This report discusses the enhancements to the crop insurance and revenue insurance programs that are expected to be considered by the 106th Congress in order to improve the farm financial safety net and preclude the need for ad hoc legislative assistance.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO conducted a public opinion survey regarding a design for the face of the new dollar coin authorized by Public Law 105-124, the United States $1 Coin Act of 1997, focusing on: (1) the public's preference for either Sacagawea--a Shoshone interpreter who accompanied the Lewis and Clark expedition--or the Statue of Liberty as the image on the face of the new dollar coin; (2) how strongly the public felt about their preference; and (3) reasons for their choice."

The Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act has two basic aims: to regulate international ocean disposal of materials, into authorized related research. Permit and enforcement provisions of the law are often referred to as the Ocean Dumping Act. The basic provisions of the act have remained virtually unchanged since 1972, when it was enacted to establish a comprehensive waste management system to regulate disposal or dumping of all materials into marine waters that are within U.S. jurisdiction, although a number of new authorities have been added. This report represents a summary of the law, describing the essence of the statute.

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Social Security Administration's (SSA) efforts to implement a National Performance Review (NPR) recommendation to reduce its management-to-staff ratio, focusing on the: (1) progress SSA has made to date in achieving the directive to reduce its management-to-staff ratio, particularly for staff graded GS-12 and above; and (2) steps SSA has taken to reduce the number of supervisory positions."

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed airport funding issues as they apply to smaller airports, focusing on: 1) how much funding has been made available to airports, particularly smaller airports, for their capital development and what are the sources of these funds; (2) comparing airports' plans for future development with current funding levels; and (3) what effect will various proposals to increase or make better use of existing funding have on smaller airports' ability to fulfill their capital development plans."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) use Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76 as a means of realizing an estimated $6 billion savings in support costs between fiscal years (FY) 1997 and 2003, focusing on: (1) identifying the competition and savings goals; (2) assessing the accuracy of the savings estimates provided to Congress; and (3) evaluating the adequacy of planning to support the overall program."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO assessed the adequacy and status of the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) planned actions to correct internal control weaknesses related to property and equipment identified in prior financial statement audit reports, focusing on FDA's: (1) inadequate controls over the physical quantities of property and equipment and their locations; (2) improper reconciliations between its general ledger and property subsidiary ledger systems; and (3) internal controls related to the safeguarding and reporting of automated data processing (ADP) equipment that is lost, stolen, destroyed, or surplussed."

This report identifies and summarizes these and other rules and directives affecting committee powers, authority, activities, and operations.

House Rules, especially Rules X-XIII, govern the authority and operations of its committees and subcommittees. This report identifies and summarizes these and other rules and directives affecting committee powers, authority, activities, and operations.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed how effectively the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) selects individual income tax returns for audit, focusing on: (1) the extent to which IRS district offices have used various sources to select these individual returns for audit; and (2) comparing the results of audits selected using these sources in terms of the rate at which audits recommended no-change to the tax reported, amount of additional taxes recommended per return audited, and rates at which IRS assessed and collected such recommended taxes after the audit."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the outcome of the 1996 World Food Summit, focusing on factors that could affect progress toward meeting world food security goals."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO addressed congressional concerns regarding the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), focusing on: (1) the management challenges facing the Department of Commerce in its administration of NOAA; (2) whether GAO reviewed the latest available studies of NOAA's fleet and modernization efforts or NOAA's fisheries research acquisition plan; (3) whether GAO examined the cost efficiency or effectiveness of NOAA's ships or compared the costs of NOAA's ships with those of private or other available ships; (4) whether GAO reviewed NOAA's fisheries research ship replacement plans; (5) why replacing the NOAA fleet is entwined with the issue of the NOAA Corps; and (6) whether GAO reviewed NOAA's downsizing of the NOAA Corps."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on how states implement the federal requirement that establishes a process for nursing home complaint investigations, focusing on the: (1) effectiveness of state complaint investigation practices as a component of the system to ensure sustained compliance with federal nursing home quality-of-care standards; and (2) Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) role in establishing standards and conducting oversight of states' complaint investigation practices and in using information about the results of complaint investigations to ensure compliance with nursing home standards."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the effectiveness of complaint and enforcement practices to protect nursing home residents, and to ensure that homes participating in Medicare and Medicaid comply with federal standards, focusing on the: (1) effectiveness of states' complaint practices in protecting residents; (2) Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) role in establishing standards and conducting oversight of states' complaint practices and in using information about the results of complaint investigations to ensure compliance with nursing home standards; and (3) assessment of HCFA's use of sanction authority for homes that failed to maintain compliance with these standards."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed Internet securities fraud and regulatory efforts to combat this growing problem, focusing on: (1) information about the incidence and types of securities frauds perpetrated over the Internet; (2) the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) initiatives to combat Internet securities fraud; (3) information on the penalties that have been imposed on individuals found to have committed Internet securities frauds; (4) information from state securities regulators about state efforts to control Internet securities fraud; and (5) potential challenges facing SEC and state regulatory initiatives in combating securities fraud over the Internet."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the effect of scab and vomitoxin on North Dakota barley crops, focusing on: (1) the financial impact from scab and vomitoxin on barley farmers; (2) the performance of vomitoxin test methods; and (3) short- and long-term actions that could help reduce the impact of scab and vomitoxin on North Dakota barley farmers."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the U.S. government's international science and technology (S&T) agreements that support and encourage international cooperation in research and development, focusing on the: (1) number of international S&T agreements active during fiscal year (FY) 1997; and (2) number of these agreements that resulted in research projects or other activities."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) new rule on the average fuel economy standards for light trucks. GAO noted that: (1) NHTSA interprets section 322 of the Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for fiscal year 1999 as requiring it to prescribe the same light truck corporate average fuel economy standard for model year 2001 that applies to model year 2000; (2) accordingly, the rule continues the 20.7 miles per gallon standard for 2001; (3) this is the same interpretation NHTSA has applied for the three preceding model years and Congress has continued to insert the same language in the yearly Appropriations Acts and has not objected to NHTSA's interpretation; and (4) NHTSA complied with the applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Initiative, focusing on: (1) how much and for what purposes federal funding has been provided for the restoration of the South Florida ecosystem; and (2) how well the restoration effort is being coordinated and managed."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Initiative, focusing on: (1) how much and for what purposes federal funding was provided for the restoration of the South Florida ecosystem from fiscal year (FY) 1993 through FY 1999; and (2) how well the restoration effort is being coordinated and managed."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the narcotics threat from Colombia, focusing on: (1) the nature of the drug threat from Colombia; (2) recent initiatives of the Colombian government to address the threat, and obstacles it faces; and (3) the status of U.S. efforts to assist the Colombian government in furthering its counternarcotics activities and reducing the flow of illegal narcotics to the United States."

This report discusses "Section 32", which is a permanent appropriation that since 1935 has earmarked the equivalent of 30% of annual customs receipts to support the farm sector through a variety of activities. Today, most of this sizeable appropriation (now about $5.7 billion per year) is simply transferred directly into the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) child nutrition account to fund school feeding and other programs.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO investigated the use of federal research and development grant funds by the University of California system in its payments to graduate student researchers (GSR), focusing on whether: (1) the compensation paid to GSRs was in accordance with the guidelines set forth in the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Circular A-21; (2) foreign students were receiving a larger share of federal research funds than resident students as compensation for performing as GSRs; (3) the university's treatment of GSR compensation for federal income tax purposes was consistent with its actions in charging such moneys to the federal grants under OMB Circular A-21; and (4) the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) provided adequate oversight in safeguarding against the diversion of funds from federal research grant awards."