Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This is a follow up to our April 30, 2003, testimony on the proposed Services Acquisition Reform Act of 2003 (SARA). Because our testimony was based on a section-by-section analysis of the proposed legislation, the House Committee on Government Reform requested that we review the specific provisions of the bill as introduced and provide any additional comments."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "China's December 2001 accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) signified that the world's seventh largest economy and the United State's fourth largest trading partner would be subject to the multilateral organization's trade liberalizing requirements. China's accession agreement is a set of legal documents totaling more than 800 pages. In order to fulfill its WTO commitments, China will have to undertake numerous actions over the next 10 years, ranging from reducing or eliminating tariffs to improving the transparency of trade-related rules and regulations. GAO released its database of its analysis to assist Congress in analyzing, monitoring, and enforcing China's WTO commitments."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Under its transformation efforts, the Army plans to change the way it organizes, trains, deploys, and equips its forces. It expects the future force to be organized around brigade-size units that perform virtually all Army combat functions. The Army wants to fully equip these units with the Future Combat Systems (FCS), a family of 18 networked, warfighting systems which are intended to be more lethal, survivable, deployable, and sustainable than existing heavy combat systems. In order to deploy faster, the FCS vehicles are expected to be a fraction of the weight of existing heavy armored fighting vehicles. The Army believes that nontraditional fighting tactics coupled with an extensive information network will compensate for the loss of size and armor mass by utilizing information superiority and synchronized operations to see, engage, and destroy the enemy before the enemy detects the future forces. The Army has allocated about $22 billion for the FCS program during fiscal years 2004 through 2009 and several billions more for non-FCS programs that the FCS will need to become fully capable. In addition, the Army recently implemented FCS schedule changes, which added about 2 years …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) reported that under its current policy, beneficiaries eligible for both TRICARE and the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) health care (dual eligible beneficiaries) are not allowed to utilize the services offered by both health care systems for treatment for the same episode of care. For example, if a beneficiary experiences back pain and seeks treatment from VA, the beneficiary must then receive all care related to that back pain from VA. Should the beneficiary then decide to seek treatment for the back pain from TRICARE, any claims related to that care would be denied. According to DOD, this policy was established to ensure continuity of care for beneficiaries and to ensure that there was no duplication of care or of payments from TRICARE or VA. Under the policy, if beneficiaries are dissatisfied with the care provided by VA, they are unable to switch to TRICARE to receive services for the same episode of care. On April 16, 2003, DOD reported to the Congress on a proposal to change its policy and promulgate regulations for coordinating care between DOD and VA. As agreed, we …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the results of security tests we performed in which agents of the Office of Special Investigations (OSI), acting in an undercover capacity, entered the United States from various countries in the Western Hemisphere using counterfeit documentation and fictitious identities. This work was initially undertaken at the request of the Senate Finance Committee and was continued at the request of the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims, House Committee on the Judiciary. The purpose of our tests was to determine whether U.S. government officials conducting inspections at ports of entry would detect the counterfeit identification documents."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Subcommittee on Government Efficiency and Financial Management, House Committee on Government Reform asked GAO to testify on the Improper Payments Information Act (PL-107-300) and related draft guidance issued by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and on GAO recommendations to agencies on actions they can take to prevent or reduce improper payments."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Since 1998, the 34 democratic nations of the Western Hemisphere have been negotiating a Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement to eliminate tariffs and create common trade and investment rules for these nations. The United States will co-chair, with Brazil, the final phase of the negotiations, due to conclude in January 2005. GAO was asked to (1) review challenges that the United States faces as co-chair of the final negotiating phase and (2) discuss risks that the United States may encounter, as host, in Miami, of the November 2003 ministerial meeting."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "A key element of the President's Management Agenda is the expansion of electronic government (e-government) to enhance access to information and services, particularly through the Internet. In response, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) established a task force that selected a strategic set of initiatives to lead this expansion. GAO previously reviewed the completeness of the information used for choosing and overseeing these initiatives, including business cases and funding plans."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The availability of child pornography has dramatically increased in recent years as it has migrated from printed material to the World Wide Web, becoming accessible through Web sites, chat rooms, newsgroups, and now the increasingly popular peer-to-peer file-sharing programs. These programs enable direct communication between users, allowing users to access each other's files and share digital music, images, and video. GAO was requested to determine the ease of access to child pornography on peer-to-peer networks; the risk of inadvertent exposure of juvenile users of peer-to-peer networks to pornography, including child pornography; and the extent of federal law enforcement resources available for combating child pornography on peer-to-peer networks. GAO's report on the results of this work (GAO-03-351) is being released today along with this testimony. Because child pornography cannot be accessed legally other than by law enforcement agencies, GAO worked with the Customs Cyber-Smuggling Center in performing searches: Customs downloaded and analyzed image files, and GAO performed analyses based on keywords and file names only."

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, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a member of the Board of Trustees of the San Jacinto College District may simultaneously serve as a member of the Board of Directors of the Clear Brook Municipal Utility District (RQ-0596-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, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether the Texas Community Health Center Revolving Loan Fund exists as a trust fund outside the state treasury; whether loan income is the property of the Fund; and whether chapter 136 of the Human Resources Code, which establishes the Fund, violates article III, sections 1, 50 and 51 of the Texas Constitution (RQ-0602-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, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a county may require the owner of a “junked vehicle” to erect a fence or other screening objects in order to shield the vehicle from public view (RQ-0605-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, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether questioning by the Texas Ethics Commission of third-party witnesses to the circumstances giving rise to a sworn complaint violates section 571.140 of the Government Code (RQ-0599-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, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether the Texas Ethics Commission, in providing to the respondent in a commission-initiated complaint information that was obtained in connected with another sworn complaint, violates the confidentiality provision of section 571.140 of the Government Code (RQ-0601-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, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: County commissioners court's authority over hiring and budgetary matters concerning an elected county officer.

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, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Authority of the Texas Education Agency to make a coordinated health program available to elementary schools.

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, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether Harris County may participate in the design and construction of a toll bridge from Galveston Island to Point Bolivar.

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, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether a well that was installed prior to September 1, 2002, but that was capped and will not be used to produce water until some indefinite time after the date, is a "public water supply well" exempt from regulation by the Trinity Glen Rose Groundwater Conservation District (RQ-0631-JC)

Interview with Robert Edward Harris, a veteran of World War II, serving in India at the time. Harris answers questions relating to his training, duties, and activities while over in India towards the end of the war; Harrs also answers questions concerning his feelings towards the war and his enemies.

Interview with George Gace, an member of the United States Army serving in post-World War II Germany. Gace describes his time at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas followed by his deployment to Germany where he spent most of his two years training.

Document about the McKinney chapter of the Texas Society, Sons of the American Revolution.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with John Harold Ryan. Ryan joined the Army in September of 1944. He served with the 96th Infantry Division. He worked with and trained fellow servicemen on the M1 rifle. Ryan participated in the Battle of Okinawa. He was discharged in September of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Dr John McCall. After one college semester, McCall was drafted into the military and volunteered for a meteorology program. He took basic training at Keesler Field, Mississippi and in May 1943 began his academic training at the University of Chicago. After less than six months, his class got cancelled. Someone decided they didn't need as many weather forecasters as originally planned. McCall went to take basic training again, at Jefferson Barracks in St Louis, Missouri. Still hoping to learn a trade rather than just simply going to the trenches, McCall re-tested and re-classified and was given a choice between several program; he choose weather observing. He was sent to Chanute Field, Illinois for training and then to Rattlesnake Army Air Base in Pyote, Texas where he served as a weather observer for just over one year. McCall describes in detail his activities as a weather observer during his time at the base. Eventually, about half of the weather observers at the station were sent overseas and McCall was on a ship sailing for Hawaii when the war with Japan ended. Someone decided to send all the replacements to …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with James Causey. Causey was born in Mississippi and was drafted into the Army right after he finished high school in 1944. Causey shares a few stories about basic training in Florida. Causey went overseas aboard the USS General M.M. Patrcik (AP-150) from Seattle to Hawaii in February, 1945. Causey describes more training he received on Hawaii before shipping out to Saipan in April. On 1 May, Causey arrived as a replacement o nOkinawa. He was assigned to C Company, 1st battalion, 381st Regiment, 96th Infantry Division. Causey then describes his impressions and experiences fighting on Okinawa. Causey was eventually wounded by shell fragments and evacuated to a hospital near the beach. After treatment, he was able to rejoin his unit on Okinawa. When the war ended, Causey was aboard an LST bound for the Philippines and more training in anticipation of the invasion of Japan.