A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In GAO's opinion, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) fairly presented, in all material respects, the 2012 and 2011 financial statements for the two funds it administers--the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) and the FSLIC Resolution Fund (FRF). Also, in GAO's opinion, FDIC maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting relevant to the DIF and the FRF as of December 31, 2012. Further, GAO did not find any reportable instances of noncompliance with provisions of the laws and regulations it tested."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO found that for the 2008 to 2010 time frame covered by this review, the participating judges' share of normal cost was, on average, about 41 percent of the Judicial Survivors' Annuities System (JSAS) total normal costs, and the federal government's share of normal cost was about 59 percent of JSAS total normal costs. The federal government's share of JSAS normal costs increased over the years included in GAO's review, from approximately 53 percent in plan year 2008, to 61 percent in plan year 2009, and to approximately 64 percent in plan year 2010. The increase was a result of (1) less favorable actual economic and demographic outcomes over this period than predicted by the actuarial assumptions and (2) changes in actuarial assumptions regarding future economic and demographic outcomes."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Manufacturers and commercial licensees have taken a variety of actions to improve receiver performance. For some services, industry associations-- comprised of manufacturers, commercial licensees, and others--have developed voluntary standards that are often used to design and procure receivers, such as those in cell phones and televisions, and to help improve receiver performance. Stakeholders also reported privately negotiating to resolve interference problems and sharing of information as having helped improve receiver performance."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "During fiscal years 2006 through 2012, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) had higher than estimated resources available for facility maintenance and improvement--referred to as non-recurring maintenance (NRM); these resources accounted for the $4.9 billion in VA's NRM spending that exceeded budget estimates. The additional resources came from two sources. First, VA spent less than it estimated on non-NRM, facility-related activities such as administrative functions, utilities, and rent, which allowed VA to spend over $2.5 billion more than originally estimated. Lower spending for administrative functions, utilities, and rent accounted for most of the resources estimated but not spent on non-NRM activities. Given that VA has consistently overestimated the costs of such activities in recent years, VA's budget estimates for its non-NRM activities may not be reliable. Second, more than $2.3 billion of the higher than estimated spending on NRM can be attributed to VA having higher than estimated budget resources available. In some years VA received higher appropriations from Congress than requested and supplemental appropriations for NRM--such as those included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The additional budget resources VA used for …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "DOD has taken some steps to gain efficiencies in its approach to contracting for certain types of foreign language support services and products, but its contracting approach for other types remains fragmented across multiple components, and DOD has not explored whether additional opportunities exist to gain efficiencies across this broader range of contracting activity. In 2005, DOD sought to centralize and standardize contracting efforts for foreign language support by designating the Army as an executive agent to manage contracting in this area. In performing its responsibilities, the executive agent has focused its efforts solely on arranging for contracts to acquire translation and interpretation services for contingency operations because of the rapidly increasing requirements for these services. Specifically, from fiscal year 2008 through 2012, the Army, as executive agent, obligated about $5.2 billion for contracts to provide DOD components with translation and interpretation services for contingency operations. During the same time period, we found that multiple DOD components contracted independently for foreign language support outside of the executive agent's management. Specifically, to support the needs of contingency operations, predeployment training, and day-to-day military activities, we identified 159 contracting organizations …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Of the seven foreign firms we identified in December 2012 as having been reported to have engaged in commercial activity in Iran's energy sector at some point between June 1, 2011, and September 30, 2012, we found that one--Daelim--had U.S. government contracts. Our review of open sources did not identify any foreign firms that exported technologies to the Iranian government for monitoring, filtering, or disrupting information and communications flows."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "There is still no one agency or group that knows the nation's need for all U.S. high- containment laboratories, including the research priorities and the capacity, number and location, to address priorities. This deficiency may be more critical today than 3 years ago because current budget constraints make prioritization essential. Since the publication of our report in 2009, the number of high-containment laboratories has increased. Although modern high-containment technologies (for example, high-efficiency particulate air [HEPA] filtration) in conjunction with laboratory design have been effective in reducing the level of risk, there is nevertheless some degree of risk associated with design, construction, operations, and maintenance of high-containment laboratories. This was realized following a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) power failure incident in Atlanta, Georgia, where no biological agent was released but that showed the difficulties in maintaining biological containment, and a leaky pipe incident in Pirbright, United Kingdom, that failed to maintain biological containment. Increasing the number of laboratories also increases the aggregate national risk."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since 2010, congressional legislation, such as the Comprehensive Iran Accountability, Sanctions, and Divestment Act of 2010 (CISADA), as well as a number of executive orders, have established additional U.S. financial sanctions targeting Iran. For example, CISADA authorized the imposition of sanctions on foreign financial institutions that facilitated certain activities or financial transactions by entities including Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. According to an Under Secretary of the Treasury, CISADA "set a new precedent," because "[i]t gave the Secretary of the Treasury the authority for the first time to require U.S. banks to terminate correspondent banking relationships with foreign banks that knowingly engaged in significant transactions with designated Iranian banks.""

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since fiscal year 2011, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has used changes in the number of apprehensions on the southwest border between ports of entry as an interim measure for border security as reported in its annual performance plans. In fiscal year 2011, DHS reported a decrease in apprehensions, which met its goal to secure the southwest border. Our analysis of Border Patrol data showed that apprehensions decreased within each southwest border sector from fiscal years 2006 to 2011, generally mirroring decreases in estimated known illegal entries. Border Patrol attributed these decreases in part to changes in the U.S. economy and improved enforcement efforts. In addition to apprehension data, sector management collect and use other data to assess enforcement efforts within sectors. Our analysis of these data show that the percentage of estimated known illegal entrants apprehended from fiscal years 2006 to 2011 varied across southwest border sectors; in the Tucson sector, for example, there was little change in the percentage of estimated known illegal entrants apprehended over this time period. The percentage of individuals apprehended who repeatedly crossed the border illegally declined across the border by …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "From fiscal years 2007 through 2011, three individuals who served as Attorney General (AG) and the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) accounted for 95 percent (659 out of 697 flights) of all Department of Justice (DOJ) executive nonmission flights using DOJ aircraft at a total cost of $11.4 million. Specifically, the AG and FBI Director collectively took 74 percent (490 out of 659) of all of their flights for business purposes, such as conferences, meetings, and field office visits; 24 percent (158 out of 659) for personal reasons; and 2 percent (11 out of 659) for a combination of business and personal reasons. All AGs and FBI Directors are "required use" travelers who are required by executive branch policy to use government aircraft for all their travel, including travel for personal reasons, because of security and communications needs. However, according to DOJ officials, while the AG has historically been required to use government aircraft for all types of travel, including personal travel, the FBI Director had, until 2011, the discretion to use commercial air service for his personal travel. DOJ officials told us …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, the government's centralized repository for crime data, provides the only available standardized way to track crime levels in border counties over time. However, UCR data lack information on whether reported offenses are attributable to spillover crime, and have other limitations, such as underreporting to police. Also, UCR data cannot be used to identify links with crimes often associated with spillover from Mexico, such as cartel-related drug trafficking. Cognizant of these limitations, GAO's analysis of data for southwest border counties with sufficiently complete data show that, generally, both violent and property crimes were lower in 2011 than in 2004. For example, the violent crime rate in three states' border counties was lower by at least 26 percent in 2011 than in 2004 and in one other state lower by 8 percent in 2011 than in 2005."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In just this past fiscal year alone, GAO's work yielded significant results across the government, including $55.8 billion in financial benefits--a return of $105 for every dollar invested in GAO and 1,440 other benefits--that is, recommendations that helped to change laws, improve public services, and promote sound management throughout government. Since 2002, GAO's work has resulted in over 1/2 trillion dollars in financial benefits and over 14 thousand other benefits for the American people."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) agencies responded to the Combating Autism Act of 2006 (CAA) by establishing some new autism activities and continuing others. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) created a new initiative to address specific directives in the CAA. Through this initiative, HRSA expanded its existing training programs by requiring grantees to include training specific to autism. It also established new autism research grants and funded new state grants to improve services for children with autism. HRSA awards its autism grants under the authority of the CAA. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continued their autism activities--some of which were undertaken in response to the Children's Health Act of 2000--but did not create new programs as a direct result of the CAA. NIH continued to fund, expand, and coordinate autism research through its Autism Centers of Excellence and autism-specific grants and contracts. CDC continued to fund its regional centers of excellence for autism epidemiology and other activities, such as an awareness campaign. HHS's Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC)--reauthorized by the CAA--assumed additional responsibilities …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Departments of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Defense (DOD) have undertaken a number of patchwork efforts over the past 15 years to achieve interoperability (i.e., the ability to share data) of records between their information systems; however, these efforts have faced persistent challenges. The departments' early efforts to achieve interoperability included enabling DOD to electronically transfer service members' electronic health information to VA; allowing clinicians at both departments viewable access to records on shared patients; and developing an interface linking the departments' health data repositories. As GAO reported, however, several of these efforts were plagued by project planning and management weaknesses, inadequate accountability, and poor oversight, limiting their ability to realize full interoperability."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins ""

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Medicare Program: CMS has not met GAO's criteria to have the Medicare program removed from the High-Risk List. For example, although CMS has made progress in measuring and reducing improper payment rates in different parts of the program, it has yet to demonstrate sustained progress in lowering the rates. Because the size of Medicare relative to other programs leads to aggregate improper payments that are extremely large, continuing to reduce improper payments in this program should remain a priority for CMS. Further, CMS should complete some actions required by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) that were designed to improve the integrity of the program, such as determining which providers must post surety bonds to help in recovering payments for fraudulent billing, using fingerprint screening for high-risk providers, issuing a final regulation that requires providers to disclose additional information, and establishing core elements for provider compliance programs."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Management challenges within the Department of Interior's Office of the Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs (Indian Affairs), such as fragmented administrative structures and frequent turnover in leadership, continue to hamper efforts to improve Indian education. For example, incompatible procedures and lack of clear roles for the Bureau of Indian Education and the Indian Affairs' Deputy Assistant Secretary for Management (DAS-M), which provides administrative functions to BIE, such as human resources and acquisitions, contribute to delays in schools acquiring needed materials and resources. According to BIE officials, some DAS-M staff are not aware of the necessary procedures and timelines to meet schools' needs. For instance, delays in contracting have occasionally affected BIE's ability to provide services for students with disabilities in a timely manner. A study commissioned by Indian Affairs to evaluate the administrative support structure for BIE and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)--also under Indian Affairs--concluded that organizations within Indian Affairs, including DAS-M, BIA, and BIE, do not coordinate effectively and communication among them is poor. Similarly, preliminary results from GAO's work suggest that lack of consistent leadership within DAS-M and BIE hinders collaboration between the two …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2010, states required about 2 percent of all districts to use Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) funds for early intervening services to address the overrepresentation of racial and ethnic groups in special education. Based on definitions states individually developed to measure this overrepresentation-- referred to in IDEA as significant disproportionality--356 districts were required to provide services. Half of these districts were clustered in five states and 73 were in Louisiana alone. States have used flexibility provided by Education to develop their own definitions of significant disproportionality and GAO's analysis of 16 selected states found wide variation in definitions. Further, GAO found that the way some states defined overrepresentation made it unlikely that any districts would be identified and thus required to provide early intervening services. Nebraska and Louisiana illustrate differing outcomes that can result from different state definitions. In Nebraska, one of 21 states that did not require any districts to provide services in 2010-11, racial and ethnic groups must be identified for special education at a rate three times higher than for other groups for 2 consecutive years. In contrast, racial and ethnic …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The KC-46 program 2012 estimates for cost, schedule, and performance are virtually the same as last year's, with the contractor running very close to the planned budget and schedule. Development work is more than one-fourth complete and a successful preliminary design review was held on schedule in April 2012. In response to a prior GAO recommendation, the program now has fully implemented metrics to measure the progress toward its key performance parameters and expects to meet these requirements. There are two areas of concern regarding program cost: first, both the contractor and government estimate the cost of development will exceed the contract ceiling price of $4.9 billion (although government liability is capped at that ceiling); and second, the contractor has already allocated about 80 percent of the management reserves budget, primarily for identified, yet unresolved, development risks, with the bulk of work--about 5 years--remaining. GAO maintains that significant use of these funds early in a program may indicate problems. The program has not yet evaluated how the significant use of these funds early could impact future milestones."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO identified nine leading practices to promote successful data-driven performance reviews--referred to as quarterly performance reviews--at the federal level."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In September 2012, GAO reported that many large procurement agencies were in the early stages of implementing strategic sourcing and had achieved limited results. For example, in fiscal year 2011, the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Energy, and Veterans Affairs accounted for 80 percent of the $537 billion in federal procurement spending, but reported managing about 5 percent of that spending, or $25.8 billion, through strategic sourcing efforts. These agencies reported savings of $1.8 billion--less than one-half of 1 percent of federal procurement spending. Further, most of these agencies' strategic sourcing efforts did not address their highest spending areas--including some information technology (IT)-related services--which may provide opportunities for additional savings. While strategic sourcing may not be suitable for all procurements, leading companies strategically manage about 90 percent of their procurements and report annual savings of 10 percent or more. When strategic sourcing contracts were used, federal agencies generally reported achieving savings between 5 and 20 percent."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) has taken steps to improve in-transit visibility of its assets through efforts developed by several of the defense components, but no one DOD organization is fully aware of all such efforts across the department, because they are not centrally tracked. In-transit visibility is the ability to track the identity, status, and location of DOD assets and personnel from origin to consignee or destination across the range of military operations. GAO has previously reported that it is important for organizations to have complete, accurate, and consistent data to inform policy, document performance, and support decision making. Managers striving to reach organizational goals must have information systems in place to provide them with needed information. Based on data from defense components--the Joint Staff, U.S. Transportation Command, U.S. Central Command, the Defense Logistics Agency, and the military services--that GAO reviewed, 34 in-transit visibility efforts are being conducted by the components. The department has obligated about $701 million for fiscal years 2009 through 2011 for these efforts and projected about $455.3 million in costs to be incurred for fiscal years 2012 through 2015--a total of …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "DOD's decision to change the alert status at two ACA basing locations was informed by various analyses, which assessed the impact on operational effectiveness to the ACA operation. DOD's analyses were based on a NORAD assessment--which included a computer model--a Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE) computer model, and an analysis by NORAD's Continental U.S. NORAD Region. NORAD's analyses, informed by a model developed in response to a recommendation in our 2009 report and bolstered by additional NORAD analysis, identified two basing locations that could be removed from 24-hour alert status with little impact on ACA capabilities overall. In GAO's January 2012 report, GAO noted limitations to NORAD's computer model. For example, GAO found that it did not include a prioritized list of metropolitan areas and critical infrastructure locations that NORAD should protect and that it did not incorporate assumptions associated with all three elements of risk: threat, vulnerability, and consequence. Since the January 2012 report, NORAD has strengthened its risk-based management approach of the ACA operation by improving its risk analyses, including to change some of the assumptions used to address vulnerability and consequence in its model. …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Although many states requested and received waivers under the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, no section 1115 waivers of TANF requirements have been granted by HHS since TANF's creation in 1996. Since 2000, several states have expressed interest in the availability of waivers. For example, in 2001, one state asked HHS about waiving various requirements including the work participation requirement, due to an emergency situation caused by a terrorist attack. The Assistant Secretary for Children and Families or TANF program staff have generally responded that the requested waiver authority was not available. Between when HHS issued its July 12, 2012 Information Memorandum and September 6, 2012, eight states expressed interest in pursuing waivers, but no state had officially requested one."