Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Determining whether to obtain required services using government employees or through contracts with the private sector is an important economic and strategic decision for agency managers. In this regard, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-76 prescribes policies and procedures for use by agencies as they select service providers through competitions among public and private-sector sources. The Circular is intended to ensure that the competitive sourcing process is conducted as fairly as possible, and that the estimated cost of government performance reflects all of the costs of performing the work in house. The purpose of this letter is to convey an issue we identified during the course of an ongoing review of how the costs of health benefits for federal and private-sector employees are reflected in public-private competitions conducted by the Department of Defense."

A statement of record issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. commercial aviation industry has an extraordinary safety record. However, when passenger airlines have accidents or serious incidents, regardless of their rarity, the consequences can be tragic. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) works to maintain a high level of safety through an effective safety oversight system. Keys to this system are to: (1) establish programs that focus resources on areas of highest safety risk and on mitigating risks; (2) provide training and communication to ensure that inspectors can consistently carry out the agency's oversight programs; and (3) have processes and data to continuously monitor, evaluate, and improve the numerous oversight programs that make up the safety oversight system. This statement focuses on these three key areas and is based on recent GAO reports on FAA's inspection oversight programs, industry partnership programs, enforcement program, and training program."

The European Union Emissions Trading Scheme ('EU ETS') began on 1 January 2005. The implementation of the EU ETS has raised interest in market-based approaches to achieving environmental and related public policy goals in the EU, particularly those related to promotion of renewable energy and energy efficiency. Indeed, national and regional markets in tradable green certificates ('TGCs') and (to a lesser extent) tradable white certificates ('TWCs') already exist. Green certificate schemes are established or proposed in a number of Member States (e.g., Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK) and form part of a growing portfolio of measures to achieve the renewable targets outlined in Directive 2001/77/EC. White certificate schemes are considerably less widespread, although schemes have been established in Italy and the UK and further activity may be stimulated by the Commission proposal on energy services (COM(2003)739). Both the renewables Directive and the energy services proposal envisage the possible evolution and harmonisation of these instruments into EU-wide certificate schemes. This study has two major objectives: -1. Analyse interactions among EU ETS and green/white certificate markets. The first major objective is to describe the interactions between green and white certificate programmes and the EU …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2004, a series of media articles alleged that financial firms were marketing expensive and potentially unnecessary insurance or other financial products to members of the military. GAO's report for this committee examined (1) features and marketing of certain insurance and securities products being sold to military members and (2) how financial regulators and the Department of Defense (DOD) were overseeing the sales of insurance and securities products to military members. GAO also examined issues relating to DOD's oversight of insurance sales for a report issued in June 2005."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 1990, the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act, heralded as the most comprehensive financial management reform legislation in 40 years, was enacted. The Act's goal is to improve management through reliable, useful, and timely financial and performance information for day-to-day decisionmaking and accountability. This testimony outlines the legislative history of the CFO Act, and its key elements, progress to date in implementing the Act, and the challenges for the future. Prior to passage of the CFO Act, the seemingly never ending disclosures of fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement in federal programs painted a picture of a government unable to manage its programs, protect its assets, or provide taxpayers with the effective and economical services they expect. The enactment of the CFO Act represented a broad-based recognition that federal financial management was in great need of fundamental reform. The Act mandated a financial management leadership structure; required the preparation and audit of annual financial statements; called for modernized financial management systems and strengthened internal control; and required the systematic measurement of performance, the development of cost information, and the integration of program, budget, and financial systems."

BRAC Analysis - Contains notes and research from the analyst Mike Delaney of the Joint Issues team relating to the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency.

Letter from David A. Stallman to Helen W. Snapp, sent on November 17, 2005, discussing Stallman's recent contact with one Priscilla, the creator of the painting "Lady Dauntless," which Stallman will use for the cover of his and Snapp's book "Target-Towing WASP at Camp Davis." It includes page 211 of an article from the March issue of Our State which discusses Liberty Field in Camp Stewart. The final page includes four black and white photographs: the top left of four men in military dress standing in front of a plane, the top right of a long line of Women Airforce Service Pilots standing in front of two planes, the bottom left of a plane in flight, and the bottom left of a military dinner or banquet.

Abstract Fusion welding is used extensively in industries that support the nation's energy supply, defense, infrastructure, and standard of living. Safety and reliability of the welded joints are affected by their geometry, composition and structure. This report provides an account of the significant advances made in quantitative understanding of the geometry, composition and various aspects of the weldment structure with financial support from DOE/BES. In particular, this report provides an account of the research conducted under the grant DE-FG02-84ER45158 in this important area and lists all the publications that document the details of the technical accomplishments that resulted from the work. Investigations of heat transfer, fluid flow and alloying element vaporization during laser welding resulted in a new technique for the determination of the peak temperature in the weld pool and provided a new method to estimate weld metal composition. Studies on the interfacial phenomena in fusion welding resulted in quantitative understanding of the interrelationship between the weld metal composition and geometry and provided new knowledge as to when the surface active elements would affect the weldment geometry and when these elements would have no effect on the geometry. Partitioning of oxygen nitrogen and hydrogen between the welding environment and …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "People are critical to any agency transformation because they define an agency's culture, develop its knowledge base, promote innovation, and are its most important asset. Thus, strategic human capital management at the Department of Defense (DOD) can help it marshal, manage, and maintain the people and skills needed to meet its critical mission. In November 2003, Congress provided DOD with significant flexibility to design a modern human resources management system. On November 1, 2005, DOD and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) jointly released the final regulations on DOD's new human resources management system, known as the National Security Personnel System (NSPS). Several months ago, with the release of the proposed regulations, GAO observed that some parts of the human resources management system raised questions for DOD, OPM, and Congress to consider in the areas of pay and performance management, adverse actions and appeals, and labor management relations. GAO also identified multiple implementation challenges for DOD once the final regulations for the new system were issued. This testimony provides GAO's overall observations on selected provisions of the final regulations."

This article describes the academic accomplishments of race car driver Milk Duno and her work to encourage Hispanic children to read. Both the original Spanish article and the English translation are included.

News release advertizing the use of DART Rail and the TRE to travel to Christmas parades.

News release advertizing the use of DART Rail and the TRE to travel to Christmas parades.