Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This letter responds to Congress's May 10, 2007, request that we address questions submitted for the record related to the May 9, 2007, hearing entitled The Future of Air Traffic Control Modernization."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994 allows the use of performance-based payment (PBP) as an alternative to other forms of contract financing. According to the Department of Defense (DOD), the paying office processed about one million invoices for 363,000 major contracts. In fiscal year 1999, only 195 of these contracts contained performance-based provisions. These contracts are so few in number because they are a relatively new form of contracting within DOD. In November 2000, however, DOD indicated that performance-based financing will be military's preferred contract financing method for future fixed-price contracts. This report reviews the C-17 aircraft production program as a case study of the business processes used to make investment expenditures during the production phase of a major weapons system. GAO chose this contract because it is mature, stable, and is performance-based rather than cost-based. GAO found internal control weaknesses in the C-17 program affecting compliance with regulations, policies, and procedures over (1) establishing withhold amounts by the Air Force contracting officer for conditionally accepted items, (2) processing by the Administrative Contracting Officer for performance-based payment requests, (3) processing by the Administrative Contracting Officer of invoices …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Biennially, the Judicial Conference, the federal judiciary's principal policymaking body, assesses the judiciary's needs for additional judgeships. If the Conference determines that additional judgeships are needed, it transmits a request to Congress identifying the number, type (courts of appeals, district, or bankruptcy), and location of the judgeships it is requesting. In 2003, the Judicial Conference sent to Congress requests for 93 new judgeships--11 for the courts of appeals, 46 for the district courts, and 36 for the bankruptcy courts. In assessing the need for additional judgeships, the Judicial Conference considers a variety of information, including responses to its biennial survey of individual courts, temporary increases or decreases in case filings, and other factors specific to an individual court. However, the Judicial Conference's analysis begins with the courts of appeals--weighted case filings and adjusted case filings, respectively. These two measures recognize, to different degrees, that the time demands on judges are largely a function of both the number and complexity of the cases on their dockets. Some types of cases may demand relatively little time and others may require many hours of work. Generally, each case filed in a …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Among the tribes that responded to our survey (109), none reported that they were exercising TLOA’s new sentencing authority, and, in open-ended responses, many tribes (86 of 90, or 96 percent) reported challenges to exercising this authority due to funding limitations. Tribes were relatively evenly split among those that reported that they have plans to exercise the new authority (36 of 101, or 36 percent); that they did not know the tribe’s plans to exercise the new authority (34 of 101, or 34 percent) because, for instance, the tribal council has not yet made a decision; and that they did not have plans to do so (31 of 101, or 31 percent). In addition, 64 percent of selected tribes (70 of 109) reported implementing at least half of the requirements necessary for exercising the new sentencing authority, but reported challenges in implementing other requirements. Specifically, these tribes most frequently reported implementing the requirement to maintain a record of the criminal proceeding, and least frequently reported providing the defendant a licensed defense attorney. For example, 8 tribes that described challenges to exercising the new sentencing authority reported challenges with …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "On March 29, 2007, we testified before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security Subcommittee at a hearing entitled, "Eliminating and Recovering Improper Payments." At the hearing, we discussed federal agencies' progress in addressing key requirements of the Improper Payments Information Act of 2002 (IPIA) and Section 831 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002, commonly known as the Recovery Auditing Act. Our review and testimony focused on (1) trends in agencies' reporting under IPIA from fiscal years 2004 through 2006, (2) challenges in reporting improper payment information and improving internal control, and (3) agencies' reporting of recovery auditing efforts. This letter responds to Congress's April 18, 2007, request to provide answers to follow-up questions relating to our March 29, 2007, testimony. The responses are based on work associated with previously issued GAO products and data reported in agencies' performance and accountability reports (PAR)."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) completed most of the key activities outlined in the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (the 2008 Farm Bill), which authorized a new meat and poultry inspection program to support interstate shipment of meat and poultry products from establishments with 25 or fewer employees, inspected by state agencies. Specifically, FSIS issued program regulations in May 2011for the new inspection program, called the Cooperative Interstate Shipment (CIS) program,and it provided additional guidance in October 2011 instructing states on what they needed to demonstrate to be approved for the CIS program.As of January 31, 2013, three states—Ohio, North Dakota, and Wisconsin—and eight establishments in two of those states had been selected to participate in the program. However, although FSIS established a technical assistance division, that division has not coordinated with other USDA agencies on initiatives to provide outreach, education, and training to establishments and grants to states for those initiatives and also for technical assistance to small establishments,as required by the 2008 Farm Bill. Also, FSIS gave funds to four states to assess the changes they would have to make to their inspection …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Armed Forces Retirement Home (AFRH), an independent executive branch entity, operates two continuing care retirement communities (CCRC). It provides care in three settings--independent living, assisted living, and a nursing home--and also operates a health and dental clinic for residents. The responsibilities of a CCRC generally include (1) appropriately transitioning residents from independent living to other settings as their care needs increase, (2) ensuring the availability of appropriate health services as residents progress to higher-level settings, and (3) ensuring residents' access to community-based or on-site health care. The law establishing AFRH sets forth the framework for its oversight and management. The NDAA for Fiscal Year 2006 required GAO to assess the regulatory oversight and monitoring of health care and nursing home care services provided by AFRH. As discussed with the committees of jurisdiction, we focused our review on (1) the standards that could be used to monitor health care provided by AFRH and (2) the adequacy of DOD oversight of AFRH health care. To address these issues, we (1) identified existing standards applicable to health services in the three settings at AFRH and similar facilities; (2) discussed accreditation …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Until the 2001 flu season, the production and distribution of influenza vaccine generally went smoothly. Last year, however, several people reported that they wanted but could not get flu shots. In addition, physicians and public health departments could not provide shots to high-risk patients in their medical offices and clinics because they had not received vaccine they ordered many months in advance, or because they were being asked to pay much higher prices for vaccine in order to get it right away. At the same time, there were reports that providers in other locations, even grocery stores and restaurants, were offering flu shots to everyone--including younger, healthier people who were not at high risk. This testimony discusses the delays in production, distribution, and pricing of the 2000-2001 flu vaccine. GAO found that manufacturing difficulties during the 2000-2001 flu season resulted in an overall delay of about six to eight weeks in shipping vaccine to most customers. This delay created an initial shortage and temporary price spikes. There is no system in place to ensure that high-risk people have priority for receiving flu shots when supply is short. Because …

Guidance issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Government Accountability Office is responsible for, among other things, assisting the Congress in its oversight of the federal government, including agencies’ stewardship of public funds. To use public funds effectively, the government must meet the demands of today’s changing world by employing effective management practices and processes, including the measurement of government program performance. In addition, legislators, government officials, and the public want to know whether government programs are achieving their goals and what their costs are."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This letter formally transmits the briefing in response to section 957(a) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 and the accompanying conference report. The act required the Comptroller General to conduct an assessment of the most recent reorganization of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy."

The National Security Preparedness Project (NSPP), is to be sustained by various programs, including technology demonstration and evaluation (DEMVAL). This project assists companies in developing technologies under the National Security Technology Incubator program (NSTI) through demonstration and validation of technologies applicable to national security created by incubators and other sources. The NSPP also will support the creation of an integrated demonstration and validation environment. This report documents the DEMVAL marketing and visibility plan, which will focus on collecting information about, and expanding the visibility of, DEMVAL assets serving businesses with national security technology applications in southern New Mexico.

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, Dan Morales, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether the Department of Banking may enforce the Currency Exchange Act, article 350, V.T.C.S., on a gambling facility owned by the Kickapoo Indians on their reservation in Eagle Pass, Texas (RQ-926)

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: Constitutionality of section 41(e)(3) of the Probate Code, which permits a probate court to declare that a parent may not inherit from his own child if the parent has been convicted of one of several crimes against a child (RQ-0649-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 an educational institution violates article 6228a-5, section 9(a)(4)–(7) of the Texas Revised Civil Statutes if the institution contracts with a third-party administrator that is owned by or otherwise affiliated with a company that sells qualified 403(b) investment products to the institutions employees (RQ-0653-GA)

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, John Ben Shepperd, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification;The Constitutionality of Senate Bill No.27,53rd legislature ,First Called Session 1954.

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 Type A general-law municipality with a population of less than 900,000 to enact an ordinance setting either a 300-foot "Alcohol-Free School Zone" or a 1,000-foot zone around a school in which the sale of of alcoholic beverages for off-premises consumption would be prohibited (RQ-1028-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, in determining the market value of a residence homestead, a chief appraiser is required to consider the value of previously sold foreclosed residential property (RQ-1029-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 mental health professional is required by chapter 261, Family Code, to report abuse or neglect that occurred during the childhood of a now-adult patient (RQ-1030-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 the Angleton-Danbury Hospital District is authorized to sell a hospital facility to a third party and lease care for the District's needy residents (RQ-1033-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 commissioners court may contract for online legal research services for the general public and local attorneys with fees collected under section 323.023 of the Local Government Code (RQ-0006-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 river authority is a "state agency" under section 572.002 of the Government Code, and whether a river authority must comply with the notice requirement of section 669.003(2) of the Government Code (RQ-0047-GA)

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, John L. Hill, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Constitutionality of S.B. 1019 which would authorize the Finance Commission to set interest rates on certain loans.

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.

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: Does section 2D of article 5165a, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes apply to Alamo Community College District?