Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Election-day problems in Florida and elsewhere in November 2000 raised concerns about voting systems that included, among other things, alleged voting irregularities that may have affected voter access to the polls. The term voting irregularities generally refers to a broad array of complaints relating to voting and/or elections that may involve violations of federal voting rights and/or federal criminal law for which the Department of Justice (DOJ) has enforcement responsibilities. The Ranking Minority Members of several Congressional committees requested that we review activities at DOJ to help ensure voter access to the polls and actions to address allegations of voting irregularities. This report (1) identifies and describes changes DOJ has made since November 2000 to help ensure voter access to the polls; (2) identifies and describes actions that the Voting Section in DOJ's Civil Rights Division has taken to track, address, and assess allegations of election-related voting irregularities received between November 2000 and December 2003; and (3) assesses the Voting Section's internal control activities to help ensure relevant, accurate, and reliable recording and documentation of allegations of voting irregularities to accurately track actions taken in response to allegations …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "As the Comptroller General recently testified and as discussed in our latest financial audit report, the Department of Defense's (DOD) financial management deficiencies, taken together, continue to represent the single largest obstacle to achieving an unqualified opinion on the U.S. government's consolidated financial statements. For example, to date, none of the military services has passed the test of an independent financial audit because of pervasive weaknesses in internal control, processes, and fundamentally flawed business systems. Problems with the department's financial management operations go far beyond its accounting and finance processes and systems. The department continues to rely on a reported 4,000 or more fundamentally flawed finance, logistics, personnel, acquisition, and other management information systems to gather the data needed to support day-to-day management decision making and reporting. These systems were not designed to be, but rather evolved into the overly complex and error-prone operation--vulnerable to fraud, waste, and abuse--that exists today. Further, inefficiencies in DOD's current business operations, such as (1) little standardization across DOD components, (2) multiple systems performing the same tasks, (3) the same data stored in multiple systems, (4) manual entry of the same data …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Congress has long stressed the importance of proper treatment of taxpayers by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). This emphasis was a major impetus for the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998, which included numerous additional protections for taxpayers. Among these was Section 1203, which defines 10 acts or omissions for which an IRS employee is to be fired. Most, but not all, of the acts or omissions involve mistreatment of taxpayers, such as by falsifying information or by harassing them. At the same time, Congress has been concerned about IRS's ability to administer the tax laws, including whether the Section 1203 provisions could hamper IRS's enforcement efforts by having a "chilling effect" on IRS employees' willingness to take appropriate enforcement actions against noncompliant taxpayers. Related concerns are whether the IRS and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) process for reviewing allegations made against employees is too time consuming and inconsistent, and whether all the Section 1203 provisions should be retained. In February 2003, we recommended that IRS evaluate the effectiveness of changes it made to speed up and otherwise improve the review of Section 1203 …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "On July 20, 2004, GAO testified before the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia, Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs on "Building the 21st Century Federal Workforce: Assessing Progress in Human Capital Management." This letter responds to committee members' request that GAO provide answers to follow-up questions."

Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO exists to support the Congress in meeting its constitutional responsibilities and to help improve the performance and ensure the accountability of the federal government for the benefit of the American people. To accomplish its mission, GAO depends on a diverse and knowledge-based workforce comprising individuals with a broad spectrum of technical and program skills and institutional memory. This workforce represents GAO's human capital--its greatest asset--and is critical to the agency's success in serving the Congress and the nation. This strategic human capital plan is a key step in continuing GAO's progress to build a highly effective, performance-based organization by attracting, retaining, motivating, and rewarding a high-performing, top-quality workforce. GAO believes that strategic human capital management must be the centerpiece of any serious change management initiative and effort to transform the culture and operations of any large organization, including government agencies. This plan extends and builds upon what GAO has already accomplished by using existing administrative authorities and by pursuing incremental additional tools and flexibilities legislatively. From the demonstrated results that GAO has achieved, it is clear that we have been a leader in human capital …

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."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The events of September 11, 2001, and the subsequent discovery of commercial nuclear power plants on a list of possible terrorist targets have focused considerable attention on the plants' capabilities to defend against a terrorist attack. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), an independent agency established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 to regulate the civilian use of nuclear materials, is responsible for regulating and overseeing security at commercial nuclear power plants. GAO was asked to review (1) NRC's efforts since September 11, 2001, to improve security at nuclear power plants, including actions NRC has taken to implement some of GAO's September 2003 recommendations to improve security oversight and (2) the extent to which NRC is in a position to assure itself and the public that the plants are protected against terrorist attacks. This testimony reflects the preliminary results of GAO's review. GAO will issue a more comprehensive report in early 2005."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability 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 Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO has performed extensive work and gained experience on government transformation and the critical role that human capital management can play in driving this change. Valuable lessons from these efforts could help guide the proposed reforms in the intelligence community envisioned by the 9/11 Commission. This statement focuses on (1) the lessons GAO has learned from successful mergers and organizational transformations; particularly the need for committed and sustained leadership and the role of performance management systems in these changes; (2) human capital flexibilities that can be used as essential tools to help achieve these reforms; (3) how the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is using these lessons and human capital flexibilities to transform to meet its evolving mission in the post 9/11 environment, and (4) GAO's findings to date on the factors that must be considered in the approach to the government's security clearance process, as a means to accelerate the process for national security appointments."

Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This document is a companion product to GAO-04-916. This document presents the results of GAO's surveys of local food stamp office supervisors. The purpose of the surveys was to determine the views of local food stamp supervisors on whether implementation of the options had achieved expected results. We developed eight surveys, one for each of the Farm Bill options, to obtain this information. We mailed out a total of 1,328 surveys to eight random samples of local food stamp office supervisors. Each of the eight samples comprised local food stamp offices in states that had implemented that option. The response rates varied between 74.0 percent and 86.1 percent. A more detailed discussion of our scope and methodology and a discussion of the summary of selected survey results are contained in our report entitled Food Stamp Program: Farm Bill Options Ease Administrative Burden, but Opportunities Exist to Streamline Participant Reporting Rules among Programs (GAO-04-916, Washington, D.C.: September 21, 2004). While this e-supplement contains information on the results from local food stamp offices, another e-supplement (GAO-04-1058SP) contains information on the results from our survey of food stamp administrators. …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Congress appropriated $175 million for the New York State Workers' Compensation Board (the Board) to assist with the resulting workers' compensation claims. These claims were filed by workers or volunteers (or survivors) who were injured, became ill, or died as a result of the attacks and the recovery efforts. Specifically, Congress provided federal funds to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) for the Board in three earmarked portions: $125 million for processing of claims, and $25 million each to reimburse the state Uninsured Employers Fund (UEF) for benefits paid (1) for workers associated with uninsured employers and (2) for volunteers. DOL transferred the funds to the Board using a grant agreement. This testimony looks at the Board's use of the $175 million in federal funds and the status of September 11 workers' compensation claims. The testimony addresses: (1) how the federal funds have been used and (2) how many applications for compensation have been received and their status. In addition, we are continuing to gather information about whether the grant agreement and the appropriation act are consistent with …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Although the U.S. government provides broad protection for intellectual property, intellectual property protection in parts of the world is inadequate. As a result, U.S. goods are subject to piracy and counterfeiting in many countries. A number of U.S. agencies are engaged in efforts to improve protection of U.S. intellectual property abroad. This testimony, based on a recent GAO report, describes U.S agencies' efforts, the mechanisms used to coordinate these efforts, and the impact of these efforts and the challenges they face."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses work done by GAO's Office of Special Investigations (OSI) related to degrees from "diploma mills." For purposes of this overview, we defined "diploma mills" as nontraditional, unaccredited, postsecondary schools that offer degrees for a relatively low flat fee, promote the award of academic credits based on life experience, and do not require any classroom instruction. Over the past 3 years, OSI has purchased degrees from a diploma mill through the Internet, created a diploma mill in the form of a fictitious foreign school, investigated whether the federal government has paid for degrees from diploma mills for federal employees, and determined whether high-level federal employees at certain agencies have degrees from diploma mills. This testimony summarizes our investigative findings."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Preventive care depends on identifying health risks and on taking steps to control these risks. In contrast, Medicare, the federal health program insuring almost 35 million beneficiaries age 65 or older, was established largely to help pay beneficiaries' health care costs when they became ill or injured. Congress has broadened Medicare coverage over time to include specific preventive services, such as flu shots and certain cancer-screening tests, and the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) added coverage for several preventive services, including a one-time preventive care examination for new enrollees, which will start in 2005. GAO's work, done before MMA, included analyzing data from four national health surveys to examine the extent to which Medicare beneficiaries received preventive services through physician visits. GAO also interviewed officials from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and other experts and reviewed the results of past demonstrations and studies to assess expected benefits and limits of different delivery options for preventive care, including a one-time preventive care examination."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "When the World Trade Center (WTC) buildings collapsed on September 11, 2001, nearly 3,000 people died and an estimated 250,000 to 400,000 people who were visiting, living, working, and attending school nearby, or responding to the attack, were exposed to a mixture of dust, debris, smoke, and various chemicals. In the months to follow, thousands of people who returned to the area to live and work, as well as responders who were involved in the search for remains and site cleanup, were also exposed. In addition, people in New York City and across the country were exposed to the emotional trauma of a terrorist attack on American soil. Concerns have been raised about the short- and long-term physical and mental health effects of the attack. Various government agencies and private organizations established efforts to monitor and understand these health effects. GAO was asked to describe the health effects that have been observed in the aftermath of the WTC attack and the efforts that are in place to monitor and understand those health effects. GAO searched bibliographic databases such as Medline to determine the pertinent scientific literature, reviewed that …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "After the events of September 11, 2001, Congress appropriated over $140 million to help drinking water systems assess their vulnerabilities to terrorist threats and to develop response plans. Utilities are asking for additional funding, however, not only to plan security upgrades but also to support their implementation. This testimony is based on GAO's report, Drinking Water: Experts' Views on How Future Federal Funding Can Best Be Spent to Improve Security (GAO-04-29, October 31, 2003). Specifically, GAO sought experts' views on (1) the key security-related vulnerabilities affecting drinking water systems, (2) the criteria for determining how federal funds are allocated among drinking water systems to improve their security, and the methods by which those funds should be distributed, and (3) specific activities the federal government should support to improve drinking water security."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In an effort to increase homeland security following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, the executive branch issued seven national strategies related to combating terrorism and homeland security. Per the request of the Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats, and International Relations, House Committee on Government Reform, this testimony will focus primarily on the National Strategy for Homeland Security but also include relevant aspects of the National Strategy for Combating Terrorism. Together, these two national strategies address preventing terrorist attacks within the United States, reducing America's vulnerability to terrorism, and minimizing the damage and assisting in the recovery from future attacks, if they occur. This testimony covers three topics: (1) To what extent are elements of the Homeland Security and Combating Terrorism strategies aligned with recommendations issued by the 9/11 Commission? (2) What key departments have responsibilities for implementing the Homeland Security strategy, and what actions have they taken to implement the strategy? and (3) What challenges are faced by key departments in assessing their progress towards achieving homeland security objectives? This testimony continues GAO's efforts to establish baseline assessments related to homeland security. …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Influenza is associated with an average of 36,000 deaths and more than 200,000 hospitalizations each year in the United States. Persons aged 65 and older are involved in more than 9 of 10 deaths and 1 of 2 hospitalizations related to influenza. The best way to prevent influenza is to be vaccinated each fall. In the 2000-01 flu season, and again in the 2003-04 flu season, this country experienced periods when the demand for flu vaccine exceeded the supply, and there is concern about the availability of vaccines for this and future flu seasons. There is also concern about the prospect of a worldwide influenza epidemic, or pandemic, which many experts believe to be inevitable. Three influenza pandemics occurred in the twentieth century. Experts estimate that the next pandemic could kill up to 207,000 people in the United States and cause major social disruption. Public health experts have raised concerns about the ability of the nation's public health system to respond to an influenza pandemic. GAO was asked to discuss issues related to supply, demand, and distribution of vaccine for a regular flu season and assess the federal …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Lives of first responders and those whom they are trying to assist can be lost when first responders cannot communicate effectively as needed. This testimony addresses issues of determining the status of interoperable wireless communications across the nation, the potential roles that federal, state, and local governments can play in improving these communications, and the need to structure grant programs so that they better support public sector efforts to improve these communications."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) management concerns persist despite the LLRW Policy Act of 1980, as amended, which made states responsible for providing for disposal of class A, B, and C LLRW and made the Department of Energy (DOE) responsible for the disposal of greater-than-class C LLRW. This testimony is based on GAO's June 2004 report, which examined the adequacy of disposal availability for class A, B, and C wastes, and GAO's April 2003 report, which assessed recovery efforts involving greater-than-class-C waste. This testimony examines (1) changes in LLRW disposal availability since 1999, (2) recent LLRW disposal volumes and potential future volumes, (3) any current or anticipated shortfalls in disposal availability, (4) the potential effects of any such shortfalls, (5) the effectiveness of the Act in developing regional disposal options for class A, B, and C wastes, and (6) the status of DOE's effort to dispose of greater-than-class-C waste."

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).

BRAC 2005 Intelligence Joint Cross-Service Group Meeting Minutes of September 22, 2004. The document is redacted and includes the IJCSG Principals Meeting brief (PowerPoint slides).

BRAC 2005 Intelligence Joint Cross-Service Group Meeting Minutes of September 29, 2004. The document is redacted and includes the IJCSG Principals Meeting brief (PowerPoint slides).

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether Hidalgo County deputy district clerks are subject to the provisions of the Hidalgo County civil service plan, and if not, whether the Hidalgo County commissioners court may amend the civil service plan to include deputy district clerks (RQ-0196-GA)