Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Military Traffic Management Command's (MTMC) first interim progress report on the Department of Defense's demonstration program (MTMC pilot) to improve personal property shipments of the armed forces, focusing on MTMC's plan for evaluating the: (1) pilot results; and (2) proposed industry alternative called the Commercial-Like Activities for Superior Quality (CLASS) proposal."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the reporting of lobbying activities by organizations that have employees who lobby on the organizations' behalf and have the option to report their lobbying expenses under the Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) of 1995 or applicable Internal Revenue Code (IRC) provisions that they use for tax purposes, focusing on: (1) the differences between the LDA and IRC section 4911 and 162(e) definitions of lobbying; (2) the impact that differences in the definitions may have on registration and reporting under LDA, including information on the number of organizations using each definition and the expenses they have reported; and (3) identifying and analyzing options, including harmonizing the three definitions, that may better ensure that the public disclosure purposes of LDA are realized."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Hydra 70 rocket, focusing on the: (1) problem of early motor blow (EMB); (2) actions the military services have taken to identify and eliminate its causes; and (3) rocket's present performance."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed: (1) the immediate effects of the Melissa virus and variations of it as well as its broader implications for the federal government; and (2) critical measures that should be taken to ensure that federal departments and agencies are better prepared for future viruses and other forms of attack."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the management challenges facing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and its progress in implementing its new restructuring initiative."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the compliance programs established by health care providers to reduce improper payments by Medicare, focusing on the: (1) prevalence of compliance programs among hospitals and other Medicare providers; (2) costs involved with compliance programs; and (3) effectiveness of the programs, to the extent that could be measured."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the Department of Defense's (DOD) domestic banking program on military bases, focusing on whether: (1) domestic military bases have followed DOD procedures to provide for open solicitations in obtaining banking services; (2) on-base financial institutions face competition for banking services from other financial institutions and charge fees competitive with other banks; and (3) opportunities exist for DOD and military bases to generate additional revenues from banking services on military bases and how this might affect banking services and customers."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the implementation of the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA)."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the United Nations Secretariat's efforts to reform its procurement process, focusing on: (1) the types of procurement problems that the U.N. High Level Expert Group on Procurement and U.N. audit and inspection organizations found; (2) progress on the implementation of the Expert Group's recommendations and other reforms to correct procurement-related problems; and (3) whether these actions have succeeded in achieving the objectives of procurement reform."

A statement of record issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the challenges facing the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in transforming health care, focusing on: (1) VA's transformation progress to date; (2) challenges that remain to be confronted; and (3) the implications for VA's fiscal year (FY) 2000 budget."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) year 2000 readiness, focusing on: (1) VA's ability to deliver benefits and health care services through the turn of the century; and (2) the readiness of automated systems that support such delivery, the compliance status of biomedical equipment used in patient care, and the year 2000 readiness of the pharmaceutical and medical-surgical manufacturers upon which VA relies."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on whether the greater discretion allowed to banks as opposed to securities broker/dealers under accounting standards and practices may have resulted in less transparency in the value of asset-backed securities held by banks, focusing on: (1) mortgage-backed securities (MBS); (2) the accounting treatment applied to securities (including MBS) held by banks and broker/dealers; and (3) the accounting for securities holdings by the six largest bank holding companies and whether such holdings might have affected the transparency of financial statements."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the government's best-value awards to contractors other than those submitting the lowest-priced offers."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the steps needed to improve financial management at the Department of Defense (DOD), focusing on: (1) the impact of financial management weaknesses on DOD's ability to efficiently and economically carry out its operations; (2) efforts DOD has initiated, and additional actions that are necessary, to improve financial management systems and controls in the short term; and (3) enhancements needed in updating DOD's Biennial Financial Management Improvement Plan--its long-term blueprint for financial management reform."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided an interpretation of certain parts of Title 7 of its Policy and Procedures Manual for Guidance of Federal Agencies, focusing on whether it is acceptable: (1) for disbursing officers to authorize payment without reviewing evidence transmitted directly by an authorized employee attesting to the receipt and acceptance of goods and services; (2) for disbursing officers to authorize payment after reviewing the vendor's invoice and vendor maintained delivery data without first reviewing evidence of receipt and acceptance by a government official; and (3) to verify receipt and acceptance after payment authorization based on review of a statistically selected sample of invoices in lieu of conducting prepayment verification. GAO noted that the Department of Defense's (DOD) Inspector General (IG) requested clarification of GAO's guidance because it was reviewing the propriety of the process used to authorize payments for certain fuel purchases."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the remaining year 2000 computing challenges facing the federal government, focusing on the: (1) actions that the federal government has taken to improve its year 2000 approach; (2) status of the federal government's remediation of its mission-critical systems, with a particular focus on those that are not yet compliant; (3) reported status of state-administered federal programs; and (4) remaining challenges facing the government in ensuring the continuity of business operations, namely end-to-end testing and contingency planning."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Customs Service's management of its Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) system."

A statement of record issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) information management initiatives, focusing on the: (1) status of EPA's efforts to create a central office responsible for information management, policy, and technology issues; and (2) major challenges that the new office needs to address to achieve success in collecting, using, and disseminating environmental information."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the: (1) accuracy, completeness, and usefulness of the information Medicare managed care organizations (MCO) distribute about their plans' benefit packages; (2) extent to which MCOs inform beneficiaries of their plan appeal rights and the appeals process; and (3) Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) review, approval, and oversight of the plan information that MCOs distribute."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) fiscal year (FY) 2000 budget request and the status of the 1999 filing season."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the operational viability of pulsed fast neutron analysis technology (PFNA), which is designed to directly and automatically detect and measure the presence of specific materials by exposing their constituent chemical elements to short bursts of subatomic particles called neutrons, focusing on: (1) the status of plans for field testing a PFNA inspection system for counterterrorism and counterdrug purposes; and (2) federal agency and vendor views on the operational viability of such a system."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Customs Service's efforts to interdict drugs, combat corruption, and comply with the Government Performance and Results Act. GAO also discussed the basis for the $163-million access fee to be charged to nongoverment organizations for the use of Customs' automation systems."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the cost and realization of national security objectives at Russia's Mayak nuclear complex and Shchuch'ye chemical weapons storage depot, focusing on whether the: (1) Mayak project will be completed on schedule and within past Department of Defense (DOD) estimates of its total cost to the United States; (2) United States has made progress in ensuring that the completed Mayak facility would achieve U.S. national security objectives by safely and securely storing retired materials taken only from dismantled nuclear weapons; (3) Shchuch'ye project will be completed on schedule and the status of DOD efforts to estimate its total cost to the United States; and (4) completed Shchuch'ye facility will achieve U.S. national security objectives by helping Russia destroy the Shchuch'ye depot's stocks and accelerate elimination of all Russian chemical weapons under the Chemical Weapons Convention."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed federal agencies' progress in addressing the year 2000 computing challenge and outlined actions needed to ensure a smooth conversion to the next century, focusing on the: (1) status of the federal government's remediation of its mission-critical systems; (2) remaining challenges facing the government in ensuring the continuity of business operations, namely end-to-end testing and business continuity and contingency planning; (3) Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) efforts to identify the government's high-impact programs; and (4) readiness of state systems that are essential to the delivery of federal human services programs."