Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the General Services Administration's (GSA) revenue estimation process for its Federal Technology Service (FTS) 2001 long-distance telecommunications services program."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the lending activity of the National Credit Union Central Liquidity Facility (CLF), focusing on: (1) CLF's lending during October through December 1999; and (2) credit union borrowing from the discount window and the comparison between credit unions' cost of borrowing from CLF to the cost of alternative sources of liquidity."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Social Security Administration's (SSA) efforts to prepare its workforce to meet future service delivery challenges, focusing on: (1) SSA's reasons for the 7-year delay in developing a service delivery vision; (2) what SSA's decision not to issue a detailed service delivery plan means for customer service; (3) the differences between a service vision and a service delivery plan; (4) effect the absence of a detailed plan will have on SSA's information technology and its workforce; (5) benefits from SSA's investments in its computer modernization; (6) special challenges SSA will face as a result of the changing needs of its customers; (7) reasons why customers cannot apply for Social Security benefits on-line and the effect on-line applications for benefits will have on SSA's service delivery; and (8) various technology initiatives being implemented."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) authority to award severable service contracts in fiscal years 1998 and 1999 under section 801 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1998, focusing on: (1) the extent to which DOD used the authority in the last month of the fiscal year; and (2) whether contracts reportedly valued at about $1 million or more and whose work was performed entirely in the following fiscal year were abuses of section 801."

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."

Guidance issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This publication has been superseded by GAO-04-394G, Information Technology Investment Management: A Framework for Assessing and Improving Process Maturity, March 2004. GAO published a document on the Information Technology Investment Management (ITIM) framework, which identifies critical processes for successful information technology (IT) investment and organizes these processes into a framework of increasingly mature stages. ITIM establishes three key benefits: (1) a rigorous, standardized tool for internal and external evaluations of an agency's IT management process; (2) a consistent and understandable mechanism for reporting the results of these assessments to agency executives, Congress, and other interested parties; and (3) a road map agencies can use for improving their IT investment management process."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on national water efficiency standards, focusing on the impact of: (1) the national water efficiency standards on water consumption levels and wastewater flows; and (2) repealing the national standards on projected infrastructure investments for drinking water and wastewater treatment facilities."

Guidance issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This publication supersedes AIMD-00-21.2.8, Travel System Requirements: Checklist for Reviewing Systems Under the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996, December 1999. GAO published a functional requirements document to assist: (1) agencies in implementing and monitoring their travel systems; and (2) management and auditors in reviewing their travel systems to determine if they substantially comply with the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Immigration and Naturalization Service's (INS) naturalization application processing, focusing on: (1) the disposition of naturalization cases from the Chicago District Office that were lost at the Nebraska Service Center in 1997 or 1998; and (2) determining if INS employee performance appraisals included a dimension pertaining to the courteousness with which staff provide service to customers."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed 31 completed Department of the Interior (DOI) contracts with outstanding balances, focusing on whether the outstanding balances were not needed for contract closeout and could be deobligated."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed efforts by the White House China Trade Relations Working Group and selected agencies to garner support for permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) with China, focusing on: (1) whether these efforts may be in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1913; and (2) applicable appropriations provisions that prohibit the expenditure of appropriated funds for publicity or propaganda purposes or to lobby Congress."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the costs of food stamp recipients' special diets, focusing on the: (1) number of food stamp recipients whose special dietary costs exceed the maximum food stamp benefit; and (2) costs of recipients' special diets compared with the maximum food stamp benefit."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on software change controls at federal agencies, focusing on: (1) whether key controls as described in documented policies and procedures regarding software change authorization, testing, and approval comply with federal guidance; and (2) the extent to which agencies contracted for year 2000 remediation of mission-critical systems and the extent to which foreign nationals were involved in these efforts."

A statement of record issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Terrorism Preparedness Act of 2000 (H.R. 4210), focusing on the new office it created to manage selected counterterrorist programs."

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."

Guidance issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO published a guide to assist agencies in maintaining effective internal control while streamlining the operations of their payment systems and reducing costs."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) space station program's prime contract changes during fiscal years 1998 and 1999, focusing on: (1) the number of changes made to the original contract, how many added capability or revised initial designs, and the total estimated cost of the changes; (2) the number of changes that either added capability or revised initial designs and for which work began before NASA and the contractor agreed on a cost estimate and their total estimated cost; (3) the difference between the proposed and final negotiated costs of changes for which work began before NASA and the contractor agreed on a cost; and (4) instances in which NASA spent funds for space station enhancements that were not called for in the original contract's baseline design and are not currently included in NASA's space station program budget."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed issues related to the Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command's decision to exercise, and then terminate, a contract option for a prelubrication system manufactured under the trademark Pre-Luber, focusing on whether the: (1) Pre-Luber offers significant savings in maintenance and repair costs in comparison to the awarded engine without the Pre-Luber; (2) contract was administered fairly, lawfully, and economically; and (3) lubrication system on the subcontractor's engine may infringe on the patent held by Engine Lubrication Systems."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO followed up on its report on the General Services Administration's (GSA) building repairs and alterations program."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO commented on the proposed revision to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-130 regarding the management of information resources in the federal government."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on how federal agencies should assess the quality of program performance data."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Small Business Administration's (SBA) 7(a) General Business Loan Program, focusing on: (1) the general characteristics of the 7(a) program, including how the program operates; (2) certain issues, such as the lack of coordinated lender oversight, that have been identified in recent studies and reports on the program; and (3) how SBA has responded to these issues."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Air Force's 50-percent ceiling waiver for depot maintenance, focusing on the: (1) extent to which the Air Force's justification for the waiver was due to its planned use of temporary contracts to support transitioning workloads; and (2) potential for the ceiling to be exceeded in fiscal years 2000 and 2001."

In preparation of the Green Paper on greenhouse gas emissions trading within the European Union, the cost implications of EU-wide emissions trading carbon dioxide were estimated by E3-Lab with their PRIMES energy systems model. According to the report, if each EU member States implemented its target under the Burden sharing agreement individually, the total annual cost for the EU to reach the Kyoto target would be 9.0 billion Pound.