A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The amount of spent fuel stored on-site at commercial nuclear reactors will continue to accumulate—increasing by about 2,000 metric tons per year and likely more than doubling to about 140,000 metric tons—before it can be moved off-site, because storage or disposal facilities may take decades to develop. In examining centralized storage or permanent disposal options, GAO found that new facilities may take from 15 to 40 years before they are ready to begin accepting spent fuel. Once an off-site facility is available, it will take several more decades to ship spent fuel to that facility. This situation will be challenging because by about 2040 most currently operating reactors will have ceased operations, and options for managing spent fuel, if needed to meet transportation, storage, or disposal requirements, may be limited."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In summary, DOD reported having taken or planned actions that directly align with about half of the CWC recommendations applicable to it, and State and USAID each reported having taken or planned actions that directly align with about one-third of the recommendations applicable to each of them. Officials from the three agencies explained that for the remaining recommendations no actions were taken or planned that directly aligned with the specific recommendation. This was because, for example, the agencies had determined that existing policies or practices already meet the intent of the recommendations or had disagreed with the recommendations. The following are examples of actions that DOD, State, and USAID have taken or planned that directly align with specific CWC recommendations:"

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In summary, as of August 2012, USDA had fully addressed three of our recommendations, made significant progress toward addressing two, and made some progress toward addressing one."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "We found that the Federal Real Property Council (FRPC) has not followed sound data collection practices in designing and maintaining the Federal Real Property Profile (FRPP) database, raising concerns that the database is not a useful tool for describing the nature, use, and extent of excess and underutilized federal real property. The FRPC has not ensured that key data elements—including buildings’ utilization, condition, annual operating costs, mission dependency, and value—are defined and reported consistently and accurately. For example, we documented buildings reported to the FRPP as underutilized even though they were fully occupied and we also documented others that were vacant but reported as utilized. We also saw severely dilapidated buildings that were reported as being in excellent condition. In fact, at 23 of the 26 locations visited, we identified inconsistencies and inaccuracies related to these data elements. As a result, FRPC cannot ensure that FRPP data are sufficiently reliable to support sound management and decision making about excess and underutilized property. In addition to problems with data consistency, we found problems with collaboration and reporting issues, among others."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "We identified 1,340 potential, separate initiatives that DOD funded from fiscal year 2008 through the first quarter of fiscal year 2012 that, in DOD officials’ opinion, met the above definition for C-IED initiatives. We relied on our survey, in part, to determine this number because DOD has not determined, and does not have a ready means for determining, the universe of C-IED initiatives. Of the 1,340 initiatives, we received detailed survey responses confirming that 711 initiatives met our C-IED definition. Of the remaining 629 initiatives for which we did not receive survey responses, 481 were JIEDDO initiatives. JIEDDO officials attribute their low survey returns for reasons including that C-IED initiatives are currently not fully identified, catalogued, and retrievable; however, they expect updates to their information technology system will correct this deficiency. Our survey also identified 45 different organizations that DOD is funding to undertake these 1,340 identified initiatives. Some of these organizations receive JIEDDO funding while others receive other DOD funding. We documented $4.8 billion of DOD funds expended in fiscal year 2011 in support of C-IED initiatives, but this amount is understated because we did not receive …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In summary, we identified four groups of states that differed in their use of Medicaid managed care on the basis of the 12 indicators we included in our analysis. A handful of these indicators—namely Medicaid enrollment in MCOs and PCCM programs, HMO penetration rates, and the concentration of low-income individuals that lived in urban areas—had significant influence on how states grouped. In contrast, within the four groups, considerable variation existed among the other indicators we examined, such as states’ primary care capacity and commercial HMO market index. For labeling purposes, we typically describe the four groups on the basis of states’ enrollment of Medicaid beneficiaries in MCOs and PCCM programs—generally the predominant similarity among the states within each group:"

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) 2011 report to Congress proposed three options for removing Social Security numbers (SSN) from Medicare cards. One option would truncate the SSN displayed on the card, but beneficiaries and providers would continue to rely on the SSN. The other two options would replace the SSN with a new identifier that would be displayed on the card and either be used only by beneficiaries, or by both beneficiaries and those who provide Medicare services. CMS, however, has not selected or committed to implementing any of these options. The Departments of Defense (DOD) and Veterans Affairs (VA), and private insurers have already removed or taken steps to remove SSNs from display on their identification or health insurance cards."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO identified 39 battery and energy storage initiatives with a variety of key characteristics that were implemented across six agencies: the Departments of Energy (DOE) and Defense (DOD), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). These initiatives obligated over $1.3 billion from fiscal years 2009 through 2012. Initiatives supported a variety of technologies, uses, advancement activities, and goals. Several types of recipients were eligible for funding, such as private industry, universities, and federal labs, through contracts, grants, and other mechanisms."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) program remains vulnerable to fraud and abuse. VA has made inconsistent statements about its progress verifying firms listed in VetBiz using the more-thorough process the agency implemented in response to the Veterans Small Business Verification Act (2010 Act). In one communication, VA stated that as of February 2011, all new verifications would use the 2010 Act process going forward. However, as of April 1, 2012, 3,717 of the 6,178 SDVOSB firms (60 percent) listed as eligible in VetBiz had not been verified under the 2010 Act process. Of these 3,717 firms, 134 received $90 million in new VA SDVOSB set-aside or sole-source contract obligations from November 30, 2011, to April 1, 2012. While the 2010 Act did not include a deadline for verification using the more-thorough process, the presence of firms that have only been subjected to the less-stringent process that VA previously used represents a continuing vulnerability. VA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) reported that the less-stringent process was in many cases insufficient to establish control and ownership and in effect allowed businesses to …