Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The federal government currently relies heavily on the individual income tax and payroll taxes for about 80 percent of its total annual revenue. Long-range projections show that without some form of policy change, the gap between revenues and spending will increasingly widen. The debate about the future tax system is partly about whether the goals for the nation's tax system can be best achieved by reforming the current income tax so that it has a broader base and flatter rate schedule, or switching to some form of consumption tax. This testimony reviews the revenue contribution of the current individual income tax as well as its complexity, economic efficiency, equity, and taxpayer compliance issues; discusses some common dimensions to compare tax proposals; and draws some conclusions for tax reform. This statement is based on previously published GAO work and reviews of relevant literature."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2004, President Bush announced what was described as the most comprehensive restructuring of U.S. military forces overseas since the end of the Korean War. Soon thereafter, the Department of Defense (DOD) issued a report titled Strengthening U.S. Global Defense Posture. This report defined the key tenets of the integrated global presence and basing strategy, which outlines troop and basing adjustments overseas. Although the strategy is intended to make the overseas posture of the United States more flexible and efficient, it will require new facilities costing billions of dollars, some of the cost to be borne by the United States and some by other nations. As plans for overseas basing began to emerge, the Senate Appropriations Committee expressed concern about the use of military construction funds for projects at overseas bases that may soon be obsolete or closed because of changes being considered by DOD and the military services. Accordingly, the Senate report accompanying the fiscal year 2004 military construction appropriation bill directed DOD to prepare detailed, comprehensive master plans for changing infrastructure requirements at U.S. military facilities in each of the overseas regional commands. The Senate report …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Chemicals play an important role in everyday life, but some may be harmful to human health and the environment. Chemicals are used to produce items widely used throughout society, such as cleansers and plastics as well as industrial solvents and additives. However, some chemicals, such as lead and mercury, are highly toxic at certain doses and need to be regulated because of health and safety concerns. In 1976, the Congress passed the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to authorize the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to control chemicals that pose an unreasonable risk to human health or the environment. This testimony is based on GAO's June 2005 report, Chemical Regulation: Options Exist to Improve EPA's Ability to Assess Health Risks and Manage Its Chemical Review Program (GAO-05-458). GAO's report describes EPA's efforts to (1) assess chemicals used in commerce, (2) control the use of chemicals not yet in commerce, and (3) publicly disclose information provided by chemical companies under TSCA. GAO recommended that the Congress consider providing EPA additional authorities under TSCA to improve EPA's ability to assess chemical risks, and that the EPA Administrator take several actions to …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Currently, U.S. citizens are not required to present a passport when entering the United States from countries in the Western Hemisphere. However, U.S. citizens are required to establish citizenship to a CBP officer's satisfaction. On its Web site, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) advises U.S. citizens that an officer may ask for identification documents as proof of citizenship, including birth certificates or baptismal records and a photo identification document. In 2003, we testified that CBP officers were not readily capable of identifying whether individuals seeking entry into the United States were using counterfeit identification to prove citizenship. Specifically, our agents were able to easily enter the United States from Canada and Mexico using fictitious names and counterfeit driver's licenses and birth certificates. Later in 2003 and 2004, we continued to be able to successfully enter the United States using counterfeit identification at land border crossings, but were denied entry on one occasion. Because of Congress's concerns that these weaknesses could possibly be exploited by terrorists or others involved in criminal activity, Congress requested that we assess the current status of security at the nation's borders. Specifically, Congress …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "On July 24, 2006, we issued a report to Congress entitled, Financial Restatements: Update of Public Company Trends, Market Impacts, and Regulatory Enforcement Activities. That report included a listing of 1,390 financial restatement announcements that we identified as having been made because of financial reporting fraud and/or accounting errors between July 1, 2002, and September 30, 2005. As part of that work, Congress asked that we provide a limited update of that database for the period October 1, 2005, through June 30, 2006."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This letter responds to Congress's request for additional information related to Congress's June 14, 2006, hearing on the progress and challenges of the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) Office of Intelligence. As discussed in the statement at the hearing, for over 3 years, TSA has faced numerous challenges in developing a federal passenger prescreening program, known currently as Secure Flight, because TSA did not follow a disciplined life cycle development approach."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Our remarks will focus on the Architect of the Capitol's (AOC) progress in achieving selected project milestones and in managing the project's schedule since Congress's June 28, 2006, hearing on the project. As part of this discussion, we will address a number of key challenges and risks that continue to face the project, as well as actions AOC has taken or plans to take to address these risks. In addition, we will discuss the status of the project's costs and funding. Our remarks today are based on our review of schedules and financial reports for the Capitol Visitor Center (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 construction site; and our discussions with the CVC team (AOC and its major CVC contractors), AOC's Chief Fire Marshal, and representatives from the U.S. Capitol Police, the General Services Administration, and the Office of Compliance. We also reviewed AOC's construction management contractor's periodic schedule assessments and daily reports on the progress of interior wall and floor stonework."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) bears sole responsibility for eight DOD-specific high-risk areas and shares responsibility for six governmentwide high-risk areas. These high-risk areas reflect the pervasive weaknesses that cut across all of DOD's major business operations. Several of the high-risk areas are inter-related, including, but not limited to, financial management, business systems modernization, and DOD's overall approach to business transformation. Billions of dollars provided to DOD are wasted each year because of ineffective performance and inadequate accountability. DOD has taken some positive steps to successfully transform its business operations and address these high-risk areas, but huge challenges remain. This testimony discusses (1) pervasive, long-standing financial and business management weaknesses that affect DOD's efficiency; (2) some examples that highlight a need for improved business systems development and implementation oversight; (3) DOD's key initiatives to improve financial management, related business processes, and systems; and (4) actions needed to enhance the success of DOD's financial and business transformation efforts."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Pipeline Safety Improvement Act of 2002 established a risk-based program for gas transmission pipelines--termed integrity management--which requires pipeline operators to identify areas where the consequences of a pipeline incident would be the greatest, such as highly populated areas. Operators must assess pipelines in these areas for safety threats (such as corrosion), repair or replace defective segments, and reassess their pipelines at least every 7 years. Under the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration's (PHMSA) regulations, operators must reassess their pipelines for corrosion at least every 7 years and for all safety threats at least every 10, 15, or 20 years. State pipeline safety agencies that assist PHMSA are eligible to receive matching funds up to 50 percent of the cost of their pipeline safety programs. This statement is based on ongoing work for Congress and for others. It focuses on three areas germane to current legislative reauthorization proposals: (1) an overall assessment of the integrity management program, (2) the 7-year reassessment requirement, and (3) provisions to increase state pipeline safety grants. GAO contacted more than 50 pipeline operators and a broad range of stakeholders and surveyed state …

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; Conflict of interest disclosure requirements for local government offices and persons who contract with local governmental entities (RQ-0451-GA)

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 the Office for the Prevention of Developmental Disabilities is an autonomous state agency or whether it is subject to oversight and control by the Health and Human Services Commission (RQ-0434-GA)

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; Applicability of chapter 711, Health and Safety Code, to a family cemetary (RQ-0440-GA)

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 premium payments for health insurance and car allowances provided to the mayor and city commissioners of Brownsville constitute "compensation" for purposes of the Brownsville City Charter (RQ-0445-GA)

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 a county clerk is authorized, required, or permitted by statute to file and a record a common-law copyright (RQ-0449-GA)

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 the Lake LBJ Municipal Utility District No. 2 is eligible for dissolution under Water Code section 49.321, which permits the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to dissolve inactive municipal utility districts (RQ-0441-GA)

List of Texas Democratic Party, National Stonewall Democrats, and website links revised on August 2006. Included is a list for Texas Stonewall 2006-2008, listing officers, National Region 6 Directors, chapters, and chapter officers with contact information.

Summary describing the work completed at Louisiana State University Department of Oceanography and Coastal Studies Louisiana State University for 'The Effects of Depth, Location, and Habitat Type on Relative Abundance and Species Composition of Fishes Associated with Petroleum Platforms and Sonnier Bank in the Northern Gulf of Mexico.' It includes background information on the project funding and sponsorship, goals, methodology, and findings.

Summary describing the work completed at Texas A&M University for 'Deepwater Program: Cooperative Research on Sperm Whales and Their Response to Seismic Exploration in the Gulf of Mexico - (Sperm Whale Seismic Study-SWSS).' It includes background information on the project funding and sponsorship, goals, methodology, and findings.

A document collecting pictures of the UNT Trailblazers now with space next to their portraits for names, contact, and other information about them. There are a few pages with historic information about the alumni group. The back page includes pictures of the alumni from the yearbook when they were enrolled.

A document listing upcoming events at UNT that will be hosted by the Multicultural Center. Each includes the name, a short description, time, location, and the staff member in charge of planning the event. Some aren't completed and there are blank spaces for more events.

This project developed a comprehensive mathematical and simulation model for calculating thermal hydraulic, electrochemical, and corrosion parameters, viz. temperature, fluid flow velocity, pH, corrosion potential, hydrogen injection, oxygen contamination, stress corrosion cracking, crack growth rate, and other important quantities in the coolant circuits of water-cooled nuclear power plants, including both Boiling Water Reactors (BWRs) and Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs). The model is being used to assess the three major operational problems in Pressurized Water Reactors (PWR), which include mass transport, activity transport, and the axial offset anomaly, and provide a powerful tool for predicting the accumulation of SCC damage in BWR primary coolant circuits as a function of operating history. Another achievement of the project is the development of a simulation tool to serve both as a training tool for plant operators and as an engineering test-bed to evaluate new equipment and operating strategies (normal operation, cold shut down and others). The development and implementation of the model allows us to estimate the activity transport or "radiation fields" around the primary loop and the vessel, as a function of the operating parameters and the water chemistry.

PCQUEST, a package of eight predictive indices, was developed with U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) support by the Energy and Environmental Research Center to predict fireside performance in coal-fired utility boilers more reliably than traditional indices. Since the development of PCQUEST, the need has arisen for additional fuel types into the program database. PCQUEST was developed using combustion inorganic transformation theory from previous projects and from empirical data derived from laboratory experiments and coal boiler field observations. The goal of this joint venture project between commercial industry clients and DOE is to further enhance PCQUEST and improve its utility for a variety of new fuels and systems. Specific objectives include initiating joint venture projects with utilities, boiler vendors, and coal companies that involve real-world situations and needs in order to strategically improve algorithms and input-output functions of PCQUEST, as well as to provide technology transfer to the industrial sector. The main body of this report provides a short summary of the projects that were closed from February 1999 through June 2006. All of the reports sent to the commercial clients can be found in the appendix.

Application materials submitted to the Texas Historical Commission requesting a historic marker for the Lyons Lodge No. 195, A.F. & A.M., in Schulenburg, Texas. The materials include the inscription text of the marker, original application, narrative, and photographs.

Reconciliation summary and detail with an ending balance of $4,720.59 for the period ending on August 31, 2006.