A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), citizens covered are permitted to register and vote absentee. The Secretary of Defense has the primary responsibility for federal UOCAVA functions, and the Department of Defense's (DOD) Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) facilitates absentee voters' participation in federal elections. Since 2001, the DOD Office of Inspector General and GAO have reviewed FVAP's efforts and recommended improvements to its procedures and the direction FVAP provides to the services. In response to a congressional request, this report evaluates how FVAP (1) addresses its mission and evaluates efforts to conduct it, (2) aligns budget priorities with strategic goals, and (3) implemented DOD Office of Inspector General and GAO recommendations made from 2001 through 2009. GAO analyzed FVAP's performance measures, relevant DOD directives, FVAP's strategic plans, budgets, and past audit reports. Also, GAO interviewed agency officials."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) and subsequent appropriations have dramatically increased federal funds available for high speed intercity passenger rail from $120 million in fiscal year 2008 and fiscal year 2009 combined to $10.5 billion available in fiscal year 2010. Other issues, such as developing industry capacity to supply rail equipment and fostering multiyear public support for such systems must be resolved. As part of its efforts to assess Recovery Act initiatives, GAO reviewed (1) how states started or improved passenger rail services in the recent past, (2) rail industry plans to accommodate the increased passenger rail investments, and (3) Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) plans to oversee the use of federal intercity passenger rail funds. GAO reviewed federal legislation; interviewed state, industry and federal officials; and reviewed selected literature. GAO is not making any recommendations. The Department of Transportation did not express an overall opinion on a draft of this report. It did provide technical and clarifying comments, which GAO incorporated."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Federal agencies are increasingly using electronic means to create, exchange, and store information, and in doing so, they frequently create federal records: that is, information, in whatever form, that documents government functions, activities, decisions, and other important transactions. As the volume of electronic information grows, so does the challenge of managing electronic records. Both federal agency heads and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) have responsibilities for managing federal records. As requested, after providing some context about records management in the federal government and the roles of federal agencies and NARA, this testimony describes the challenges of electronic records management and potential means of addressing these challenges. In preparing this testimony, GAO relied primarily on its previous work, supplemented by analysis of publicly available documents."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has drawn national attention to the exploration and production of oil and gas from leases on federal lands and waters. The Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oversees onshore oil and gas activities, the Minerals Management Service's (MMS) Offshore Energy and Minerals Management oversees offshore oil and gas activities, and MMS's Minerals Revenue Management collects revenues from oil and gas produced. Interior's oil and gas oversight has long been the subject of audits and investigations by GAO, Interior's Office of Inspector General (OIG), and others. In response to the recent oil spill, the Secretary of the Interior has proposed reorganizing MMS. Over the past 5 years, GAO has issued numerous recommendations to the Secretary of the Interior to improve the agency's management of oil and gas resources--most recently resulting in two reports in March 2010. Overall, GAO's work in this area can be useful in evaluating key aspects of the Secretary's plans to reorganize MMS. In particular, GAO's findings and recommendations can provide guidance on how to achieve effective oversight of federal oil and gas management …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Secure Border Initiative (SBI) is intended to help secure the 6,000 miles of international borders that the contiguous United States shares with Canada and Mexico. The program, which began in November 2005, seeks to enhance border security and reduce illegal immigration by improving surveillance technologies, raising staffing levels, increasing domestic enforcement of immigration laws, and improving physical infrastructure along the nation's borders. Within SBI, the Secure Border Initiative Network (SBInet) is a multibillion dollar program that includes the acquisition, development, integration, deployment, and operation of surveillance technologies--such as unattended ground sensors and radar and cameras mounted on fixed and mobile towers--to create a "virtual border fence." In addition, command, control, communications, and intelligence (C3I) software and hardware are to use the information gathered by the surveillance technologies to create a real-time picture of what is transpiring within specific areas along the border and transmit the information to command centers and vehicles."