Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO provided information on how a Direct Vendor Delivery (DVD) contract would affect the Navy's financial reporting, focusing on: (1) whether accounting and auditing standards would require DVD contractors to report individual transactions through the Transaction Item Reporting (TIR) system; and (2) what level of reporting would be required under a DVD contract to meet accounting and auditing standards."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the District of Columbia's funding for certain union employee pay bonuses."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "As part of its involvement with the Navy Personal Property Working Group, GAO reviewed the Department of the Navy's implementation of the Defense Property Accountability System (DPAS). As requested by the working group, GAO visited six Navy activities to evaluate DPAS implementation at those selected locations. GAO found that (1) physical wall-to-wall inventories of personal property were not being done properly; (2) personal property items were not being included in DPAS at a component level to ensure accountability; and (3) policies, procedures, and training were not in place to ensure the sustainability of the property database."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This correspondence responds to follow-up questions to GAO's July 27, 2000, testimony before Congress on patient safety and quality of care at the Department of Veterans' Affairs (VA). The Patient Safety Centers of Inquiry and VA's Office of Research and Development are not directly linked organizationally. The four centers of Inquiry do not report to and are not funded by the Office of Research and Development. The Directors of the four centers report to either the Veterans Integrated Service Networks or Medical Center manager where they are located. The work at the Centers of Inquiry address some but not all of the known principal adverse and sentinel events at VA medical facilities. The key challenges to improving patient safety include setting goals, planning, and communicating the priority of patient safety to its employees. VA's patient safety program has not been fully implemented, because it is too early to predict whether, in the final analysis, it will be a model for other health care organizations."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on whether military active duty service personnel, retirees, and their dependents not enrolled in the Department of Defense's (DOD) TRICARE program, are obtaining nonemergency medical care through Military Treatment Facilities (MTF) emergency departments, focusing on the: (1) services' efforts to determine requirements for MTF emergency departments; (2) type of care emergency departments are providing; and (3) extent to which emergency department patients were TRICARE enrollees."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) managed care program, TRICARE, focusing on: (1) DOD's requirements for and oversight of network adequacy; (2) the content and methodology of DOD's July 1999 report to Congress on network adequacy; and (3) the changes to network adequacy requirements that DOD anticipates under its next round of TRICARE contracts, referred to as managed care support 3.0."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In 1998, the State Department stockpiled anthrax vaccine and antibiotics at several diplomatic posts near Iraq. In the event of an anthrax attack by Iraq, this stockpile was to be used for post-exposure immunization and treatment. In 1999, the State announced that it was starting a voluntary Anthrax Immunization Program for U.S. government employees, their dependents, and other personnel overseas. According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), full pre-exposure protection from anthrax requires six vaccinations given over an 18-month period, followed by an annual booster. Because the supplies of vaccines approved by FDA were insufficient, State decided to suspend plans to expand the program beyond the pilot site until more vaccine was available. GAO found that both the State Department's prepositioning of anthrax vaccine at diplomatic missions and the voluntary anthrax immunization program have been poorly implemented. Specifically, the vaccine was not properly stored or refrigerated, requirements for the voluntary program were not accurately estimated, and surveillance procedures used in the pilot program to monitor reactions to the vaccine were inadequate."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Reserve System plays multiple roles in the payments system by virtue of its status as central bank, banking industry regulator, and payments service provider. Where these roles overlap, conflict, or potentially complement one another inappropriately, the Federal Reserve is faced with the challenge of managing or separating them in such a way as to ensure that it is fulfilling each role without exerting undue influence or giving itself an advantage at the expense of the banking industry or its private sector competitors in providing payment services. GAO found no evidence to suggest that the Federal Reserve has not adequately separated its multiple roles."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "A strong competitive workforce is necessary for success in today's era of technological advances and increased global competition. Congress wants to ensure that employment and training programs foster a coherent and efficient approach to helping individuals find jobs in an environment characterized by changing labor demands. GAO identified 40 federally funded employment and training programs for which a key program goal is providing assistance to persons trying to find employment or improve their job skills. The most frequently cited target populations were Native Americans, youths, and veterans. Several programs target the same populations and provide similar services. This overlap could result in inefficiencies and redundancies. To assess whether such overlap is creating duplication among programs, agencies need to collect and analyze information on the eligibility requirements for the target populations. Federal regulations, such as the Government Performance and Results Act, provide agencies with the opportunity to coordinate their activities with other agencies. It also provides agencies with a framework to measure and evaluate the progress of their efforts."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on data sharing among federally funded benefit and loan programs, focusing on: (1) the data that selected benefit and loan programs use to verify self-reported, eligibility-related information; (2) whether additional data sharing with federal, state, and local governments, or private entities, could avoid some improper payments; and (3) the legal or other barriers to enhanced data sharing."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Federal Reserve System's Board of Governors' major rule on the privacy of consumer financial information. GAO noted that the: (1) final rule implements notice requirements and restrictions on a financial institution's ability to disclose nonpublic personal information about consumers to nonaffiliated third parties; (2) rule also prohibits a financial institution from disclosing such information to nonaffiliated third parties unless the institution satisfies various notice and opt-out requirements and the consumer has not elected to opt out of the disclosure; (3) final rule requires institutions to provide its customers with a notice of its privacy policies and practices; and (4) Board of Governors complied with applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the racial profiling of motorists, focusing on the: (1) findings and methodologies of analyses that have been conducted on racial profiling of motorists; and (2) federal, state, and local data available, or expected to be available, on motorist stops."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the efforts to reduce the future risk of catastrophic wildfires to human lives and property, focusing on (1) why conditions on federal forests and rangelands have reached the point that they pose a significant risk to nearby communities and to the ecological sustainability of lands and natural resources; (2) the history and status of efforts by the Forest Service and the Department of the Interior to reduce the risk; and (3) budget-related issues that should be addressed to better ensure that the agencies spend effectively and account accurately for funds appropriated to reduce hazardous fuels."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed companies in the chemical, agricultural, and brewing industries inspected under the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction (Chemical Weapons Convention), focusing on: (1) how companies protect proprietary information during inspections; (2) any adverse publicity for companies as a result of being inspected; and (3) the costs to companies of being inspected."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the challenges the baby boom generation and society face in planning for and financing its future long-term care needs, and the role that private long-term care insurance may play in meeting those challenges, focusing on: (1) the increased demand the baby boom generation will likely create for long-term care; (2) an overview of current spending for long-term care of the elderly, including recent changes in Medicaid and Medicare financing of long-term care; and (3) the potential role of private long-term care insurance in helping finance this care, including who buys this insurance, its affordability, and the critical need for consumer information and protections."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Department of Defense's (DOD) anthrax vaccine immunization program, focusing on: (1) vaccine supply; (2) medical records; and (3) efforts to educate servicemembers about the program."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed how disability systems in the private sector and other countries encourage and facilitate return to work in three key areas: (1) the eligibility assessment process; (2) work incentives; and (3) staffing practices."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) major rule on emergency core cooling system evaluation models. GAO noted that the: (1) final rule amends the NRC's regulations to allow holders of operating licenses for nuclear power plants to reduce the assumed reactor power level used in evaluations of emergency core cooling systems (ECCS) performance; (2) final rule provides licensees the option to apply a reduced margin for ECCS evaluation or to maintain the value of reactor power that had been mandated in the regulation; and (3) NRC complied with applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Concerns about the effects of the globalization of national economies and the rapid pace of economic change have focused attention on federal programs designed to assist U.S. workers displaced by foreign trade and increased imports. GAO reviewed two programs run by the Department of Labor. The Trade Adjustment Assistance Program (TAA) and the North American Free Trade Agreement Transitional Adjustment Assistance Program (NAFTA-TAA) have spent more than $1.3 billion in the past five years to help workers make the transition to new jobs, but it is unclear how effective these programs are in achieving their goals. Limited data indicate that 75 percent of workers who left the programs found jobs, but that many earned far less than their prior salaries. Training participation rates for both programs are low due to such factors as low unemployment rates and a healthy economy. GAO identified several factors that affected the delivery of services, including: (1) non-standardized eligibility criteria, (2) open-ended training enrollment, and (3) overall program administration. Further review of available data indicates that weak internal controls may result in the payment of benefits to ineligible beneficiaries."

This report provides an overview of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) and discusses current legal and legislative developments.

Digital instrumentation and control systems have the potential of offering significant benefits over traditional analog systems in Nuclear Power Plant safety systems, but there are also significant difficulties in qualifying digital systems to the satisfaction of regulators. Digital systems differ in fundamental ways from analog systems. New methods for safety qualification, which take these differences into account, would ease the regulatory cost and promote use of digital systems. This paper offers a possible method for assisting in the analysis of digital system software, as one step in an improved qualification process.

This monitoring plan includes well and constituent lists, and summarizes sampling, analytical, and quality control requirements. Changes from the previous monitoring plan include elimination of two radionuclides from the analyte list and some minor changes in the statistical analysis.

This note is a document about dimensions and measurement results of waveguide-coax launchers (Band 3 and 4) installed on the arrays in debuncher cooling upgrade. Shown in Figure 1 and 5 are schematic drawings of launchers (pick-up) in the cross section along the longitudinal direction (beam direction) of the arrays. The unit in these drawings is inch. Note: although there are upper band and lower band for pickup arrays, the launchers are the same to avoid possible confusion during installation. Launchers for band 3 and 4 kickers were made by Penn-engineering Inc., therefor no schematic drawings are presented in this note. RF Measurements were made on all launchers (port) and printed in hard copies for future reference. Since the measurement results are similar to each other, only a few plots for each type of launcher/band are presented in this document. There are two types of measured S11 parameters. One is the measurement made at the end of design/tuning stage using a launcher and a straight section of band 3 or 4 waveguide terminated with a cone of absorber. I use 'Original' to denote this kind of measurement. As shown in Figure 2, 6, 9 and 12, the original S11 of …

This note is a document about design and simulation results of waveguide bends installed with the arrays in debuncher cooling upgrade. The main feature of these bends is that they are not traditional mitered bends or round bends. Instead, a cylinder is placed in the corner area of the bend. The reason for this design is purely to overcome some practical problems: (1) since these bends are very close to the slotted foil which serves as part of the waveguide array, it is very difficult to make good joint and contact if mitered bends are used, (2) assembly difficulty due to the location of these bends, and (3) limited space requires a compact design. Shown in Figure 1 is a schematic drawing of a bend. Dimensions of bends for each frequency band are listed in Table 1. Shown in Figure 2-5 are the simulation results using HFSS. One of the bends was fabricated with flanges on both ends and measured using a Network Analyzer. The HFSS result was confirmed by the measured data.