Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO identified three basic alternative methods to the current airline ticket-based method for PFC collections. These methods are not mutually exclusive and could be used by either individual airports or a group or airports:"

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Leveraging surface transportation investments to further national interests: The Department of Transportation (DOT) faces several challenges leveraging investment in surface transportation networks to meet national goals and priorities. For example, DOT has to transition to a goal-oriented, performance-based approach for highway and transit programs, as required by the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21). Successfully implementing a performance-based approach entails new responsibilities for DOT since, as GAO has previously reported, its program oversight has generally been process-oriented rather than outcome-oriented. DOT also faces challenges related to targeting funds to priorities like the nation's freight network, effectively managing discretionary grant and credit assistance programs, and effectively overseeing other programs, such as the federal-aid highway program."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Federal Housing Administration (FHA) faces financial and risk-management challenges. For the fourth straight year, capital reserves for FHA's Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund are below the statutory minimum. Also, declining balances in the fund's capital reserve account have heightened the possibility that FHA will require additional funds to have sufficient reserves for all future insurance claims on its existing portfolio. Further actions could help to restore FHA's financial soundness. For example, GAO previously concluded that Congress or HUD needs to determine the economic conditions the fund would be expected to withstand without drawing on Department of the Treasury funding. With regard to risk management, FHA has made or plans improvements. For example, FHA implemented an initiative in 2009 to strengthen internal controls and risk assessment for single-family housing and created a risk office in 2010. However, FHA has only recently begun to integrate these activities and conduct annual risk assessments in accordance with HUD guidance. Without integrated and updated risk assessments that identify emerging risks, as GAO recommended, FHA lacks assurance that it has identified all its risks."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In November 2013, GAO reported that (1) peer-reviewed, published research we reviewed did not support whether nonverbal behavioral indicators can be used to reliably identify deception, (2) methodological issues limited the usefulness of DHS's April 2011 SPOT validation study, and (3) variation in referral rates raised questions about the use of indicators. GAO reported that its review of meta-analyses (studies that analyze other studies and synthesize their findings) that included findings from over 400 studies related to detecting deception conducted over the past 60 years, other academic and government studies, and interviews with experts in the field, called into question the use of behavior observation techniques, that is, human observation unaided by technology, as a means for reliably detecting deception. The meta-analyses GAO reviewed collectively found that the ability of human observers to accurately identify deceptive behavior based on behavioral cues or indicators is the same as or slightly better than chance (54 percent). GAO also reported on other studies that do not support the use of behavioral indicators to identify mal-intent or threats to aviation."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has reported progress in stemming illegal cross-border activity, but it could strengthen the assessment of its efforts. For example, since fiscal year 2011, DHS has used the number of apprehensions on the southwest border between ports of entry (POE) as an interim measure for border security. GAO reported in December 2012 that apprehensions decreased across the southwest border from fiscal years 2006 to 2011, which generally mirrored a decrease in estimated known illegal entries in each southwest border sector. CBP attributed this decrease in part to changes in the U.S. economy and increased resources for border security. Data reported by CBP's Office of Border Patrol (Border Patrol) show that total apprehensions across the southwest border increased from over 327,000 in fiscal year 2011 to about 357,000 in fiscal year 2012. It is too early to assess whether this increase indicates a change in the trend. GAO reported in December 2012 that the number of apprehensions provides information on activity levels but does not inform program results or resource allocation decisions. Border Patrol is in …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since 2007, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Infrastructure Security Compliance Division (ISCD) has assigned about 3,500 high-risk chemical facilities to risk-based tiers under its Chemical Facilities Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program, but it has not fully assessed its approach for doing so. The approach ISCD used to assess risk and make decisions to place facilities in final tiers does not consider all of the elements of consequence, threat, and vulnerability associated with a terrorist attack involving certain chemicals. For example, the risk assessment approach is based primarily on consequences arising from human casualties, but does not consider economic consequences, as called for by the National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) and the CFATS regulation, nor does it include vulnerability, consistent with the NIPP. ISCD has begun to take some actions to examine how its risk assessment approach can be enhanced. Specifically, ISCD has, among other things, engaged Sandia National Laboratories to examine how economic consequences can be incorporated into ISCD's risk assessment approach and commissioned a panel of experts to assess the current approach, identify strengths and weaknesses, and recommend improvements. Given the critical nature of ISCD's risk assessment …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since GAO's reports in the early 1990s, the Helium Privatization Act of 1996 has caused considerable changes to the helium program and addressed or altered GAO's prior concerns. In 1992, GAO reported on various aspects of the federal helium program including the helium debt, pricing, and alternatives for meeting federal helium needs."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Outpatient medical appointment wait times reported by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), are unreliable. Wait times for outpatient medical appointments—referred to as medical appointments—are calculated as the number of days elapsed from the desired date, which is defined as the date on which the patient or health care provider wants the patient to be seen. The reliability of reported wait time performance measures is dependent on the consistency with which schedulers record the desired date in the scheduling system. However, aspects of VHA’s scheduling policy and training documents for recording desired date are unclear and do not ensure consistent use of the desired date. Some schedulers at VA medical centers (VAMC) that GAO visited did not record the desired date correctly, which, in certain cases, would have resulted in a reported wait time that was shorter than the patient actually experienced for that appointment. VHA officials acknowledged limitations of measuring wait times based on desired date, and described additional information used to monitor veterans’ access to medical appointments; however, reliable measurement of how long patients are waiting for medical appointments is …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In February 2011, GAO detailed 30 high-risk areas. Sufficient progress has been made to remove the high-risk designation from two areas."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO found that DOD employs 90 chiropractors at 62 military treatment facilities as of January 2013. Further, the mean salary of DOD's federal civilian chiropractors is similar to the mean salary of those serving in comparable DOD federal civilian health care occupations. Specifically, we found that the mean salaries of our selected health care professions ranged from approximately $77,000 to approximately $94,000 with the mean salary for chiropractors approximately 7 percent higher than the lowest mean salary and approximately 12 percent lower than the highest mean salary. Although these health care positions have similar education and training requirements, they have some different responsibilities."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO's recent work has identified key practices that would enhance the Department of Defense's (DOD) management of building partner capacity efforts. Such efforts include a range of security cooperation activities such as military exercises with partner nations and counternarcotics activities. In GAO's reviews of these activities, GAO found that DOD has demonstrated some of these key practices, but opportunities for improvement remain."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The 24 agencies participating in the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative made progress towards the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) goal to close 40 percent, or 1,253 of the 3,133 total federal data centers, by the end of 2015, but OMB has not measured agencies’ progress against its other goal of $3 billion in cost savings by the end of 2015. Agencies closed 420 data centers by the end of December 2012, and have plans to close an additional 548 to reach 968 by December 2015—285 closures short of OMB’s goal. OMB has not determined agencies’ progress against its cost savings goal because, according to OMB staff, the agency has not determined a consistent and repeatable method for tracking cost savings. This lack of information makes it uncertain whether the $3 billion in savings is achievable by the end of 2015. Until OMB tracks and reports on performance measures such as cost savings, it will be limited in its ability to oversee agencies’ progress against key goals."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "During the fiscal year 2007-12 timeframe, the Army applied statutory and regulatory requirements related to procurement for supplies to award contracts for the Army Combat Shirt. The Army applied these requirements, including those in the Federal Acquisition Regulation and Small Business Regulations, to award the following groups of contracts and to respond to demand for the combat shirt and the supply of manufacturers that could produce it:"

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) and Office of Financial Research (OFR) face challenges in achieving their missions. For example, collaboration among FSOC members can be challenging, as almost all members represent independent agencies that retain existing authorities. Additionally, OFR faces the challenge of building a world-class research organization while meeting shorter-term responsibilities."

News release about adjustments being made to DART's service schedule to accommodate increased traffic from participants in MegaFest 2013.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Robert Prevninger. Prevninger was drafted into the Army in June of 1944. He was trained as a tanker and eventually became a gunner on a Stuart tank and was later transferred to a Sherman tank. Prevninger describes crossing the Rhine and advancing across Germany. He discusses how they handled German prisoners at the end of the war. Prevninger served in the occupation and was eventually discharged.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with James Battifarano. Battifarano enlisted in the Navy during his senior year of high school in 1943. He served for 2 years as Signalman 3rd Class aboard the USS Guitarro (SS-363). They traveled to the Panama Canal operating with a destroyer and to the South Pacific. They made 4 successful war patrols, have 15 Japanese flags on their battle flag, laid 25 mines and recorded a 95-day war patrol. He discusses life aboard a submarine and their war patrol experiences. They traveled to Taiwan, Australia, the South China Sea, Philippines, Japan and Saipan. They participated in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. He was discharged in 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents and oral interview with Pat Hemphill. Hemphill’s father was stationed at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii on 7 December 1941. Although she was only three years of age, she recalls being taken with other children out of the area on a school bus, while covered by mattresses as a means of protection. She also tells of the actions taken by her family during air-raid alerts.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Jack Carson. Carson joined the Army Air Corps in November of 1940. In December, he was assigned to Hickam Field in Hawaii, working with weapons in a supply squadron. Carson shares his experiences living and working in Hawaii prior to, during and after the attack on Pearl Harbor. In mid-1942, he was sent to Fiji with a small support group, providing fuel and supplies to the war effort in the Pacific. In early 1944, Carson completed Loadmaster School in California and served in North Africa. He traveled to Casablanca, Morocco, supplying the armed forces in Italy. He was discharged in August of 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Floyd Trogdon. Trogdon joined the Army Air Forces in October 1942 and went through the aviation cadet training program to train as a navigator. He earned his commission in December 1943 and reported t oB-24 flight crew duty the following January. He arrived in Italy in April, 1944 and began flying combat missions. Trogdon describes various missions he flew, including one over Ploesti. He flew 50 missions by October and returned to the US to attend an advanced navigation course. Trogdon also underwent pilot training. He graduated as a pilot in October, 1945. He stayed in the Air Force and worked on nuclear weapons systems.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Clinton Shoppe. Shoppe joined the Navy in 1943. In early 1944 he served on the deck force and the 14-inch guns aboard the USS California (BB-44). They traveled to Pearl Harbor, and participated in bombardments during the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign, the Philippines Campaign, and the Battles of Leyte Gulf and Lingayen Gulf. Shoppe shares his experiences through a kamikaze attack on the California. He returned to the US and received his discharge in December of 1945.