A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In March 2005, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a rule that will limit emissions of mercury--a toxic element that causes neurological problems--from coal-fired power plants, the nation's largest industrial source of mercury emissions. Under the rule, mercury emissions are to be reduced from a baseline of 48 tons per year to 38 tons in 2010 and to 15 tons in 2018. In the rule, EPA set the emissions target for 2010 based on the level of reductions achievable with technologies for controlling other pollutants--which also capture some mercury--because it believed emerging mercury controls had not been adequately demonstrated. EPA and the Department of Energy (DOE) coordinate research on mercury controls. In this context, GAO was asked to (1) describe the use, availability, and effectiveness of technologies to reduce mercury emissions at power plants; and (2) identify the factors that influence the cost of these technologies and report on available cost estimates. In completing our review, GAO did not independently test mercury controls. GAO provided the draft report to DOE and EPA for comment. DOE said that it generally agreed with our findings. EPA provided technical …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "To help alleviate the psychological distress caused by the September 11, 2001, attacks the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) awarded the state of New York two grants totaling $154.9 million to provide crisis counseling and public education. Because of questions about whether the program, called Project Liberty, had spent all the funds it received from the federal government, GAO was asked to determine (1) the extent to which the program expended the funds awarded from the federal government, (2) whether the federal government had an effective process in place to determine the amount of funds to provide the program, (3) whether the federal government had adequate financial oversight of the program, and (4) steps taken by the federal government and New York State to assess the program's effectiveness."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, were held against the backdrop of growing concerns about international terrorism. Despite widespread fears of a potential terrorist attack on the Olympics, Greece hosted a safe and secure event with no terrorist incidents. To assist Greece in securing the 2004 Games, U.S. government agencies provided training and other support in the four years leading up to the Games. In addition, the U.S. government provided some security and other assistance to American athletes, spectators, and commercial investors, and expects to continue such support for future Olympics, including the upcoming 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. GAO was asked to (1) determine the U.S. approach and coordination efforts for providing security assistance to the 2004 Summer Olympics; (2) examine the roles of U.S. agencies in Athens Olympics security and their financial outlays; and (3) review lessons learned in providing security assistance in support of the Olympics and how they are being incorporated into preparations for future Olympics. The Departments of State, Homeland Security, Defense, and Justice concurred with the report or had no comments."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Pension funding rules are intended to ensure that plans have sufficient assets to pay promised benefits to plan participants. However, recent terminations of large underfunded plans, along with continued widespread underfunding, suggest weaknesses in these rules that may threaten retirement incomes of these plans' participants, as well as the future viability of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) single-employer insurance program. We have prepared this report under the Comptroller General's authority, and it is intended to assist the Congress in improving the financial stability of the defined benefit (DB) system and PBGC. We have addressed this report to each congressional committee of jurisdiction to help in their deliberations. This report examines: (1) the recent funding and contribution experience of the nation's largest private DB plans; (2) the funding and contribution experience of large underfunded plans, and the role of the additional funding charge (AFC); and (3) the implications of large plans' recent funding experiences for PBGC, in terms of risk to the agency's ability to insure benefits."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO appeared before the Senate Committee on Armed Services on April 14, 2005, to discuss the Department of Defense's (DOD) implementation of the National Security Personnel System (NSPS). This letter responds to questions for the record."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In early 2001, U.S. stock and option markets began quoting prices in decimal increments rather than fractions of a dollar. At the same time, the minimum price increment, or tick size, was reduced to a penny on the stock markets and to 10 cents and 5 cents on the option markets. Although many believe that decimal pricing has benefited small individual (retail) investors, concerns have been raised that the smaller tick sizes have made trading more challenging and costly for large institutional investors, including mutual funds and pension plans. In addition, there is concern that the financial livelihood of market intermediaries, such as the broker-dealers that trade on floor-based and electronic markets, has been negatively affected by the lower ticks, potentially altering the roles these firms play in the U.S. capital market. GAO assessed the effect of decimal pricing on retail and institutional investors and on market intermediaries."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Advocates for patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) believe that the Social Security Administration's (SSA) process for determining eligibility for Disability Insurance (DI) may treat some claimants unfairly. As a result, claimants with IBD believe they are likely to be denied benefits at the initial decision and reconsideration levels, making it necessary for them to appeal to SSA's hearings level to have their claims allowed. This congressionally mandated study focuses on (1) how SSA evaluates claims involving IBD to establish disability under Title II of the Social Security Act and (2) what unique challenges claimants with IBD encounter when applying for DI benefits, and what actions, if any, SSA has taken to address these challenges."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The outcome of ongoing World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations is vital to the U.S. economy, because trade with WTO members accounts for about one-fifth of the U.S. gross domestic product. The current round of trade negotiations--called the Doha Round--was supposed to end by January 2005 with agreement on the key issues of agriculture, industrial market access, services, and to strengthen the trading system's contribution to economic development. Failure to reach any agreement at the last WTO ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico, in September 2003, put the talks behind schedule and threatened the outcome; however, talks resumed in 2004, and a new ministerial conference will convene in Hong Kong in December 2005. In light of these events, and with the impending renewal decision on U.S. Trade Promotion Authority, which streamlines the process by which Congress approves trade agreements, GAO was asked to assess (1) the overall status of the Doha Round negotiations, (2) progress on key negotiating issues, and (3) factors affecting progress toward concluding the negotiations."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "While air quality in the United States has steadily improved over the last few decades, more than a hundred million Americans continue to live in communities where pollution causes the air to be unhealthy at times, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Clean Air Act, first passed in 1963, was last reauthorized and amended in 1990, when new programs were created and changes were made to the ways in which air pollution is controlled. The 1990 amendments included hundreds of requirements for EPA, as well as other parties, to take steps that will ultimately reduce air pollution. The amendments also established deadlines for many of these requirements. Since the 1990 amendments, various actions have been proposed to either amend the Clean Air Act or implement its provisions in new ways. GAO was asked to report on the current status of EPA's implementation of requirements under Titles I, III, and IV of the 1990 amendments. These titles, which address national ambient air quality standards, hazardous air pollutants, and acid deposition control, respectively, are the most relevant to proposed legislation and recently finalized regulations addressing emissions …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Globally, alien smuggling generates billions of dollars in illicit revenues annually and poses a threat to the nation's security. Creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in March 2003 has provided an opportunity to use financial investigative techniques to combat alien smugglers by targeting and seizing their monetary assets. For instance, the composition of DHS's largest investigative component--U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)--includes the legacy Customs Service, which has extensive experience with money laundering and other financial crimes. Another DHS component, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has primary responsibility for interdictions between ports of entry. In summer 2003, ICE announced that it was developing a national strategy for combating alien smuggling. Among other objectives, GAO determined the implementation status of the strategy and investigative results in terms of convictions and seized assets."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "To prevent medical errors, reduce costs, improve quality, and produce greater value for health care expenditures, President Bush has called for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop and implement a strategic plan to guide the nationwide implementation of health information technology (IT) in both the public and private health care sectors. The Departments of Defense (DOD) and Veterans Affairs (VA), along with other countries, have already taken steps to improve health care delivery and administration by implementing IT solutions. GAO was asked to provide an overview of HHS's recent efforts to develop a national health IT strategy for realizing the President's vision, and to identify lessons learned from DOD's, VA's, and other countries' experiences in implementing health IT."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) gives the public the right to access information about the federal government. In addressing requests for information, agencies have the authority to assess fees for certain categories of requesters to cover the costs of locating and copying records, as well as discretion to waive fees if specific criteria are met. GAO was asked to determine, for fiscal year 2004, the volume and nature of FOIA request processing at the Department of Energy (DOE), to what extent DOE followed the act and related Office of Management and Budget and Department of Justice guidance in processing cases that involve fees, and to what extent DOE communicated its fee-related decisions to requesters."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Radio frequency identification (RFID) is an automated data-capture technology that can be used to electronically identify, track, and store information contained on a tag that is attached to or embedded in an object, such as a product, case, or pallet. Federal agencies have begun implementation of RFID technology, which offers them new capabilities and efficiencies in operations. The reduced cost of the technology has made the wide-scale use of it a real possibility for government and industry organizations. Accordingly, GAO was requested to discuss considerations surrounding RFID technology implementation in the federal government. Specifically, GAO was asked to (1) provide an overview of the technology; (2) identify the major initiatives at federal agencies that use or propose to use the technology; (3) discuss the current standards, including those for interoperability, that exist; (4) discuss potential legal issues that the 24 Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Act agencies have identified in their planning for technology implementation; and (5) discuss security and privacy considerations surrounding the technology and the tools and practices available to mitigate them. The Office of Management and Budget agreed with the contents of this report."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In a period of significant budget constraints, it is more vital than ever for federal programs to have good performance information. The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998 took a significant step in that direction by introducing greater accountability for employment and training programs than prior programs. WIA established performance measures to look at a broad array of participant outcomes such as job placement and retention, earnings, skill gains, and customer satisfaction. WIA also required 17 programs, funded by four different agencies, to centralize service delivery through a one-stop center system. More recently, as part of efforts to link program performance to the budget, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) introduced common performance measures--similar to some of the WIA measures--for most federally funded job training programs that share similar goals. The U.S. Department of Labor's (Labor) Employment and Training Administration (ETA) further defined the common measures for all programs it oversees and proposed a new, standardized reporting format, known as the ETA Management Information and Longitudinal Evaluation (EMILE) reporting system to facilitate reporting them. However, state workforce agencies and others raised substantial concerns about the …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Advanced Technology Program (ATP) supports research that accelerates the development of high-risk technologies with the potential for broad-based economic benefits for the nation. Under the program, administrators at the National Institute of Standards and Technology are to ensure that they do not fund research that would be conducted in the same period without ATP funding. Between 1990 and September 2004, ATP funded 768 projects at a cost of about $2.3 billion. There is a continuing debate over whether the private sector has sufficient incentives to undertake research on high-risk, high-payoff emerging technologies without government support, such as ATP. This testimony discusses the results of GAO's April 2000 report, Advanced Technology Program: Inherent Factors in the Selection Process Could Limit Identification of Similar Research (GAO/RCED-00-114) and provides updated information. GAO determined (1) whether ATP had funded projects with research goals that were similar to projects funded by the private sector and (2) if ATP did, whether its award selection process ensures that such research would not be funded in the future."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Increasing computer interconnectivity has revolutionized the way that our government, our nation, and much of the world communicate and conduct business. While the benefits have been enormous, this widespread interconnectivity also poses significant risks to our nation's computer systems and, more importantly, to the critical operations and infrastructures they support. The Homeland Security Act of 2002 and federal policy established DHS as the focal point for coordinating activities to protect the computer systems that support our nation's critical infrastructures. GAO was asked to determine (1) DHS's roles and responsibilities for cyber critical infrastructure protection, (2) the status and adequacy of DHS's efforts to fulfill these responsibilities, and (3) the challenges DHS faces in fulfilling its cybersecurity responsibilities."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The digital television (DTV) transition offers the promise of enhanced television. At the end of the transition, radiofrequency spectrum currently used for analog broadcast television will be used for other wireless services and for critical public safety services. To spur the digital transition while preventing any loss of television service to households, some industry participants and experts have suggested that the government subsidize DTV equipment to enable households to view digital broadcast signals. This testimony provides information on (1) some challenges to administering a subsidy program for DTV equipment, (2) some administrative options for implementing a DTV subsidy, (3) examples of government programs that make use of rebates or vouchers to provide subsidies, and (4) other efforts necessary for the completion of the DTV transition. We discussed administrative challenges to and options for a DTV subsidy with federal and state government officials, electronics manufacturers and retailers, and experts in product promotion. As in our previous work, we take no position on whether a subsidy should be implemented or not, or whether, if a subsidy program is established, it should be implemented in any particular way. While policies other …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Established in 1934 to enforce the securities laws and protect investors, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) plays an important role in maintaining the integrity of the U.S. securities markets. Pursuant to the Accountability for Tax Dollars Act of 2002, the SEC is required to prepare and submit to Congress and the Office of Management and Budget audited financial statements. GAO agreed, under its audit authority, to perform the initial audit of SEC's financial statements. GAO's audit was done to determine whether, in all material respects, (1) SEC's fiscal year 2004 financial statements were reliable, (2) SEC's management maintained effective internal control over financial reporting and compliance with laws and regulations, and (3) SEC's management complied with applicable laws and regulations."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has in place two programs to help address the threat posed by terrorists smuggling weapons of mass destruction (WMD) into the United States: the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) and the Container Security Initiative (CSI). In July 2003, GAO reported that these programs had management challenges that limited their effectiveness. Given plans to expand both programs, in two recently issued reports GAO examined selected aspects of both programs' operations. This statement is a summary of those publicly available reports."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Vaccine shortages and distribution problems during the 2004-2005 influenza season raised concerns about the nation's ability to respond to a worldwide influenza epidemic--or influenza pandemic--which many experts believe to be inevitable. Some experts believe that the next pandemic could be spawned by the recurring avian influenza in Asia. If avian influenza strains directly infect humans and acquire the ability to be readily transmitted between people, a pandemic could occur. Modeling studies suggest that its effect in the United States could be severe, with one estimate from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ranging from 89,000 to 207,000 deaths and from 38 million to 89 million illnesses. GAO was asked to discuss surveillance systems in place to identify and monitor an influenza pandemic and concerns about preparedness for and response to an influenza pandemic. This testimony is based on GAO's 2004 report on disease surveillance; reports and testimony on influenza outbreaks, influenza vaccine supply, and pandemic planning that GAO has issued since October 2000; and work GAO has done in May 2005 to update key information."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since the unprecedented flight delays in 2000, a year in which one in four flights were delayed, our aviation system has been adversely affected by many unanticipated events--such as the September 11th terrorist attacks, and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)--that significantly reduced the demand for air travel. However, demand for air travel is rebounding. For example, the number of passengers traveling by air increased from 642 million in 2003 to 688 million in 2004. Flight delays have been among the most vexing problems in the national transportation system and are defined by the Department of Transportation as instances when aircraft arrive at the gate 15 minutes or more after scheduled arrival time. In 2004, one in five flights were delayed primarily at New York La Guardia and Chicago O'Hare. Delays at these airports have consequences for the rest of the system. GAO's testimony addresses the following questions that pertain to flight delays and enhancing capacity: (1) What initiatives are ongoing by the federal government, airlines, and airports to address flight delays and enhance capacity? (2) What are some of the challenges in reducing flight delays and enhancing capacity? …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Before 1969, IRS required hospitals to provide charity care to qualify for tax-exempt status. Since then, however, IRS has not specifically required such care, as long as the hospital provides benefits to the community in other ways. Seeking a better understanding of the benefits provided by nonprofit hospitals, Congress requested that GAO examine whether nonprofit hospitals provide levels of uncompensated care and other community benefits that are different from other hospitals. This statement focuses on, by ownership group, hospitals' (1) provision of uncompensated care, which consists of charity care and bad debt, and (2) reporting of other community benefits. The hospital ownership groups were (nonfederal) government, nonprofit, and for-profit. To compare the three hospital ownership groups, GAO obtained 2003 data from five geographically diverse states with substantial representation of the three ownership groups in each state. GAO analyzed cost data from two perspectives--each hospital group's percentage of (1) total uncompensated care costs in a state and (2) patient operating expenses devoted to uncompensated care."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has the regulatory responsibility to, among other things, ensure that the nation's 103 commercial nuclear power plants are operated in a safe and secure manner. While the nuclear power industry's overall safety record has been good, safety issues periodically arise that threaten the credibility of NRC's regulation and oversight of the industry. Recent events make the importance of NRC's regulatory and oversight responsibilities readily apparent. The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, focused attention on the security of facilities such as commercial nuclear power plants, while safety concerns were heightened by shutdown of the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant in Ohio in 2002, and the discovery of missing or unaccounted for spent nuclear fuel at three nuclear power plants. GAO has issued a total of 15 recent reports and testimonies on a wide range of NRC activities. This testimony (1) summarizes GAO's findings and associated recommendations for improving NRC mission-related activities and (2) presents several cross-cutting challenges NRC faces in being an effective and credible regulator of the nuclear power industry."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Emerging domestic and international threats have generated a growing interest in the use of less-than-lethal weapons by government and law enforcement agencies and other entities such as commercial airlines. One such weapon--the Taser--is a hand-held weapon that delivers an electric shock via two stainless steel barbs, effectively incapacitating an individual. According to the manufacturer--Taser International, Incorporated (Taser International)--Tasers are currently used by over 7,000 of the 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States, with more than 140,000 Tasers in use by police officers in the field and an additional 100,000 Tasers owned by civilians worldwide. Tasers have been used on over 100,000 volunteers, including individuals involved in training seminars and research experiments, and involved in over 70,000 actual field uses during police encounters. In light of the expanding interest in the Taser, GAO was asked to provide information on (1) the policies and procedures related to the issues of "use-of-force," training, operations, and safety for selected law enforcement agencies that have purchased and used Tasers and (2) federal, state, and local laws that specifically address Tasers, including the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) authority to regulate …