A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Over the past decade, the executive branch has taken steps to improve the management of used federal electronics. Notably, in 2003, EPA helped to pilot the Federal Electronics Challenge (FEC)—a voluntary partnership program that encourages federal facilities and agencies to purchase environmentally friendly electronic products, reduce the impacts of these products during their use, and manage used electronics in an environmentally safe way. EPA also led an effort and provided initial funding to develop third-party certification so that electronics recyclers could show that they are voluntarily adhering to an adopted set of best practices for environmental protection, worker health and safety, and security practices. In 2006, GSA issued its Personal Property Disposal Guide to assist agencies in understanding the hierarchy for disposing of excess personal property, including used electronic products: reutilization, donation, sale, and abandonment or destruction. In 2007 and 2009, executive orders were issued that, among other things, established improvement goals and directed agencies to develop and implement improvement plans for the management of used electronics. The Office of Management and Budget, the Council on Environmental Quality, and the Office of the Federal Environmental Executive …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Although the Departments of Defense, Energy, and Homeland Security utilize various processes to prevent and reduce investment in duplicative programs and systems, potentially duplicative IT investments exist. Further complicating agencies’ ability to identify and address duplicative investments is miscategorization of investments within agencies. Each of the agencies has recently initiated plans to address many of these investments. DHS’s efforts have resulted in the identification and elimination of duplication, but DOD’s and DOE’s initiatives have not yet led to the elimination or consolidation of duplicative investments or functionality. Until DOD and DOE demonstrate progress on their efforts to identify and eliminate duplicative investments, and correctly categorize investments, it will remain unclear whether they are avoiding investment in unnecessary systems. Each of the agencies we reviewed has IT investment management processes in place that are, in part, intended to prevent, identify, and eliminate unnecessary duplicative investments. Even with such investment review processes, of the 810 investments we reviewed,we identified 37 potentially duplicative investments at DOD and DOE within three FEA categories (Human Resource Management, Information and Technology Management, and Supply Chain Management)."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Although the Departments of Defense (DOD) and Energy (DOE) use various investment review processes to identify duplicative investments, GAO found that 37 of its sample of 810 investments were potentially duplicative. These investments account for about $1.2 billion in total information technology (IT) spending for fiscal years 2007 through 2012. For example, GAO identified four DOD Navy personnel assignment investments—one system for officers, one for enlisted personnel, one for reservists, and a general assignment system—each of which is responsible for managing similar functions. While GAO did not identify any potentially duplicative investments at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) within its sample, DHS officials have independently identified several duplicative investments and systems."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Among the 15 million workers who lost jobs from 2007 to 2009, half received Unemployment Insurance (UI), and about one-fourth of the recipients exhausted UI benefits by January 2010. This represents 2 million displaced workers who exhausted UI as of early 2010, the most recent survey data available. Labor estimated that about an additional 3-1/2 million individuals exhausted benefits in 2010 and 2011."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "CNCS officials expect that most grantees from its main programs will adopt at least 1 of the agency’s 16 agency-wide performance measures. Specifically, officials told us that AmeriCorps State and National and VISTA grantees will adopt at least 1 of CNCS’s performance measures by fiscal year 2012, and Senior Corps grantees will adopt at least 1 measure by fiscal year 2013. However, officials also said that they plan to fund some activities that do not fall under the performance measures, particularly activities that meet local needs and/or are innovative. For example, CNCS has funded grantees in the state of Washington to carry out gang violence prevention activities to address this community challenge. This could present challenges for CNCS as it balances accountability, using its performance measures to assess the impact of grantees’ service activities, with flexibility, allowing grantees to take on projects that meet local needs. CNCS may find it difficult to demonstrate the effectiveness of its service activities that fall outside its performance measures. Additionally, CNCS faces challenges using its performance measures to promote accountability among its Senior Corps grantees, as legal restrictions make it …

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Photograph taken during a Jazz at the Muse event, featuring Shaun Martin, sponsored by The Black Academy of Arts and Letters in Dallas, Texas.

Photograph taken during a Jazz at the Muse event, featuring Shaun Martin, sponsored by The Black Academy of Arts and Letters in Dallas, Texas.

Photograph taken during a Jazz at the Muse event, featuring Shaun Martin, sponsored by The Black Academy of Arts and Letters in Dallas, Texas.

Photograph taken during a Jazz at the Muse event, featuring Shaun Martin, sponsored by The Black Academy of Arts and Letters in Dallas, Texas.

Photograph taken during a Jazz at the Muse event, featuring Shaun Martin, sponsored by The Black Academy of Arts and Letters in Dallas, Texas.

Photograph taken during a Jazz at the Muse event, featuring Shaun Martin, sponsored by The Black Academy of Arts and Letters in Dallas, Texas.

Photograph taken during a Jazz at the Muse event, featuring Shaun Martin, sponsored by The Black Academy of Arts and Letters in Dallas, Texas.

Photograph taken during a Jazz at the Muse event, featuring Shaun Martin, sponsored by The Black Academy of Arts and Letters in Dallas, Texas.

Photograph taken during a Jazz at the Muse event, featuring Shaun Martin, sponsored by The Black Academy of Arts and Letters in Dallas, Texas.

Photograph taken during a Jazz at the Muse event, featuring Shaun Martin, sponsored by The Black Academy of Arts and Letters in Dallas, Texas.

Photograph taken during a Jazz at the Muse event, featuring Shaun Martin, sponsored by The Black Academy of Arts and Letters in Dallas, Texas.

Photograph taken during a Jazz at the Muse event, featuring Shaun Martin, sponsored by The Black Academy of Arts and Letters in Dallas, Texas.

Photograph taken during a Jazz at the Muse event, featuring Shaun Martin, sponsored by The Black Academy of Arts and Letters in Dallas, Texas.

Photograph taken during a Jazz at the Muse event, featuring Shaun Martin, sponsored by The Black Academy of Arts and Letters in Dallas, Texas.

Photograph taken during a Jazz at the Muse event, featuring Shaun Martin, sponsored by The Black Academy of Arts and Letters in Dallas, Texas.

Photograph taken during a Jazz at the Muse event, featuring Shaun Martin, sponsored by The Black Academy of Arts and Letters in Dallas, Texas.