Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Climate Change Report, which was submitted to the Senate Committee on Appropriations in April 1999, focusing on the extent to which it: (1) provides a comprehensive explanation of the agency's climate change programs for fiscal year (FY) 2000; (2) justifies requested increases in funding for that fiscal year; (3) explains how the climate change activities are justified independently of the Kyoto Protocol; and (4) includes performance measures and goals and similar elements, as would be required by the Government Performance and Results Act."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed activities relating to climate change programs, focusing on: (1) the Energy Information Administration's report on federal expenditures for climate change activities; and (2) a limitation--set forth in the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) appropriations act for fiscal year (FY) 1999--that was designed to prevent the agency from taking specified regulatory actions to implement the Kyoto Protocol on climate change."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Coast Guard's budgets for fiscal years 1999 and 2000, focusing on the: (1) Coast Guard's progress in justifying the Deepwater Replacement Project and addressing GAO's concerns about its affordability; (2) Coast Guard's plans for spending its fiscal year (FY) 1999 emergency funds; and (3) budget strategies the agency may have to consider in the future to address continuing budget constraints."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Coast Guard's major administrative and support functions, focusing on: (1) areas of possible budget savings; and (2) if additional opportunities for cost savings exist."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Coast Guard's plans for modernizing its ships, aircraft, and other capital assets needed to carry out its missions, as well as the agency's plans and strategies to fund these needs, focusing on the Coast Guard's progress in: (1) justifying the Deepwater Capability Replacement Project and addressing GAO's concerns about its affordability; and (2) developing strategies and plans for funding its capital needs within a constrained fiscal environment."

A briefing report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on its analysis of federal counterterrorist exercises."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO determined the potential cost of equipping and maintaining the capability of cities to respond to a terrorist incident involving a chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear device (CBRN), focusing on the: (1) views of federal, state, and local officials on equipment they believed would provide various levels of capability to respond to a CBRN incident; and (2) potential procurement and sustainment costs of these items."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the federal government's management of chemical and biological medical supplies, focusing on the: (1) accuracy and currency of the inventory tracking systems for federal medical stockpiles that would be used to treat the civilian population following a chemical or biological terrorist attack; and (2) internal controls in place to manage the stockpiles."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on interagency counterterrorist operations, focusing on: (1) how agencies worked together in counterterrorist operations and special events; (2) strengths and weaknesses of international and domestic counterterrorist exercises; and (3) agency and interagency processes to capture and share lessons learned."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the scientific and practical aspects of a terrorist carrying out large-scale chemical or biological attacks on U.S. soil, focusing on the: (1) technical ease or difficulty for terrorists to acquire, process, improvise, and disseminate certain chemical and biological agents; and (2) extent to which the U.S. government has assessed the threats and risks posed by chemical and biological terrorism in the United States to serve as a basis for planned investments."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed its ongoing work and preliminary observations on the biological terrorist threat and some aspects of the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) bioterrorism initiative, focusing on: (1) intelligence agencies' judgments about the threat of terrorism; (2) the importance and benefits of threat and risk assessments to provide a sound basis for targeting the nation's investments in combating terrorism; (3) preliminary observations from GAO's ongoing work on the science behind the biological and chemical terrorist threat, with some focus on biological agents; and (4) overall observations on public health initiatives that deal with a new national pharmaceutical stockpile and the basis for selecting items to research, produce, procure, and stockpile for civilian defense against terrorism."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed its work and observations on federal spending to combat terrorism, focusing on: (1) the foreign-origin and domestic terrorism threat; (2) program growth and other issues raised throughout its work on combating terrorism; and (3) steps the executive branch has taken toward improving crosscutting management and coordination and provide some preliminary observations on the 1998 and 1999 Office of Management and Budget (OMB) reports to Congress on governmentwide spending and budgeting to combat terrorism."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed its prior work and observations on federal efforts to combat terrorism, focusing on: (1) the foreign- and domestic-origin terrorism threats, as GAO understands them from intelligence analyses; (2) the growth in federal programs to provide training and equipment to local first responders--police, fire, and emergency medical services--and the expansion of the federal response elements and teams to deal with a possible chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN) terrorist attack; and (3) steps the executive branch has taken to better manage federal efforts to combat terrorism and some opportunities GAO sees for additional focus and direction."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed its observations on the threat of chemical and biological terrorism, focusing on the: (1) ease or difficulty for a terrorist to create mass casualties (defined as at least 1,000 deaths or illnesses) by making and using chemical or biological agents without the assistance of a state-sponsored program; and (2) need to use intelligence estimates and risk assessments to better guide and prioritize appropriate countermeasures and programs."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the creation of 10 National Guard Rapid Assessment and Initial Detection (RAID) teams, focusing on: (1) obtaining the views of federal, state, and local officials regarding the role of RAID teams in response plans; (2) determining whether there are other federal, state, or local government entities that can perform similar functions to the RAID teams; and (3) evaluating the RAID teams' roles and responsibilities and how the teams plan to meet these responsibilities."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the use of National Guard Response Teams in combating terrorism, focusing on: (1) the role of the National Guard Rapid Assessment and Initial Detection (RAID) teams in response plans as understood by local, state, and federal officials; (2) other response assets that can perform similar functions to the RAID teams; and (3) the RAID teams' responsibilities and how they plan to meet these responsibilities."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO commented on the Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) plans for operating the Medicare Integrity Program (MIP), focusing on whether: (1) the law authorizing the MIP permits HCFA to assign responsibility for local Medicare coverage policy to the payment safeguard contractors (PSC) who will run the MIP under contract to HCFA; and (2) HCFA's proposed MIP regulations would provide an adequate legal basis for HCFA to conduct local policy-making through PSCs. GAO noted that HCFA reasonably interpreted the law to mean that its PSCs could set local Medicare coverage policy. GAO also noted that the proposed MIP regulations provide an adequate basis for HCFA's action."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the proposed legislation entitled the Government Waste Correction Act of 1999."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO commented on the U.S. Trade Deficit Review Commission's authority to compensate an executive level IV Export-Import Bank employee that it would like detailed to it to serve as its executive director. The Commission's statute provides authority to appoint staff without regard to civil service laws and regulations, but it limits the compensation the Commission may pay to executive schedule level. To detail the employee under the Economy Act with full reimbursement to the Bank would violate the pay limitation. However, the Commission's statute also provides authority for any federal employee to be detailed to the Commission without reimbursement and without loss of civil service status or privilege. To avoid violating the compensation limitation, the Commission proposes to reimburse the Bank for the employee's compensation at the level V rate, with the Bank providing the amount over level V. Since this arrangement appears to satisfy the language and intent of the pay limitation and the detail provisions, GAO has no objection."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO provided information on whether a federal employee on official duty, who is also a member of the National Guard or the armed forces Reserves, may conduct, and use agency office equipment to support, Guard or Reserve business. GAO held that: (1) agencies may permit their employees to use a limited amount of official time and agency resources to support the Guard or Reserves; (2) employees who are not in active military status and receiving military pay at the time that they perform the limited incidental service for their Guard or Reserve organization are not prohibited from using agency resources and official time to support those activities; (3) all agencies would appear to have some interest in furthering the governmental purpose of, and national interest in, the Guard and Reserves; (4) thus, some use of employee time and agency equipment to carry out limited, incidental Guard or Reserve functions falls within the parameters of activities that an agency may permit; and (5) it may be advisable for the Office of Personnel Management to provide general guidelines as to the amount of time and types of agency …

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO provided information on whether interim guidance for investigating Title VI administrative complaints challenging permits issued by the Environmental Protection Agency is a rule under the Congressional Review Act portion of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Act (SBREFA). GAO held that, irrespective of whether or not in isolation the second portion of the interim guidance is properly viewed as procedural, considered as a whole, the interim guidance clearly affects the rights of non-agency parties. Thus, it constitutes a rule under SBREFA subject to congressional review."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on federally funded fishery buyback programs, focusing on the: (1) number, objectives, and key features of federally funded buyback programs since 1976; (2) costs, sources of funds, and results of these programs; and (3) key features and estimated costs of proposed federally funded buyback programs."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the assessments levied on the commercial maritime industry."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed federal assessments--user fees, taxes, and other charges--levied on the commercial maritime industry, focusing on: (1) the federal agencies that levied assessments in fiscal year (FY) 1998 compared with FY 1991, the number of assessments levied, and the amounts they collected; (2) who pays the assessments and in which funds they were deposited in fiscal years 1991-1998; (3) new federal assessments that have been recently proposed; and (4) the status of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, and the projected annual balances of the fund."