Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Presented is GAO's performance and accountability report for fiscal year 2003. In the spirit of the Government Performance and Results Act, this annual report informs the Congress and the American people about what we have achieved on their behalf. Importantly, GAO received a clean opinion from independent auditors on our financial statements for the 17th consecutive year. The financial information and the data measuring GAO's performance contained in this report are complete and reliable."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "We have performed the procedures contained in the enclosure to this report, which we agreed to perform, solely to assist the Department of Labor in ascertaining whether the net federal unemployment tax (FUTA) revenue distributed to the Unemployment Trust Fund (UTF) for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2003, is supported by the underlying records. As agreed with the Inspector General, we evaluated fiscal year 2003 activity affecting distributions to the UTF."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "During the Senate Armed Services Committee's September 4, 2003 hearing on the Department of Defense's (DOD) proposed lease of 100 Boeing KC-767A aerial refueling aircraft, Congress expressed concern about a significant "bow-wave" funding requirement in future years to pay for leasing and then buying these 100 aircraft at the end of their leases, while continuing efforts to modernize the remainder of the tanker fleet. Subsequently, Congress requested that DOD analyze the option of leasing 25 aircraft, followed by a procurement of the remaining 75 aircraft. The Deputy Secretary of Defense responded to the request on September 22, 2003, identifying several alternative acquisition strategies, with associated cost and savings estimates. On September 25, 2003, Congress asked that GAO review the DOD response and assess the validity of the department's assumptions and the accuracy of the cost and savings estimates, and identify any other alternative acquisition strategies that the Committee should consider. This letter responds to that request."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The events of September 11, 2001, triggered a national re-examination of the security of many of the nation's critical infrastructures. Following these events, government agencies have struggled to find the right balance between the public's "right to know" and the dangers of inappropriate public disclosure of sensitive information. Professional and trade groups representing critical infrastructure sectors including the chemical industry generally oppose the release of information regarding the vulnerability of such facilities. These groups argue that terrorists could use this information to target the chemical facilities that are most vulnerable or located near population centers. Other groups support communities' right to information about hazards to which they might be exposed. Federal, state, and local governments have weighed these factors in reassessing the information publicly available in their publications and on their Web sites. For this reason, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is currently reviewing its management of the chemical facility information it has obtained under Clean Air Act provisions. Regulations promulgated under Section 112(r) of the Clean Air Act as amended in 1990 require chemical facilities that produce, use, or store certain hazardous chemicals beyond threshold amounts to …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Federal agencies spend billions of dollars annually acquiring information technology (IT) services from thousands of contractors using a variety of contracting methods. IT services include computer and telecommunication services, as well as the testing, quality control, installation, and operation of computer equipment. We (1) identified trends in federal spending for IT services from fiscal years 1997 to 2001 and (2) determined the distribution of federal spending for IT services among small, medium-size, and large businesses in fiscal year 2001, the latest year for which such information was available."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This letter responds a Congressional request that we provide answers to questions relating to our September 9, 2003, testimony. In that testimony, we discussed the availability of child pornography on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Energy (DOE) is unusual among federal agencies in that it regulates and inspects its own facilities to protect the safety and health of its workers and of the communities surrounding its vast complex of research laboratories. With few exceptions, all other federal facilities must comply with national standards set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for nuclear safety and by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for worker safety and health. DOE asserts that, for the most part, its safety and health standards meet or exceed those promulgated for facilities regulated by NRC and OSHA. At DOE's 10 science laboratories, which are run by management and operating (M&O) contractors, the department and its contractors use a contract administration process to select standards appropriate to current worker hazards and public safety issues. Both DOE and the M&O contractors are involved in safety and health activities. DOE's field offices, most of which are located at the laboratories, provide continuous safety and health oversight of the M&O contractors. DOE headquarters offices provide policy guidance to the field offices and also conduct some oversight of the laboratories. Safety …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Human activities--especially the federal government's decades-old policy of suppressing all wildland fires--have resulted in dangerous accumulations of brush, small trees, and other vegetation on federal lands. This vegetation has increasingly provided fuel for large, intense wildland fires, particularly in the dry, interior western United States. The scale and intensity of the fires in the 2000 wildland fire season made it one of the worst in 50 years. That season capped a decade characterized by dramatic increases in the number of wildland fires and the costs of suppressing them. These fires have also posed special risks to communities in the wildland-urban interface--where human development meets or intermingles with undeveloped wildland--as well as to watersheds and other resources, such as threatened and endangered species, clean water, and clean air. The centerpiece of the federal response to the growing threat of wildland fires has been the development of the National Fire Plan. This plan advocates a new approach to wildland fires by shifting emphasis from the reactive to the proactive--from attempting to suppress wildland fires to reducing the buildup of hazardous vegetation that fuels fires. The plan recognizes that unless these …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "On September 25, 2003, we issued our report on efforts by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to develop a corporate blueprint--commonly called an enterprise architecture--to guide and constrain its information technology (IT) systems modernization. (This report is available on GAO's Web site at www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-959.) We provided the FBI with a draft of this report on August 22, 2003, requesting that comments be provided by September 18. On September 23, the FBI provided us with written comments. However, the comments were not received in time to be analyzed, incorporated, and responded to in the report and still meet our September 25, 2003, reporting commitment to Congress. As discussed with Congress at that time, we did not extend the reporting date in order to include the FBI's comments and instead are transmitting and responding to them in this follow-up correspondence."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "More than 34 million workers and retirees in 30,000 single-employer defined benefit pension plans rely on a federal insurance program managed by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) to protect their pension benefits, and the program's long-term financial viability is in doubt. Over the last decade, the program swung from a $3.6 billion accumulated deficit (liabilities exceeded assets), to a $10.1 billion accumulated surplus, and back to a $3.6 billion accumulated deficit, in 2002 dollars. Furthermore, despite a record $9 billion in estimated losses to the program in 2002, additional severe losses may be on the horizon. PBGC estimates that financially weak companies sponsor plans with $35 billion in unfunded benefits, which ultimately might become losses to the program. This testimony provides GAO's observations on the factors that contributed to recent changes in the single-employer pension insurance program's financial condition, risks to the program's long-term financial viability, and changes to the program that might be considered to reduce those risks."

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 implementation of the Improper Payments Information Act of 2002 (PL 107-300) and related Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance, and on GAO's strategies to reduce improper payments."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "On September 4, 2003, GAO provided the Senate Committee on Armed Services our observations on the Air Force's proposed lease of 100 Boeing 767 aircraft modified for aerial refueling, to be known as the KC-767A. At the hearing, the Committee heard testimony from the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) concerning the results of a study it did on the estimated acquisition cost of each aircraft. IDA concluded that $120.7 million was a reasonable price for a KC-767A aerial refueling aircraft. At the time of the hearing, we had just obtained access to the IDA study and were not in position to comment on it. On September 5, 2003, the Committee's Chairman and Ranking Minority Member asked us to analyze the IDA study and provide our assessment. This letter responds to that request. Our objectives were to assess the reasonableness of IDA's approach to the issue of pricing the KC-767A aircraft and to provide any comments that we had on its methodology used to estimate the base prices and costs for each aircraft."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Civil Service and Agency Organization, House Committee on Government Reform, requested that GAO respond to follow-up questions subsequent to a hearing on "Human Capital Succession Planning.""

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In connection with fulfilling our requirement to audit the financial statements of the U.S. government, we audited and reported on the Schedules of Federal Debt Managed by the Bureau of the Public Debt (BPD) for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2002 and 2001. The review addressed both general and application computer controls. General computer controls are the structure, policies, and procedures that apply to an entity's overall computer operations. General computer controls establish the environment in which application systems and controls operate. An effective general control environment helps (1) ensure that an adequate entity-wide program for security management is in place, (2) protect data, files, and programs from unauthorized access, modification, disclosure, and destruction, (3) limit and monitor access to programs and files that control computer hardware and secure applications, (4) prevent the introduction of unauthorized changes to systems and applications software, (5) prevent any one individual from controlling key aspects of computer-related operations, and (6) ensure the recovery of computer processing operations in case of a disaster or other unexpected interruption. An effective application control environment helps ensure that transactions performed by individual computer programs are …

Transcript of the fourth public hearing held by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States held October 14, 2003 at the Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. The Commission heard testimony from two sets of witnesses on leadership of U.S. intelligence, intelligence and national security policy, and the effectiveness of warning against transnational threats. Among the six witnesses testifying was former Secretary of Defense and Director of Central Intelligence James R. Schlesinger and former Deputy Secretary of Defense and Director of Central Intelligence, John M. Deutch.

Interview with Gordon Patrick Hannan, a paratrooper veteran of World War II, serving in Africa, Italy, and the Netherlands. Hannan answers questions regarding his service, such as the jumps he made over Italy and Holland. Also covered is his participation in liberating one of the German concentration camps.

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

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with John Graves. Graves joined the Marine Corps Reserves while attending the Rice Institute in 1941. After graduation he was sent to Quantico, Virginia in June 1942. He was placed into a candidate?s class, a reserve officer?s class, and then an artillery class. He was sent to Camp Pendleton, California to train artillerymen. In January 1944, he was sent to Hawaii as the Battery Executive Officer of E battery, 2nd Battalion, 14th Marine Regiment of the 4th Marine Division. He recounts his experiences in the Battles of Kwajalein and Saipan. He was injured by a grenade on Saipan. He relates his experiences in a tent hospital on Saipan and naval hospitals in Hawaii and Long Beach, California. As a result of his injury, he spent the remainder of the war on limited duty.

News release concerning the begining of construction on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. Transit Center.

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

News release concerning the begining of construction on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. Transit Center.

News release about an agreement between DART and the Texoma Area Paratransit Systems (TAPS) which would provide a TAPS shuttle service with access to DART's Parker Road Rail Station.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Abelino Alviar. Alviar joined the Army in May of 1944. In early 1945, he joined the 778th Anti-aircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion. They deployed to Le Havre, France, and traveled to Munich, Germany, arriving after the Battle of the Ardennes. Alviar provided guard duty, and served as a gunner on the half-track supporting the 1st Infantry Division as they fought into Germany. He also worked as a translator and helped transport supplies to the front line. He returned home and was discharged in May of 1946.