Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony focuses on (1) the Architect of the Capitol's (AOC) construction progress since the last Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) hearing on September 24, 2008, and (2) the project's expected cost at completion and funding status. Today's remarks are based on our review of schedules and financial reports for the CVC project and related records maintained by AOC and its construction management contractor, Gilbane Building Company; our observations on the progress of work at the CVC; and our discussions with AOC."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony presents information on the District of Columbia's (D.C. or the District) progress in reforming its public school system. The District's school system has had long-standing problems with student academic performance, the condition of school facilities, and its overall management. The District's public schools have fallen well behind the District's own targets for demonstrating adequate yearly progress toward meeting the congressionally mandated goal of having 100 percent of students proficient in math, reading, and science by 2014, as outlined in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA). In addition, the U. S. Department of Education (Education) designated the District as a high-risk grantee in April 2006 because of its poor management of federal grants. Of the nearly $762 million the District spends on D. C. public schools (DCPS), 16 percent comes from federal sources. In an effort to address the school system's long-standing problems, the Council of the District of Columbia (D.C. Council) approved the Public Education Reform Amendment Act of 2007 (Reform Act), which made major changes to the operations and governance of the school …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "By deploying armed air marshals onboard selected flights, the Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS), a component of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), plays a key role in helping to protect approximately 29,000 domestic and international flights operated daily by U.S. air carriers. This testimony discusses (1) FAMS's operational approach or "concept of operations" for covering flights, (2) an independent evaluation of the operational approach, and (3) FAMS's processes and initiatives for addressing workforce-related issues. Also, this testimony provides a list of possible oversight issues related to FAMS. This testimony is based on GAO's January 2009 report (GAO-09-273), with selected updates in July 2009. For its 2009 report, GAO analyzed policies and procedures regarding FAMS's operational approach and a July 2006 classified assessment of that approach. Also, GAO analyzed employee working group reports and related FAMS's initiatives for addressing workforce-related issues, and interviewed FAMS headquarters officials and 67 air marshals (selected to reflect a range in levels of experience)."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO's sixth report on the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) focuses on the Department of the Treasury's (Treasury) efforts to establish its Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). This 60-day report examines (1) the design of HAMP's program features with respect to maximizing assistance to struggling homeowners, (2) the analytical basis for Treasury's estimate of the number of loans that are likely to be successfully modified using TARP funds under HAMP, and (3) the status of Treasury's efforts to implement operational procedures and internal controls for HAMP. For this work, GAO reviewed documentation from Treasury and its financial agents and met with officials from Treasury, its financial agents, and other organizations."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) is one of the largest landholding agencies in the federal government with more than 577,500 facilities at 5,300 sites on over 32 million acres. GAO has previously reported that the management of DOD-held real property is a high-risk area, in part because of deteriorating facilities and problems with excess and underutilized property. To address these problems, DOD has developed a multipart strategy involving base realignment and closure, housing privatization, and demolition of facilities that are no longer needed. DOD is also leasing out underutilized real property to gain resources to repair or construct facilities. The House Armed Services Committee Report on the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 directed the Comptroller General to provide an analysis of DOD's use of its land use planning authorities. Specifically, GAO examined (1) how DOD has used its authorities; (2) the reasons why land, buildings, and facilities on DOD installations may appear to be underutilized or not utilized; and (3) the policies and procedures used by the services to respond to requests by other federal agencies for space at a DOD installation. GAO …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2005, GAO placed the issue of information sharing for homeland security on its high-risk list of federal functions needing broad-based transformation and since then has monitored the government's progress in resolving barriers to sharing. This testimony discusses three key information sharing efforts: (1) the actions that have been taken to guide the design and implementation of the Information Sharing Environment (ISE) and to report on its progress, (2) the characteristics of state and local fusion centers and the extent to which federal efforts are helping to address some of the challenges centers reported, and (3) the progress made in developing streamlined policies and procedures for designating, marking, safeguarding, and disseminating sensitive but unclassified information. This testimony is based on GAO's products issued from March 2006 through July 2008 and selected updates conducted in July 2008."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In January 2007, the President announced a new U.S. strategy to stem the violence in Iraq and help the Iraqi government foster conditions for national reconciliation. In The New Way Forward, the Administration articulated near-term goals to achieve over a 12- to 18-month period and reasserted the end state for Iraq: a unified, democratic, federal Iraq that can govern, defend, and sustain itself and is an ally in the war on terror. To support this strategy, the United States increased its military presence and financial commitments for Iraq operations. This testimony discusses (1) progress in meeting key security, legislative, and economic goals of The New Way Forward; and (2) past and current U.S. strategies for Iraq and the need for an updated strategy. GAO reviewed documents and interviewed officials from U.S. agencies, MNF-I, the UN, and the Iraqi government. GAO also had staff stationed in Baghdad. Since 2003, GAO has issued about 140 Iraq-related products, which provided baseline information for this assessment."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "For the past 10 years, since GAO's first audit of the consolidated financial statements of the U.S. government (CFS), certain material weaknesses in internal control and in selected accounting and financial reporting practices have prevented GAO from expressing an opinion on the CFS. GAO has consistently reported that the U.S. government did not have adequate systems, controls, and procedures to properly prepare the CFS. GAO's December 2006 disclaimer of opinion on the fiscal year 2006 CFS included a discussion of continuing weaknesses related to the preparation of the CFS. The purpose of this report is to (1) provide details of continuing and new weaknesses, (2) recommend improvements, and (3) describe the status of corrective actions on 143 open recommendations related to the preparation of the CFS that GAO reported in April 2006."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of the Treasury relies extensively on information technology (IT) to carry out its mission. For fiscal year 2007, Treasury requested about $2.8 billion--the third largest planned IT expenditure among civilian agencies. GAO's objectives included (1) assessing Treasury's capabilities for managing its IT investments and (2) determining any plans the agency has for improving its capabilities. GAO used its IT investment management framework (ITIM) and associated methodology to address these objectives, focusing on the framework's stages related to the investment management provisions of the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Responders to the World Trade Center (WTC) attack were exposed to many hazards, and concerns remain about long-term health effects of the disaster and the availability of health care services for those affected. In 2006, GAO reported on problems with the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) WTC Federal Responder Screening Program and on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) distribution of treatment funding. GAO was asked to update its 2006 testimony. GAO assessed the status of (1) services provided by the WTC Federal Responder Screening Program, (2) efforts by CDC's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to provide services for nonfederal responders residing outside the New York City (NYC) area, and (3) NIOSH's awards to grantees for treatment services and efforts to estimate service costs. GAO reviewed program documents and interviewed HHS officials, grantees, and others."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO has reported in a number of products that the lack of control over inventory shipments increases vulnerability to undetected loss or theft and substantially increases the risk that million of dollars can be spent unnecessarily. This report evaluates the Navy's and its repair contractors' adherence to Department of Defense (DOD) and Navy inventory management control procedures for government-furnished material shipped to Navy repair contractors. Government-furnished material includes assemblies, parts, and other items that are provided to contractors to support repairs, alterations, and modifications. Generally, this material is incorporated into or attached onto deliverable end items, such as aircraft, or consumed or expended in performing a contract."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "As part of international efforts to ensure maritime safety and security--and to carry out its mandates under the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002--the U.S. Coast Guard is developing an automatic identification system (AIS) that should enable it to monitor ships traveling to and through U.S. waters. For AIS to operate nationwide, ships need equipment to transmit and receive AIS signals, and the Coast Guard needs shore stations and designated radio frequencies to keep track of the ships' identities and movements. Yet unresolved frequency issues between the Coast Guard and a private company, MariTEL, have come before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). GAO reviewed federal agencies' progress in developing AIS nationwide and identified certain challenges and opportunities in completing the work."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since 1982, the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) has monitored compliance with the security provisions of the Egyptian-Israeli Treaty of Peace. The United States, while not a party to the treaty, contributes 40 percent of the troops and a third of MFO's annual budget. All personnel in the MFO civilian observer unit (COU) are Americans. GAO (1) assessed State's oversight of the MFO, (2) reviewed MFO's personnel and financial management practices, and (3) reviewed MFO's emerging budget challenges and U.S. MFO cost sharing arrangements."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "While pipelines are inherently safer to the public than other modes of freight transportation, pipeline accidents involving natural gas and hazardous liquids (such as gasoline) can have serious consequences. For example, a natural gas pipeline ruptured near Carlsbad, New Mexico, in 2000, killed 12 people, and resulted in $1 million in damages or losses. The Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) administers the national regulatory program to ensure safe pipeline transportation. OPS uses its enforcement program, when safety problems are found, as one means to do so. This study reports on (1) the effectiveness of OPS's enforcement strategy and (2) OPS's actions for assessing monetary sanctions (civil penalties), among other things."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report responds to a statement in the Conference Report on the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) fiscal year 2004 appropriations directing GAO to study SEC's allocation of its increased funding for fiscal years 2003 and 2004. Historically, SEC has faced high staff turnover rates, long stretches of unfilled staff positions, and growing resource needs. Additionally, the agency has faced significant needs in its information technology area. In response to these trends and several high-profile corporate failures and financial scandals, Congress approved significant increases in SEC's appropriations to help improve oversight and increase public confidence in financial markets. This report builds on several reports GAO has issued on these issues. GAO was asked to review SEC's (1) allocation of its fiscal year 2003 and 2004 funds and (2) use of its information technology funding in fiscal year 2003 and its plan for 2004."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Dietary supplements containing ephedra have been associated with serious health-related adverse events, including heart attacks, strokes, seizures, and deaths. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates dietary supplements under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA). Reports of adverse events have been received by FDA and others, including Metabolife International, the manufacturer of a dietary supplement containing ephedra, Metabolife 356. Because of concerns surrounding the safety of dietary supplements containing ephedra, GAO was asked to discuss and update some of the findings from its prior work on ephedra, including its examination of Metabolife International's records of health-related calls from consumers of Metabolife 356. Specifically, GAO examined (1) FDA's analysis of the adverse event reports it received for dietary supplements containing ephedra, (2) how the adverse events reported in the health-related call records collected by Metabolife International illustrate the health risks of dietary supplements containing ephedra, and (3) FDA's actions in the oversight of dietary supplements containing ephedra."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Many federal agencies in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area have their own police forces to ensure the security and safety of the persons and property within and surrounding federal buildings. In the executive branch, for example, the Secret Service has over 1,000 uniformed officers protecting the White House, the Treasury Building, and other facilities used by the Executive Office of the President. The Interior Department's Park Police consists of more than 400 officers protecting parks and monuments in the area. The Pentagon Force Protection Agency has recently increased its force to over 400 officers. Even the Health and Human Services Department maintains a small police force on the campus of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. In addition, there are federal uniformed police forces in both the Legislative and Judicial Branches of the federal government. We have continued to examine the transformation of 22 agencies with an estimated 160,000 civilian employees into the Department of Homeland Security."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), along with other components of the Department of the Treasury, collects and distributes excise tax receipts to government trust funds. As the nation's tax collector, IRS plays a critical role in this process. Consequently, trust funds and their administrators depend on IRS to have sound procedures and controls over this process to ensure that excise taxes are appropriately distributed. This report is a follow-up to two reports we recently issued discussing procedures we performed to assist the Department of Transportation's Office of Inspector General (Transportation IG) in ascertaining whether the net excise tax collections and excise tax certifications reported by IRS for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2002, were supported by underlying records. The agreed-upon procedures, along with our audit of IRS's fiscal year 2002 financial statements, provided a sufficient basis to assist the Transportation IG in forming an opinion on the departmentwide financial statements and the financial statements of the trust funds administered by the department, including the Highway Trust Fund and the Airport and Airway Trust Fund."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the Air Force's report on the planned lease of 100 Boeing 767 aircraft modified for aerial refueling. These aircraft would be known by a new designation, KC-767A. Section 8159 of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2002 authorizes the Air Force to lease up to 100 KC-767A aircraft. We received the report required by section 8159 when it was sent to the Congress on July 10. We subsequently received a briefing from the Air Force and some of the data needed to review the draft lease and lease versus purchase analysis. However, we were permitted to read the lease for the first time on July 18 but were not allowed to make a copy and so have not had time to fully review and analyze the terms of the draft lease. As a result, this testimony today will be based on very preliminary work. It will (1) describe the condition of the current aerial refueling fleet, (2) summarize the proposed lease as presented in the Air Force's recent report, (3) present our preliminary observations on the Air Force lease report, and (4) …

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The potential losses that the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), through its single-employer insurance program, might face from the termination of underfunded plans have been a longstanding concern of the Congress and GAO. In 1990, as part of our effort to call attention to high-risk areas in the federal government, we noted that weaknesses in the single-employer insurance program's financial condition threatened PBGC's longterm viability. We stated that minimum funding rules still did not ensure that plan sponsors would contribute enough for terminating plans to have sufficient assets to cover all promised benefits. In 1992, we also reported that PBGC had weaknesses in its internal controls and financial systems that placed the entire agency, and not just the single employer program, at risk. Three years later, we reported that legislation enacted in 1994 had strengthened PBGC's program weaknesses and that we believed improvements had been significant enough for us to remove the agency's high-risk designation. However, given the potential for significant changes in the program's position, we continued to monitor the situation. Early this year, PBGC's single-employer pension insurance program reported a $3.6 billion accumulated deficit …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In February 2003, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) received the largest budget increase in the history of the agency. The increased funding was designed to better position SEC to address serious issues identified in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and to better enable SEC to address numerous operational and human capital management challenges discussed in the GAO report entitled SEC Operations: Increased Workload Creates Challenges (GAO-02-302). To help ensure that SEC spends its budgetary resources in an efficient and effective manner, GAO was asked to review the SEC's efforts to address the issues raised in the 2002 report and to report on how SEC intends to utilize its new budgetary resources. GAO's final report on these matters is expected to be completed this Fall. This testimony provides requested information on the status of SEC's current spending plan and preliminary observations on SEC's strategic and human capital planning efforts."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses Medicare program payment adjustments to hospitals and physicians that account for geographic differences in costs. Because Medicare's hospital and physician payment systems are based on national rates, these geographic cost adjustments are essential to account for costs beyond providers' control and to ensure that beneficiaries have adequate access to services. If these adjustments are not adequate, this could affect providers' financial stability and their ability or willingness to continue serving Medicare patients. Medicare's payments to hospitals vary with the average wages paid in a hospital's labor market. Yet, some hospitals believe that the labor cost adjustment applied does not reflect the average wage in their labor market area. Medicare's labor cost adjustment does not adequately account for geographic differences in hospital wages in some areas because a single adjustment is applied to all hospitals in an area, even though it may encompass multiple labor markets or different types of communities within which hospitals pay significantly different average wages. Geographic reclassification addresses some inequities in Medicare's labor cost adjustments by allowing some hospitals that pay wages enough above the average in their area to receive higher …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Since 1781, the federal government has transferred or sold about 1.1 billion acres to nonfederal entities--such as state and local governments, businesses, nonprofit groups, and individual citizens--under various initiatives that promoted general economic development, developed transportation systems, supported public schools, and encouraged settlement of the western frontier. Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Forest Service administer about seventy percent of the 657 million acres that remain in federal ownership. These agencies continue to transfer and sell federal land, but under more limited circumstances. For example, a community might want to develop a public park, a nonprofit group might want land for a shooting range, or a homeowner might want to obtain clear property title after mistakenly building part of his house on federal land. During fiscal years 1991 through 2000, BLM alone was authorized by law to transfer land. BLM transferred about 79,000 acres during this period under four key statutes and received about $3 million. BLM and the Forest Service are both authorized by law to sell land and are directed by law to receive at least fair market value when they …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the (1) federal government's role in ensuring a sound public infrastructure and (2) estimates of future investment requirements developed by seven federal agencies: the Appalachian Regional Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Federal Highway Administration, the General Services Administration, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. GAO found that the federal government exerts an important influence on infrastructure investment and development. The seven agencies GAO reviewed each estimate billions of dollars for future investment in infrastructure. The estimates focused on investment in the areas of water resources, hydropower, water supply, wastewater treatment, airports, highways, mass transit, and public buildings. Although these estimates encompass major areas of public infrastructure, they cannot be easily compared or simply "added up" to produce a national estimate of infrastructure investment needs. GAO did not independently verify the seven agencies' investment estimates, but it did rely on past reviews of these data by GAO and others that examined the soundness and completeness of the methodology and data used to develop the estimates. This testimony summarized the July 2001 report (GAO-01-835) and the February 2000 report (RCED/AIMD-00-35)."