Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on whether Ireland is a major transshipment point for international narcotics traffickers."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the quality of the 24 Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act agencies' fiscal year (FY) 2000 performance plans and financial data."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed a court ruling that exempted certain medical residents from paying Federal Insurance Contributions Act taxes and Social Security coverage, focusing on: (1) how the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Social Security Administration are proceeding since the court decision; and (2) what decisions IRS has made about refunding taxes for social security paid by medical residents and their employers and the effect of those decisions on the Social Security Trust Funds."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the Bay Area Rapid Transit District's (BART) finance plan for an airport extension, focusing on: (1) BART's proposed grant amendment and revised project completion schedule; and (2) the reasonableness of the assumptions contained in the finance plan."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control (HCFAC) Program financial reports for fiscal years (FY) 1998 and 1999 as required by the the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) grants for international activities and smart growth, focusing on the: (1) number, dollar amount, and recipients of international and smart growth grants; (2) purposes of and the activities pursuant to the grants; and (3) statutory bases that EPA cites for awarding these grants."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the District of Columbia Courts' (DC Courts) fiscal year (FY) 2001 budget request and related issues, focusing on: (1) whether DC Courts' FY 2001 budget was reasonable; (2) what were DC Courts' obligations and payments for FY 1999 operations, including totals charged for the Criminal Justice Act, Counsel for Child Abuse and Neglect, and the Guardianship programs; and (3) what are the DC Courts' obligations and payments related to its court operations and defender services to date for FY 2000."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) performance reports on its science programs, focusing on: (1) whether EPA links science issues in its performance report for fiscal year (FY) 1999 with performance plans for fiscal years 2000 and 2001 and whether the agency's funding request for FY 2001 is linked to specific science activities in its performance plan for that year; (2) whether EPA's performance plan for FY 2001 addresses weaknesses in the agency's science program that GAO previously identified; and (3) the extent to which EPA's draft strategic plan for fiscal years 2000-2005, complies with the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) of 1993 requirements."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the status of the Bureau of the Census' key census operations, focusing on: (1) whether the Bureau followed GAO's recommendations and adopted an alternate form of contingency planning instead of relying on Congress for a supplemental appropriation; (2) why the census is such a local endeavor; (3) whether the Bureau will be able to translate the high level of public awareness into participation for the 2000 Census; (4) whether partnership specialists will be stretched too thinly to have a successful impact on the 2000 Census; (5) the challenges facing the Bureau in conducting a timely and accurate followup; (6) how the Bureau could intentionally or unintentionally cut corners to get the nonresponse follow-up workload done in a shorter period of time; and (7) the risks that could jeopardize the release of timely data."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on U.S. business export statistics, focusing on the: (1) number of small- and medium-sized companies that export goods; (2) value of these companies' exports; (3) types of firms that export; and (4) types of products they export."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In a fiscal year 1999 accountability report to Congress, the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) made several clerical errors in the accounting of Medicare trust funds, which caused the Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund to be overinvested by about $14 billion and the Supplementary Medical Insurance (SMI) Trust Fund to be underinvested by about $18 billion. Because of these errors, the HI Trust Fund earned excess interest and the SMI Trust Fund lost interest. GAO found that these errors went undetected for a year because of internal control weaknesses. Inadequate training and supervision and ineffective reconciliations were key factors that allowed the errors to go undetected. HCFA took corrective action, however, as soon as the errors were discovered."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO worked with the Department of Defense (DOD) to develop and report a reliable estimate for the postemployment health care benefits due to military retirees, their dependents, and survivors. To accomplish this, the DOD Office of Actuary has contracted with a private sector firm of actuaries and consultants, Milliman & Robertson. This report provides a non-technical summary of the contractor's findings and includes GAO's recommendation that the changes discussed in the reports be implemented. GAO found that although the analysis prepared by the Office of Actuary does a good job of identifying the factors that affect the military postretirement health care benefits liability and of evaluating the possible impact of those factors, issues still need to be addressed. An additional break out of information is needed in some areas in order for the Office of Actuary to properly analyze their impact on liability. The methodology used was generally reasonable, but some deficiencies still remained."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the federal agencies who regulate workplace safety and health, focusing on the: (1) key federal agencies responsible for promoting workplace safety and health, specifically on those that have regulatory and enforcement authority or otherwise significantly assist in the enforcement process; and (2) federal laws and regulations that serve as the basis of enforcement and the types of worker and industries covered by these regulations."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report compares the drug prices paid by the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) with the prices paid by the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA). On average, for the sample of drug prices analyzed by GAO, HCFA's prices were higher than those of either DOD or VA."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Concerns have been raised about the Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) decision to extend a contract with an accounting firm that has been implicated in major fraud. KPMG's contract with HCFA included annual options to extend performance that could be exercised at HCFA's will. Although information on the fraud investigation was available to HCFA staff at various levels, the information was not used to make reasoned contracting decisions. If HCFA had considered the information and documented its decision to extend KPMG's contract, it could have minimized concerns over the appropriateness of its decision."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) new rule on state allotments for payment of Medicare Part B premiums for qualifying individuals. GAO noted that: (1) the rule would announce that the federal fiscal year 2000 allotments that are available for state agencies to pay Medicare Part B premiums for two eligibility groups; and (2) HCFA complied with applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO discussed the results of its report on the U.S. government's financial statements for fiscal year (FY) 1999."

An evaluation report form for general financial assistance filled out by North Texas Institute for Educators on the Visual Arts at the University of North Texas. The form has sensitive information filled out by the organization as they report their report their progress to their grant award the Texas Commission on the Arts.

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Puerto Rico Highway and Transportation Authority's finance plan for its Tren Urbano Rapid Rail Line Project, focusing on the: (1) financing of the Tren Urbano project; and (2) reasonableness of the assumptions contained in the finance plan."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the United Mine Workers of America Combined Benefit Fund."

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a municipal court may allow criminal defense attorneys to post bail bonds without showing proof of their solvency under articles 17.11, 17.13 and 17.14 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and related questions (RQ-0219-JC)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether the Lower Valley Water District may assess a fee to its service area property owners who opt not to connect to the District's wastewater system (RQ-0221-JC)

The overall objective of this study is to evaluate the technical feasibility and the economics of alternate CO{sub 2} capture and sequestration/use technologies for retrofitting an existing pulverized coal-fired power plant. To accomplish this objective three alternative CO{sub 2} capture and sequestration systems will be evaluated to identify their impact on an existing boiler, associated boiler auxiliary components, overall plant operation and performance and power plant cost, including the cost of electricity. The three retrofit technologies that will be evaluated are as follows: (1) Coal combustion in air, followed by CO{sub 2} separation from flue gas with Kerr-McGee/ABB Lummus Global's commercial MEA-based absorption/stripping process. (2) Coal combustion in an O{sub 2}/CO{sub 2} environment with CO{sub 2} recycle. (3) Coal combustion in air with oxygen removal and CO{sub 2} captured by tertiary amines In support of this objective and execution of the evaluation of the three retrofit technologies a literature survey was conducted. It is presented in an ''annotated'' form, consistent with the following five sections: (1) Coal Combustion in O{sub 2}/CO{sub 2} Media; (2) Oxygen Separation Technologies; (3) Post Combustion CO{sub 2} Separation Technologies; (4) Potential Utilization of CO{sub 2}; and (5) CO{sub 2} Sequestration. The objective of the literature …

Document in the case no. 99-1178, "Solid Waste Agency of Norther Cook County v. United States Army Corps of Engineers et al." in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.