A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the reporting of lobbying activities by organizations that have employees who lobby on the organizations' behalf and have the option to report their lobbying expenses under the Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) of 1995 or applicable Internal Revenue Code (IRC) provisions that they use for tax purposes, focusing on: (1) the differences between the LDA and IRC section 4911 and 162(e) definitions of lobbying; (2) the impact that differences in the definitions may have on registration and reporting under LDA, including information on the number of organizations using each definition and the expenses they have reported; and (3) identifying and analyzing options, including harmonizing the three definitions, that may better ensure that the public disclosure purposes of LDA are realized."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO provided comments on whether the District of Columbia would violate the Antideficiency Act by: (1) approving vouchers for attorney's Criminal Justice Act (CJA) claims after the available fiscal year 1999 appropriations funds were exhausted; and (2) paying out CJA obligations exceeding the limitation contained in the 1999 District of Columbia Appropriations Act, GAO held that: (1) the Courts could not, upon submission of a CJA claim, delay the recognition of an obligation by withholding the voucher's approval; and (2) because attorney representation in CJA cases is a mandatory expense, obligations for this purpose may be incurred and may exceed the capped amount without violating the Antideficiency Act."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Army's report on the proliferation of depot maintenance-type activities at non-depot facilities for completeness and adequacy, focusing on the: (1) the total amount of depot maintenance-type work conducted at local maintenance facilities and the cost efficiency of such work in view of the Army's overall requirements; and (2) plans for consolidating fragmented maintenance operations."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the U.S. Transportation Command's (TRANSCOM) year 2000-related end-to-end testing activities, focusing on TRANSCOM's management of its end-to-end test of its ability to plan and execute joint major theater war (MTW) deployment operations."

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 Program revisions to payment policies under the physician fee schedule for calendar year 2000. GAO noted that: (1) the rule would make several changes affecting Medicare Part B payment; (2) the changes include, among others, implementation of resource-based malpractice insurance relative value units (RVU), refinement of resource-based practice expense RVUs, and payment for physician pathology and independent laboratory services; and (3) 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 provided information on the construction of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) facility for its Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) in College Park, Maryland, focusing on: (1) the General Services Administration's (GSA) authority to construct a new facility for FDA in College Park; (2) whether the requirements for building on a floodplain had been met; and (3) the planned placement of computers in the basement of the new building, specifically whether; (a) steps had been taken or will be taken to mitigate the risk of damage from water entering the basement of the building, and (b) CFSAN staff were involved in the decision to place the computer operations in the basement."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO followed up on its report on the Air Force's F-22 engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) program, focusing on whether: (1) the Air Force is likely to complete the EMD program without exceeding the cost limitation established by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1998; and (2) GAO had access to sufficient information to make informed judgments on matters covered by this report."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, the GAO discussed the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) performance during the 1999 tax filing season, focusing on: (1) telephone service; (2) availability of walk-in services; (3) other taxpayer service efforts; (4) Earned Income Credit (EIC) noncompliance; (5) electronic filing; (6) implementation of recent tax law changes; and (7) implementation of a new return and remittance processing system."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined some of the key issues involving vaccine availability for children in developing countries, focusing on the: (1) locations where shortfalls in immunization coverage are most prevalent; and (2) factors that impede vaccine availability in these locations."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the compliance programs established by health care providers to reduce improper payments by Medicare, focusing on the: (1) prevalence of compliance programs among hospitals and other Medicare providers; (2) costs involved with compliance programs; and (3) effectiveness of the programs, to the extent that could be measured."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined: (1) the risk of lead poisoning faced by young children served by federal health care programs; (2) the extent to which children served by these programs have been screened for this condition; (3) key reasons why screenings may not be occurring; and (4) problems that federal health care programs face in ensuring that children who have harmful lead levels in their blood receive timely follow-up treatment and other services."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the Department of Defense's (DOD) domestic banking program on military bases, focusing on whether: (1) domestic military bases have followed DOD procedures to provide for open solicitations in obtaining banking services; (2) on-base financial institutions face competition for banking services from other financial institutions and charge fees competitive with other banks; and (3) opportunities exist for DOD and military bases to generate additional revenues from banking services on military bases and how this might affect banking services and customers."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) decisions to substitute one product for another in its computation of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), focusing on: (1) how commodity analysts decide whether to make adjustments to the CPI; (2) the adjustment methods they use; and (3) how supervisors of commodity analysts review the analysts' decisions."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the costs associated with the Forest Service's timber sales program for fiscal years (FY) 1992 through 1997, focusing on the: (1) amount of timber offered for sale, sold, and harvested; (2) outlays for timber sales by type of outlay; and (3) estimated cost per thousand board feet harvested."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on federal child care funding, focusing on: (1) programs and services funded at the federal and state levels that directly provide early childhood care and education for the general population of low-income children up to age 5; (2) state and local assessments of the relative difficulty low-income parents face in obtaining care for their children; and (3) the collaborative efforts among child care officials and early childhood education officials to address these parents' difficulties."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO: (1) followed-up on the status of the Federal Reserve Banks' (FRB) corrective actions to address vulnerabilities identified in GAO's fiscal year (FY) 1997 financial statement audit; and (2) reviewed the general and application controls that support key Financial Management Service (FMS) and Bureau of the Public Debt (BPD) automated financial systems maintained and operated by the FRBs."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO determined: (1) whether the demand for recalled magistrate and bankruptcy judges has exceeded the number of judges available to serve in recalled positions; (2) whether the courts that recalled judges had judgeship vacancies or higher than average weighted case filings; and (3) the approximate 1-year cost savings associated with using a recalled judge rather than filling a full-time judgeship position."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the operations of the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) Office of the National Taxpayer Advocate and the Problem Resolution Program (PRP) that it administers, focusing on: (1) challenges the Taxpayer Advocate faces in managing program resources; (2) the potential effects of workload fluctuations on program operations; (3) information available to help the Advocate determine the causes of taxpayer problems and prevent their recurrence; and (4) the adequacy of performance measures the IRS uses to gauge program effectiveness."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program's vulnerability to fraud and abuse, focusing on: (1) the extent to which SSI is vulnerable to individuals who obtain eligibility by feigning disabilities with the help of middlemen and medical providers; (2) the Social Security Administration's (SSA) methods for preventing, detecting, and responding to this type of program fraud and abuse; and (3) additional strategies SSA could use to more effectively address this problem."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Department of Defense's management of various year 2000-related end-to-end testing activities, focusing on: (1) the U.S. Space Command's management of its end-to-end test of space control systems essential to major theater war; and (2) what the results of this test show with respect to operational risks and readiness."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) new rule on the threatened status for two chinook salmon evolutionarily significant units (ESU) in California. GAO noted that: (1) the rule would list two additional ESUs as a threatened species; and (2) NOAA complied with applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the United Nations Secretariat's efforts to reform its procurement process, focusing on: (1) the types of procurement problems that the U.N. High Level Expert Group on Procurement and U.N. audit and inspection organizations found; (2) progress on the implementation of the Expert Group's recommendations and other reforms to correct procurement-related problems; and (3) whether these actions have succeeded in achieving the objectives of procurement reform."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the Army's plans to allocate its end strength to meet the force structure requirements of its combat and support forces, focusing on: (1) comparing the Army's 1996 and 1998 reviews to determine if there were changes in the Army's risk of not having sufficient forces to implement the national military strategy; and (2) assessing the Army's potential for mitigating risk by reallocating its existing end strength."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the activities of the National Fish Hatchery System, focusing on: (1) the funding level for the National Fish Hatchery System since 1992 and the funding level's impact on operations; (2) the production level at federal hatcheries; (3) the portion of production that is used for recovery and restoration efforts; (4) the distribution of total hatchery production into federal, state, and other waters; and (5) the issues related to health and disease problems at these hatcheries that pose problems for introducing their fish into the wild."