Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "On November 18, 2003, we testified before Congress on the Department of Defense's (DOD) new acquisition policy for space systems. The new acquisition policy, issued in October 2003, sets the stage for decision making for DOD's investment in space systems, which currently stands at more than $18 billion annually and is expected to grow considerably over the next decade. Congress requested that we provide additional comments on several issues relating to the new policy and other space acquisition issues."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, were a dramatic reminder of the importance of cultivating a better understanding of the United States and its policies with overseas audiences. U.S. public diplomacy activities include the efforts of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees all nonmilitary U.S. international broadcasting by the Voice of America (VOA) and several other broadcast entities. Such broadcasting helps promote a better understanding of the United States and serves U.S. interests by providing overseas audiences with accurate and objective news about the United States and the world. GAO has issued three reports over the past 4 years examining the organizational, marketing, resource, and performance reporting challenges faced by the Board. Our recommendations to the Board have included the need to address the long-standing issue of overlapping language services (i.e., where two services broadcast in the same language to the same audience) and to strengthen the Board's strategic planning and performance by placing a greater emphasis on results. The Board has taken significant steps to respond to these and other recommendations."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Each year, Congress appropriates billions of dollars to pay and support U.S. military personnel at home and overseas. In fiscal year 2003, military personnel (MILPERS) appropriations amounted to more than $109 billion. Once the funds are appropriated, the military services are responsible for ensuring that the funds are properly obligated and disbursed. Their end-of-the-fiscal-year review is critical to the next year's budget formulation process because the services use the obligations for the most recent fiscal year completed as a point of reference in developing their new budgets, and Congress uses this information as a point of comparison in its review of the new budget requests. In our prior work for the House and Senate appropriation and authorization committees, reviewing the services' budget justifications, we found that although the services were conducting annual reviews and certifications, the services did not review transactions by matching obligations to individual disbursements in all of the years that disbursements can occur, as required by the Department of Defense (DOD) Financial Management Regulation. We also found that the services disbursed some obligations for purposes other than those reported in their budget submission, but their …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO has long held the position that financial regulators can benefit from improved information sharing. As regulators are faced with the challenges of overseeing a myriad of financial products, along with the individuals and organizations that develop and sell them, information sharing among regulators serves as a key defense against fraud and market abuses. However, our system of financial regulation is fragmented and, in many cases, isolated among numerous federal and state financial regulators overseeing the securities, insurance, and banking industries. While there has been a greater effort to improve communication in recent years, the routine sharing of information between the regulators of the three major financial industries--securities, insurance, and banking--continues to be a source of concern. At Congress' request, we have issued reports and testimonies in recent years discussing the benefits of improved sharing of criminal and regulatory information and the consequences of failing to adequately share such information. This report focuses on three areas where greater attention is needed to improve information-sharing capabilities among financial services regulators. First, we highlight the need for insurance regulators to have more consistent access to the Federal Bureau of Investigation …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Delivering high-quality service to the public in the form of fair, timely, and consistent eligibility decisions for disability benefits is one of SSA's most pressing challenges. This testimony discusses (1) the difficulties SSA faces managing disability claims processing; (2) the outmoded concepts of SSA's disability program; and (3) the Commissioner's strategy for improving the disability process and the challenges it faces."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "As a result of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and launch of the Global War on Terrorism, the National Guard has experienced the largest activation of its forces since World War II. The Guard consists of 350,000 Army Guard soldiers and 107,000 Air Guard members. With its unique dual status, it performs state missions under the governor and federal missions at home and overseas under the President. Since September 11, the Guard's missions have expanded, raising concerns about its ability to simultaneously perform all of these functions. The Department of Defense (DOD) funds the Army Guard for partial readiness to accomplish mission requirements assuming that there will be time to supply additional personnel and equipment in an extended conflict. In contrast, the Air Guard is funded to be an operational reserve ready on short notice. Today's testimony addresses GAO's observations on (1) the extent and purpose of the National Guard's use since September 11, (2) the effects of that use on Guard forces' readiness for future missions, and (3) the challenges that DOD, the states, and Congress face in organizing and equipping the Guard to support both …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Approximately 6,600 miles of Alaska's coastline and many of the low-lying areas along the state's rivers are subject to severe flooding and erosion. Most of Alaska's Native villages are located on the coast or on riverbanks. In addition to the many federal and Alaska state agencies that respond to flooding and erosion, Congress established the Denali Commission in 1998 to, among other things, provide economic development services and meet infrastructure needs in rural Alaska communities. This testimony is based on GAO's report, Alaska Native Villages: Most Are Affected by Flooding and Erosion, but Few Qualify for Federal Assistance (GAO-04-142, December 12, 2003). Specifically, GAO identified (1) the number of Alaska Native villages affected by flooding and erosion, (2) the extent to which federal assistance has been provided to those villages, (3) the efforts of nine villages to respond to flooding and erosion, and (4) alternatives that Congress may wish to consider when providing assistance for flooding and erosion."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In a letter dated April 15, 2004, the Ranking Minority Member, House Committee on Government Reform, requested a monthly breakdown of all expenditures from October 2002 through September 2003 by Independent Counsel David M. Barrett. Under 28 U.S.C 596(c)(1) and (2) (2000), independent counsels are required to report on their expenditures from the permanent, indefinite appropriation established to fund independent counsel activities semiannually. We are required to audit these expenditures and report our findings to appropriate congressional committees. The request letter cited our two most recent semiannual reports, which covered the period in question on independent counsel expenditures."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Under the Department of Education's Federal Direct Loan Program (FDLP), students or their parents borrow money directly from the federal government through the vocational, undergraduate, or graduate schools that students attend. FDLP offers four loan types, including consolidation loans, which allow borrowers to combine multiple loans, possibly from different federal student loan programs, into a single loan with one monthly payment and a fixed borrower interest rate. The other three FDLP loan types provide variable borrower interest rates. The reported outstanding gross balance of FDLP loans to borrowers was $84.5 billion as of September 30, 2003, and the related allowance for subsidy--or the cost Education expected to incur on the outstanding loans--was $657 million. The key driver of the FDLP cost to the government is the difference between the borrower interest rate and Education's financing cost or borrowing rate from Treasury. Because of concerns about Education's reliance on estimates to project FDLP costs and a lack of historical information on which to base those estimates, the House Committee on the Budget previously asked us to review key aspects of Education's cost estimates for FDLP. Our January 2001 report …

BRAC 2005 Intelligence Joint Cross-Service Group Meeting Minutes of July 29, 2004. The document is redacted and includes the BRAC 05 IJCSG Principals Meeting brief (PowerPoint slides).

BRAC 2005 Intelligence Joint Cross-Service Group Meeting Minutes of September 29, 2004. The document is redacted and includes the IJCSG Principals Meeting brief (PowerPoint slides).

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 local election officials had the discretion to accept or reject signatures on local option election petitions filed prior to the effective date of the 2003 amendments to the Alcoholic Beverage Code when the signatures were withdrawn by affidavit, or when the signatures appeared on the back side of a petition signature sheet from which certain statutory elements were absent (RQ-0159-GA)

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 under article XVI, section 65 of the Texas Constitution a justice of the peace announced his candidacy for another office on December 31 by informing a newspaper reporter that he would be a candidate for another office (RQ-0162-GA)

A complete list of Texas Daily Newspaper Associations members and their terms, if available, that they have served as board officers or directors. The list begins in 1985 and go until 2005.

Deposit summary with a total of $489.06 from the Dallas National Bank on July 29, 2004. There is an envelope addressed to Texas Stonewall Democratic Caucus from the Hilton in Houston, Texas.

Handwritten notes about the Texas Stonewall Democratic Caucus.

Revised Certificate of Authority on June 29, 2004 at Dallas National Bank regarding the depository of the funds of Texas Stonewall Democratic Caucus.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Lloyd Overmyer. Overmyer graduated from high school in Monterey, Indiana in 1943 and was drafted into the Army on 20 June 1945. He was undergoing basic training in Little Rock, Arkansas when the war in Europe ended. Following military police training, he embarked on the troop ship USAT George Washington, which sailed to Bremerhaven, Germany. He provides several anecdotes of his transit and was training for the invasion of Japan when the war ended. At the Dachau concentration camp, Overmyer was assigned to guard SS soldiers awaiting trial and repatriated German POWs. He describes an unpleasant encounter with General Omar Bradley while serving occupation duty in Germany. He remembers seeing local German citizens being forced to the camp to see for themselves the conditions there and to help clean the facilities.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Don Sumner. Born in 1927, he was inducted into the Navy in June 1945. As an apprentice seaman, he was trained in the Aviation Midshipman Program. He was in training when the war ended. He received his wings in 1948 and was assigned to fly PB4Y airplanes in a Bat guided bomb squadron. With the outbreak of the Korean War, he was sent to North Africa. He retired from the Navy after twenty-five years of service.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with James Evans. Evans joined the Marine Corps in June of 1940. He was deployed to Pearl Harbor in September, and stationed at Naval Air Station Kaneohe. Evans helped put the station into commission in February of 1941. He was on watch at the station when the Japanese attacked. He shares memories of rescuers working to get to crewman aboard USS Oklahoma. Evans served with the 6th Marine Regiment. Beginning in January of 1943, he participated in the Battles of Guadalcanal, Tarawa and Saipan, where he was wounded. He returned to the US and was discharged in August of 1944.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Fred Bergeron. Bergeron joined the Navy in 1940 and was trained as a radioman. He joined VB-3 and served on SBDs. Bergeron was attached to the USS Saratoga (CV-3). Bergeron describes his observations flying over the recently attacked Pearl Harbor. He was then attached to the Enterprise (CV-6) and helped screen the task force that launched the Doolittle Raid. Bergeron then joined the USS Yorktown (CV-5) for the Battle of Midway where he would earn the Distinguished Flying Cross. He describes in detail the bombing runs that he was a part of and his brother getting wounded. Bergeron rejoined the Saratoga until it was torpedoed off Guadalcanal, after that he flew missions from Henderson Field. He rotated back to the US for advance radio school and then received an honorable discharge.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Sam H. Snoddy. He served in the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment 2nd Marine Division. After training, he participated in the initial landing at Saipan where he was wounded in the knees and shoulder on the beach by shell fragments. He was loaded onto a hospital ship with several other casualties before returning to Hawaii to recuperate. He participated in the Okinawa campaign and spent time at Nagasaki on occupation duty. After being discharged, he went to college on the GI Bill, evetually settling in Texas working in the oil industry.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Herman Krehmeier. Krehmeier joined the Marine Corps in May of 1943. He served as a machine gunner with the 2nd Marine Division. He deployed in January of 1944 to Pearl Harbor. Beginning July of 1944 through April of 1945, Krehmeier participated in the Battles of Tinian and Okinawa. He was discharged in January of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Edward Person. Person joined the Marine Corps in September of 1942. He deployed to Samoa in February of 1943. He served with the 8th Marine Regiment in an antitank outfit, working with 37mm antitank guns. Beginning in November of 1943 through April of 1945, Person participated in the Battles of Tarawa, Saipan, Tinian and Okinawa. He retired from the Marine Corps in 1966.