Disability Insurance (DI) cases. It has been extended to attorneys in Supplemental Security Income (SSI) cases, and to nonattorneys--who meet eligibility criteria--in both DI and SSI cases. The act also mandated that GAO examine (1) the professional experience of disability representatives, (2) how judges and claimants view representatives' performance, (3) how the implementation of fee withholding for nonattorneys has been viewed, and (4) the impact of fee withholding in the SSI program. GAO surveyed representatives and judges, and interviewed claimants and Social Security Administration (SSA), state, and other officials."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The determination of royalty payments for natural gas produced from outer-continental shelf (OCS) leases falls to the Minerals and Management Service (MMS). Gas royalty payments are determined by multiplying the gross sales value by a royalty rate. Disagreement over the interpretation of key values in the formula has led to several lawsuits between MMS and the gas industry. With the deregulation of the gas market, determining the sale of gas produced and sold from OCS leases has become more difficult. To help resolve these pricing issues, MMS is pilot-testing a royalty-in-kind program. Royalty-in-kind payments mean that royalty payments are paid in the form of physical gas. MMS and the industry believe that this is an appropriate solution to some pricing issues, but that it is not suitable to all transactions."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In May 2001, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and other federal agencies were directed by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to prepare restructuring plans to make government more responsive to citizens' needs. By June 2001, agencies were to submit a workforce analysis to OMB that would include, for example, demographic information on the agency's employees and would serve as the baseline for agency-specific restructuring plans. Agencies were to submit restructuring plans to OMB with fiscal year 2003 budget submissions and annual performance plans. These submissions were due to OMB September 2001. OMB's directive required agencies with more than 100 full-time employees to develop restructuring plans with the goal of flattening the federal hierarchy. The OMB directive stated that plans should describe the specific activities and actions each agency planned to take, associated resources, expected outcomes, and tools to measure performance. In order to ascertain what progress EEOC has made in reorganizing its operations, we determined (1) whether EEOC implemented OMB's directive to develop a restructuring plan and (2) what actions EEOC is taking to restructure and make its operations more efficient and effective."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) established the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) program to replace and supplement existing cargo processing technology. According to the fiscal year 2007 DHS appropriations act, DHS is to develop and submit an expenditure plan for ACE that satisfies certain conditions, including being reviewed by GAO. GAO reviewed the plan to (1) determine whether the expenditure plan satisfies the legislative conditions, (2) determine the status of 15 open GAO recommendations, and (3) provide observations about the expenditure plan and DHS's management of the program. To address the mandate, GAO assessed plans and related documentation against federal guidelines and industry standards and interviewed the appropriate DHS officials."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "For decades, the United States has tried to impede nuclear proliferation networks that provide equipment to nuclear weapons development programs in countries such as Pakistan and Iran. GAO was asked to examine U.S. efforts to counter nuclear proliferation networks, specifically the (1) status of U.S. efforts to strengthen multilateral controls, (2) impact of U.S. assistance to help other countries improve their legal and regulatory controls, and (3) impact of U.S. efforts to strengthen its enforcement activities. GAO's findings focused on seven countries where network activities reportedly occurred."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Terrorist groups need significant amounts of money to organize, recruit, train, and equip adherents. U.S. disruption of terrorist financing can raise the costs and risks and impede their success. This report (1) provides an overview of U.S. government efforts to combat terrorist financing abroad and (2) examines U.S. government efforts to coordinate training and technical assistance. We also examined specific accountability issues the Department of the Treasury faces in its efforts to block terrorists' assets held under U.S. jurisdiction."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) Transportation Security Executive Service (TSES) consists of executive-level staff serving in key agency positions just below political appointees. Committees of Congress have raise questions about the frequency of turnover within the TSES and have directed GAO to examine turnover among TSES staff. Accordingly, this report examines: (1) TSES attrition and how it compares with that of Senior Executive Service (SES) staff in other DHS components and cabinet-level departments, (2) the reasons TSES staff separated from TSA, and (3) TSA efforts to mange TSES attrition consistent with effective management practices. To answer these objectives, GAO analyzed data within the Office of Personnel Management's Central Personnel Data File, reviewed TSA human capital policies and procedures, and interviewed former TSES staff. The results of these interviews are not generalizable, but represent the views of about half the TSES staff who separated from fiscal years 2005 through 2008."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2007, the Department of the Interior (Interior) collected about $10.5 billion in revenues from companies that hold federal oil and gas leases. Interior's Minerals Management Service manages offshore leases, while its Bureau of Land Management manages onshore leases and leases in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. Acquiring a federal lease gives the lessee the rights to explore for and develop the oil and gas resources under the lease. Development entails many tasks, including drilling wells and building pipelines that may lead to oil and gas production. GAO agreed to (1)describe Interior's efforts to encourage development of federal oil and gas leases and compare them to states' and private landowners' efforts, (2)examine trends in leasing and factors that may affect development, and (3) describe development on a sample of leases. GAO reviewed data on about 55,000 leases and spoke to officials at Interior and in eight states with leasing experience, among others."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2004, the Department of Energy (DOE) disposed of more than 378,000 cubic meters of low-level radioactive waste (LLRW)--contaminated building rubble, soil, and debris. In 2002, DOE directed its sites to use life-cycle cost analysis to manage LLRW. Life-cycle cost analysis examines the total cost of various options to manage LLRW over its life, including its packaging, treatment, transport, and disposal, to identify the lowest-cost alternative. GAO determined whether (1) DOE sites use life-cycle cost analysis to evaluate LLRW management alternatives and (2) DOE has a strategy for cost-effectively managing LLRW departmentwide, including state actions that may affect this strategy."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report responds to certain requirements of the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act (HRIFA) of 1998 that authorized certain Haitian nationals and their dependents to apply to adjust their status to legal permanent residence. Section 902(k) of the act requires the Comptroller General to report every 6 months on the number of Haitian nationals who have applied and been approved to adjust their status to legal permanent residence. The reports are to contain a breakdown of the number of Haitians who applied and the number who were approved as asylum applicants, parolees, children without parents, orphaned children, or abandoned children; or as the eligible dependents of these applicants, including spouses, children, and unmarried sons or daughters. Reports are to be provided until all applications have been finally adjudicated. This is our tenth report."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is one of the largest federal agencies, the nation's largest health insurer, and the largest grant- making agency in the federal government. The department manages over 300 programs that serve to improve the health and well-being of the American public and is comprised of several component agencies covering a wide range of activities including conducting and sponsoring medical and social science research, guarding against the outbreak of infectious diseases, assuring the safety of food and drugs, and providing health care services and insurance. It also manages and funds a variety of information technology (IT) initiatives ranging from those facilitating the payment of claims for Medicare and Medicaid services to those supporting health surveillance and communications. In fiscal year 2006, the department plans to spend over $5 billion on information technology--the third largest IT expenditure in the federal budget. As we agreed with Congress, our objectives were to (1) assess the department's capabilities for managing its IT investments and (2)determine any plans the department might have for improving those capabilities. To address these objectives, we analyzed documents and interviewed …