A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In response to the recession of 2007, Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act). Recovery Act funds provided states with fiscal relief and helped to maintain state Medicaid programs through a temporary increase to the federal share of Medicaid funding-the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP)-from October 2008 through December 2010. In March 2011, GAO reported that states' ability to fund Medicaid was hampered due to increased Medicaid enrollment and declines in states' revenues that typically occur during a national downturn. The Recovery Act mandated that GAO provide recommendations for modifying the increased FMAP formula to make it more responsive to state Medicaid program needs during future economic downturns. In this report, GAO presents a prototype formula for a temporary increased FMAP and evaluates its effects on the allocation of assistance to states. To evaluate the three components of the prototype formula--starting assistance, targeting assistance, and ending assistance-- GAO uses the 2007 recession."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In accordance with authority granted by the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990, GAO annually audits the financial statements of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to determine whether (1) the financial statements are fairly presented and (2) IRS management maintained effective internal control over financial reporting. GAO also tests IRS's compliance with selected provisions of significant laws and regulations and its financial systems' compliance with the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996 (FFMIA). IRS's tax collection activities are significant to overall federal receipts, and its financial management is of substantial interest to Congress.."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) included $8.2 billion in funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to be used to support additional scientific research-including extramural grants at universities and other research institutions. In 2009, the Acting Director of NIH testified that each extramural grant awarded with Recovery Act funding had the potential of supporting employment--full- or part-time scientific jobs--in addition to other impacts, such as contributing to advances in improving public health. GAO was asked to examine the use of Recovery Act funds by NIH grantees. Specifically, GAO addresses the information available from NIH and its grantees about the extent to which NIH Recovery Act funding (1) supported jobs, and (2) had other impacts. To obtain information on job impacts, GAO reviewed a database containing information NIH Recovery Act grantees reported to the national data collection system and interviewed NIH officials. To obtain more specific jobs information about individual grants, GAO administered a Web-based data collection instrument to 50 selected principal investigators who direct research at grantee institutions--10 principal investigators at each of five selected grantee institutions. The selected principal …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Employees' Group Life Insurance program (FEGLI), administered by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), insures over 4 million federal employees and annuitants in the event of an enrollee's death. As a result, it is important that the program is clearly explained and properly overseen. However, some aspects of FEGLI, such as program disclosures and the use of retained asset accounts (RAA)--financial accounts used to settle life insurance claims--have raised questions about the program's operations. GAO was asked to describe and evaluate (1) the FEGLI program's structure and operations, (2) OPM's administration and oversight of the program, and (3) the use of RAAs in FEGLI claims payments. To address these objectives, GAO reviewed FEGLI law and regulations, interviewed OPM, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MetLife), and state insurance officials, and met with insurance industry experts."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) requires or authorizes various federal financial regulators to issue hundreds of rules to implement reforms intended to strengthen the financial services industry. GAO is required to annually study financial services regulations. This report examines (1) the regulatory analyses, including cost-benefit analyses, financial regulators have performed to assess the impact of selected final rules issued pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Act; (2) how financial regulators consulted with each other in implementing the selected final rules to avoid duplication or conflicts; and (3) what is known about the impact of the final rules. GAO examined the 32 final Dodd-Frank Act rules in effect as of July 21, 2011; the regulatory analyses conducted for 10 of the 32 rules that allowed for some level of agency discretion; statutes and executive orders requiring agencies to perform regulatory analysis; and studies on the impact of the Dodd-Frank Act. GAO also interviewed regulators, academics, and industry representatives.."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "On October 3, 2008, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA) was signed into law. EESA authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to implement the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and established the Office of Financial Stability (OFS) within the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) to do so. EESA requires the annual preparation of financial statements for TARP, and further requires GAO to audit these statements. GAO audited OFS's fiscal years 2011 and 2010 financial statements for TARP to determine whether, in all material respects, (1) the financial statements were fairly presented, and (2) OFS management maintained effective internal control over financial reporting. GAO also tested OFS's compliance with selected provisions of laws and regulations.."

This Sampling and Analysis Plan (SAP) is written for the radiological environmental air surveillance program for the DOE-SC PNNL Site, Richland Washington. It provides the requirements for planning sampling events, and the requirements imposed on the analytical laboratory analyzing the air samples. The actual air sampling process is in procedure EPRP-AIR-029. The rationale for analyte selection, media, and sampling site location has been vetted through the data quality objectives (DQO) process (Barnett et al. 2010). The results from the DQO process have been reviewed and approved by the Washington State Department of Health. The DQO process (Barnett et al. 2010) identified seven specific radionuclides for analysis along with the need for gross alpha and gross beta radiological analyses. The analytes are {sup 241}Am, {sup 243}Am, {sup 244}Cm, {sup 60}Co, {sup 238}Pu, {sup 239}Pu, and {sup 233}U. The report also determined that air samples for particulates are the only sample matrix required for the monitoring program. These samples are collected on 47-mm glass-fiber filters.

This report examines U.S. foreign assistance activities in the People's Republic of China (PRC), including U.S. Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) programming, foreign operations appropriations, policy history, and legislative background.

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The report consists primarily of a table showing discretionary appropriations, by bill title, for each of the pending appropriations proposals, together with the comparable figures enacted for FY2011

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