Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO examined the underlying records for the net excise tax revenue distributed to the Airport and Airway Trust Fund (AATF) for fiscal year 2001. GAO (1) did a detailed test of transactions that represent the underlying basis of amounts distributed to AATF, (2) reviewed the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) quarterly AATF certifications, (3) reviewed the Department of the Treasury Financial Management Service adjustments to AATF for fiscal year 2001, (4) reviewed procedures in the Office of Tax Analysis' process for estimating amounts to be distributed to AATF for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2001, (5) compared net excise tax distributions to AATF during fiscal year 2001 and amounts reported in the financial statements prepared by the Bureau of the Public Debt for AATF and the Federal Aviation Administration's consolidated financial statements, and (6) reviewed key reconciliations of IRS records to Treasury records."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO addressed the Air Force's plan to replace a portion of its KC-135 aerial refueling tanker fleet with leased Boeing 767 aircraft. Although the Air Force has a long term requirement to replace its aging fleet of KC-135 tankers, the urgency of the need in the short term is unclear. The Air Force stated that the leasing arrangement would allow it to acquire new tankers three years earlier than through its most recent procurement plan. This would allow the Air Force to retire old, less capable KC-135s, thus saving maintenance costs on those aircraft. Because the Air Force is still negotiating the lease details, it could not provide information on the cost effectiveness of leasing aircraft instead of purchasing them. Although GAO has not taken a position on the overall policy of leasing versus purchasing defense equipment, it found that, from a cost standpoint, leasing is more expensive in the long run. Because the 767 aircraft is larger than the KC-135, there will be some infrastructure improvement costs, such as for building or modifying hangars, taxiways, and runway aprons. Additional costs would likely include simulators and project management. …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Citing the desire to "ensure that the President's appointees have the opportunity to review any new or pending regulations," the White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card, Jr. sent a memorandum to the heads of all executive agencies on January 20, 2001, directing them to (1) not send proposed or final regulations to the Office of the Federal Register, (2) withdraw regulations that had been sent to the Office but not yet published in the Federal Register, and (3) postpone for 60 days the effective date of regulations that had been published in the Federal Register but had not yet taken effect. GAO found that federal agencies delayed the effective dates for 90 of the 371 final rules that were subject to the memorandum. The effective dates for the remaining 281 rules were either not delayed or GAO could find no indication in the Federal Register of a delay."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In light of the increasing significance and potential costs of dealing with transportation in the national park system, we reviewed the Park Service's administration of the Alternative Transportation Program. Specifically, we are reporting on the Park Service's processes for (1) ensuring that alternative transportation projects are needed and cost-effective, and (2) evaluating the performance of the program. It is important to point out that in addressing these issues our work focused on the agency's process for reviewing and approving projects. Accordingly, we did not evaluate whether any specific project was in fact needed and cost-effective. In conducting the work, we examined agency files for a sample of 20 projects--10 planning projects and 10 construction projects--that account for 54 percent of the total program funding for fiscal year 2001 through fiscal year 2003."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed several issues relating to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) workforce and management challenges. These issues are associated with NASA's proposed legislative provisions for additional flexibilities and authorities to help it address its human capital challenge. GAO found that agencies must ensure that their strategic human capital plans are results-oriented and data-driven. This includes developing appropriate information on the number and location of employees and their key competences and skills, as well as data on the profile of the workforce, and performance goals and measures for human capital approaches. NASA's legislative proposal for streamlined demonstration and alternative personnel system authority would provide a mechanism for converting a successful demonstration project, upon approval by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), to a permanent alternative personnel system, without the need for special legislation and without any limitation on the number of employees that would be covered by the project as is under current authority. Human capital systems should have appropriate transparency and adequate safeguards in order to help ensure that it is efficient, effective, credible, and equitable."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990 required each federal agency to issue a regulation adjusting its covered maximum civil monetary penalties for inflation by October 23, 1996. The act also required agencies to make necessary adjustments at least once every 4 years thereafter. During a review of the act's implementation, GAO found that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) Office of the General Counsel indicated that four of the agency's civil penalties are covered by the act but that the agency had not adjusted them for inflation. FERC's Office of the General Counsel stated that the agency has several other statutory penalties that appear not to be covered by the Inflation Adjustment Act. GAO's review did not reveal any FERC regulations that increased the agency's civil penalties for inflation."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Federal agencies need to work with other governmental organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector, both domestically and internationally, to achieve results. By focusing on accountable, results-oriented management, the federal government can use this network to deliver economical, efficient, and effective programs and services to the American people. The administration's plan to use the Executive Branch Management Scorecard to highlight agencies' progress in achieving management and performance improvements outlined in the President's Management Agenda is a promising first step. However, many of the challenges facing the federal government are long-standing and complex and will require sustained attention. Using broad standards, the scorecards in the president's budget grade agencies on the following five governmentwide initiatives: (1) strategic management of human capital, (2) competitive sourcing, (3) improved financial performance, (4) expanded electronic government, and (5) budget and performance integration. These initiatives cannot be addressed in an isolated or piecemeal fashion separate from other management challenges and high-risk areas."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Strategic human capital management is critical to maximizing government's performance and ensuring its accountability for the benefit of the American people. The early years of the 21st century are proving to be a period of profound transition being driven by several key trends, including global interdependence; diverse, diffuse, and asymmetrical security threats; rapidly evolving science and technology; dramatic shifts in age and composition of the population; important quality of life issues; the changing nature of the economy; and evolving governmental structures and concepts. GAO designated strategic human capital management as a governmentwide high-risk area because of a long-standing lack of a consistent strategic approach to marshaling, managing, and maintaining the human capital needed for government to deliver on its promises. Three broad human capital reform opportunities are instrumental to agency transformation efforts: aligning individual and organizational performance, implementing results-oriented pay reform, and sustaining agency transformation efforts."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was, for the second consecutive year, able to prepare financial statements that received an unqualified opinion. However, this achievement once again came through the use of substantial, costly, and time-consuming processes to compensate for serious systems and control deficiencies. IRS continues to make progress in its performance management system by using a strategic planning and budgeting process to reconcile competing priorities and initiatives with available resources. In the area of computer security, IRS corrected or mitigated many of the previously reported weaknesses, including those affecting its electronic filing systems. It also is implementing a computer security program that should help manage its risks in this area. Business Systems Modernization is IRS' ongoing program to leverage information technology and is integral to IRS achieving its customer-focused vision. To date, IRS has made progress in establishing the systems infrastructure, delivering system applications, and developing the management controls and capabilities necessary to effectively acquire and deploy modernized systems."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Amtrak provides an Annual Operations Report to Congress that shows revenue, cost, and profit or loss on all its train routes in the form of route profitability schedules and an annual audited financial statement. In addition, Amtrak periodically receives congressional requests to provide route profitability schedules at different times of the year. In November 2001, Amtrak changed the way it prepared its route profitability schedules and applied this new method to information previously provided for fiscal years 1999 and 2000. Based on the initial information requested and provided, the schedule totals could not be readily reconciled to the audited financial statements for the corresponding periods. According to Amtrak officials, in order to focus on the operating profitability of Amtrak's routes, they excluded certain items included in the financial statement amounts in preparing the route schedule data. As a result, the totals for both sets of schedules did not tie directly to the audited financial statements. Amtrak also allocated certain profits from its other business activities to its routes as a reduction in route net cost. The allocation of these profits from other business activities undermines the ability to …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO performed detailed tests of transactions that represent the underlying basis of amounts distributed to the Unemployment Trust Fund (UTF) and reviewed key reconciliations of the Internal Revenue Service records to the Department of the Treasury records. GAO found that the net federal unemployment tax revenue distributed to UTF for fiscal year 2001 is supported by the underlying records."

Guidance issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO released an exposure draft on its Model of Strategic Human Capital Management, which is intended to help federal agency leaders better manage their organizations' most important asset--their people. The model is designed to help agency leaders effectively use their people, or human capital, and determine how well they integrate human capital considerations into daily decision-making and planning for the program results they seek to achieve. In so doing, the model highlights the importance of a sustained commitment by agency leaders to maximize the value of their agencies' human capital and manage related risks."

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 City of Lake Jackson's sales and use tax election proposition allows expenditure of the taxes for an access road to service underdeveloped commercially zoned property (RQ-0454-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 article III, section 50 of the Texas Constitution prohibits the Texas Commission for the Blind from contracting with the United States government to operate various vending facilities on federal property under the Federal Randolph-Sheppard Act, 20 U.S.C. ch. 6A, if the contract "create[s] financial exposure to the State for a multi-million dollar service agreement with...Federal Departments" (RQ-0455-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 a member of a school district board of trustees may simultaneously hold the office of county treasurer (RQ--458-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: Validity of a school district policy regarding corporal punishment and physical restraint of students.

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 county may maintain a road that has not been officially established as a public road but which has been accessible to and regularly used by the public (RQ-0469-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 section 37.123 of the Education Code, which creates the offense of “disruptive activity,” requires proof of intent (RQ-0474-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 a casket constitutes “funeral merchandise” for purposes of Chapter 651 of the Occupations Code, and related questions (RQ-0477-JC)

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Abel Ortega. Ortega was drafted into the Army in March, 1941 and was in the Philippines by November. Ortega was with a tank battalion on Luzon and recalls the retreat to and subsequent surrender on Bataan. Ortega also recalls how his Christian faith served him, and others around him, during captivity. He describes his experiences on the Bataan Death March. Ortega remained in the Philippines for over two years before being shipped to Japan to perform more slave labor. After the war, Ortega was repatriated and describes his return home to his parents.