Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The United States continues to face a myriad of broad and evolving threats, such as the October 2010 attempted attack on the nation's air cargo system, that underscore the high priority the federal government places on homeland security and efforts to coordinate security roles, responsibilities, and activities across a wide variety of stakeholders, including state, local, tribal, private sector, nongovernmental, and international partners. The Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 (9/11 Commission Act) required that beginning in 2009 and every 4 years thereafter the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) conduct a quadrennial review that provides a comprehensive examination of the homeland security strategy of the United States. According to the act, the review is to delineate the national homeland security strategy, outline and prioritize critical homeland security missions, and assess the organizational alignment of DHS to the homeland security strategy and mission areas, among other things. The act required that DHS conduct the quadrennial review in consultation with stakeholders, such as heads of federal agencies; state, local, and tribal governments; private sector representatives; and academics and other policy experts. The act also specified that DHS …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Medicare funds health care services for more than 46 million beneficiaries. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)--the agency that administers Medicare--contracts with private organizations known as Quality Improvement Organizations (QIO) to, among other core functions, improve the quality of care for Medicare beneficiaries. CMS contracts with one QIO for each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. One of the QIOs' many responsibilities is to review quality of care concerns, raised by Medicare beneficiaries or others, to determine whether Medicare-financed medical services meet professionally recognized standards of health care. Quality of care reviews may address a range of issues, such as inappropriate treatment or hospital staff not administering medications on time; may involve a variety of health care services and settings; and may include a range of Medicare providers or practitioners. CMS enters into 3-year contracts with QIOs for a range of activities and reviews, including quality of care reviews. For each QIO contract, CMS establishes a budget reflecting the estimated costs of these activities and reviews. For the most recent contracts, which cover August 1, 2008, through …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 authorized appropriations of $10 million annually for the Housing Assistance Council (HAC) from fiscal years 2009 through 2011. Established in 1971, HAC is a nonprofit rural housing organization that aims to improve housing conditions for low-income rural residents, especially in high-need areas such as Indian country and Appalachia and among groups such as farmworkers. As part of its mission, HAC also offers technical assistance in developing affordable rural housing and capacity building to a variety of groups involved in rural housing. HAC signs agreements each year with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) detailing how it will use its appropriations. The 2008 act required GAO to report on HAC's use of appropriated funds over the last 7 years, from 2003 to 2009--a period when HAC received more than $20 million in appropriations. To respond to this mandate, our work had four objectives: to (1) describe HAC programs and activities, (2) identify the sources of HAC's funding and its use of the funds it receives, (3) discuss the results of HAC's programs and activities, and (4) determine what is …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "From the September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center (WTC) through fiscal year 2010, approximately $475 million in federal funds was made available for screening, monitoring, or treating responders for illnesses and conditions--such as asthma and depression--related to the WTC disaster. Within the Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) awards funds to and oversees the programs that provide screening, monitoring, and treatment services for responders to the WTC attack. The two largest programs, which we refer to here as the WTC health programs, are the New York City Fire Department's (FDNY) WTC Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program, and the New York/New Jersey (NY/NJ) WTC Consortium. These programs began as screening and monitoring programs, tracking the health status of responders related to the WTC disaster. In December 2005, the Congress first appropriated funds that were specifically available for treatment programs for certain responders with health conditions related to the WTC disaster, and in fall 2006, NIOSH began awarding funds for outpatient and inpatient treatment. According to NIOSH, as of June 30, …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Justice (DOJ) has reported that crime rates experienced by American Indians are two and a half times higher than those experienced by the general population in the United States. Specifically, from 1992 to 2001 American Indians experienced violent crimes at a rate of 101 violent crimes per 1,000 person annually, compared to the national rate of 41 per 1,000 persons. The federal government plays a major role in prosecuting crimes committed in Indian country. For example, unless a federal statute has granted the state jurisdiction, the federal government has exclusive jurisdiction to prosecute non-Indians who commit crimes against Indians in Indian country, while the federal government and tribal governments both have jurisdiction to prosecute Indian offenders who commit crimes in Indian country. Federal prosecution, however, carries with it the possibility of greater terms of imprisonment, as tribal courts are statutorily limited to a maximum of 3 years imprisonment per offense, regardless of the severity of the offense, for example, a homicide. Because of such jurisdictional and sentencing limitations, tribal communities rely on the federal government to investigate and prosecute a variety of crimes in Indian …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The National Military Strategy of the United States calls upon the Armed Forces to retain the ability to rapidly deploy and sustain capabilities to diverse regions, and the Quadrennial Defense Review 2010 acknowledges the fundamental importance of U.S. capability to project power. The National Security Strategy identifies taking stock of capabilities as one of many ways of reducing military risk. To identify the mobility tools needed for force projection, the Department of Defense (DOD) has conducted several studies, including the fifth and most recent--the Mobility Capabilities and Requirements Study 2016 (MCRS-16). DOD issued the report in February 2010. The intent of the MCRS-16 was to provide senior leaders with a detailed understanding of the range of mobility capabilities needed for possible future strategic environments and help them make investment decisions regarding mobility systems. Specifically, the study was to examine, among other things, how changes in the mobility system affect the outcomes of major operations and to assess the associated risks. The MCRS-16 determined that with few exceptions, the projected mobility capabilities in 2016 are sufficient to support the most demanding projected requirements. The MCRS-16 reported on specific mobility …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report responds to House Report 111-166 to accompany the House bill (H.R. 2647) that later became the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010. The House Report noted the House Armed Services Committee's concerns that the lessons learned regarding the prevention and management of corrosion in the F-22 Raptor had not been fully applied to the development and acquisition of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The House Report directed that the Director of Corrosion Policy and Oversight evaluate the F-35 program and submit a report to the defense committees within 180 days after the act was enacted. The Department of Defense (DOD) report was also to include implications for existing and future weapon systems based on the findings of the F-35 evaluation. DOD submitted its report to Congress in September 2010. House Report 111-166 also directed the Comptroller General to provide an assessment of the completeness of DOD's evaluation and submit a report to the defense committees within 60 days after the date on which DOD submits its evaluation. In assessing the completeness of DOD's corrosion study, our objectives were to determine the extent to which …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Spending on prescription drugs in Medicaid--the joint federal-state program that finances medical services for certain low-income adults and children--totaled $15.2 billion in fiscal year 2008. State Medicaid programs do not directly purchase prescription drugs; instead, they reimburse retail pharmacies for covered prescription drugs dispensed to Medicaid beneficiaries. The federal government provides matching funds to state Medicaid programs to help cover a portion of the cost of these reimbursements. For certain outpatient prescription drugs for which there are three or more therapeutically equivalent versions, state Medicaid programs may only receive federal matching funds for reimbursements up to a maximum amount, which is known as a federal upper limit (FUL). FULs were designed as a cost-containment strategy and have historically been calculated as 150 percent of the lowest published price for the therapeutically equivalent versions of a given drug from among the prices published nationally in three drug pricing compendia. The prices from these compendia are list prices suggested by drug manufacturers and do not reflect actual transaction prices. State Medicaid programs have the authority to determine their own reimbursement amounts to retail pharmacies for covered prescription drugs. However, for …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The B-2 bomber is a low-observable, long-range strike aircraft capable of entering heavily defended areas to deliver both conventional and nuclear weapons. The B-2 currently uses an ultra high frequency (UHF) satellite communications system, but because of aging military satellites, the Air Force determined a new communications system was needed. As a result, the Air Force began an incremental acquisition approach for replacing the B-2's existing UHF satellite communications system with an extremely high frequency (EHF) communications capability. The first increment, which is expected to begin production in late fiscal year 2011, is designed to upgrade computer system speed and storage capacity. The second increment is expected to provide secure, survivable strategic communications connectivity, thus allowing B-2 pilots to receive emergency action messages during strategic operations--an EHF capability that U.S. Strategic Command has stated it needs by fiscal year 2016. The third increment is intended to enable the EHF system to connect with the Global Information Grid. The focus of our review was the second increment, which is scheduled to enter the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase in early fiscal year 20131 and has an estimated total …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report formally transmits our briefing on acquisition management for the European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA). This is one of two products we are issuing in response to congressional October 13, 2009 request that we evaluate the Department of Defense's (DOD) plans for implementing EPAA. We provided congressional staff a draft copy of this briefing in a meeting with them on September 22, 2010. We do not make any recommendations in the briefing. We will issue a final report on broader issues of European missile defense that will include the material in the briefing. That final product will have recommendations, as appropriate. For the briefing we sought to answer two questions: (1) What key acquisition planning and management practices are in place for EPAA? (2) Are there near-term development risks for EPAA?"

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Navy's Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) is envisioned as a vessel able to be reconfigured to meet three different mission areas: mine countermeasures, surface warfare, and antisubmarine warfare. Its design concept consists of two distinct parts--the ship itself (seaframe) and the mission package it carries and deploys. The Navy is procuring the first four ships in two different designs from shipbuilding teams led by Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics, which currently build their designs at Marinette Marine and Austal USA shipyards, respectively. Prior to September 2009, the Navy planned to continue building the class using both ship designs. This strategy changed following unsuccessful contract negotiations that same year for fiscal year 2010 funded seaframes--an outcome attributable to industry proposals priced significantly above Navy expectations. In September 2009, the Navy announced that in an effort to improve affordability, it was revising the LCS program's acquisition strategy and would select one seaframe design before awarding contracts for any additional ships. Following approval of this strategy in January 2010, the Navy issued a new solicitation--intended to lead to a downselect--for fiscal year 2010 seaframes. In support of this strategy, Congress authorized …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the Department of the Navy's proposed dual ship acquisition strategy for the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program. LCS is envisioned as a vessel able to be reconfigured to meet three different mission areas: mine countermeasures, surface warfare, and antisubmarine warfare. Its design concept consists of two distinct parts--the ship itself (seaframe) and the mission package it carries and deploys. The Navy is procuring the first four ships in two different designs from shipbuilding teams led by Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics, which currently build their designs at Marinette Marine and Austal USA shipyards, respectively. The Navy's strategy for procuring LCS has evolved over the years. Prior to September 2009, the Navy planned to continue building the class using both ship designs. This strategy changed following unsuccessful contract negotiations that same year for fiscal year 2010 funded seaframes--an outcome attributable to industry proposals priced significantly above Navy expectations. In September 2009, the Navy announced that in an effort to improve affordability, it was revising the LCS program's acquisition strategy and would select one seaframe design before awarding contracts for any additional ships. Following approval of this …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The attempted December 25, 2009, terrorist attack and the October 2010 bomb attempt involving air cargo originating in Yemen highlight the ongoing threat to aviation and the need to coordinate security standards and practices to enhance security with foreign partners, a process known as harmonization. This testimony discusses the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) progress and challenges in harmonizing international aviation security standards and practices and facilitating compliance with international standards. This testimony is based on reports GAO issued from April 2007 through June 2010, and ongoing work examining foreign airport assessments. For this work, GAO obtained information from DHS and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and interviewed TSA program officials, foreign aviation officials, representatives from international organizations such as the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), and industry associations, about ongoing harmonization and TSA airport assessment efforts and challenges."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses our key findings and recommendations in our report that we are releasing today on some aspects of personnel security clearance reforms. We conducted our review in response to a congressional request. This is the fourth in a series of hearings, in which Congress has asked GAO to testify; and this Subcommittee's continued oversight has helped focus attention on the need for personnel security reform. Personnel security clearances allow government and industry personnel to gain access to classified information that, through unauthorized disclosure, can in some cases cause exceptionally grave damage to U.S. national security. The July 2010 and subsequent October 2010 recent unauthorized leak of almost 500,000 classified documents posted to the Internet related to the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq provides a cogent example of the inherent risks involved when granting an individual a security clearance. To ameliorate these risks, government agencies rely on a multiphased personnel security clearance process. However, with the increase in demand over the past decade for personnel with security clearances, we and others have identified problems with the security clearance process with respect to delays and incomplete documentation. …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) is a self-financing government corporation that insures the pensions of 44 million workers in more than 27,000 private sector defined benefit pension plans. Yet, PBGC faces financial instability that could pose a future threat to this source of protection for Americans' retirement income. As fewer sponsors pay premiums for fewer participants in defined benefit plans, and as the underfunding of large defined benefit plans increases, the risks to PBGC's financial future also increase. As of September 2010, PBGC's net accumulated financial deficit was $23 billion. GAO has designated PBGC and the pension insurance programs it administers as "high risk" areas in need of urgent attention and transformation to address economy, efficiency, or effectiveness changes. In this testimony, GAO discusses its recent work regarding PBGC. Specifically, this statement focuses on needed improvements to PBGC's governance structure and strategic management based on GAO's prior work in these areas. GAO is making no new recommendations in this statement, but continues to believe that Congress should consider expanding PBGC's board of directors and that PBGC should implement recommendations from prior reports that have not yet been …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Postal Service's (USPS) financial condition and outlook deteriorated sharply during fiscal years 2007 through 2009. USPS actions to cut costs and increase revenues were insufficient to offset declines in mail volume and revenues. Mail volume declined from 213 billion pieces in fiscal year 2006, to 171 billion pieces in fiscal year 2010--or about 20 percent. Volume declines resulted from the recession and changes in the use of mail as transactions and messages continued to shift to electronic alternatives. In this environment, USPS initiatives to increase revenues had limited results. USPS expects mail volume to decline further to about 150 billion pieces by 2020. This trend exposes weaknesses in USPS's business model, which has relied on growth in mail volume to help cover costs. GAO and others have reported on options for improving USPS's financial condition, including GAO's April 2010 report on USPS's business model (GAO-10-455). Recently, legislation has been introduced that addresses USPS's finances and the need for flexibility to help modernize operations. This testimony discusses (1) updated information on USPS's financial condition and outlook, (2) the need to modernize and restructure USPS, and (3) key …

This report summarizes the total GHG emission from all state agencies for 2005, 2008, and 2009. It examines actions already taken by agencies to reduce emissions and outlines key next steps for agencies to take to develop emission reduction strategies.

Application materials submitted to the Texas Historical Commission requesting a historic marker for the Jeff Davis County Jail, in Fort Davis, Texas. The materials include the inscription text of the marker, original application, narrative, and photographs.

Application materials submitted to the Texas Historical Commission requesting a historic marker for the Ludwig Doebbler House, in Fredericksburg, Texas. The materials include the inscription text of the marker, original application, narrative, floor plans, and photographs.

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; Public school textbook adoption under recent legislative amendments to the Education Code (RQ-0887-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 a court investigator appointed by a statutory county probate judge is covered by the Tarrant County civil service system (RQ-0889-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; Scope of licensed pool-related electrical services under chaper 1305 of the Occupations Code (RQ-0891-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 a member of the city council of Texarkana, Texas, may simultaneously serve as a paid municipal fire fighter in Texarkana, Arkansas (RQ-0892-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: Taxable status of real property owned by the City of Greenville and leased to a private company (RQ-0897-GA)