A report of an archaeological survey of two transmission line routes in Hidalgo County, Texas.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is responsible for implementing the Chemical Weapons Convention, which bans the use of chemical weapons and requires their elimination. The United States and other member states have raised concerns that a number of management weaknesses may prevent the organization from fulfilling its mandate. As requested, GAO assessed the accuracy of the organization's budget and the impact of budget shortfalls on program activities. GAO also reviewed efforts to improve the organization's budget planning."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO was asked by the Department of Defense (DOD) to identify ways to improve DOD's availability of high-quality spare parts for aircraft, ships, vehicles, and weapons systems. DOD's recent reports do not provide an accurate and complete picture of spare parts funding as required by financial management regulation. As a result, the reports do not provide Congress with reasonable assurance about the amount of funds being spent on spare parts. Furthermore, the reports are of limited use to Congress as it makes decisions on how best to spend resources to reduce spare parts shortages and improve military readiness."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Because of population growth, resulting real estate development, and using real estate values in hazard-prone areas, the nation is increasingly exposed to much higher property-casualty losses--both insured and uninsured--from natural catastrophes than in the past. In the 1990s, a series of natural disasters, (1) raised questions about the adequacy of the insurance industry's financial capacity to cover large catastrophes without limiting coverage or substantially raising premiums and (2) called attention to ways of raising additional sources of capital to help cover catastrophic risk. Catastrophe risk includes exposure to losses from natural disasters, such as hurricanes, earthquakes and tornadoes, which are infrequent events that can cause substantial financial loss but are difficult to reliably predict. The characteristics of natural disasters prompt most insurers to limit the amount and type of catastrophic risk they hold. Risk-linked securities that can be used to cover risk from natural catastrophes employ many structures and include catastrophic bonds and catastrophic options. GAO identified and analyzed several issues that might affect the use of risk-linked securities. First, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and insurance industry representatives are considering revisions in the regulatory …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "A new convention center is being constructed in accordance with the Washington Convention Center Authority Act of 1994, which authorizes the Washington Convention Center Authority (WCCA) to construct, maintain, and operate a new convention center while continuing to maintain and operate the existing convention center. GAO reviewed (1) issues related to the Revised Guaranteed Maximum Price agreement (RGMP) set in January 2002; (2) the status of construction and significant construction issues that could delay completion of the project; (3) whether the January 2002 estimated total project cost of $799.5 million has changed, and if so, the causes and nature of the changes; and (4) whether WCCA's funding appears to be sufficient to cover the current estimated total project cost. GAO found that on January 31, 2002, the RGMP was set by the construction manager and WCCA at $590.7 million. As of June 30, 2002, the RGMP has increased by $7 million to $597.7 million. The project construction schedule established by the RGMP includes deadlines for (1) substantial completion of convention-ready areas by March 31, 2002; (2) substantial completion of all remaining areas by June 30, 2003; and (3) …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO initiated a governmentwide review of the implementation of the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990. The act requires each federal agency to issue a regulation adjusting its covered maximum civil monetary penalties for inflation by October 23, 1996, and requires each agency to make necessary adjustments at least once every 4 years thereafter. During the review, GAO determined that the Farm Credit Administration had adjusted its civil penalties in a manner inconsistent with the requirements of the statute."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In 1974, Congress mandated creation of a private sector advisory system to ensure that representatives from private business and other groups with a stake in trade policy could provide input as negotiations unfolded. The hope was that such involvement would result in trade agreements that Congress could approve with confidence. The law established a three-tier structure of committees to advise the President on overall U.S. trade policy, general policy area, and technical aspects of trade agreements. Four agencies, led by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), currently administer the committee system. According to many negotiators, agency officials, and committee members, the trade policy advisory committee system plays an important role in U.S. trade policy and has made valuable contributions to U.S. trade agreements. Although GAO's survey of committee members found high levels of satisfaction with many aspects of committee operations and effectiveness, more than a quarter of respondents indicated that the system has not realized its potential to contribute to U.S. trade policy. GAO found that consultations could be more timely and meaningful and that the consultation process needs greater accountability. The structure and …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Fiscal Year 2002 Defense Authorization Act required GAO to review GuardNet, the National Guard's wide-area network, which is used to support various Defense applications and was used to support homeland security activities after the terrorist attacks of September 11th. GAO was asked to determine the current and potential requirements for GuardNet and the effectiveness of the processes for managing the network's requirements, configuration, and security."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report describes the schedule, cost, and technical status of the 155mm Lightweight Howitzer program. The Army-Marine Corps Lightweight Howitzer Joint Program Office directs this program's development, with a British company as the prime contractor. Since GAO's April 2000 report (See GAO-01-603R), all key milestones have slipped because a 2-year low-rate initial production phase has been added to provide production representative howitzers for operational testing. Correspondingly, the full-rate production decision has slipped from September 2002 to October 2004. Since April 2001, total program cost estimates have increased from $1,209.0 million to $1,365.2 million, principally as the result of the large number of design modifications resulting from developmental testing and restructuring the program to add a low-rate initial production phase. In addition, the costs for the towed artillery digitization increased by $51 million. Technical problems--such as the durability of the optical fire control, bore sight retention, and accuracy--have been addressed through design changes. However, some of these changes have not yet been tested, and the Marine Corps Operational Test and Evaluation Activity has yet to review test data that the program office believes shows the howitzer has met accuracy …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Critical infrastructure protection (CIP) enhances the security of the nation's cyber and physical public and private infrastructure. Federal agencies and other public and private entities rely extensively on computerized systems and electronic data to support their missions. CIP issues involve developing a national CIP strategy, improving analysis and warning capabilities, improving information sharing on threats and vulnerabilities, and addressing pervasive weaknesses in federal information security. Although the national strategy for homeland security acknowledges the need to address these challenges, much work remains to successfully implement it."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In the fall of 1998, when hurricanes Mitch and Georges struck Central America and the Caribbean, the United States and other donors responded by providing emergency relief, such as food, water, medical supplies, and temporary shelter. Also, In May 1999, Congress passed emergency supplemental legislation that provided $621 million for a disaster recovery and reconstruction fund for the affected countries, as well as reimbursement for costs incurred by U.S. departments and agencies during the immediate relief phase. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and other departments and agencies made significant achievements in helping the affected countries rebuild their infrastructure and recover from the hurricanes. USAID and others used the disaster recovery assistance to bring about economic recovery, improve public health and access to education, provide permanent housing for displaced families, and improve disaster mitigation and preparedness. To achieve these broad objectives, USAID funded infrastructure construction and repair, technical assistance and training, loans for farmers and small businesses, and some equipment. In addition to its normal controls, USAID ensured that the funds were spent for intended purposes. USAID coordinated its activities with 12 other departments and …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Looming retirements during the next 5 years at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have brought the need for workforce planning to the forefront. HUD has done some workforce planning and has determined how many staff it needs to meet its current workload, but it does not have a comprehensive strategic workforce plan to guide its recruiting, hiring, and other key human capital efforts. Workforce planning steps taken include a detailed analysis of HUD's potential staff losses and completion of HUD's resource estimation and allocation process, which estimates the staff needed to handle the current workload in each office. Some of the Public and Indian Housing (PIH) managers and staff reported that the lack of workforce planning makes it difficult to accomplish mission-related activities and provide customer service. The issue of greatest concern for PIH managers and staff is the staffing shortage. Because HUD lacks a comprehensive strategic workforce plan, some PIH managers and staff were uncertain about what work should be done and the best mix of staff knowledge, skills, and abilities to do it."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the high-risk program areas and management challenges at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). For many years, management and oversight weaknesses have made its programs vulnerable to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement. The current administration has placed improving HUD's management among its highest priorities and wants to remove the high-risk designation from all HUD programs by 2005. Human capital management is the most pressing management challenge facing HUD. HUD has begun the initial stages of workforce planning; it has completed its resource estimation and allocation process, which estimates the staff needed to handle the current workload in each office, and a detailed analysis of potential staff losses due to retirement. However, the Department does not have a comprehensive workforce plan. Effective acquisition management is of increasing importance because, as HUD downsized its staff, it relied more and more on outside contractors to accomplish its mission. HUD has made progress in the past few years improving its acquisition management practices, but it faces the challenge of ensuring that, where it relies on contractors to perform its mission, it will hold these contractors accountable for …

A statement of record issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The United States is bound by five international environmental agreements related to climate change (Framework Convention), desertification (Desertification Convention), the earth's ozone layer (Montreal Protocol), endangered species (CITES), and North American environmental cooperation (North American Agreement). However, the United States fell short of meeting a commitment or pledge in two areas--providing financial assistance to other nations and timely reporting. Agencies use informal means, such as meetings and informal communications, to track their actions to fulfill commitments under the five agreements. GAO found few studies that evaluated the effectiveness of the U.S. actions. These few studies generally concluded that the actions examined had positive effects."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the planned National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS). Today's polar-orbiting environmental satellite program is a complex infrastructure encompassing two satellite systems, supporting ground stations, and four central data processing centers that provide general weather information and specialized environmental products to a variety of users, including weather forecasters, the military, and the public. NPOESS will merge the two satellite systems into a single state-of-the-art environment monitoring satellite system, at a significant cost savings. To handle this increased volume of satellite data, the four processing centers will need to build up their respective infrastructures, and they will need to efficiently incorporate new data into their weather products and models."

This report is intended to assist Congress as it considers options for consequence management legislation. It provides information on federal policies that would be implemented in the event that terrorist attacks in an attempt to answer the question: Based on experiences gained thus far, should Congress consider changes in federal consequence management policies to address the effects of possible future attacks? The report explores two types of issues--selected administrative issues pertinent to the delivery of assistance, and selected policy issues about the assistance provided.

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 provisions of House Bill 2912 on regulated entities’ compliance history authorizes the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission to consider compliance history that occurred prior to February 1, 2002 (RQ-0482-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: Applicability of article 103.0031 of the Code of Criminal Procedure when a defendant has failed to appear in a Class C misdemeanor case (RQ-0485-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 623.011 of the Transportation Code provides the Texas Department of Transportation with discretion to decide whether to issue a permit authorizing an oversize or overweight motor vehicle to operate on public roads (RQ-0487-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 subsection (c) and (d)(4) of Local Government Code section 242.001 authorize a county and a municipality to agree to a “hybrid” mix of regulations related to plats and subdivisions of land (RQ-0492-JC)

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The September 11th attacks emphasized the need for sound government information management of potential risks to U.S. assets and citizens. One possible source of that risk is through the vessels that navigate our ports and waterways. Whereas most large commercial vessels and many large recreational vessels obtain federal documentation, most smaller vessels are registered only in the state where they are primarily used. Congress, in 1998, required the Secretary of Transportation to develop a system to share individual states' vessel information as well as information on federally documented vessels. Fourteen years after legislation required the Coast Guard to develop a vessel identification system (VIS), no such system exists. In 1995 the agency contracted to develop the Marine Information for Safety and Law Enforcement system, of which VIS was a subcomponent. The Coast Guard accepted the contractor-developed VIS in 1998 despite system performance problems, intending to resolve these problems as the system evolved. However, the Coast Guard later found that there was no viable way to correct these problems, and that the cost to populate the system with states' data would be high. Even though the Coast …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has received hundreds of millions of dollars for its surface transportation research and technology program during the past decade. For example, in 1998 the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, included over $447 million for fiscal year 2002 for FHWA's transportation research and technology efforts for six-year period of 1998 through 2003. FHWA's research and technology program is complex because each of the program offices within the agency are responsible for identifying research needs, formulating strategies to address transportation problems, and setting goals that support the agency's strategic goals. One business unit at FHWA's research laboratory provides support for administering the overall program and conducts some of the research. The agency's leadership team provides periodic oversight of the overall program. FHWA's processes for managing the research and technology program, and in particular for developing research agendas and evaluating research outcomes against intended results, do not always align with the best practices for similar federal research and technology programs. FHWA acknowledges that its approach for developing research agenda and involving external stakeholders in determining the direction of the program's research lacks …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Between fiscal years 1996 and 2001, the United States provided $3.45 billion in direct contributions and $24.2 billion in voluntary or indirect contributions to 33 U.N. peacekeeping operations in such areas as the Congo, Sierra Leone, Kosovo, Bosnia, and, most recently, Afghanistan. The prospects for implementing peace agreements are enhanced if all major parties to the conflict participate in negotiating the agreements and if these agreements include specific authority and mechanisms for their enforcement. Peace operations are more likely to succeed if the military forces carrying out the operations have clear objectives, sufficient resources, and the authority to carry out their tasks. Military forces can help create a secure environment for civilian work to proceed. Moreover, the slow or late deployment of a peace operation's civil administrators might impede efforts to establish good governance. Finally, peace operations tend to be more successful when locals participate at every reasonable opportunity."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Twenty-four states and the District of Columbia have restructured electricity markets by shifting from service provided through a regulated monopoly to service provided through open competition among the local utilities and their competitors. The restructuring was intended to boost competition and expand consumer choice, increase efficiency, and lower prices. Of the three states GAO studied, Texas had the greatest need for additional electric power, and it added the most new capacity from 1995 through 2001. In contrast, California added 25 percent of the forecasted need for capacity over this period. Although Pennsylvania added less than half of its forecasted need for capacity, the state continues to be a net exporter of electricity to nearby states. The three states have similar processes for approving applications to build and operate new power plants. In all three states, state and local agencies must review the applications to ensure that the developer complies with environmental, land use, and other requirements before issuing the permits necessary to build and operate a power plant. California also has a state energy commission that reviews each power plant application to determine whether the benefits …