Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the funding requirements for the technical assistance that the Natural Resources Conservation Service provides to the Conservation Reserve Program, focusing on: (1) the nature and costs of the Conservation Service's technical assistance; (2) the reasons the Conservation Service suspended its technical assistance for the program; (3) budgetary authorities and other statutory requirements that constrain the Conservation Service's performance of technical assistance for the program; and (4) the potential to use contractors to provide this assistance in lieu of the Conservation Service."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the tax compliance burdens of small business taxpayers, focusing on: (1) why the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) compliance burden estimates are not reliable; (2) why the relationship of the no-change rates to audit rates for small businesses and other individuals is difficult to determine; and (3) why IRS has limited information on its interactions with small businesses."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined a number of issues concerning water quality problems in the New River and Imperial County in southern California, focusing on the: (1) types and the sources of pollutants entering the New River; (2) agencies and the organizations responsible for monitoring and regulating pollution in the New River; (3) risks to human health and the environment from water pollution in Imperial County; (4) health advisories and the precautions in place to protect the public from pollution in the New River; and (5) actions being taken to reduce the flow of pollutants into the Salton Sea."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO determined: (1) what the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) is doing to ensure that the year 2000 computing challenge does not adversely affect the delivery of Medicaid benefits; and (2) the readiness of states to successfully transition to year 2000 for Medicaid."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reported on private sector employer-sponsored disability insurance plans, focusing on the: (1) number of people in the private sector covered by short-term or long-term employer-sponsored disability insurance; (2) number of short- and long-term disability claims filed each year and the number of initial awards; and (3) average processing time for initial short- and long-term disability claims."

A statement of record issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the implementation of Executive Order 12612 on federalism, focusing on: (1) how often the preambles to covered agencies' final rules issued between April 1, 1996, and December 31, 1998, mentioned Executive Order 12612 and how often they indicated that the agencies had conducted federalism assessments under the order; (2) what selected agencies have done to implement the requirements of Executive Order 12612; and (3) what the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has done to oversee federal agencies' implementation of Executive Order 12612 in the rulemaking process."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the proliferation of Medicare, Medicaid, and private health insurance fraud on the part of criminals and organized criminal groups, focusing on: (1) the makeup and prior activities of such groups; (2) how organized criminal groups created medical entities or used legitimate medical entities or individuals to defraud Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers; (3) schemes used by such groups to commit health care fraud; and (4) the impact that illegal activity by such groups has on consumers and legitimate health care providers."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO: (1) examined the estimates of social security's implicit rates of return for different birth years, earning levels, household configurations, and other demographic groupings; (2) examined rates of return available on private market investments; and (3) discussed the issues that arise from comparing social security and market investment returns."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) new rule on the implementation of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act. GAO noted that: (1) the rule would: (a) establish a minimum set of system security and integrity requirements that all telecommunications carriers must follow to ensure compliance with section 105 of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act and section 229(b) and (c) of the Communications Act; and (b) require that telecommunications carriers ensure that any interception of communications or access to call-identifying information effected within its switching premises can be activated only in accordance with a court order or other lawful authorization and with the affirmative intervention of an individual officer or employee of the carrier, designated as a 24-hour a day point of contact available to law enforcement officials; and (2) FCC complied with applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the nation's infectious diseases surveillance network, focusing on the: (1) extent to which states conduct public health surveillance and laboratory testing of selected emerging infectious diseases; (2) problems state public health officials face in gathering and using laboratory-related data in the surveillance of emerging infectious diseases; and (3) assistance that the Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides to states for laboratory-related surveillance and the value of this assistance to state officials."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) new rule on filing requirements for self-regulatory organizations (SRO) regarding derivative securities products. GAO noted that: (1) the new rule would permit a SRO to list and trade new derivative securities products pursuant to existing self-regulatory organization trading rules; and (2) SEC complied with applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) efforts to improve customer service."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on states' social service contracting, focusing on: (1) the extent to which state government employees have moved to positions at social service contractors and the impact such movement has had on the management of publicly provided social services; (2) determining the relative success in winning contracts by contractors who hired state employees and contractors who did not; (3) state ethics laws, policies, and enforcement approaches that address the employment of former state employees and other related issues; and (4) state practices for holding contractors accountable for achieving program results through contracted services."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Schools and Libraries Corporation's progress in implementing GAO's July 16, 1998, recommendations for improving its procedures and internal controls."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Agriculture's implementation of legislative reforms to the Market Access Program (MAP) and their impact on program participation."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on Medicare beneficiaries' access to home oxygen equipment, focusing on: (1) changes in access to home oxygen for Medicare patients since the payment reduction mandated by the Balanced Budget Act (BBA) of 1997 took effect; and (2) actions taken by the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) to fulfill the BBA requirements and respond to GAO's November 1997 recommendations."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS) new rule on late-season migratory bird hunting. GAO noted that: (1) the rule would establish the late-season frameworks from which states may select dates and other options available to them for the 1999-2000 migratory bird hunting season; (2) after receiving this information, FWS will publish the selections as the final regulations for the current hunting season; (3) the late seasons bag and possession limits rule prescribes hunting seasons, hours, areas, and daily bag limits and possession limits for specific game birds; and (4) FWS complied with applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on issues related to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC) reauthorization, focusing on issues related to derivatives that are traded on-exchange as well as those that are privately negotiated off-exchange, or over-the-counter (OTC)."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on federal agencies' reporting to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on the year 2000 status of their classified systems, focusing on: (1) whether agencies are including classified systems in their quarterly reports to OMB; (2) whether agencies are separately reporting to OMB on the status of their classified systems; and (3) for those agencies not reporting to OMB, the status of those systems."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Federal Wildlife Service's (FWS) new rule on migratory bird hunting on certain federal Indian reservations and ceded lands for the 1999-2000 late season. GAO noted that: (1) the rule would prescribe special late-season hunting regulations for certain tribes on federal Indian reservations, off-reservation trust lands, and ceded lands in response to tribal requests to recognize their authority to regulate hunting on their reservations under established guidelines; and (2) FWS complied with applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) new rule on Medicare's prospective payment system and consolidated billing for skilled nursing facilities. GAO held that: (1) the new rule updates the required section 1888(e) of the Social Security Act, as added by section 4432 of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 related to Medicare payments and consolidated billing for skilled nursing facilities; and (2) HCFA complied with applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the executive branch's report on high performance computer export controls, focusing on: (1) whether the July 1999 report to Congress satisfied the requirements of the Fiscal Year 1998 National Defense Authorization Act; (2) whether the report was factually supported; and (3) how many high performance computers at the current control levels have been approved for export to certain sensitive countries."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information about: (1) welfare-to-work formula and competitive grants awarded to, or declined by, states for fiscal year (FY) 1998; (2) how selected grantees are planning to use these funds; and (3) how selected grantees plan to meet welfare-to-work requirements to better integrate the states' workforce development services with other human services for welfare recipients."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed its work concerning federally funded teacher training programs, focusing on the: (1) number of agencies and the programs they administer that support teacher training, along with some general characteristics of these programs; and (2) funding provided by these programs."