Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "U.S. Army ground forces have been deployed to the Balkans since December 1995. For these personnel, such a tour of duty involves a significant change in living conditions and separation from family and friends. The Army has spent more than $2 billion to build camps and implement services to sustain deployed personnel. Much of what has been spent contributes to enhancing soldiers' quality of life. GAO examined (1) how the Army defines and views the quality of life of deployed soldiers in the Balkans and (2) the quality of life at three base camps in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Macedonia. GAO found that the Army (1) defines quality of life as the provision of equitable, adequate, and appropriate living, working, and leisure conditions consistent with available resources and political and military considerations and (2) is providing facilities in keeping with its established quality of life standards. GAO also found that most soldiers were satisfied with the living conditions and recreational facilities."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the implementation of the Endangered Species Act by the Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS) field office in Carlsbad, California, focusing on: (1) how the Carlsbad office tracks its workload of consultations and habitat conservation plans (HCP); (2) to what extent the office is complying with FWS guidelines for completing formal consultations and HCP processing; and (3) the causes for delay when time frames are exceeded."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed its effort to study the use of slotting fees in the grocery industry, focusing on GAO's: (1) planned approach and methodology; and (2) reasons for not being able to perform the study."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Bureau of Indian Affairs' (BIA) use of federal Highway Trust Fund (HTF) money for Indian reservation roads, focusing on: (1) what percentage of fiscal years 1999 and 1998 HTF contract authority available to BIA was obligated for: (a) management costs directly related to specific projects within a program for construction, repair, and improvement of roads; and (b) program management and oversight costs not directly related to specific projects; (2) whether BIA spent more than 6 percent of the contract authority allocated to its Midwest and Western Regional Offices on non-project-related program management costs for those offices; (3) whether the annual 6 percent statutory limitation on the use of HTF contract authority for road program management costs applies only to non-project-related management costs; and (4) whether the project-related costs that BIA bears for individual tribes should be paid from HTF contract authority or from BIA's annual appropriations for managing Indian programs or construction."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the circumstances surrounding the Los Alamos wildfire, focusing on: (1) the events leading up to the prescribed fire and how it was managed; and (2) what fire management policies or practices need to be improved."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the circumstances surrounding the Los Alamos wildfire, focusing on: (1) the events leading up to the prescribed fire and how it was managed; and (2) what fire management policies or practices need to be improved."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO followed up on its previous report on the scope and limits of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program's 1998 sanction data, focusing on: (1) whether the number of full-family sanctions in an average month in 1998 can be annualized and used to determine the impact full-family sanctions had that year on caseload size; and (2) what constitutes the combined number of full-family and partial sanctions in an average month during 1998."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO responded to congressional questions on its April 6, 2000, testimony on the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) efforts to contain the costs of providing health care to inmates, focusing on whether: (1) requiring a copayment would reduce the number of prisoners seeking medical care in order to get out of work or other duties; (2) recent BOP initiatives have helped reduce staff costs; (3) it would be more cost-effective for BOP to have an intermediate care medical facility for inmates needing long-term care; and (4) the Federal Prisoner Health Care Copayment Act of 1999 would significantly contribute to reducing health care costs."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the results of the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) financial statements and on the effectiveness of its internal controls for fiscal year (FY) ending September 30, 1999."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO discussed issues involving the Social Security Administration's (SSA) process for paying attorneys representing applicants for disability benefits, focusing on three areas of the attorney payment process: (1) the process itself, including the costs of processing the payments; (2) possible changes to the way the user fee is charged; and (3) changes being considered for the attorney fee payment process overall."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the contractual relationship between the Department of Defense (DOD) and BioPort Corporation for production of the anthrax vaccine, focusing on: (1) the financial assistance DOD provided BioPort in 1999; and (2) additional financial assistance DOD is providing BioPort in 2000."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO presented a draft of its revised government auditing standards to audit officials and others interested in government auditing standards, which summarized the Advisory Council on Government Auditing Standards' views on the proposed changes to financial auditing standards."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the number of Haitian nationals who have applied and been approved to adjust their status to legal permanent residence under the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act (HRIFA) of 1998."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information about the resources and selected accomplishments of inspectors general at 18 federal departments and agencies."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed its recent reports on the status of key census taking operations, focusing on such essential activities as: (1) outreach and promotion; (2) field follow-up operations; and (3) data capture."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed its recent reports concerning the Department of Energy's (DOE) and the National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA) security programs to protect against theft, sabotage, espionage, terrorism, and other risks to national security at its facilities, focusing on: (1) oversight of safeguards and security programs at DOE; and (2) security issues with NNSA."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO provided information on the Federal Housing Administration's credit subsidy budget estimates used to formulate the President's fiscal year (FY) 2000 budget to determine whether: (1) these estimates were reasonable; and (2) any changes need to be made to the credit subsidy estimation process to ensure that future budget estimates are reasonable."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) report on the actuarial projections for the trust funds of the Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance programs, focusing on whether the Social Security Administration's (SSA) Board of Trustees': (1) 1999 long-range intermediate actuarial projections--their best estimates--as presented in the Trustees' 1999 report are based on generally accepted actuarial methods and techniques and include economic and demographic assumptions that contain no material defects because of errors or omissions and are individually reasonable; and (2) sensitivity tests include all assumptions that could have a significant effect on the projections and are reasonable."