A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The District of Columbia Family Court Act of 2001 was enacted to (1) redesignate the Family Division of the Superior Court as the Family Court of the Superior Court, (2) recruit trained and experienced judges to serve in the Family Court, and (3) promote consistency and efficiency in the assignment of judges and the courts actions and proceedings. The act requires the chief judge of the Superior Court to submit a transition plan outlining the proposed operation of the Family Court. The plan shows that the Superior Court has made progress transitioning its Family Division to a Family Court, but challenges remain. The transition plan addresses most, but not all, of the act's required elements. For example, the plan identifies the number of judges and magistrate judges needed and outlines an approach for closing or transferring cases from other divisions to the Family Court. However, the plan does not include (1) a request that the Judicial Nomination Commission recruit and the president nominate the additional judges the court believes are necessary, (2) the number of nonjudicial staff needed for the Family Court, (3) information on the …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Because of increased awareness of threats to national security and efforts to privatize federal jobs, the demand for security clearances for government and industry personnel has increased. Industry personnel are taking on a greater role in national security work for the Department of Defense (DOD) and other federal agencies. Because many of these jobs require access to classified information, industry personnel need security clearances. As of September 30, 2003, industry workers held about one-third of the approximately 2 million DOD-issued security clearances. Terrorist attacks have heightened national security concerns and underscored the need for a timely, high-quality personnel security clearance process. However, GAO's past work found that DOD had a clearance backlog and other problems with its process. GAO was asked to review the clearance eligibility determination process and backlog for industry personnel. This testimony presents our preliminary observations on the security clearance process for industry personnel and describes (1) the size of the backlog and changes in the time needed to issue eligibility determinations, (2) the impediments to reducing the backlog and delays, and (3) some of the initiatives that DOD is considering to eliminate the backlog …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on federal offenders who were ordered to pay criminal fines and victim restitution, focusing on: (1) the percentage of offenders who were ordered to pay fines or restitution in fiscal year (FY) 1997 and those who were not; (2) differences across judicial circuits and districts in the percent of offenders who were ordered to pay fines or restitution and those who were not; and (3) officials' opinions about possible reasons for those differences."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on federal courts and the differences that exist in ordering fines and restitution, focusing on: (1) the percentages of those offenders who were ordered to pay fines and restitution in fiscal year (FY) 1997 and those who were not; (2) differences across judicial circuits and districts in the percentages of those offenders who were ordered to pay fines or restitution and those who were not; and (3) officials' opinions about possible reasons for these differences."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The availability of child pornography has dramatically increased in recent years as it has migrated from printed material to the World Wide Web, becoming accessible through Web sites, chat rooms, newsgroups, and now the increasingly popular peer-to-peer file sharing programs. These programs enable direct communication between users, allowing users to access each other's files and share digital music, images, and video. GAO was requested to determine the ease of access to child pornography on peer-to-peer networks; the risk of inadvertent exposure of juvenile users of peerto- peer networks to pornography, including child pornography; and the extent of federal law enforcement resources available for combating child pornography on peer-to-peer networks. Today's testimony is based on GAO's report on the results of that work (GAO- 03-351). Because child pornography cannot be accessed legally other than by law enforcement agencies, GAO worked with the Customs Cyber- Smuggling Center in performing searches: Customs downloaded and analyzed image files, and GAO performed analyses based on keywords and file names only."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed how well kinship care is serving foster children, focusing on the: (1) quality of care that children in kinship care receive compared with that received by other foster children, as measured by a caseworker's assessment of a caregiver's parenting skills, the extent to which a foster child is able to maintain contact with familiar people and surroundings, and a caregiver's willingness to enforce court-ordered restrictions on parental visits; (2) frequency with which state child welfare agencies pursue various permanent living arrangements and the time children in kinship care have spent in the system compared with other foster children; and (3) recent state initiatives intended to help ensure that children in kinship care receive good quality foster care and are placed in permanent homes in a timely manner."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony provides information on two important tools state insurance regulators use to oversee the market activities of insurance companies--market analysis and market conduct examinations. Market analysis is generallly done in the state insurance departments. It consists of gathering and integrating information about insurance companies' operations in order to monitor market behavior and identify potential problems at an early stage. Market conduct examinations, which are generally done on site, are a review of an insurer's marketplace practices. The examination is an opportunity to verify data provided to the department by the insurer and to confirm that companies' internal controls and operational processes result in compliance with state laws and regulations. Specifically, this testimony focuses on (1) the states' use of market analysis and examinations in market regulation, and (2) the effectiveness of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' (NAIC) efforts to improve these oversight tools and encourage the states to use them."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 significantly changed Medicare's home health care payments to home health agencies (HHAs). Under a prospective payment system (PPS), HHAs are paid a fixed amount, adjusted for beneficiary care needs, for providing up to 60 days of care---termed a "home health episode." The act also imposed new interim payment limits to moderate spending until the PPS could be implemented. Although PPS was designed to lower Medicare spending below what it was under the interim system, GAO found that Medicare's payments for full home health care episodes were 35 percent higher than estimated in the first six months of 2001. These disparities indicate that Medicare's PPS overpays for services actually provided, although some HHAs facing extraordinary costs not accounted for by the payment system may be financially disadvantaged."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In 1996, the Congress authorized an experimental initiative called the Recreational Fee Demonstration Program that provides funds to increase the quality of visitor experience and enhance resource protection. Under the program, the Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Park Service--all within the Department of the Interior--and the Forest Service--within the U.S. Department of Agriculture--are authorized to establish, charge, collect, and use fees at a number of sites to, among other things, address a backlog of repair and maintenance needs. Also, sites may retain and use the fees they collect. The Congress is now considering, through H.R. 3283, whether to make the program permanent. Central to the debate is how effectively the agencies are using the revenues that they have collected. This testimony focuses on the potential effect of H.R. 3283 on the issues GAO raised previously in its work on the Recreational Fee Demonstration Program. Specifically, it examines the extent to which H.R. 3283 would affect (1) federal agencies' deferred maintenance programs, (2) the management and distribution of the revenue collected, and (3) interagency coordination on fee collection and use."

A statement of record issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The nation's transportation systems have become increasingly congested, and pressure on them is expected to grow substantially in the future. Most transportation experts think a multifaceted approach is needed to address congestion and improve mobility. One potential tool is congestion pricing, that is, charging users a toll, fee, or surcharge for using transportation infrastructure during certain peak periods of travel. Pilot projects to test this approach are currently under way in the United States and the technique has been used more extensively abroad. Interest in the usefulness of congestion pricing has been growing, as evidenced by several recent proposals. However, there have also been concerns raised about the fairness of such practices to some users of transportation systems. GAO was asked to identify (1) the potential benefits that can be expected from pricing congested transportation systems, approaches to using congestion pricing in transportation systems, and the implementation challenges that such pricing policies pose, and (2) examples of projects in which pricing of congested transportation systems has been applied to date, and what these examples reveal about potential benefits or challenges to implementation. This statement is …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Over 65 percent of American households currently subscribe to cable television service. There has been increasing concern that cable television rates have been rising aster than the rate of inflation for the last few years. As required, on a yearly basis, FCC prepares a report on cable rates in areas that face and those that do not face effective competition--a term defined by statute. For information used in this report, FCC maintains information on the competitive status of cable franchises and annually surveys a sample of cable franchises. GAO examined (1) the reliability of information that cable companies provided to FCC in its annual survey regarding cost factors underlying cable rate increases and (2) FCC's process for updating and revising cable franchise classifications as to whether they face effective competition."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Cannon House Office Building (Cannon Building)--completed in 1908--and the East and West House Underground Garages (East and West Garages)--built in 1968--have deteriorated over time and will need to be repaired, according to assessments conducted for the Architect of the Capitol (AOC). AOC plans to renovate these three facilities over approximately the next 8 years as part of a long-term effort to reduce maintenance backlogs and execute major renewal projects to sustain all Capitol Complex facilities."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Collaboration between the federal government and the aviation industry has led to reductions in aviation emissions, but growing air traffic has partially offset these reductions. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), together with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and others, is working to increase the efficiency, safety, and capacity of the national airspace system and at the same time reduce aviation emissions, in part, by transforming the current air traffic control system to the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). This effort involves new technologies and air traffic procedures that can reduce aviation emissions and incorporates research and development (R&D) on emissions-reduction technologies. Reducing aviation emissions is important both to minimize their adverse health and environmental effects and to alleviate public concerns about them that could constrain the expansion of airport infrastructure and aviation operations needed to meet demand. This testimony addresses (1) the scope and nature of aviation emissions, (2) the status of selected key federal efforts to reduce aviation emissions, and (3) next steps and challenges in reducing aviation emissions. The testimony updates prior GAO work with FAA data, literature …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "To improve aviation safety, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) plans to have in place the initial capabilities of a risk-based approach to safety oversight, known as a safety management system (SMS), by the end of fiscal year 2010. FAA is also implementing new procedures and technologies to enhance the safety, capacity, and efficiency of the national airspace system. Data are central to SMS and FAA's ability to test the impact of these changes on safety. This congressionally requested report addresses FAA's (1) current and planned use of data to oversee aviation safety, (2) access to data for monitoring aviation safety and the safety performance of various industry sectors, and (3) efforts to help ensure data quality. To perform this work, GAO reviewed 13 databases that contain data on key aviation safety events, assessed data quality controls for the databases, and interviewed agency and industry officials, as well as 10 experts in aviation safety and data."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "For several decades, Congress and the Department of Defense (DOD) have explored ways to improve the acquisition of major weapon systems, yet program outcomes and their underlying causes have proven resistant to change. Last year, we reported that the cumulative cost growth in DOD's portfolio of major programs was $296 billion. The opportunity to achieve meaningful improvements may now be at hand with the recent introduction of major reforms to the acquisition process. In response to a mandate from this Committee, GAO has issued several reports about DOD's budget and requirements processes to support weapon program stability. This follow-on report focuses on (1) identifying weapon programs that are achieving good outcomes, (2) the factors that enable some programs to succeed, and (3) lessons to be learned from these programs to guide implementation of recent reforms. GAO analyzed DOD's portfolio of major defense programs and conducted case study reviews of five programs."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 1996, the former U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, now within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Social Security Administration (SSA) began operating a voluntary pilot program, recently named the E-Verify program, to provide participating employers with a means for electronically verifying employees' work eligibility. Legislation has been introduced in Congress to require all employers to electronically verify the work authorization status of their employees. In this testimony GAO provides observations on the E-Verify system's capacity and costs, options for reducing delays and improving efficiency in the verification process, ability to detect fraudulent documents and identity theft, and vulnerability to employer fraud and misuse. This testimony is based on GAO's products issued from August 2005 through June 2007 and updated information obtained from DHS and SSA in April 2008. We analyzed data on employer use, E-Verify guidance, and other reports on the employment verification process, as well as legislative proposals and regulations."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since the first financial statement audit was attempted at a major Department of Defense (DOD) component over 20 years ago, GAO and DOD auditors have continued to report significant weaknesses in the department's ability to provide timely, reliable, consistent, and accurate information for management analysis, decision-making, and reporting. DOD has undertaken a number of initiatives over the years, such as the Financial Improvement Initiative in 2003, to improve the department's business operations, including financial management, and achieve clean financial statement audit opinions. However, these initiatives have met with limited success. In 2005, the DOD Comptroller established the DOD Financial Improvement and Audit Readiness (FIAR) Directorate to manage DOD-wide financial improvement efforts and to integrate those efforts with transformation activities, such as those outlined in the Enterprise Transition Plan, across the department. The components report accomplishments and progress against planned corrective actions to the FIAR Directorate for reporting in the FIAR Plan. Congress asked GAO to analyze the department's FIAR Plan to identify any areas where improvements are needed to enhance the plan's effectiveness as a management tool for guiding, monitoring, and reporting on the department's efforts …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2009 GAO conducted a study on the role of leverage in the recent financial crisis and federal oversight of leverage, as mandated by the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act. This testimony presents the results of that study, and discusses (1) how leveraging and deleveraging by financial institutions may have contributed to the crisis, (2) how federal financial regulators limit the buildup of leverage; and (3) the limitations the crisis has revealed in regulatory approaches used to restrict leverage and regulatory proposals to address them. To meet these objectives, GAO built on its existing body of work, reviewed relevant laws and regulations and academic and other studies, and interviewed regulators and market participants."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Food imported from around the world constitutes a substantial and increasing percentage of the U.S. food supply. Ensuring the safety of imported food challenges the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to better target its resources on the foods posing the greatest risks to public health and to coordinate efforts with the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection (CBP) so that unsafe food does not enter U.S. commerce. This testimony focuses on (1) FDA's overseas inspections, (2) identified gaps in agencies' enforcement efforts to ensure the safety of imported food, and (3) statutory authorities that GAO has identified that could help FDA's oversight of food safety. This testimony is principally based on GAO's September 2009 report, Food Safety: Agencies Need to Address Gaps in Enforcement and Collaboration to Enhance Safety of Imported Food (GAO-09-873) and has been updated with information from FDA."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "State environmental agencies use federal grants from the Environmental Protection Agency, in addition to their own funds, to help implement and enforce the nation's environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Safe Drinking Water Act. Under this approach the states have an important role as partners and co-regulators, and, among other things, issue and enforce permits, carry out inspections, and monitor and collect data. EPA provides grants, known as categorical grants, to states to assist in implementing water, air, waste, and other programs that carry out federal environmental requirements."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In response to the Federal Financial Assistance Management Improvement Act of 1999, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), among other things, deployed Grants.gov as the central grant identification and application portal for federal grant programs in 2003 and named the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) its managing partner. As a result of funding and governance challenges-- such as untimely contributions, a lack of performance metrics, unclear lines of authority, and confusion over roles and responsibilities among Grants.gov's governance bodies-- that have adversely affected operations, GAO is required to examine (1) key factors HHS should consider when proposing a funding model for Grants.gov, and (2) how the Grants.gov governance bodies could address Grants.gov's previously identified governance challenges. To do this, GAO analyzed agency documents and interviewed officials at HHS, OMB, the Grants Executive Board (GEB), three case study agencies that manage similar E-Gov initiatives and three Grants.gov partner agencies."

Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The nation's economy and its citizens' quality of life depend on our transportation system. While all government levels have made significant investments in transportation, projections of future passenger and freight travel indicate that considerable investment will be needed to maintain the system. However, this comes amid growing concern about the size of the federal budget deficit and increasing demands on state and local government revenue. As a result, careful decisions will need to be made to ensure that transportation investments maximize the benefits of each dollar invested. The House Appropriations Committee report accompanying the fiscal year 2004 Departments of Transportation and Treasury and Independent Agencies Appropriations Bill, required GAO to review the benefits and costs of various transportation modes. (See GAO-05-172.) As part of this study, GAO convened an expert panel that included some of the leading transportation economists and practitioners from throughout the nation. The panel discussed the benefits and costs of highway and transit investments."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "For more than a decade, GAO has reported that Medicare has paid higher than market rates for medical equipment and supplies provided to beneficiaries under Medicare Part B. Since 1989, Medicare has used fee schedules primarily based on historical charges to set payment amounts. But this approach lacks flexibility to keep pace with market changes and increases costs to the federal government and Medicare's 44 million elderly and disabled beneficiaries. The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 required the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)--the agency that administers Medicare--to test competitive bidding as a new way to set payments. CMS did this through a demonstration in two locations in which suppliers could compete on the basis of price and other factors for the right to provide their products. The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) required CMS to conduct competitive bidding on a large scale and suppliers to obtain accreditation. GAO was asked to describe the effects that competitive bidding could have on Medicare program payments and suppliers and the need for adequate oversight to ensure quality and access for beneficiaries in a competitive …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The National Park Service routinely issues permits for special park uses, such as special events or commercial filming and still photography. However, the National Football League's use of the National Mall to launch its 2003 season raised questions about whether permitting such events was consistent with existing policies and law and whether all applicable fees for permitting special park uses were being collected. GAO (1) identified applicable policy guidance for issuing special uses permits for special events and for commercial filming and still photography, (2) assessed the extent to which this guidance was applied during fiscal year 2003, and (3) determined the extent to which the Park Service implemented the requirement to collect location fees for commercial filming and still photography."