Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In the wake of the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, thousands of current and former military servicemembers are undergoing a transition between their military service and their civilian employment. Congress enacted the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA) to protect the employment and reemployment rights of federal and nonfederal employees when they leave their employment to perform military or other uniformed service. Among other rights, servicemembers who meet the statutory requirements are entitled to reinstatement to the positions they would have held if they had never left their employment or to positions of like seniority, status, and pay. USERRA applies to a wide range of employers, including federal, state, and local governments as well as private-sector firms. This report focuses on federal executive agencies. Under USERRA, an employee who believes that his or her USERRA rights have been violated may file a claim with the Department of Labor's (DOL) Veterans' Employment and Training Service (VETS), which investigates and attempts to resolve the claim. If DOL's VETS cannot resolve the claim and the servicemember is a federal government employee or applicant to a federal …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The federal Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP) was created in 2010 to provide access to insurance for individuals previously unable to acquire coverage due to pre-existing conditions. Eligibility is limited to those who have been uninsured for at least 6 months prior to application, thus focusing the program on those who have been locked out of the private insurance market. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), enacted in March 2010, required the establishment of the PCIP program. The program will provide coverage through the end of 2013, at which point enrollees will be guaranteed access to plans offered in the private market. States were given the option to run their own PCIP with federal funding or allow the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to run the program in their state. Early estimates by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) suggested that the program could cover an average of 200,000 individuals per year with the $5 billion appropriated in PPACA, but that demand would likely be greater. In July 2011, we reported on various aspects of the implementation of the PCIP program, including initial enrollment and …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Prescription drug spending in 2009 totaled approximately $250 billion, of which $78 billion--or about 31 percent--was spent by the federal government. Prescription drug spending by the federal government, patients, and third-party payers, including employers, is driven by many factors, including the prices paid for drugs. In 2007 we reported on trends in retail prices--known as usual and customary (U&C) prices--for prescription drugs. We found that the average U&C price for the commonly used brand-name prescription drugs we reviewed increased about 6 percent per year from January 2000 through January 2007. Some media reports have suggested that prescription drug prices may have increased more during the debate leading up to passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) in March 2010 compared to other recent years. We were requested to examine recent trends in drug prices for brand-name and generic pharmaceuticals. In this report, we (1) examine U&C price trends for commonly used prescription drugs from 2006 through the first quarter of 2010, the latest available data at the time of our analysis, and compare these trends to those of other medical consumer goods and services, and …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses credentialing issues associated with the security of U.S. transportation systems and facilities. Securing these systems requires balancing security to address potential threats while facilitating the flow of people and goods that are critical to the U.S. economy and international commerce. As we have previously reported, these systems and facilities are vulnerable and difficult to secure given their size, easy accessibility, large number of potential targets, and proximity to urban areas. The Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 (MTSA) required regulations preventing individuals from having unescorted access to secure areas of MTSA-regulated facilities and vessels unless they possess a biometric transportation security card and are authorized to be in such an area. MTSA further required that biometric transportation security cards be issued to eligible individuals unless determined that an applicant poses a security risk warranting denial of the card. The Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program is designed to implement these biometric maritime security card requirements. The TWIC program, once implemented, aims to meet the following stated mission needs: (1) Positively identify authorized individuals who require unescorted access to secure areas of the nation's transportation system. …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The federal real property portfolio, comprising over 900,000 buildings and structures and worth hundreds of billions of dollars, presents management challenges. In January 2003, GAO designated the management of federal real property as a high-risk area in part due to the presence of unneeded property. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is responsible for reviewing agencies' progress on federal real property management. The General Services Administration (GSA), often referred to as the federal government's landlord, controls more square feet of buildings than any other civilian federal agency. GSA funds real property acquisition, operation, maintenance, and disposal through the rent it collects from tenant agencies that is deposited into the Federal Buildings Fund (FBF). This testimony discusses (1) the scope and costs of the excess real property held by GSA and other federal agencies; and (2) the challenges GSA and other federal agencies face in disposing of excess and underutilized real property. GAO analyzed GSA data from a centralized real property database, reviewed GSA real property plans and previous GAO reports, and interviewed GSA and OMB officials."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Access to broadband service--a highspeed connection to the Internet--is seen as vital to economic, social, and educational development, yet many areas of the country lack access to, or their residents do not use, broadband. To expand broadband deployment and adoption, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) provided $7.2 billion to the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS) for grants or loans to a variety of program applicants. The Recovery Act required the agencies to award all funds by September 30, 2010. This testimony addresses (1) NTIA's and RUS's efforts to award Recovery Act broadband funds and (2) the remaining risks that NTIA and RUS face in providing oversight for funded projects. To conduct this work, GAO reviewed and summarized information from prior GAO work. GAO also reviewed NTIA and RUS reports on the status of the agencies' programs and gathered information from the agencies on steps taken to respond to prior GAO recommendations. In past work, GAO recommended that the agencies take several actions, such as developing contingency plans to ensure sufficient …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the E-Verify program, which provides employers a tool for verifying an employee's authorization to work in the United States. The opportunity for employment is one of the most powerful magnets attracting immigrants to the United States. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, in early 2009 approximately 11 million unauthorized immigrants were living in the country, and an estimated 7.8 million of them, or about 70 percent, were in the labor force. Congress, the administration, and some states have taken various actions to better ensure that those who work here have appropriate work authorization and to safeguard jobs for authorized employees. Nonetheless, opportunities remain for unscrupulous employers to hire unauthorized workers and for unauthorized workers to fraudulently obtain employment by using borrowed or stolen documents. Immigration experts have noted that deterring illegal immigration requires, among other things, a more reliable employment eligibility verification process and a more robust worksite enforcement capacity. E-Verify is a free, largely voluntary, Internet-based system operated by the Verification Division of the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the Social Security Administration (SSA). The goals of E-Verify …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Forest Service, within the Department of Agriculture, manages over 190 million acres of national forest and grasslands. The agency is responsible for managing its lands for various purposes--including recreation, grazing, timber harvesting, and others--while ensuring that such activities do not impair the lands' long-term productivity. Numerous GAO reports examining different aspects of Forest Service programs--including a testimony before this Subcommittee in 2009--have identified persistent management challenges facing the agency. In light of the federal deficit and long-term fiscal challenges facing the nation, the Forest Service cannot ensure that it is spending its limited budget effectively and efficiently without addressing these challenges. This testimony highlights some of the management challenges facing the Forest Service today and is based on recent reports GAO has issued on a variety of the agency's activities."

This report describes a collaboration between Lincoln University and the College of Earth, Ocean and Environment at the University of Delaware and was funded under the Department of Energy Biological Investigations – Ocean Margins Program (BI-OMP). The principal outcomes of the grant are (1) the opportunity for Lincoln students to participate in marine research at the University of Delaware, (2) the opportunity for participating students to present their research at a variety of scientific meetings, (3) the establishment of an environmental science major and a microbial ecology course at Lincoln, (4) the upgrade of research capabilities at Lincoln, and (5) the success of participating students in graduate and professional school.

Agenda for the November 10th meeting of the Dallas Way listing the points of discussion for the meeting.

Agenda for the November 10th meeting of the Dallas Way listing the topics of interest for the meeting.

Agenda for the November 10th meeting of the Dallas Way listing the issues to discuss during the meeting.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The federal government is the world's largest and most complex entity, with about $3.5 trillion in outlays in fiscal year 2010 that fund a broad array of programs and operations. GAO's long-term simulations of the federal budget show--absent policy change--growing deficits accumulating to an unsustainable increase in debt. While the spending side is driven by rising health care costs and demographics, other areas should also be scrutinized. In addition, there are significant performance and management challenges that the federal government needs to confront. GAO was asked to testify on the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) Modernization Act of 2010 (GPRAMA), as the administration begins implementing the act. This statement is based on GAO's past and ongoing work on GPRA implementation, as well as recently issued reports (1) identifying opportunities to reduce potential duplication in government programs, save tax dollars, and enhance revenue; and (2) updating GAO's list of government operations at high risk due to their greater vulnerabilities to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement, or the need for transformation. As required by GPRAMA, GAO will periodically evaluate implementation of the act and report to Congress on its …

Individual raw datastreams from instrumentation at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility fixed and mobile sites are collected and sent to the Data Management Facility (DMF) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for processing in near real-time. Raw and processed data are then sent approximately daily to the ARM Archive, where they are made available to users. For each instrument, we calculate the ratio of the actual number of processed data records received daily at the Archive to the expected number of data records. The results are tabulated by (1) individual datastream, site, and month for the current year and (2) site and fiscal year (FY) dating back to 1998.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with John Galbraith. Galbraith joined the Marine Corps in February of 1942. He describes the training he received to become a pilot. Galbraith became a flight instructor and then trained on twin engine planes. He was sent to the Pacific and flew C-46 transport planes into Guam, Tinian, and Saipan. Galbraith discusses flying into Iwo Jima during the battle. He flew into Japan on several missions after the war had ended. Galbraith describes the damage he witnessed at Nagasaki and Yokohama. He also tells of how he weathered two typhoons on an airfield. Galbraith left the service after he returned to the US.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Stanley Holzhauer. Holzhauer joined the Navy in late 1943 and received basic training at Farragut. Upon completion of signal school, he was assigned to a beach party with the USS Hansford (APA-106), assisting the 27th Regiment of the 5th Marine Division. He was trained in hand-to-hand combat at Camp Pendleton before deploying to Iwo Jima, where he landed in the sixth wave. On the way in, a shell went through his tank and exploded in the water behind him. The volcanic ash on the beach made it so that his tank could not land, so Holzhauer exited into the water, losing all but his generator and signal lamp. The first message he relayed back to the ship was a request for Marston matting so that tanks could maneuver over the beach. His party suffered heavy casualties, immediately losing their two radiomen, doctor, and assistant beach master. Holzhauer survived and continued to serve aboard the Hansford until his discharge in April 1946. He attended school on the GI Bill and became the dean of students at a large high school. Before the war, his family had been so poor …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with John McKelfresh. McKelfresh joined the Navy soon after the war began, leaving behind his career as a schoolteacher. Upon completion of officer training at Northwestern, he was assigned to the USS Hansford (APA-106) as assistant navigator and legal officer. In reviewing ingoing and outgoing mail, he consoled the many recipients of Dear John letters. He also had to let go of a highly skilled navigator who committed the indiscretion of broadcasting the ship's whereabouts via coded letters to family. At Okinawa, a young sailor was killed in an innocent but reckless competition to see who could unload their landing craft the quickest. McKelfresh chose to record the death as merely accidental, casting no blame on anyone. After the war ended, McKelfresh visited a holy site in Japan and was stunned by its beauty and tranquility. He returned home and was discharged soon after.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Robert Johnsmiller. Johnsmiller joined the Marine Corps in April 1942. He was sent to the Solomon Islands and took part in the landing at Tanambogo as a member of the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines. Johnsmiller describes aiding a wounded corpsman and providing cover for a demolition man. He also discusses Japanese destroyers using search lights to seek out Marines at night, and an incident where he helped bury a large amount of crewmen from a badly damaged US cruiser. Johnsmiller also landed on Savo Island and then Guadalcanal where he describes losing a friend to enemy machine gun fire. He almost drowned in a training accident and was saved by another marine. Johnsmiller landed on Tarawa as an assistant squad leader and was wounded in the eye. He goes on to discuss attacking a key bunker in the Japanese defenses and losing many members of his squad. Johnsmiller describes being evacuated and the care that he received on a troop ship and then a hospital ship. His damaged eye was removed and he was assigned to help another marine who was completely blind. Johnsmiller discusses the personal impact …

Document containing an invitation and informational pamphlet for a Daughters of the American Revolution event titled, "A Moment In History." Photographs of TXSSAR and DAR members at the event are included.

News release about DART's reduced service schedule in observance of the Memorial Day holiday.

Email from an individual identified as Jayell to a Loretta dated April 10, 2011 regarding a wine tasting at Sweet Dreams Winery in East Texas.