A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Eliminating the threat of terrorist attacks continues to be a primary U.S. national security focus. According to the 9/11 Commission, constraining the mobility of terrorists is one of the most effective weapons in fighting terrorism. This report (1) describes key gaps the U.S. government has identified in foreign countries' capacity to prevent terrorist travel overseas, (2) evaluates how U.S. capacity-building efforts address those gaps, and (3) assesses the extent to which the U.S. government is measuring progress in its efforts to close those gaps. To identify the key gaps, GAO reviewed governmentwide assessments of vulnerabilities in the international travel system. GAO reviewed the strategies and documentation of U.S. agencies funding and/or implementing foreign capacity-building efforts to prevent terrorist travel overseas, including those of the Departments of State (State)--which coordinates U.S. efforts overseas--Defense (DOD), Homeland Security (DHS), Justice (DOJ), and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). GAO also interviewed officials from the National Security Staff, of the National Security Council (NSC), which oversees counterterrorism policy. GAO met with these agencies and conducted field work in Kenya, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Thailand."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 established the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCOE) in January 2008 to develop excellence in prevention, outreach, and care for service members with psychological health (PH) conditions and traumatic brain injury (TBI). DCOE consists of six directorates and five component centers that carry out a range of PH- and TBI-related functions. GAO was asked to report on (1) DCOE's budget formulation process; and (2) availability of information to Congress on DCOE. GAO reviewed budget guidance, budget requests and performance data. GAO reviewed Department of Defense (DOD) reports submitted to Congress on PH and TBI and interviewed DOD officials."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "To help address challenges associated with deteriorating facilities and underused property, the Department of Defense (DOD) has pursued a strategy that includes leasing underused real property to gain additional resources for improving installation facilities. Section 2667 of Title 10, U.S. Code, provides authority to the military departments to lease nonexcess real property, subject to several provisions, in exchange for cash or in-kind consideration. According to the military services, some leases, referred to as enhanced use leases (EUL), are more complex with long terms and could provide hundreds of millions of dollars for in-kind services to improve installation facilities. A committee report accompanying the 2011 defense authorization directed GAO to review the EUL program. This report (1) assesses the extent to which selected EULs complied with section 2667 of Title 10, U.S. Code; (2) determines to what extent the services' expectations for their EULs have been realized; and (3) evaluates the services' management of the EUL program. GAO reviewed information on the services' 17 EULs in place at the end of fiscal year 2010 and selected 9 for detailed case study."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report responds to section 322 of the Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009. Section 322 required the Secretary of Defense to contract for a study on the capability and efficiency of the depots of the Department of Defense (DOD) to provide the logistics capabilities and capacity necessary for national defense. DOD placed a task order under an existing contract with LMI, Inc. (LMI) to complete the study, which was to address a range of issues specified in section 322. As required by section 322, the task order specified that the contractor submit an interim report on its study to the Senate and House Committees on Armed Services not later than 1 year after the commencement of the study and a final report not later than 22 months after the date on which the Secretary of Defense enters into the contract. LMI submitted its interim report, containing background information and summary data on the DOD depot maintenance enterprise, to the Committees on Armed Services in December 2009. The final report, containing conclusions and recommendations, was provided to the Committees on Armed Services in February …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act (FEPCA) of 1990 established locality pay to achieve pay comparability between federal and nonfederal jobs within the United States. Because FEPCA established pay localities only for areas within the United States, federal employees permanently stationed overseas, including members of the Foreign Service, did not receive locality pay. As the Washington, D.C., locality rate grew to over 24 percent in 2010, the pay gap between federal employees who receive locality pay and those who do not widened considerably. To close this gap, the fiscal year 2009 Supplemental Appropriations Act granted the Department of State (State) temporary authority to provide locality pay at the Washington, D.C., rate, also known as Overseas Comparability Pay, to Foreign Service personnel posted overseas. State is implementing this pay in three phases. Currently, Foreign Service personnel serving overseas receive 16.52 percent comparability pay, approximately twothirds of the Washington, D.C., locality rate. State had planned to implement the third and final phase of comparability pay, raising it to 24.22 percent, in August 2011. However, these plans have been delayed by the administration's freeze on federal salaries and the passage of …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Protective Service (FPS) within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) provides security and law enforcement services to over 9,000 federal facilities through its federal and contract security workforce. Over the years, GAO has made numerous recommendations to address significant weaknesses in FPS's oversight and management of its security workforce. Legislation has been introduced that would, among other things, have FPS examine the effectiveness of relying more on federal employees for security. As requested, this report examines: (1) nine federal agencies' approaches for staffing their security workforces; (2) federal and private sector representatives' views on the benefits and challenges of using contract and in-house security staff; and (3) lessons that FPS can learn from federal agencies that have changed their security staffing approaches. GAO reviewed agency documents and conducted interviews with representatives from federal agencies and private sector firms selected based on the use of security guards and experience in changing a security workforce, among other criteria. The selected agencies and private sector firms are a nonprobability sample, and the information we obtained is not generalizable."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO has designated Medicare and Medicaid as high-risk programs, in part due to their susceptibility to improper payments--estimated to be about $70 billion in fiscal year 2010. Improper payments have many causes, such as submissions of duplicate claims or fraud, waste, and abuse. As the administrator of these programs, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is responsible for safeguarding them from loss. To integrate claims information and improve its ability to detect fraud, waste, and abuse in these programs, CMS initiated two information technology system programs: the Integrated Data Repository (IDR) and One Program Integrity (One PI). GAO was asked to (1) assess the extent to which IDR and One PI have been developed and implemented and (2) determine CMS's progress toward achieving its goals and objectives for using these systems to help detect fraud, waste, and abuse. To do so, GAO reviewed system and program management plans and other documents and compared them to key practices. GAO also interviewed program officials, analyzed system data, and reviewed reported costs and benefits."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP)--two joint federal-state health care programs for certain low-income individuals--play a critical role in addressing the health care needs of children. The Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 required GAO to study children's access to care under Medicaid and CHIP, including information on physicians' willingness to serve children covered by Medicaid and CHIP. GAO assessed (1) the extent to which physicians are enrolled and serving children in Medicaid and CHIP and accepting these and other children as new patients, and (2) the extent to which physicians experience difficulty referring children in Medicaid and CHIP for specialty care, as compared to privately insured children. GAO conducted a national survey of nonfederal primary and specialty care physicians who serve children, and asked about their enrollment in state Medicaid and CHIP programs, whether they served and accepted Medicaid and CHIP and privately insured children, and the extent to which they experienced difficulty referring children in Medicaid and CHIP and privately insured children to specialty care. GAO also interviewed officials with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Medicare voluntary outpatient prescription drug insurance program, known as Medicare Part D, provided prescription drug coverage for about 23 million beneficiaries--eligible individuals 65 years and older and eligible individuals with disabilities--enrolled in the program in 2010. Under Part D, Medicare beneficiaries may enroll in prescription drug plans offered by private companies, known as sponsors, that contract with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the agency that administers the Medicare program. Sponsors may have multiple contracts with CMS to provide drug coverage, with each contract offering one or more distinct Part D plans. Sponsors compete for beneficiary enrollment on the basis of plan premiums and benefit designs. Sponsors also vary in the content of their formularies--the list of covered drugs and associated utilization management (UM) requirements. UM requirements include (1) step therapy, which requires that a beneficiary try lower-cost drugs before a sponsor will cover a more costly drug; (2) prior authorization, which requires a beneficiary to obtain the sponsor's approval before a drug is covered for that individual; and (3) quantity limits, which restrict the dosage or number …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Prior to Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, Department of Defense (DOD) personnel with flame resistant (FR) uniforms were mainly aviators, fuel handlers, and tank crews. With the growing prevalence of the improvised explosive device (IED) threat, all ground forces serving in Iraq and Afghanistan have been exposed to the possibility of fire-related injuries. The Ike Skelton National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011 extended to 2015 the authority to procure fire resistant rayon fiber for the production of uniforms from certain foreign countries, provided by section 829 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 and originally set to expire in 2013. This letter discusses the briefing developed in response to the requirement in the Ike Skelton National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011 to report on the supply chain for FR fiber for the production of military uniforms. Specifically, the act required GAO to analyze several elements of the supply chain, including the current and anticipated sources of FR rayon fiber; actions DOD has taken to identify alternatives to FR rayon fiber; impediments to the use of such alternatives; and the …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is developing and implementing a broad transformation of the national airspace system known as the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). NextGen is a complex undertaking that requires new technologies and supporting infrastructure and involves the activities of several agencies as well as private industry. This report provides information on the effectiveness of (1) FAA's and the federal partner agencies' mechanisms for collaborating and leveraging resources to develop and implement NextGen, and (2) FAA's mechanisms for working with and transferring technology to or from private industry. To do this, we assessed FAA and partner agency mechanisms against applicable agreements, the agencies' own guidance for these activities, as well as applicable key practices that GAO has reported can enhance federal collaborative efforts."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Departments of Defense (DOD) and State (State) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have collectively obligated billions of dollars for contracts and assistance to support U.S. efforts in Afghanistan. The work of GAO and others has documented shortcomings in DOD's contract management and oversight, and its training of the non-acquisition workforce. Addressing these challenges can help DOD meet warfighter needs in a timely and costconscious manner; mitigate the risks of fraud, waste, and abuse; and minimize the operational risks associated with contractors. This testimony addresses the extent to which (1) DOD's Contracting Officer's Representatives (COR) are prepared for their roles and responsibilities and provide adequate contract oversight in Afghanistan; (2) DOD, State, and USAID vet non-U.S. firms for links to terrorist and insurgent groups in Afghanistan; and (3) DOD has implemented GAO's past recommendations. The testimony is based on GAO's recently published reports and testimonies on operational contract support, including a June 2011 report on vetting of non-U.S. vendors in Afghanistan, as well as providing preliminary observations as a result of ongoing audit work in Afghanistan. GAO's work included analyses of a wide range …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation's (PBGC) insures the pension benefits of more than 44 million people. Since its inception in 1974, PBGC's assets have grown from about $34 million to almost $80 billion in 2010, largely through assets received in plan terminations. Despite significant swings in PBGC's investment history, there has been little focus on the extent to which it has met its investment goals, the nature of its investment policies or how they compare with best practices in the industry. GAO examined (1) how PBGC's investment objectives have changed over time and the outcomes associated with those changes, (2) the performance of PBGC's investments, and (3) how well PBGC's investment policies and operations comport with best practices in the industry. To address these questions, GAO reviewed PBGC's investment policy statements and operational procedures; analyzed data on investments; and interviewed PBGC officials, officials from several state pension plans and foreign pension insurers, and other experts."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority's (WMATA) public rail transit and bus systems are vital to the national capital region. However, the 35-year-old rail system has experienced safety and reliability problems, including fatal accidents. A 16-member board of directors governs WMATA, setting policies and providing oversight. Recent reports have noted weaknesses in WMATA's governance structure and recommended changing it. GAO assessed WMATA's governance in terms of the board's roles and responsibilities, oversight, and strategic planning. To do so, GAO compiled leading practices from previous GAO work on public and private sector governance, non-GAO transit governance studies, and strategic planning standards; then compared WMATA's approach to those practices. GAO also spoke with six transit agencies selected based on board composition and ridership, among other things."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Congress required the U.S. Department of Education (Education) to make education reform grants to states. Education subsequently established the Race to the Top (RTT) grant fund and awarded almost $4 billion to 12 states related to developing effective teachers and leaders, improving the lowest-achieving schools, expanding student data systems, and enhancing standards and assessments. This report, prepared in response to a mandate in the act, addresses (1) actions states took to be competitive for RTT grants; (2) how grantees plan to use their grants and whether selected nongrantees have chosen to move forward with their reform plans; (3) what challenges, if any, have affected early implementation of states' reform efforts; and (4) Education's efforts to support and oversee states' use of RTT funds. GAO analyzed RTT applications for 20 states, interviewed state officials, visited 4 grantee states, analyzed states' planned uses of grant funds, and interviewed Education officials."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Congress has found that the Iranian government continues to engage in systematic and ongoing violations of human rights, including the suppression of freedom of expression. Such violations have reportedly increased in the aftermath of the disputed presidential election in Iran on June 12, 2009. Of particular concern has been the Iranian regime's crackdown on freedom of expression and interference with the use of the Internet, mobile phones, and other means of communication in order to restrict the free flow of information. According to a Freedom House report, the Iranian authorities have employed extensive and sophisticated methods to tamper with Internet access, mobile phone services, and satellite broadcasting; monitor dissenters online; and use monitored information to intimidate and arrest dissenters. The U.S. government, governments of other nations, and nongovernmental organizations have expressed concern that firms outside Iran have aided the Iranian government in monitoring and suppressing its citizens' activities. For example, in 2008, Nokia Siemens Network, as part of a contract for mobile phone network technology, sold communications monitoring equipment to the Iranian government. As a result of credible reports that the Iranian government misused the technology …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "For decades, the Department of Defense (DOD) has been challenged in modernizing its timeworn business systems. Since 1995, GAO has designated DOD's business systems modernization program as high risk. Between 2001 and 2005, GAO reported that the modernization program had spent hundreds of millions of dollars on an enterprise architecture and investment management structures that had limited value. Accordingly, GAO made explicit architecture and investment management-related recommendations. Congress included provisions in the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005 that were consistent with GAO's recommendations and required GAO to assess DOD's actions to comply with these provisions. To do so, GAO reviewed documents and interviewed military officials on the progress the military departments have made relative to developing their respective parts of the federated business enterprise architecture and establishing investment management structures and processes."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the training efforts of the U.S. Department of State's (State) Bureau of Diplomatic Security (Diplomatic Security). The testimony is based on our report, which is being released today. Diplomatic Security is responsible for the protection of people, information, and property at over 400 embassies, consulates, and domestic locations and, as we reported in previous testimony, experienced a large growth in its budget and personnel over the last decade. Diplomatic Security trains its workforce and others to address a variety of threats, including crime, espionage, visa and passport fraud, technological intrusions, political violence, and terrorism. To meet its training needs, Diplomatic Security relies primarily on its Diplomatic Security Training Center (DSTC), which is an office of Diplomatic Security's Training Directorate and is the primary provider of Diplomatic Security training. Diplomatic Security's training budget grew steadily from fiscal years 2006 to 2010--increasing from approximately $24 million in fiscal year 2006 to nearly $70 million in fiscal year 2010. In fiscal year 2010, DSTC conducted 342 sessions of its 61 courses and trained 4,739 students. Our prior work identified the challenges that Diplomatic Security experienced as a result …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report discusses the briefing we gave on June 8, 2011, as well as subsequent comments from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). We gave this briefing in response to Congressional request that we assess IRS's planning to implement its responsibilities under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The report (1) describes IRS's PPACA responsibilities and effective dates and (2) assesses the extent to which IRS, in planning PPACA implementation, is following leading practices in four areas--developing an overall management structure (including goals and performance measures), estimating and tracking costs, assuring compliance with the new law while minimizing burden, and managing risk."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) insures the pension benefits of more than 44 million U.S. workers and retirees in more than 27,500 private defined benefit plans. In response to growing workloads over the last 20 years, PBGC has come to rely heavily on contractors to perform its work. With the influx of plan terminations during the recent economic downturn, GAO was asked to examine: (1) how PBGC decides between contracting for services and performing services in house; (2) the steps PBGC has taken to strengthen its internal controls over the contracting process; and (3) PBGC's implementation of a performance-based approach in its recent contracts. To conduct this study, GAO reviewed federal and PBGC contracting policies; interviewed PBGC officials and selected contractors; examined a small judgmental sample of eight recent contracts selected based on type, amount, and location; and assessed PBGC's actions in response to past GAO and PBGC Inspector General (IG) recommendations."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report responds to two GAO mandates under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act). It is the latest report on the uses of and accountability for Recovery Act funds in selected states and localities, focusing on the $48.1 billion provided to the Department of Transportation (DOT) to invest in transportation infrastructure. This report also examines the quality of recipients' reports about the jobs created and retained with Recovery Act transportation funds. This report addresses the (1) status, use, and outcomes of Recovery Act transportation funding nationwide and in selected states; (2) actions taken by federal, state, and other agencies to monitor and ensure accountability for those funds; (3) changes in the quality of jobs data reported by Recovery Act recipients of transportation funds over time; and (4) challenges faced and lessons learned from DOT and recipients. GAO analyzed DOT and recipient reported data; reviewed federal legislation, guidance, and reports; reviewed prior work and other studies; and interviewed DOT, state, and local officials."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) provided $4 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Clean Water State Revolving Fund (SRF) and $2 billion for the agency's Drinking Water SRF. The Recovery Act requires GAO to review funds made available under the act and comment on recipients' reports of jobs created and retained. These jobs are reported as full-time equivalent (FTE) positions on a Web site created for the Recovery Act on www.Recovery.gov. GAO examined the (1) status and use of Recovery Act SRF program funds nationwide and in nine states; (2) EPA and state actions to monitor the act's SRF program funds; (3) EPA and selected states' approaches to ensure data quality, including for jobs reported by recipients of the act's funds; and (4) challenges, if any, that states have faced in implementing the act's requirements. For this work, GAO, among other things, obtained and analyzed EPA nationwide data on the status of Recovery Act clean and drinking water funds and projects and information from a nonprobability sample of nine states that represent all but 1 of EPA's 10 regions. GAO …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Financial literacy plays an important role in helping ensure the financial health and stability of individuals and families, and efforts to improve consumers' financial literacy have grown in recent years. Currently, hundreds of nonprofit, private, and governmental entities provide some form of financial education to Americans. The federal government does not certify or approve organizations in general that provide financial literacy, although the U.S. Trustee Program and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have approval processes for financial literacy providers for the purposes of meeting requirements of, respectively, the bankruptcy process and certain housing programs. In response to a mandate in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, this report addresses (1) what is known about which methods and strategies are effective for improving financial literacy, and (2) the feasibility of a process for certifying financial literacy providers. To address these objectives, GAO reviewed relevant literature, focusing on evidence-based evaluations of financial literacy programs or approaches; conducted interviews in the federal, nonprofit, private, and academic sectors; and examined the lessons learned from the approval processes of the Trustee Program and HUD."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Federal agencies increasingly use recently developed Internet technologies that allow individuals or groups to create, organize, comment on, and share online content. The use of these social media services-- including popular Web sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube-- has been endorsed by President Obama and provides opportunities for agencies to more readily share information with and solicit feedback from the public. However, these services may also pose risks to the adequate protection of both personal and government information. GAO was asked to (1) describe how federal agencies are currently using commercially provided social media services and (2) determine the extent to which agencies have developed and implemented policies and procedures for managing and protecting information associated with this use. To do this, GAO examined the headquarters-level Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, and YouTube channels of 24 major federal agencies; reviewed pertinent policies, procedures, and guidance; and interviewed officials involved in agency use of social media.."