Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses GAO's findings on differences among the French, United Kingdom, and the United States forces concerning the assessment of Iraqi chemical and biological threats and the use of various countermeasures. GAO also discusses the extent of illness, as well as exposure, reported by each country's veterans, focusing on the results of population-based surveys of Gulf War veterans' exposure to chemicals, as well as drugs and vaccines to guard against warfare agents. This testimony summarized the April 2001 report (GAO-01-13)."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the change of century rollover, focusing on: (1) the reporting structure established by the government to obtain information on year 2000-related failures during the rollover period; (2) examples of year 2000 errors and their resolution; and (3) lessons from the year 2000 effort that can be carried forward to improve the management of information technology activities."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed: (1) the year 2000 risks facing the nation; (2) the federal government's progress and remaining challenges in correcting its systems; (3) state and local government year 2000 issues; and (4) the readiness of key public infrastructures and economic sectors."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Social Security not only represents the foundation of our retirement income system; it also provides millions of Americans with disability insurance and survivors' benefits. As a result, Social Security provides benefits that are critical to the current and future well-being of tens of millions of Americans. However, the system faces both solvency and sustainability challenges in the longer term. In their 2002 report, the Trustees emphasized that while the program's near-term financial condition has improved slightly, Social Security faces a substantial financial challenge in the not-too-distant future that needs to be addressed soon. In essence, the program's long-term outlook remains unchanged. Without reform, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are unsustainable, and the long-term impact of these entitlement programs on the federal budget and the economy will be dramatic. Over the past few years, a wide array of proposals has been put forth to restore Social Security's long-term solvency, and a commission established by the President has presented three models for modifying the current program. The Commission's final report called for a period of discussion lasting at least a year before legislative action is taken to strengthen and restore …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the progress being made in addressing the year 2000 computing challenge and outlined the actions that need to be taken to ensure a smooth conversion to the next century."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Since GAO issued its November 2001 report (GAO-02-182R) on the new Washington Convention Center, the Washington Convention Center Authority (WCCA) and the construction manager have made significant progress in their negotiations to reset the Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP). The two parties have agreed on the two most critical components of the GMP proposal: price and time frames for completing the new convention center. A special meeting of WCCA's board of directors has been scheduled for early to mid-February to review and officially act on the proposed GMP agreement. The revised GMP amount of $590.7 million represents a $71.3 million, or 13.7 percent, increase over the estimated GMP amount of $519.4 million cited in GAO's report."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the weakness in screening entrants into the United States. This work was completed in response to a request that agents of the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) attempt to enter the United States from Canada, Mexico, and Jamaica at land, air, and sea ports of entry using fictitious identities and counterfeit identification documents. The purpose was to test whether U.S. government officials conducting inspections at the port of entry would detect the counterfeit identification documents."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the issues being considered in the proposed legislation to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) aviation programs, focusing on: (1) air traffic control modernization program; (2) efforts to make its computer systems ready for the year 2000; (3) Airport Improvement Program (AIP) funding; (4) aviation safety and security measures; and (5) efforts to enhance aviation competition."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the role of the Department of Defense (DOD) in reducing the supply of illegal drugs entering the United States, focusing on: (1) the decline in DOD's aerial and maritime support allocated to counterdrug activities from fiscal years 1992 through 1999 and some of the consequences and reasons for the decline; (2) the obstacles DOD faces in helping foreign governments counter illegal drug activities; and (3) DOD's counterdrug strategy and the need for performance measures to judge its counterdrug program effectiveness."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This journal of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) includes articles regarding (1) the role of Pakistan's Supreme Audit Institution on promoting good national governance, (2) governance issues at the Asian Supreme Audit Institutions' 8th Triennial Assembly and Symposium, (3) the Caribbean Organization of Institutions' 5th Triennial Congress in St. Kitts and Nevis, (4) an audit profile on the State Audit and Inspection Committee of Mongolia, and (5) activities within INTOSAI."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In fiscal year 2000, the Department of Agriculture's Food Stamp Program, administered jointly by the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) and the states, provided $15 billion in benefits to an average of 17.2 million low-income persons each month. FNS, which pays the full cost of food stamp benefits and half of the states' administrative costs, promulgates program regulations and oversees program implementation. The states run the program, determining whether households meet eligibility requirements, calculating monthly benefits the households should receive, and issuing benefits to participants. FNS assesses the accuracy of states' efforts to determine eligibility and benefits levels. Because of concerns about the integrity of Food Stamp Program payments, GAO examined the states' efforts to minimize food stamp payment errors and what FNS has done and could do to encourage and assist the states reduce such errors. GAO found that all 28 states it examined had taken steps to reduce payment errors. These steps included verifying the accuracy of benefit payments calculated through supervisory and other types of casefile reviews, providing specialized training for food stamp workers, analyzing quality control data to determine causes of errors …

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This journal of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) includes articles regarding: (1) the XVI International Congress of Supreme Audit Institutions in Montevideo from November 7-14, 1998; (2) supreme audit institutions and the prevention and detection of fraud and corruption; (3) improving public governance through the work of supreme audit institutions and INTOSAI's standing committees and working groups; (4) a meeting of seven regional working groups and their report to Congress; (5) the INTOSAI Developmental Initiative and the transition of the Secretariat to Norway; and (6) activities within INTOSAI."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "As GAO and others have reported, the use of information technology (IT) has enormous potential to help improve the quality of health care and is important for improving the performance of the U.S. health care system. Given its role in providing health care, the federal government has been urged to take a leadership role to improve the quality and effectiveness of health care, and it has been working to promote the nationwide use of health IT for a number of years. However, achieving widespread adoption and implementation of health IT has proven challenging, and the best way to accomplish this transition remains subject to much debate. At the committee's request, this testimony discusses important issues identified by GAO's work that have broad relevance to the successful implementation of health IT to improve the quality of health care. To develop this testimony, GAO relied largely on its previous work on federal health IT activities."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report presents the highlights of GAO's fiscal year 2003 Performance and Accountability report. The Comptroller General is confident that the performance data and financial information in this report are complete and reliable. GAO met or exceeded all but one of its seven key performance measures, and it received a clean opinion from independent auditors on its financial statements. GAO helped the Congress and government leaders achieve a total of $35.4 billion in financial benefits--a $78 return on every dollar that was spent. Its work addressed many of the difficult issues that confront the nation, including diverse and diffuse security threats, changing demographic trends, increasing interdependency, rapidly evolving science and technology changes, a variety of quality-of-life issues, as well as government transformation challenges, and increasing federal budgetary constraints. It is important for the nation and its citizens not only that these issues are made visible, but also that the nation's leaders attend to them. In addition to having an impact on important national issues, GAO has taken major steps internally to be a model federal agency and world-class professional services organization."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Over the years, the Congress has promulgated laws and the Office of Management and Budget and GAO have issued policies and guidance, respectively, on (1) information technology (IT) strategic planning/performance measurement (which defines what an organization seeks to accomplish, identifies the strategies it will use to achieve desired results, and then determines how well it is succeeding in reaching resultsoriented goals and achieving objectives) and (2) investment management (which involves selecting, controlling, and evaluating investments). To obtain an understanding of the government's implementation of these key IT management policies, congressional requesters asked GAO to determine the extent to which 26 major agencies have in place practices associated with key legislative and other requirements for (1) IT strategic planning/ performance measurement and (2) IT investment management."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Defense Department (DOD) encourages the reuse of excess property, including vehicles, weapons, hand tools, lumber, medical equipment, and furniture. DOD components, civilian federal agencies, and "special programs" have equal priority and first rights to excess property. This report discusses excess property issued to three of 12 special programs--the Military Affiliate Radio System, the Civil Air Patrol, and the 12th Congressional Regional Equipment Center. Between 1995 and 2000, these programs obtained $34 million worth of items that they were not eligible to receive. The three programs were able to obtain the items because the DOD facilities that store the property are not required to verify which items the programs are eligible to receive, and because program officials do not consistently follow applicable guidelines. GAO also noted that the programs' lists of property they are allowed to obtain are not comprehensive because the lists exclude mission-related items similar to those already permitted. Furthermore, these programs did not have reliable records for more than three-quarters of their excess property. Together, the three special programs obtained more than 80,000 hazardous supplies. In many cases, program officials were unaware that …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO summarized from available research what is known about adverse drug events (ADE), focusing on the: (1) different types and causes of ADEs; (2) evidence on the overall incidence and cost of ADEs in the United States; and (3) measures that have been proposed to reduce the number and severity of ADEs."

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) status of efforts and progress made by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the states in addressing the Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996; and (2) future challenges facing EPA and the states in their efforts to do so."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Social Security is an important social insurance program affecting virtually every American family. It represents a foundation of the nation's retirement income system and provides millions of Americans with disability insurance and survivors' benefits. Over the long term, as the baby boom generation retires, Social Security's financing shortfall presents a major solvency and sustainability challenge. Numerous reform proposals have been put forward in recent years, and in December 2001 a commission appointed by the President presented three possible reform models. Senator Breaux, Chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, asked GAO to use its analytic framework to evaluate the Commission's models. This framework consists of three criteria: (1) the extent to which a proposal achieves sustainable solvency and how it would affect the economy and the federal budget; (2) the balance struck between the twin goals of income adequacy and individual equity; and (3) how readily such changes could be implemented, administered, and explained to the public."

Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The unified budget deficit--sometimes called the "cash deficit"--and the net operating cost-- sometimes called the "accrual deficit"--are two key measures of the government's annual fiscal position. The cash deficit provides information on the government's current cash flow and borrowing needs. The accrual deficit provides information on the current cost of government-- the amount of resources used to produce goods or deliver services during the fiscal year-- regardless of when cash is used."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on: (1) the status of the proposed alliances to be formed by the six largest U.S. airlines; (2) the potential beneficial and harmful effects on consumers; and (3) the authority of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Transportation (DOT) to review these alliances and the status of their reviews."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed homes and displaced millions of individuals. While federal and state governments continue to respond to this disaster, GAO has identified significant control weaknesses--specifically in the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)'s Individuals and Households Program (IHP) and in Department of Homeland Security (DHS)'s purchase card program--resulting in significant fraud, waste, and abuse. In response to the numerous recommendations GAO made, DHS and FEMA have reported on numerous actions taken to address our recommendations. Lessons learned from GAO's prior work can serve as a framework for an effective fraud prevention system for federal and state governments as they consider spending billions more on disaster recovery. These lessons are particularly important because funding that is lost to fraud, waste, and abuse reduces the amount of money that could be delivered to victims in need. Today's testimony will (1) describe key findings from past GAO work and (2) use the results from that work and GAO's other experiences to discuss the importance of an effective fraud, waste and abuse prevention program."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report, part of GAO's performance and accountability series, discusses the major management challenges and program risks facing the Department of the Treasury. The primary challenges facing Treasury include (1) modernizing the Internal Revenue Service's tax administration systems; (2) improving Customs Service's regulation of commercial trade; (3) achieving sound financial management; (4) improving the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms' performance measures; and (5) improving the management of Treasury's asset forfeiture program."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on states' efforts to ensure the safety and health of children in child care settings, focusing on: (1) the most critical licensing and enforcement activities that help states ensure the safety and health of children in child care; (2) the extent to which states conduct these critical activities for their regulated providers; and (3) how states ensure that nonregulated providers receiving block grant funds meet the law's safety and health requirements."