A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins ""Spend analysis" is a tool that provides knowledge about who are the buyers, who are the suppliers, how much is being spent for what goods and services, and where are the opportunities to leverage buying power. Private sector companies are using spend analysis as a foundation for employing a strategic approach to procurement. Recognizing the potential in government purchasing, GAO examined if the departments of Agriculture, Health and Human Services (HHS), Justice, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs are using spend analysis to take a strategic approach. GAO assessed (1) if agencies use spend analysis to obtain knowledge to improve procurement of goods and services and (2) how agencies' practices compare to leading companies best practices."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "One of the five priorities in the President's Management Agenda is the expansion of electronic government (e-government)--the use of Internet applications to enhance access to and delivery of government information and services. Project SAFECOM is one of the 25 initiatives sponsored by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to implement this agenda. Managed by the Department of Homeland Security, the project's goal is to achieve interoperability among emergencyresponse communications at all levels of government, while at the same time realizing cost savings. GAO assessed the government's progress in implementing Project SAFECOM."

Guidance issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report supersedes GAO-03-232SP, GAO's Agency Protocols. This document contains the updated protocols that govern the U.S. Government Accountability Office's (GAO) work with executive branch agencies. The protocols provide clearly defined and transparent policies and practices on how GAO interacts with agencies in performing its work. GAO supports the Congress in meeting its constitutional responsibilities and strives to help improve the performance and ensure the accountability of the federal government for the benefit of the American people. Although our primary client is the Congress and we must maintain our independence from the entities that are the subject of our work, we seek to continue constructive working relationships with the executive branch. In all cases, we seek to conduct our work in a professional, objective, fact-based, nonpartisan, and nonideological manner, in order to help improve government."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Combined, the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) provide health care services to about 12 million beneficiaries at an estimated cost of about $53 billion for fiscal year 2004--$26.7 billion for DOD and $26.5 billion for VA. In 1982 the Congress passed the VA and DOD Health Resources Sharing and Emergency Operations Act (Sharing Act) to promote more cost-effective use of health care resources and more efficient delivery of care. Specifically, the Congress authorized military treatment facilities and VA medical centers to enter into sharing agreements to buy, sell, and barter medical and support services. To further encourage on-going collaboration, the Congress, in section 721 of the Bob Stump National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2003, directed the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish a joint incentives program to identify and provide incentives to implement, fund, and evaluate creative health care coordination and sharing initiatives between DOD and VA. To facilitate the program, each Secretary is required to contribute a minimum of $15 million from each department's appropriation into an account established in the U. S. …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) assumed responsibility for the immigration enforcement and services programs of the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in 2003. The three DHS bureaus with primary responsibility for immigration functions are U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS), and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This transfer creates a great opportunity for DHS to address long-standing management and operational problems within INS. The Homeland Security Act requires GAO to review the transfer of immigration functions to DHS. In response, this report assesses the status of (1) communication and coordination of roles and responsibilities, (2) integration of immigration and customs investigators in ICE, and (3) administrative services and systems in CBP, CIS, and ICE."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Congress recognizes that the DOD needs some flexibility to adjust research and development program levels. A key mechanism--below threshold reprogramming (BTR)--enables DOD to adjust program funding levels without seeking prior congressional approval as long as a certain dollar amount or percentage threshold is not exceeded. In response to a mandate by the appropriations committees, this report addresses (1) the quality of the information available about DOD's use of BTRs and withheld funds in fiscal years 2002 and 2003 and (2) the amount and volume of BTRs and temporarily withheld funds for those years. The report also addresses recent congressional direction on providing information on funding adjustments. DOD disagreed that its recent reports to Congress provide BTR information of limited quality but noted that the issues GAO raised in this regard can be addressed and that DOD was open to suggestions and will gladly work with committee staff to satisfy their needs. DOD also offered suggestions to clarify language on certain issues and to put its use of BTRs more in context. DOD's willingness to work with Congress is a constructive response that can lead to reporting …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "As part of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA) of 2001, the Congress authorized a 3-year, $17 million per year school-based mentoring grant program. For fiscal year 2004, Congress has increased funding to about $50 million to fund additional mentoring efforts. Congress requested that GAO provide information on the student mentoring program. To do this, GAO answered the following questions: (1) What are the basic elements, policies, and procedures of successful mentoring programs? (2) What are the key characteristics of NCLBA-funded mentoring efforts, including the extent to which they have the basic elements, policies, and procedures of successful mentoring programs? (3) How does the Department of Education monitor program implementation? (4) What are Education's and grantees' plans to assess program outcomes?"

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Medicare's payments for the costs physicians incur in operating their practices are based on two sets of estimates: total practice expenses and resource estimates for individual services. Total practice expense estimates were derived from American Medical Association (AMA) physician surveys, which the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) refines with supplemental data submitted by medical specialty societies. Resource estimates for individual services were developed by expert panels and refined by CMS with recommendations from another expert panel. In response to a mandate in the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Benefits Improvement and Protection Act of 2000, GAO evaluated CMS's processes for updating total practice expense and resource estimates and whether CMS will have the data necessary to update the fee schedule at least every 5 years as mandated by law."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Established in March 2002, the Homeland Security Advisory System was designed to disseminate information on the risk of terrorist acts to federal agencies, states, localities, and the public. However, these entities have raised questions about the threat information they receive from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the costs they incurred as a result of responding to heightened alerts. This report examines (1) the decision making process for changing the advisory system national threat level; (2) information sharing with federal agencies, states, and localities, including the applicability of risk communication principles; (3) protective measures federal agencies, states, and localities implemented during high (codeorange) alert periods; (4) costs federal agencies reported for those periods; and (5) state and local cost information collected by DHS."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "An accident at one the nation's commercial nuclear power plants could result in human health and environmental damages. To ensure that funds would be available to settle liability claims in such cases, the Price-Anderson Act requires licensees for these plants to have primary insurance--currently $300 million per site. The act also requires secondary coverage in the form of retrospective premiums to be contributed by all licensees to cover claims that exceed primary insurance. If these premiums are needed, each licensee's payments are limited to $10 million per year and $95.8 million in total for each of its plants. In recent years, limited liability companies have increasingly become licensees of nuclear power plants, raising concerns about whether these companies--by shielding their parent corporations' assets--will have the financial resources to pay their retrospective premiums. GAO was asked to determine (1) the extent to which limited liability companies are the licensees for U.S. commercial nuclear power plants, (2) the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) requirements and procedures for ensuring that licensees of nuclear power plants comply with the Price-Anderson Act's liability requirements, and (3) whether and how these procedures differ …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Recent advances in technologies that rely on the use of the radiofrequency spectrum have turned science fiction of the past into reality. Cellular telephones, wireless computer networks, global positioning system receivers, and other spectrum-dependent technologies are quickly becoming as common to everyday life as radios and televisions. Further, these technologies have become critical to a variety of government missions, including homeland security and strategic warfare. However, with the increased demand, the radio-frequency spectrum--a resource that once seemed unlimited--has become crowded and, in the future, may no longer be able to accommodate all users' needs. As a result, there has been a growing debate among spectrum policy leaders about how to use spectrum more efficiently. To help inform these debates, GAO was asked to look at agencies' investments in spectrum efficient technologies and how the nation's spectrum management system may affect the development and adoption of these technologies."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The safety of the flying public and the reliability of the nation's aircraft depend, in part, on the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) regulation and certification of the aviation industry. FAA delegates the vast majority of its safety certification activities to about 13,600 private persons and organizations, known as "designees," which are currently grouped into 18 different programs. Among other tasks, designees perform physical examinations to ensure that pilots are medically fit to fly and examine the airworthiness of aircraft. GAO reviewed (1) the strengths of FAA's designee programs, (2) the weaknesses of those programs and factors contributing to those weaknesses, and (3) potential improvements to the programs."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In the past, we have reported concerns about possible inconsistencies in the disability decisions made by the 57 regional offices of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). In 2002, we reported that VA did not systematically assess the consistency of decision making for any specific impairments included in veterans' disability claims. We recommended that VA conduct such assessments to help reduce any unacceptable variations that VA might find among regional offices. VA agreed that decision-making consistency is an important goal and concurred in principle with our recommendation. However, VA did not discuss how it would measure consistency. In January 2003, in part because of concerns about consistency, we designated VA's disability program, along with other federal disability programs, as high-risk. In fiscal year 2005, VA estimates it will pay about $25 billion in disability compensation benefits to about 2.7 million disabled veterans. In this context, we determined (1) the actions that VA has taken to assess the consistency of regional office decisions on disability compensation claims and (2) the extent to which VA program data can be used to measure the consistency of decision making among …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since 2000, the U.S. government has provided a total of $3.3 billion to Colombia, making it the fifth largest recipient of U.S. assistance. Part of this funding has gone toward nonmilitary assistance to Colombia, including programs to (1) promote legitimate economic alternatives to coca and opium poppy; (2) assist Colombia's vulnerable groups, particularly internally displaced persons; and (3) strengthen the country's democratic, legal, and security institutional capabilities. GAO examined these programs' objectives, reported accomplishments, and identified the factors, if any, that limit project implementation and sustainability. We also examined the challenges faced by Colombia and the United States in continuing to support these programs."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "On October 21, 2002, we reported that consular staff at posts around the world held different views on balancing national security and customer service in the process of adjudicating visas. Since then, the Department of State's Bureau of Consular Affairs has underscored the importance of visa operations in protecting our nation's security and implemented many changes in visa processing to tighten security screening for applicants worldwide. Because of Canada's proximity to the United States and the fact that many nationals from countries of concern apply for U.S. visas in Canada, Congress asked us to obtain the views of U.S. consular officers in Canada regarding the visa process. In response, we are providing information from consular staff who adjudicate U.S. visas in Canada regarding their perceptions of the importance of national security in the visa process, including impediments that could interfere with efforts to make security a top priority in visa processing."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "From homeland security to tracking outbreaks of disease, to investigating the space shuttle disaster to responding to natural disasters, the collection, maintenance, and use of location-based (geospatial) information has become critical to many federal agencies' abilities to achieve their goals. Local governments and the private sector also rely on such data to support essential functions. GAO was asked to determine the extent to which the federal government is coordinating the sharing of geospatial assets, including through oversight measures in place at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in order to identify and reduce redundancies in geospatial data and systems."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In August 2001, the administration announced competitive sourcing as one of five initiatives in the President's Management Agenda. Under competitive sourcing, federal agencies open their commercial activities to competition among public and private sector sources. While competitive sourcing is expected to encourage innovation and improve efficiency and performance, it represents a major management change for most agencies. This report describes the progress selected agencies have made in establishing a competitive sourcing program, identifies major challenges these agencies are facing, and discusses strategies they are using to select activities for competition."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Russia's continued operation of three plutonium production reactors poses a serious proliferation threat. The Department of Energy's (DOE) Elimination of Weapons-Grade Plutonium Production program seeks to facilitate the reactors' closure by building or refurbishing replacement fossil fuel plants. This report (1) describes DOE's efforts to manage and implement the program, (2) assesses the challenges DOE faces in achieving its goal of shutting down the reactors, and (3) identifies DOE's current expenditures and projected program costs."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "As part of the efforts by the United States to oust Saddam Hussein, a critical element of U.S. policy included funding the Iraqi National Congress as the lead Iraqi opposition coalition. In 1999, the Iraqi National Congress Support Foundation (INCSF) was established to provide an organizational structure for Department of State funding. From March 2000 until September 2003, the Department of State funded several INCSF programs, including television broadcasting. INCSF's broadcasting goals included broadcasts into Iraq focusing on providing the Iraqi people unbiased news and information and updating them on efforts to bring democracy to Iraq. GAO was asked to review (1) the history of the Department of State's funding of INCSF broadcasting activities and (2) the key issues affecting State's funding decisions."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense's (DOD) military construction program provides funding for construction projects in the United States and overseas, and funds most base realignment and closure costs. Recent Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) estimates indicate that it would cost as much as $164 billion to improve facilities to a level that would meet the department's goals. GAO was asked to report on the (1) steps OSD has taken to enhance program management, (2) process of prioritizing and resourcing military construction projects, and (3) advantages and disadvantages of increasing the current funding thresholds for constructing and repairing facilities."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Conducting research and development (R&D) on technologies for detecting, preventing, and mitigating terrorist threats is vital to enhancing the security of the nation's transportation system. Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Congress enacted legislation to strengthen homeland security, in part by enhancing R&D. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are the two federal agencies with primary responsibility for transportation security. GAO was asked to assess the transportation security R&D projects that TSA, DHS, and other agencies have funded and assess how TSA and DHS are managing their transportation security R&D programs according to applicable laws and best practices."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The free flow of information among federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies could prove vital to fighting the war on terrorism. State and local law enforcement officials are key stakeholders in the United States' efforts to combat terrorism, and as such, they may require access to classified national security information to help prevent or respond to terrorist attacks. In order to gain access to such information, state and local law enforcement officials generally need federal security clearances. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) grants security clearances and shares classified information with state and local law enforcement officials. Immediately following September 11, 2001, some state and local law enforcement officials expressed frustration with the complexity of the process for obtaining security clearances. Others expressed frustration with the length of time it took to obtain a security clearance. These frustrations exacerbated the general concern among law enforcement stakeholders that the lack of security clearances could impede the flow of critical information from the FBI to the state and local level, from the state and local level to the FBI, and laterally from one state or local agency …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report presents the findings of our study of the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) determination of civil penalties and abatement of violations. The objective of the study was to assess the extent of OSHA's oversight of the civil penalty determination and the violation abatement processes. In addition, we developed a statistical model, known as a multivariate analysis, to better understand factors that influenced variation in penalty amounts. On July 7, 2004, we briefed Labor officials on the results of our study. This letter report formally conveys the information we presented at that briefing. To assess the extent of OSHA's oversight of the civil penalty determination and violation abatement processes, we (1) reviewed 2002 and 2003 regional audits from the five regions with the most inspections, (2) visited one of these regional offices and one area office within this region to interview officials and review documents and procedures, (3) conducted telephone interviews with the four remaining regional offices and one area office within each of those regions, (4) interviewed OSHA officials to identify relevant policies and procedures, and (5) reviewed relevant policies …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLBA) has focused national attention on improving the academic achievement of the nations' 48 million students by establishing a deadline--school year 2013-14--for public schools to ensure that all students are proficient in reading and math. Accordingly, states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico developed plans that set goals for increasing the numbers of students who attain proficiency on state tests each year, with all meeting goals by 2014. To provide information about states' efforts, GAO determined (1) what goals states established for student proficiency and their implications for whether schools will meet these goals; (2) what factors facilitated or impeded selected state and school district implementation efforts; and (3) how the Department of Education (Education) supported state efforts and approved state plans to meet student proficiency requirements."