BRAC 2005 Intelligence Joint Cross-Service Group Meeting Minutes of December 15, 2004. The document is redacted and includes the IJCSG Principals Meeting brief (PowerPoint slides).

Nomination form for the Frank Mayborn Award for Community Leadership. Nomination submissions are due by January 31, 2007

Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Presented is GAO's performance and accountability report for fiscal year 2004. In the spirit of the Government Performance and Results Act, this annual report informs the Congress and the American people about what we have achieved on their behalf. Importantly, GAO received a clean opinion from independent auditors on our financial statements for the 18th consecutive year. The financial information and the data measuring GAO's performance contained in this report are complete and reliable."

Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Research has shown that many Americans lack the knowledge of basic personal economics they need to make informed financial judgments and manage their money effectively. Yet financial literacy is increasingly important in a world where consumers must choose from an array of complicated financial products and services and employees must take on more responsibility for their retirement savings. Title V of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, known as the Financial Literacy and Education Improvement Act, created the Financial Literacy and Education Commission, comprised of 20 federal agencies, and charged it with coordinating federal efforts and developing a national strategy to promote financial literacy. The act also mandated that GAO report on recommendations for improving financial literacy among consumers. To help in developing our work, on July 28, 2004, GAO hosted a forum on the role of the federal government in improving financial literacy. Forum participants included experts in financial literacy and education from federal and state agencies, the financial industry, nonprofit organizations, and academic institutions. Participants discussed the topics federal efforts should cover, populations that should be targeted, methods of delivering information, …

A nomination form for the Pat Taggart Award for Newspaper Leader of the Year. Nominations must be received back by January 31, 2009.

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In December 2000, the Congress passed the Launching Our Communities' Access to Local Television Act of 2000 (Local TV Act or act). The act created the Local Television Loan Guarantee Program (Program) and established the Local Television Loan Guarantee Board (Board) to finance projects that will provide access to signals of local television stations to households in areas with limited or no access to such signals from a commercial satellite service or other multichannel video provider. The Board may approve loan guarantees up to 80 percent of loans totaling no more than $1.25 billion in aggregate. In November 2001, the Congress appropriated $2 million for administrative expenses to implement the Program. Section 1006 of the act requires that we perform an annual audit of the (1) administration of the provisions of the act, and (2) financial position of each applicant who receives a loan guarantee under the act, including the nature, amount, and purpose of investments made by the applicant. In October 2003, we issued our first annual report as required by the act. This second report addresses the status of the $2 million administrative appropriation and the …

News release about the "Smart Commute Initiative," which would allow potential home buyers near DART rail and bus stops to qualify for a mortgage that recognized the lower transportation expenses incurred by households that use public transportation.

BRAC 2005 Intelligence Joint Cross-Service Group Meeting Minutes of September 15, 2004. The document is redacted and includes the IJCSG Principals Meeting brief (PowerPoint slides).

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The General Services Administration (GSA) has begun planning for a governmentwide telecommunications program known as Networx. GSA issued a request for information in October 2003 that proposed two acquisitions: Networx Universal, which was to provide a full range of national and international network services across the United States, and Networx Select, which was to provide agencies with leading-edge services with less extensive geographic coverage. Contracts under the Select acquisition were to be awarded 9 months after the Universal In February, we testified on GSA's initial plans and identified four key challenges GSA faced in ensuring a successful outcome for the program: structure and scheduling, transition planning, service inventories, and performance measures. GAO assessed GSA's progress in addressing the challenges identified as well as GSA's efforts to address long-standing issues related to billing."

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This document is a draft version of the Z-Interop 2 project search and record data requirements for Z39.50 interoperability testing using radioactive MARC records.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Gasoline is subject to dramatic price swings. A multitude of factors affect U.S. gasoline markets, including world crude oil costs and limited refining capacity. Since the 1990s, another factor affecting U.S. gasoline markets has been a wave of mergers in the petroleum industry, several between large oil companies that had previously competed with each other. For example, in 1999, Exxon, the largest U.S. oil company, merged with Mobil, the second largest. This testimony is based primarily on Energy Markets: Effects of Mergers and Market Concentration in the U.S. Petroleum Industry (GAO-04-96, May 17, 2004). This report examined mergers in the industry from the 1990s through 2000, the changes in market concentration (the distribution of market shares among competing firms) and other factors affecting competition in the industry, how U.S. gasoline marketing has changed since the 1990s, and how mergers and market concentration in the industry have affected U.S. gasoline prices at the wholesale level. To address these issues, GAO purchased and analyzed a large body of data and developed state-of-the art econometric models for isolating the effects of eight specific mergers and increased market concentration on wholesale gasoline …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Prior to the transfer of the functions of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to the newly established Department of Homeland Security (DHS) within the Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate (EP&R), FEMA was one of 24 Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act agencies required to obtain annual financial statement audits. While DHS obtained a financial statement audit covering the period from March 1 through September 30, 2003, no financial statement audit was performed for FEMA activities for the 5 months prior to March 1, 2003. For fiscal year 2001, FEMA received a qualified audit opinion, which was due mostly to the auditor's inability to determine the accuracy of the amount reported for FEMA's equipment as well as other property issues. Although FEMA received an unqualified opinion from its auditor in fiscal year 2002, the auditor reported six material weaknesses (one relating to its real and personal property system processes) and one reportable condition as well as significant year-end adjustments made to property accounts. Furthermore, the audit report noted that FEMA did not have policies and procedures in place to ensure the accuracy of data recorded in its personal property …

Handwritten list of individuals and expenses by vendor detail from June through December 2003.

BRAC 2005 Intelligence Joint Cross-Service Group Meeting Minutes of July 15, 2004. The document is redacted and includes the BRAC 05 IJCSG Principals Meeting brief (PowerPoint slides).

Photocopy of an Alternate to Delegate Elevation Form and fax to Charles McGarry from Al Daniels on June 15, 2004, including a message: "Alternate Delegate Elevation Form."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The General Accounting Office (GAO) discussed some of the work the it is undertaking to address various operations and rebuilding efforts in Iraq. Specifically, GAO has a body of ongoing work looking at a range of issues involving Iraq, including Iraq's transitional administrative law, efforts to restore essential services to the Iraqi people, and the effectiveness of logistics activities during Operation Iraqi Freedom, among others. Importantly, given the challenging security environment in Iraq and the various other accountability organizations involved in the oversight process, it is attempting to coordinate its engagement planning and execution with other organizations as appropriate. In this testimony it discussed (1) its report (GAO-04-605) that was released yesterday on the contract award procedures for contracts awarded in fiscal year 2003 to help rebuild Iraq and (2) its preliminary findings on the military's use of global logistics support contracts. These support contracts have emerged as important tools in providing deployed military services with a wide range of logistics services."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In the summer of 2000, the air traffic control system lacked the capacity to handle demand efficiently, and flight delays produced near-gridlock conditions at several U.S. airports. A combination of factors, including the crises instigated by the events of 9/11, temporarily reduced air traffic, but air traffic is now back to near pre-9/11 levels. The ability of the air traffic control system to handle expected traffic in coming years may depend in part on the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) effectiveness in planning for a long-expected wave of air traffic controller retirements. GAO's testimony focuses on (1) the magnitude and timing of the pending wave of air traffic controller retirements, (2) the challenges FAA faces in ensuring that well-qualified air traffic controllers are ready to step into the gap created by the expected large number of retirements, and (3) challenges that will affect the ability of the air traffic controller workforce to meet future changes in the airline industry and use of airspace. GAO's statement is based on past reports on the air traffic controller workforce, including GAO's 2002 report that surveyed controllers and analyzed controller workforce data. GAO …

Email from Nancy Russell to the Texas Stonewall Democratic Caucus concerning the convention agenda.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Albert Albritton. Albritton joined the Navy in 1937. He served aboard the USS Dobbin (AD-3). They were present during the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. At the time of the attack the Dobbin was moored northeast of Ford Island. After the attack, they picked up survivors and took the wounded to shore. Albritton participated in the Korean War and was discharged in 1957.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Interstate pipelines carrying natural gas and hazardous liquids (such as petroleum products) are safer to the public than other modes of freight transportation. The Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS), the federal agency that administers the national regulatory program to ensure safe pipeline transportation, has been undertaking a broad range of activities to make pipeline transportation safer. However, the number of serious accidents--those involving deaths, injuries, and property damage of $50,000 or more--has not fallen. Among other things, OPS takes enforcement action against pipeline operators when safety problems are found. OPS has several enforcement tools to require the correction of safety violations. It can also assess monetary sanctions (civil penalties). This testimony is based on ongoing work for the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation and for other committees, as required by the Pipeline Safety Improvement Act of 2002. The testimony provides preliminary results on (1) the effectiveness of OPS's enforcement strategy and (2) OPS's assessment of civil penalties."

A detector for time-resolved small-angle x-ray scattering includes a nearly constant diameter, evacuated linear tube having an end plate detector with a first fluorescent screen and concentric rings of first fiber optic bundles for low angle scattering detection and an annular detector having a second fluorescent screen and second fiber optic bundles concentrically disposed about the tube for higher angle scattering detection. With the scattering source, i.e., the specimen under investigation, located outside of the evacuated tube on the tube's longitudinal axis, scattered x-rays are detected by the fiber optic bundles, to each of which is coupled a respective photodetector, to provide a measurement resolution, i.e., dq/q, where q is the momentum transferred from an incident x-ray to an x-ray scattering specimen, of 2% over two (2) orders of magnitude in reciprocal space, i.e., qmax/qmin approx=lO0.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In 1936, the Social Security Administration (SSA) established the Social Security number (SSN) to track workers' earnings for social security benefit purposes. Today, private and public sector entities frequently ask individuals for SSNs in order to conduct their businesses and sometimes to comply with federal laws. Although uses of SSNs can be beneficial to the public, SSNs are also a key piece of information in creating false identities either for financial misuse or for assuming an individual's identity. The retention of SSNs in the public and private sectors can create opportunities for identity theft. In addition, the aggregation of personal information, such as SSNs, in large corporate databases, as well as the public display of SSNs in various records accessed by the public, may provide criminals the opportunity to easily obtain this personal information. Given the heightened awareness of identity crimes, this testimony focuses on describing (1) how private sector entities obtain, use, and protect SSNs, and (2) public sector uses and protections of SSNs."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Under the current Social Security benefit formula, retired workers can receive benefits at age 65 that equal about 50 percent of preretirement earnings for an illustrative low-wage worker but only about 30 percent for an illustrative high-wage worker. Factors other than earnings also influence the distribution of benefits, including the program's provisions for disabled workers, spouses, children, and survivors. Changes in the program over time also affect the distribution of benefits across generations. Social Security faces a long-term structural financing shortfall. Program changes to address that shortfall could alter the way Social Security's benefits and revenues are distributed across the population and affect the income security of millions of Americans. The Chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging asked us to discuss how selected Social Security reform proposals might affect the distribution of benefits and taxes."