This report consists of list of the military-industrial complex.

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In recent years, several Hawaii-based conservation advocacy organizations and others have raised a variety of concerns about the conduct of members and staff of the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council (Western Pacific Council) related to lobbying and conflicts of interest, among other things. The Western Pacific Council is one of eight regional fishery management councils established by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act). The council is responsible for developing management plans for fisheries in federal waters off Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and other U.S. Pacific islands. The council has 13 voting members--including 5 designated state and federal fishery managers and 8 members of the public with expertise in commercial and recreational fishing and marine conservation who are appointed by the Secretary of Commerce. The council employs an executive director with a staff of 13 to assist in the performance of its functions. An attorney from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), an agency within the Department of Commerce, advises the council on regulatory and procedural matters and attends all council meetings. The Western Pacific Council currently finances all of its …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO investigated the allegations that Adolfo Franco, Senior Vice President and General Counsel for the Inter-American Foundation (IAF), violated contracting regulations and personnel policies in his attempts to hire Carlos Urquidi for the auditor position at IAF, focusing on if IAF violated: (1) Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) in procuring the services of Mr. Urquidi; and (2) Office of Personnel Management (OPM) regulations or personnel policies in its attempts to fill the auditor position."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Climate change poses risks to many environmental and economic systems, including agriculture, infrastructure, and ecosystems. Federal law has periodically required the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to report on federal climate change funding. GAO was asked to examine (1) federal funding for climate change activities and how these activities are organized; (2) the extent to which methods for defining and reporting climate change funding are interpreted consistently across the federal government; (3) federal climate change strategic priorities, and the extent to which funding is aligned with these priorities; and (4) what options, if any, are available to better align federal climate change funding with strategic priorities. GAO analyzed OMB funding reports and responses to a Web-based questionnaire sent to federal officials, reviewed available literature, and interviewed stakeholders."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Foreign investors in U.S. companies or assets include individuals, companies, and government entities. One type of foreign investor that has been increasingly active in world markets is sovereign wealth funds (SWF), government-controlled funds that seek to invest in other countries. As the activities of these funds have grown they have been praised as providing valuable capital to world markets, but questions have been raised about their lack of transparency and the potential impact of their investments on recipient countries. GAO's second report on SWFs reviews (1) U.S. laws that specifically affect foreign investment, including that by SWFs, in the United States and (2) processes agencies use to enforce them. GAO reviewed policy statements, treaties, and U.S. laws, and interviewed and obtained information from agencies responsible for enforcing these laws. GAO also interviewed legal experts and organizations that track state foreign investment issues."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act of 2009 (HEARTH Act) directed GAO to study the appropriate administrative costs of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Emergency Shelter Grants Program (ESG)--a widely used, formula-based program that supports services to persons experiencing homelessness. This report discusses (1) for selected recipients, the types of administrative activities performed and administrative costs incurred under the ESG program, and the extent to which grant proceeds cover these administrative costs; (2) how the ESG program's allowance for administrative costs compares with administrative cost allowances for selected other targeted federal homeless grant programs, plus selected other HUD formula-based grant programs; and (3) how the nature or amount of administrative costs might be different under changes Congress made to the ESG program in the HEARTH Act that expand the types of activities that may be funded. To address these issues, GAO reviewed relevant policies and documents, interviewed officials of HUD and other agencies, made site visits in four states, reviewed HUD and other available standards on eligible administrative costs for federal grants, and reviewed cost allowances for homeless …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005 mandated that GAO review whether the transition assistance program (TAP) is meeting the needs of service members leaving the military. GAO (1) assessed TAP administration, including program participation, and (2) identified actions agencies are taking to improve TAP and challenges that remain. TAP serves military personnel with at least 180 days of active duty who separate or retire and members of the Reserves and National Guard who are released from active duty, a process termed demobilization. Recently, the Reserves and National Guard have been called to active duty in greater numbers than at any other time since the Korean War."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This letter formally transmits and summarizes an oral briefing we gave on April 12, 2010, in response to House of Representatives Explanatory Statement, 155 Cong. Rec. H2113 (daily ed., Feb. 23, 2009), accompanying the Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009 (Pub. L. No. 111-8, 123 Stat. 524) (2009). GAO was directed to review the indirect costs the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) paid the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Specifically, our objectives were to (1) describe CDC's methodology for determining and allocating indirect costs to bill ATSDR for administrative services and (2) determine if the methodology CDC uses to bill ATSDR appropriately considers relevant laws and guidance."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Americans spend billions of hours each year providing information to federal agencies by filling out information collections (forms, surveys, or questionnaires). A major aim of the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) is to balance the burden of these collections with their public benefit. Under the act, agencies' Chief Information Officers (CIO) are responsible for reviewing information collections before they are submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for approval. As part of this review, CIOs must certify that the collections meet 10 standards set forth in the act. GAO was asked to assess, among other things, this review and certification process, including agencies' efforts to consult with the public. To do this, GAO reviewed a governmentwide sample of collections, reviewed processes and collections at four agencies that account for a large proportion of burden, and performed case studies of 12 approved collections."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "At a time when the military is supporting ongoing operations in many places around the world, the Department of Defense (DOD) faces challenges balancing the strategic capability needs of the military services with the more immediate joint warfighting needs of the combatant commands (COCOM). Given concerns that the military service-dominated system for developing capabilities was not meeting the most essential warfighter needs, in 2003, DOD created the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System (JCIDS) to guide the development of capabilities from a joint perspective. DOD's Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) oversees JCIDS and participates in the development of joint requirements, which includes the identification and analysis and synthesis of capability gaps and the JROC's subsequent validation of capability needs through JCIDS. Following stakeholder collaboration and deliberations, the JROC makes recommendations to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who advises the Secretary of Defense about which capabilities to invest in as part of DOD's budget process. Before making investment decisions, the services consider the validated capabilities during their planning, programming, and budgeting processes and make decisions among competing investments. In the Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act of …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) receives over 300,000 patent applications each year. Before the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999, USPTO was required by law to keep the information on patent applications confidential until a patent was granted. The act modified this requirement and mandated that USPTO publish most patent applications 18 months after filing. One exception to this requirement is available to patent applicants filing only in the United States. These applicants can request that their application not be published. The act required GAO to provide information on how patent applications have been affected by the 18-month publication provisions. GAO was required to determine (1) the number of patent applications filed only in the United States, and (2) whether certain differences exist between published and unpublished patent applications. Specifically, GAO examined differences relating to whether the applicant was a large or small entity, the percentage of patents issued by USPTO and applications abandoned by the applicants, and the length of time between filing an application and when USPTO issued a patent or the application was abandoned."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) insures the retirement future of nearly 44 million people in over 29,000 private-sector defined benefit pension plans. In July 2003, GAO designated PBGC's single-employer pension insurance program--its largest insurance program--as "high risk," including it on GAO's list of major programs that need urgent Congressional attention and agency action. The program remains on the list today with a financial deficit of just over $11 billion, as of September 2008. The committee asked GAO to discuss our recent work on PBGC. Specifically, this testimony addresses two issues: (1) PBGC's financial vulnerabilities, and (2) the governance, oversight, and management challenges PBGC faces. To address these objectives, we are relying on our prior work assessing PBGC's long-term financial challenges, and several reports that we have published over the last two years on PBGC governance and management. GAO has made a number of recommendations and identified matters for Congressional consideration in these reports, and PBGC is implementing some of these recommendations. No new recommendations are being made as part of this testimony."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "General aviation accounts for three-quarters of U.S. air traffic, from small propeller planes to large jets, operating among nearly 19,000 airports. While most security operations are left to private airport operators, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), provides guidance on threats and vulnerabilities. In 2004, TSA issued suggested security enhancements that airports could implement voluntarily. Unlike commercial airports, in most cases general aviation airports are not required to implement specific security measures. GAO was asked to perform onsite assessments at selected airports with general aviation operations to determine what physical security measures they have to prevent unauthorized access. With advance notice, GAO investigators overtly visited a nonrepresentative selection of 13 airports, based on TSA-determined risk factors. Three of the airports also serve commercial aviation and are therefore subject to TSA security regulations. Using TSA's voluntary recommendations and GAO investigators' security expertise, GAO determined whether certain security measures were in place. GAO also requested documentation of incidents of unauthorized access. Results of GAO's assessments cannot be projected to all general aviation airports and are not meant to imply that the …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2003, GAO designated federal disability programs as a high-risk area because federal disability programs remained grounded in outmoded concepts that have not been updated to reflect the current state of science, medicine, technology, and labor market conditions. In addition, the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) faced management challenges, especially with their disability claims processing. Further, disability experts have expressed concerns about the level of coordination among the many federal agencies that provide benefits and services to individuals with disabilities. GAO was asked to determine: (1) what steps SSA and VA have taken to modernize their disability programs and (2) to what extent SSA and VA coordinate with other federal agencies that provide services to individuals with disabilities. To do this, GAO reviewed literature, agency strategic plans and performance and accountability reports, and interviewed agency officials."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In November 2002, we issued our report on the results of our audit of the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) financial statements as of and for the fiscal years ending September 30, 2002 and 2001, and on the effectiveness of its internal controls as of September 30, 2002. We also reported our conclusions on IRS's compliance with significant provisions of selected laws and regulations and on whether IRS's financial management systems substantially comply with requirements of the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996 (FFMIA). A separate report on the implementation status of recommendations from our prior IRS financial audits and related financial management reports will be issued shortly. The purpose of this report is to discuss issues identified during our fiscal year 2002 audit regarding accounting procedures and internal controls that could be improved for which we do not presently have any recommendations outstanding."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Perchlorate, a primary ingredient in propellant, has been used for decades in the manufacture and firing of rockets and missiles. Other uses include fireworks, flares, and explosives. Perchlorate has been found in drinking water, groundwater, surface water, and soil in the United States. The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) reviewed studies of perchlorate's health effects and reported in January 2005 that certain levels of exposure may not adversely affect healthy adults but recommended more studies be conducted on the effects of perchlorate exposure in children and pregnant women. GAO determined (1) the estimated extent of perchlorate in the United States, (2) what actions have been taken to address perchlorate, and (3) what studies of perchlorate's health risks have reported."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Rural Housing Service's (RHS) Section 521 Rental Assistance Program provides rental subsidies to about 250,000 rural tenants through 5-year contracts with project owners; 20-year contracts were also issued from 1978 through 1982. In early 2003, RHS reported hundreds of millions of dollars in unexpended balances, primarily tied to 5- and 20-year contracts issued from 1978 through 1982. Since contracts remain active until all funds are expired, some of these contracts will likely last as long as 38 years. GAO was asked to assess (1) the activity level of rental assistance contracts issued from 1978 through 1997 that have unexpended balances and the possibility of deobligating these balances, and (2) the activity level of rental assistance contracts issued from 1998 through 2002 and the accuracy of RHS's estimates of the rate at which these funds would be used. The Department of Agriculture commented on our responses to these questions."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Landmines and other explosive remnants of war cause thousands of casualties worldwide each year. Since 1993, the United States--through the Department of State's (State) Humanitarian Mine Action Program--has contributed funding to more than 80 countries, providing tens of millions of dollars annually to rid the world of landmines and other explosive remnants of war. In 2006, to address the counter-improvised explosive device (IED) threat against U.S. military forces, the Department of Defense (DOD) established the Joint IED Defeat Organization (JIEDDO). Through fiscal year 2010, Congress has appropriated more than $17 billion to JIEDDO to quickly develop and field counter-IED solutions. In the committee report accompanying the House of Representatives' version of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2011, the House Armed Services Committee directed that we review the applicability of JIEDDO initiatives to humanitarian demining efforts. To respond to the requirements of this mandate, we addressed the following questions: (1) What JIEDDO-supported technologies have DOD identified that could be applicable to humanitarian demining? and (2) To what extent does coordination occur (a) within DOD and (b) between DOD and State regarding JIEDDO-supported technologies that could be …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In fiscal year 2008, the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program sold over $36 billion dollars in defense articles and services to foreign governments. The Departments of State, Defense (DOD), and Homeland Security (DHS) all have a role in the FMS program. In 2003, GAO identified significant weaknesses in FMS control mechanisms for safeguarding defense articles transferred to foreign governments. In 2007, GAO designated the protection of technologies critical to U.S. national security a high-risk area. GAO was asked to (1) evaluate program changes State, DOD, and DHS have made since 2003 to ensure that unclassified defense articles transferred to foreign governments are authorized for shipment and monitored as required, and (2) determine what information DOD has to administer and oversee the FMS program. GAO conducted 16 case studies; analyzed U.S. port data and FMS agreements; reviewed program performance metrics; and interviewed cognizant officials."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is required by the Government Management Reform Act of 1994 to audit the Consolidated Financial Statements of the U.S. Government (CFS). Certain material weaknesses in financial reporting and other limitations on the scope of our work have continued to result in conditions that have prevented us from expressing an opinion on the federal government's accrual basis consolidated financial statements. To assist us in planning future audits, when we anticipate being able to eventually issue an opinion on the accrual basis consolidated financial statements, we have performed and plan to continue performing selected procedures on certain line items and other areas of interest. The purpose of these procedures is to obtain an understanding of selected federal agencies' accounting and reporting and the audit work being performed in these areas. This letter relates to the fiscal year 2006 accounts payable (A/P) line item. The federal government reported about $58 billion of A/P as of September 30, 2006. Certain federal agencies' auditors reported internal control deficiencies related to A/P. These weaknesses contributed to the CFS material weakness for "Liabilities and Commitments and Contingencies" reported in our …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is responsible for ensuring workplace safety. OSHA has established a number of programs, including the Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP), that take a cooperative approach to obtaining compliance with safety and health regulations and OSHA's standards. OSHA established the VPP in 1982 to recognize worksites with exemplary safety and health programs. GAO was asked to review (1) the number and characteristics of employer worksites in the VPP and factors that have influenced growth, (2) the extent to which OSHA ensures that only qualified worksites participate in the VPP, and (3) the adequacy of OSHA's efforts to monitor performance and evaluate the effectiveness of the VPP. GAO analyzed OSHA's VPP data, reviewed a representative sample of VPP case files, and interviewed agency officials."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Internet protocol (IP) provides the addressing mechanism that defines how and where information such as text, voice, and video move across interconnected networks. Internet protocol version 4 (IPv4), which is widely used today, may not be able to accommodate the increasing number of global users and devices that are connecting to the Internet. As a result, IP version 6 (IPv6) was developed to increase the amount of available IP address space. It is gaining momentum globally from regions with limited address space. GAO was asked to (1) describe the key characteristics of IPv6; (2) identify the key planning considerations for federal agencies in transitioning to IPv6; and (3) determine the progress made by the Department of Defense (DOD) and other major agencies to transition to IPv6."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "To enhance aviation security, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) began initial testing in October 2003 of its Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT) program. Behavior Detection Officers (BDO) carry out SPOT's mission to identify persons who pose a risk to aviation security by focusing on behavioral and appearance indicators. GAO was asked to review the SPOT program. GAO analyzed (1) the extent to which TSA validated the SPOT program before deployment, (2) implementation challenges, and (3) the extent to which TSA measures SPOT's effect on aviation security. GAO analyzed TSA documents, such as strategic plans and operating procedures; interviewed agency personnel and subject matter experts; and visited 15 SPOT airports, among other things. Although the results from these visits are not generalizable, they provided insights into SPOT operations."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. military depends heavily on computer networks, and potential adversaries see cyberwarfare as an opportunity to pose a significant threat at low cost---a few programmers could cripple an entire information system. The Department of Defense (DOD) created U.S. Cyber Command to counter cyber threats, and tasked the military services with providing support. GAO examined the extent to which DOD and U.S. Cyber Command have identified for the military services the (1) roles and responsibilities, (2) command and control relationships, and (3) mission requirements and capabilities to enable them to organize, train, and equip for cyberspace operations. GAO reviewed relevant plans, policies, and guidance, and interviewed key DOD and military service officials regarding cyberspace operations."