Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO's 2014 annual report identifies 64 new actions that executive branch agencies and Congress could take to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of 26 areas of government. GAO identifies 11 new areas in which there is evidence of fragmentation, overlap, or duplication. For example, under current law, individuals are allowed to receive concurrent payments from the Disability Insurance and Unemployment programs. Eliminating the overlap in these payments could save the government about $1.2 billion over the next 10 years. GAO also identifies 15 new areas where opportunities exist either to reduce the cost of government operations or enhance revenue collections. For example, Congress could rescind all or part of the remaining $4.2 billion in credit subsidies for the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan program unless the Department of Energy demonstrates sufficient demand for this funding."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) authority to regulate the practice of representatives before IRS is limited to certain preparers, such as attorneys and certified public accountants. Unenrolled preparers—those generally not subject to IRS regulation—accounted for 55 percent of all preparers as of March 2014. In 2010, IRS initiated steps to regulate unenrolled preparers through testing and education requirements; however, the courts ruled that IRS lacked the authority."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) spent (obligated) less than half of the $1.1 billion in tobacco user fees it collected from manufacturers and others from fiscal year 2009 through the end of fiscal year 2012; however, FDA's spending increased substantially in fiscal year 2013. Through December 31, 2013, FDA spent nearly 81 percent of the approximately $1.75 billion in fees collected by that time. According to officials in FDA's Center for Tobacco Products (CTP), the center established by the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (Tobacco Control Act) to implement the act's provisions, the time it took to award contracts contributed to the center spending less than it had planned to spend. In fiscal year 2013, FDA was able to carry out a number of activities that were originally planned for fiscal years 2011 and 2012, such as efforts to educate youth on the dangers of tobacco use. About 79 percent ($1.12 billion) of user fees spent as of December 31, 2013, was spent by three CTP offices: Office of Health Communication and Education, Office of Science, and Office of Compliance and Enforcement."

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: Authority of a school district to use a reverse auction conducted by a third party to purchase personal property valued at $10,000 or more (RQ-0751-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: Authority of commissioners court to lease county property to a non-profit organization for less than fair market value (RQ-0756-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 limit on increases to annual earnings used in calculation of retirement benefits of vested employees of the City of Fort Worth contravenes article XVI, section 66 of the Texas Constitution (RQ-0632-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 and school districts in the county may jointly develop or sell rights to the natural resources located on county school lands (RQ-0636-GA).

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Provisions in the Senate's proposed postal reform legislation, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, seek to address longstanding concerns about the Department of Transportation's (DOT) role in setting transportation rates for certain segments of the U.S. Postal Service's (USPS) international mail. Specifically, these rates are what air carriers charge USPS for transporting letter-class and military mail to international destinations. The methodology DOT uses to set these rates was established by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) in a rate proceeding that concluded in the late 1970s. The transportation of this mail is subject to various statutory requirements, such as having DOT set the rates that USPS is to pay to U.S. air carriers for transporting international mail and a duty to carry provision that requires the air carriers to provide facilities and services for transporting this mail. DOT, USPS, and U.S. air carriers have raised concerns about the current rate process, particularly because the rate-setting methodology has not been comprehensively updated since the late 1970s. Some stakeholders view the current rate-setting process as an anachronism in today's increasingly deregulated international mail and transportation marketplace. USPS has stated that this …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Section 202 of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Authorization Act of 2000, Pub. L. No. 106-391, 202, 114 Stat. 1577, 1587 (Oct. 30, 2000) requires that GAO verify NASA's accounting for amounts obligated against established limits for the space station and related space shuttle support. Under the act, obligations are limited to $25 billion for the International Space Station's (ISS) development and $17.7 billion for shuttle launches in connection with the space station's assembly. In the past, we have advised Congressional committees that NASA was unable to provide detailed support for the amounts obligated against the limits. Thus, we could not verify the amounts that NASA reported in its budget requests to Congress."

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 article XI, section 7 of the Texas Constitution bars a county from agreeing to indemnify an appraisal district for the costs of litigation arising from the appraisal district's performance of 9-1-1 services for the county (RQ-0122-GA)

Transcript of the ninth public hearing held by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States held April 8, 2004 at the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. The Commission heard testimony from Dr. Condoleezza Rice, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs on the formulation and conduct of U.S. counterterrorism policy.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO is required by law to audit the consolidated financial statements of the U.S. government. Timely, accurate, and useful financial information is essential for making informed operating decisions day to day, managing the federal government's operations more efficiently and effectively, meeting the goals of federal financial management reform legislation, supporting results-oriented management approaches, and ensuring accountability on an ongoing basis. The importance of such information is heightened by the unprecedented demographic challenge of an aging population. Federal spending on the elderly, health care, and new homeland security and defense commitments increases the need to look at competing claims on the budget and at new priorities. Over the past year, the Principals of the Joint Financial Management Improvement Program continued efforts to accelerate progress in financial management reform. Also, President Bush has implemented the President's Management Agenda to provide direction to, and closely monitor, management reform across government, which encompasses improved financial management performance. To effectively implement federal financial management reform, sustained leadership and oversight are essential."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In response to concerns that some children were languishing in temporary foster care, Congress enacted the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (ASFA) to help states move children in foster care more quickly to safe and permanent homes. ASFA contained two key provisions: (1) the "fast track" provision allows states to bypass efforts to reunify families in certain egregious situations and (2) the "15 of 22" provision requires states, with a few exceptions, to file a petition to terminate parental rights (TPR) when a child has been in foster care for 15 of the most recent 22 months. Representative Wally Herger, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Resources asked GAO to review (1) changes in outcomes for children in foster care since ASFA was enacted, (2) states' implementation of ASFA's fast track and 15 of 22 provisions, (3) states' use of two new adoption related funds provided by ASFA, and (4) states' initiatives to address barriers to achieving permanency"

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Under section 1308 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001, the Department of Defense is to submit an annual report to Congress on its Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program no later than the first Monday in February of each year. The Department of Defense, however, submitted its CTR annual report for fiscal year 2003 to Congress on January 8, 2003, more than 11 months after the submission date mandated by law. The legislation also requires the Comptroller General to provide Congress with an assessment of the report's multiyear plan setting forth the amount and purpose of funding to be provided over the 5-year term of the plan and describing the department's efforts to ensure that CTR assistance is accounted for and used as intended. We reviewed the fiscal year 2003 annual CTR report and compared it with our assessment of the 2002 annual report. As with the 2002 report, we analyzed the 2003 report to determine whether it (1) provides a 5-year plan that sets forth the funding requirements for the program and includes key federal strategic planning elements and (2) describes the methods used …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Federal employees represent the government's knowledge base, drive its capacity to perform, and define its character, and as such, are its greatest asset. The early years of the 21st century are proving to be a period of profound transition for our world, our country, and our government. In response, the federal government needs to engage in a comprehensive review, reassessment, reprioritization, and as appropriate, reengineering of what the government does, how it does business, and in some cases, who does the government's business. Leading public organizations here and abroad have found that strategic human capital management must be the centerpiece of any serious change management initiative and effort to transform the cultures of government agencies. In response to a Congressional request, GAO discussed the status of the federal government's efforts to address high-risk human capital weaknesses, possible short- and longer-term legislative solutions to those weaknesses, and other human capital actions that need to be taken to ensure that federal agencies are successfully transformed to meet current and emerging challenges."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Protecting the computer systems that support federal agencies' operations and our nation's critical infrastructures--such as power distribution, telecommunications, water supply, and national defense--is a continuing concern. These concerns are well-founded for a number of reasons, including the dramatic increases in reported computer security incidents, the ease of obtaining and using hacking tools, the steady advance in the sophistication and effectiveness of attack technology, and the dire warnings of new and more destructive attacks. GAO first designated computer security as high risk in 1997, and in 2003 expanded this high-risk area to include protecting the systems that support our nation's critical infrastructures, referred to as cyber critical infrastructure protection or cyber CIP. GAO has made previous recommendations and periodically testified on federal information security weaknesses--including agencies' progress in implementing key legislative provisions on information security--and the challenges that the nation faces in protecting our nation's critical infrastructures. GAO was asked to provide an update on the status of federal information security and CIP."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is responsible for collecting virtually all of the funds that pay for the federal government. For 2003, IRS expects to process 130 million individual income tax returns, issue 99 million refunds, receive 100 million telephone calls, and assist 4 million taxpayers face-to-face at IRS and volunteer offices. Most of these interactions with taxpayers occur during the January through April tax filing season. GAO was asked by the Subcommittee on Oversight, House Committee on Ways and Means, to assess the likelihood of IRS allocating more resources to a key priority, compliance; whether proposed spending on computer systems is justified; and filing season performance."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report reviews cooperative research and development agreements (CRADA) at the Army Research Laboratory and the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases to determine whether the laboratories complied with export control laws. GAO found that the Army needs to clarify its guidance on technology transfers to ensure compliance with U.S. export control laws during the management review of potential CRADA under Army Regulation 70-57. However, the regulation does not require that laboratories consult with the Office of the United States Trade Representative when entering into a CRADA. A committee of legal and management officials from various Army commands is now revising Army Regulation 70-57."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided suggestions for improving internal controls and operations at the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC). The suggestions are provided by KPMG LLP, an independent public accounting firm GAO contracted with to conduct the audit of ABMC's consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ended September 30, 1998. GAO concurs with KPMG's suggestions."

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, Jim Mattox, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Authority of the Savings and Loan Department to obtain liability coverage for its officers and employees (RQ-1203)

Letter opinion 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, Jim Mattox, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether nonprofit affilitates of a statewide organization which are licensed to conduct bingo in this state may donate money from their bingo proceeds to an individual for use in his campaign for a statewide office within the nonprofit organization.

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, Jim Mattox, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Validity of a proposed contract between Texas A & M and a corporation which is wholly owned subsidiary of a corporation owned in part by a member of the university's board of regents.

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, Jim Mattox, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Availability of computer programs and data bases under the Open Records Act and whether a government body must perform computer searches for information.

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, Jim Mattox, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Constitutional validity of a municipal ordinance which requires participants in a medical assistance program to apply for other available benefits.