A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the National Park Service's (NPS) structural fire safety efforts, focusing on: (1) whether national parks are effectively addressing their structural fire safety responsibilities and if not, what are the main reasons; and (2) what improvements, if any, are under way to address identified problems."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the expenditures for the Office of Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr/Robert W. Ray, focusing on: (1) the office's responses to 46 questions; (2) whether the expenditures were incurred under Independent Counsel Starr's or Independent Counsel Ray's tenure; and (3) the total costs of the investigation to date."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Rural Development (RD) mission area's progress in improving its credit program cost estimates."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Third party payments represent blank-form financial instruments that government employees use to pay for expenses when traditional payments are not feasible or possible. GAO surveyed government entities on their use of third party payments. Forty of the 86 entities that responded to GAO's survey reported that they had used third party payment instruments at some time during fiscal years 1997 through 1999. Although the number of reported payment transactions declined 3.7 percent for these 40 entities during this period, the reported total dollar amount associated with these transactions rose 13.4 percent. On the basis of the transaction data reported, the average dollar value of each payment rose 17.6 percent. Among the 40 entities, the most common reasons cited for using third party payment instruments were (1) to pay for small purchases of supplies and services; (2) to pay contractors that either could not or would not accept government checks, electronic funds transfers, or credit card payments; (3) to make emergency payments; (4) to provide immediate reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses; or (5) as an alternative to disbursing a cash advance. In response to questions about whether entities used internal …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Air Force's 50-percent ceiling waiver for depot maintenance, focusing on the: (1) extent to which the Air Force's justification for the waiver was due to its planned use of temporary contracts to support transitioning workloads; and (2) potential for the ceiling to be exceeded in fiscal years 2000 and 2001."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the evolving electronic government (e-government) environment, focusing on: (1) the statutory and policy framework; (2) key efforts to implement electronic government programs; and (3) the major challenges confronting both government and the private sector in making the transition to online business and service environments."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed its recent reports on the coordination of federal nonmedical research and development programs that address chemical and biological threats, focusing on: (1) the similarities among nonmedical research and development programs; and (2) how coordination mechanisms may ineffectively address potential duplication, research gaps, and opportunities for collaboration."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Department of State's efforts to improve the foreign affairs community's information technology infrastructure, focusing on: (1) State's efforts to implement the Overseas Presence Advisory Panel's recommendations; and (2) the challenges and risks it will face as it proceeds."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed opportunities to reduce claims processing and other costs of the Department of Defense's (DOD) managed health care program--TRICARE, focusing on: (1) the cost of processing TRICARE claims; (2) opportunities that potentially can reduce costs and improve service to beneficiaries, namely increased anti-fraud efforts and more joint procurement of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA); and (3) the process beneficiaries use to make medical appointments."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the House Committees' use of the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) of 1993 to inform their decisionmaking and oversight, focusing on: (1) an overview of the implementation of the GPRA across the executive branch and why the government is at a critical stage in GPRA's implementation; (2) how the House has used GPRA to improve programmatic oversight and decisionmaking and to conduct oversight over selected agencies' efforts to implement the Act; and (3) ways that GPRA can be used to address some of the critical program and management issues confronting the federal government."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the risks to human health posed by unsafe feed consumed by food-producing animals, focusing on the: (1) extent to which unsafe feed has been linked to human health problems in the United States; and (2) actions the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Transportation (DOT) are taking to ensure the safety of animal feed."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the: (1) portion of the labor force without pension coverage and how that proportion has changed over the past decade; (2) characteristics of workers in that labor force; and (3) proportion and characteristics of retired people who lack pension income or pension assets."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) and the Forest Service's land exchange programs, focusing on the: (1) agencies' use of land exchanges since 1989; (2) extent to which the agencies ensure that their land exchanges meet exchange requirements; (3) effect of the agencies' recent efforts to improve the management of their exchange programs; and (4) extent to which problems in specific exchanges are reflective of inherent difficulties in the land exchange program as a whole."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the status of the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) efforts to improve its estimates of taxpayer compliance burden, focusing on: (1) IRS' overall strategy to improve its methodology for estimating compliance burden; (2) what IRS has done to begin implementing its overall strategy and how IRS expects this to improve its methodology; and (3) whether IRS expects that its new methodology will be able to measure the burden associated with the complex tax rules identified in IRS' forthcoming first annual report on tax complexity."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed strategies for managing human capital management at selected public and private call centers, focusing on: (1) whether they identify human capital needs as part of developing management strategies and practices to meet missions and goals; (2) implement human capital strategies and practices; and (3) evaluating human capital strategies and practices to continuously improve their operations."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the U.S. air mobility forces' readiness to execute the National Military Strategy, focusing on: (1) whether the Air Force's strategic airlift and aerial refueling fleets are capable of meeting the requirements for winning two nearly simultaneous major theater wars; (2) the reasons for any shortfalls in strategic airlift and aerial refueling capability; and (3) what Department of Defense's (DOD) efforts are underway to resolve these capability shortfalls and what are the issues it faces in doing so."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the safety of foods served in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs, focusing on the extent: (1) of foodborne illness outbreaks related to meals served in schools; (2) to which Department of Agriculture (USDA)-donated foods in schools were removed, replaced, or disposed of because of the potential to cause foodborne illness; and (3) to which USDA has established procurement policies and procedures for ensuring the safety of foods it donates to the programs."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed issues related to a potential Medicare outpatient prescription drug benefit, focusing on: (1) the factors contributing to the rise in prescription drug spending and the impact of the rise in spending on Medicare beneficiaries; (2) the methods private insurers have developed to manage these rising costs; and (3) whether and how Medicare can adapt these methods to control spending, should an outpatient prescription drug benefit be added to Medicare."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed its views on three bills designed to improve worker and nuclear facility safety and health as well as to enhance security for the Department of Energy (DOE)."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the proposed Cyber Security Information Act of 2000 (H.R. 4246), focusing on how it can enhance critical infrastructure protection and the formidable challenges involved with achieving the goals of the bill."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the human capital challenges facing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) space shuttle program, focusing on: (1) the results of studies on the impact of workforce reductions; (2) NASA's actions following these workforce assessments; (3) challenges NASA faces in the anticipated heavy workload imposed by the International Space Station; and (4) a structured approach NASA can take to analyze human capital challenges."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the challenges federal agencies face in producing credible performance information, focusing on: (1) a governmentwide perspective on the credibility of agencies' performance information based on GAO's assessment of agencies' performance plans; (2) the challenges agencies face in producing credible performance data; and (3) how agencies can use their performance reports to address data credibility issues."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Department of Energy's (DOE) privatization initiative as it has been applied to DOE's nuclear waste cleanup program, focusing on: (1) what DOE has accomplished by privatizing such projects; and (2) the lessons that can be learned from these efforts."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Justice's (DOJ) implementation of the Police Corps program under the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) office and, more recently, the Office of Justice Programs."