Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "While federal grant funding has been increasing, long-standing concerns remain about the federal government's grants management and the lack of effective oversight tools to reasonably assure that grants are used for their intended purposes and that risks of fraud, waste, and abuse are minimized. GAO has issued a range of reports raising concerns about the risks and vulnerabilities related to grants management and oversight. The Administration recognizes these concerns. It included improving grants management as a part of its initiative to eliminate waste in the U.S. government and has various efforts underway to improve grants oversight and accountability. This testimony addresses the (1) significance of federal grant funding, (2) risks and vulnerabilities in key controls in the federal grant life cycle, and (3) improvements needed to make the single audit process an effective accountability mechanism. This testimony is primarily based on prior GAO work that reviewed grant accountability and the single audit process."

A publication issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the Social Security Administration's (SSA) Ticket to Work and Self-Sufficiency Program (Ticket program). Created by law in 1999, the Ticket program was intended to assist disability beneficiaries in obtaining and retaining employment, and potentially bring about significant savings to the Disability Insurance Trust Fund by reducing or eliminating their benefits. Under the program, SSA provides each eligible beneficiary (ticket holder) with a ticket to obtain services from SSA-approved public or private providers, referred to as employment networks (EN), or from traditional state vocational rehabilitation agencies (VR). When the Ticket program was created, it was estimated that it had the potential to provide significant savings to the Social Security Trust Funds and Treasury. However, our prior work and the work of SSA's Office of the Inspector General and others has questioned the viability of the program due to low participation and costs that are not offset by beneficiaries returning to work and reducing dependency on benefits. In an effort to address these concerns, SSA revised its regulations in 2008 to attract more ticket holders and ENs. This testimony summarizes our report issued in May and …

A publication issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Environmental satellites provide critical data used in weather forecasting and measuring variations in climate over time. In February 2010, the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy disbanded the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS)--a tri-agency satellite acquisition that had encountered continuing cost, schedule, and management problems--and instructed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Department of Defense (DOD) to undertake separate acquisitions. Both agencies have begun planning their respective programs--the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) and the Defense Weather Satellite System (DWSS)--including creating program offices and transitioning contracts. GAO was asked to summarize the status of ongoing work assessing (1) NOAA's and DOD's plans for their separate acquisitions and (2) the key risks in transitioning from NPOESS to these new programs. In preparing this statement, GAO relied on the work supporting previous reports, attended monthly program management meetings, reviewed documentation on both programs, and interviewed agency officials."

A statement of record issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The current fiscal environment, ongoing deliberations for the next Farm Bill, and the public's expectations for a high-performing and efficient government underscore the need for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to focus on program results and customer needs, work across organizational lines to help minimize any overlap and duplication, and build its internal capacity. USDA comprises 15 agencies in seven mission areas that are responsible for, among other things, assisting farmers and rural communities, overseeing meat and poultry safety, providing access to nutritious food for low-income families, and protecting the nation's forests. For fiscal year 2010, USDA estimated that its 15 agencies would have total outlays of $129 billion. This statement highlights examples from GAO's previous work that illustrate how USDA can address challenges it faces in three key areas: (1) the performance and accountability of USDA programs, (2) coordination within USDA and between USDA and other agencies to minimize duplication and overlap, and (3) the sufficiency of USDA management capacity. This statement is based on GAO's extensive body of work on USDA programs authorized under the Farm Bill and issued from September 2005 …

Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This document is a listing of technical changes related to the 2011 Government Auditing Standards."

A publication issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2007, the United States enacted a law incrementally raising the minimum wages in American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) until they equal the U.S. minimum wage. American Samoa's minimum wage increased by $.50 three times, and the CNMI's four times before legislation delayed the increases, providing for no increase in American Samoa in 2010 or 2011 and none in the CNMI in 2011. If further increases are implemented as scheduled, American Samoa's minimum wage will equal the current U.S. minimum wage of $7.25 in 2018, and the CNMI's will reach it in 2016. Recent economic declines in both areas reflect the closure of one of two tuna canneries in American Samoa and the departure of the garment industry in the CNMI. GAO is required to report in 2010, 2011, 2013, and biennially thereafter on the impact of the minimum wage increases. This testimony, requested by Congress, summarizes GAO's June 2011 report, which describes, since the increases began, (1) employment and earnings, and (2) the status of key industries. GAO reviewed federal and local information; collected data from employers through a questionnaire …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) has been on GAO's high-risk list since 2006, when the program had to borrow from the U.S. Treasury to cover losses from the 2005 hurricanes. The outstanding debt is $17.8 billion as of June 2011. This sizeable debt, plus operational and management challenges that GAO has identified at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which administers NFIP, have combined to keep the program on the high-risk list. NFIP's need to borrow to cover claims in years of catastrophic flooding has raised concerns about the program's long-term financial solvency. This testimony (1) discusses ways to place NFIP on a sounder financial footing in light of public policy goals for federal involvement in natural catastrophe insurance and (2) highlights operational and management challenges at FEMA that affect the program. In preparing this statement, GAO relied on its past work on NFIP, including a June 2011 report on FEMA's management of NFIP, which focused on its planning, policies, processes, and systems. The management review included areas such as strategic and human capital planning, acquisition management, and intra-agency collaboration."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses H.R. 1495, the Gold Reserve Transparency Act of 2011. This proposed legislation, which was recently referred to the Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology, House Committee on Financial Services, provides for an audit of the gold reserves of the United States. Specifically, the bill calls for the Secretary of the Treasury to conduct and complete, not later than 6 months after passage of the act, a full assay, inventory, and audit of gold reserves of the United States at the place or places where such reserves are kept, together with an analysis of the sufficiency of the measures taken for the security of such reserves. The bill also calls for the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review the results of such assay, inventory, audit, and analysis and, not later than 9 months after passage of the act, prepare and transmit to the Congress a report of GAO's findings together with the results of the work performed by the Secretary of the Treasury. This testimony focuses on (1) the reported holdings of gold reserves of the United States as of September 30, 2010; (2) past …

Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This document summarizes major changes in the 2011 Government Auditing Standards."

A publication issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "As one of the largest and most complex organizations in the world, the Department of Defense (DOD) faces many challenges in resolving serious problems in its financial management and related business operations and systems. DOD is required by various statutes to (1) improve its financial management processes, controls, and systems to ensure that complete, reliable, consistent, and timely information is prepared and responsive to the financial information needs of agency management and oversight bodies, and (2) to produce audited financial statements. Over the years, DOD has initiated numerous efforts to improve the department's financial management operations and to try to achieve an unqualified (clean) opinion on the reliability of its reported financial information. These efforts have fallen short of sustained improvement in financial management or financial statement auditability. The Subcommittee has asked GAO to provide its perspective on the status of DOD's financial management weaknesses and its efforts to resolve them."

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with William Calloway Scott. Scott joined the Army in October 1943 and received medical training at Camp Grant. Upon completion, he was sent to Omaha Beach with the 9th Infantry Division, arriving eight days after D-Day. Although there should have been three medics assigned to each company, they were often short-staffed, with only one medic per several hundred men. Scott participated in house-to-house fighting in Cherbourg and pushed onward into Belgium and Germany. He recalls an evening when Germans parachuted behind American lines, creating a great deal of confusion in the morning, but the Germans were taken prisoner without incident. Scott celebrated the end of the war alongside dancing Russians and returned home in October 1945.

Transcript of an oral interview with Frederick M. Bidwell. Bidwell joined the Army in 1940 at Fort Benning, Georgia. He was assigned to the 69th Infantry Division and headed for France in mid-1944. He eventually was attached to the 35th Infantry Division and fought in France at the Battle of St. Lo. He also briefly mentions the Battle of the Bulge.

Transcript of an oral interview with Charles Thibeault. Thibeault was drafted and went into the Army in 1943. He took basic training in Alabama, was shipped overseas and joined the 35th Division, 134th Infantry, 1st Battalion, Company C in 1944 when they were in France. He was a squad leader then when he made Staff Sergeant he had his own platoon. He fought at the Battle of the Bulge and was wounded. He also fought in the Battle of Bastogne and at Metz. His outfit liberated one of the concentration camps (somewhere in Germany but Thibeault couldn't remember the name). Thibeault gives a fairly graphic description of the scene at the concentration camp. After liberating the camp he got his men together and said, "As of now, right now, we do not take any more prisoners. If that is the way they are going to treat people, I will do the same. I don't care. This is not war, what they did to the people. They were prisoners of war and all that is all they done, and look how skinny they are; you could see the bones." His unit also liberated a concentration camp that just contained women. Thibeault …

Interview with Curtistene Smith McCowan, member and supporter of the NAACP and Urban League. McCowan discusses her upbringing, family, affiliation with the NAACP and Urban League, her involvement with the PTA in her sons' schools and how she advocated for more minority teachers and administrators and equal treatment of Black students, and her seat on the school board in Desoto.