Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Coast Guard is currently undertaking a major effort to update its command structure, support systems, and business practices. This effort, referred to as the modernization program, is intended to better position the service to fulfill not only traditional missions--such as ensuring the safety and security of commercial shipping, safeguarding U.S. fisheries, interdicting the smuggling of illicit drugs, and conducting search and rescue operations--but also homeland security responsibilities that expanded after September 11, 2001 (9/11). The modernization program is specifically focused on modifying the Coast Guard's command and control structure--including the establishment of four new organizational entities--as well as updating mission support systems, such as maintenance, logistics, financial management, human resources, acquisitions, and information technology. The proposed changes will have a major impact on a variety of functions servicewide, including management of Deepwater--the long-term, multibillion-dollar program to upgrade the Coast Guard's aging fleet of water vessels and aircraft. The conceptual framework for the modernization program is reflected in 10 Commandant Intent Action Orders, which were issued by the Commandant of the Coast Guard in 2006. Subsequently, congressional direction accompanying the Coast Guard's fiscal year 2008 appropriations required …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In November 2008, 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, 2008, and 2007, and on the effectiveness of its internal controls as of September 30, 2008. 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 the requirements of the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996 (FFMIA). Additionally, in January 2009, we issued a report on information security issues identified during our fiscal year 2008 audit, along with associated recommendations. The purpose of this report is to discuss issues identified during our audit of IRS's financial statements as of, and for the fiscal year ending, September 30, 2008, regarding internal controls that could be improved for which we currently do not have a specific recommendation outstanding. Although not all of these issues were discussed in our report on the results of our fiscal year 2008 financial statement audit, they all warrant IRS management's attention."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The air cargo industry contributed over $37 billion to the U.S. economy in 2008 and provides government, businesses, and individuals with quick delivery of goods. Although part of an aviation system with an extraordinary safety record, there have been over 400 air cargo accidents and over 900 incidents since 1997, raising concerns about cargo safety. GAO's congressionally requested study addresses (1) recent trends in air cargo safety, (2) factors that have contributed to air cargo accidents, (3) federal government and industry efforts to improve air cargo safety and experts' views on the effectiveness of these efforts, and (4) experts' views on further improving air cargo safety. To perform the study, GAO analyzed agency data, surveyed a panel of experts, reviewed industry and government documents, and interviewed industry and government officials. GAO also conducted site visits to Alaska, Ohio, and Texas."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Federal agencies have used time-and-materials (T&M) contracts to purchase billions of dollars in services. These contracts are risky because the government bears the risk of cost overruns. Effective February 2007, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) was revised, pursuant to a statutory change, to allow T&M contracts to be used to acquire commercial services under FAR Part 12, which uses a streamlined procurement process. Certain safeguards were included in FAR Part 12, including a requirement that contracting officers prepare a detailed determination and findings (D&F) that no other contract type is suitable. Based on a mandate to review the use of T&M contracts for commercial services, we assessed (1) agencies' reported use of such contracts and what they acquired, (2) the degree to which agencies complied with the new safeguards, and (3) the applicability of the safeguards to General Services Administration (GSA) schedule contracts. GAO reviewed contracts and orders at DOD and civilian agencies and spoke with contracting officials."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Terrorist incidents worldwide have highlighted the need for securing mass transit and passenger rail systems. The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is the primary federal entity responsible for securing these systems. GAO was asked to assess (1) the extent to which federal and industry stakeholders have assessed risks to these systems since 2004, and how TSA has used this information to inform its security strategy; (2) key actions federal and industry stakeholders have taken since 2004 and the extent to which federal actions are consistent with TSA's security strategy, and the challenges TSA faces in implementing them; and (3) TSA's reported status in implementing 9/11 Commission Act provisions for mass transit and passenger rail security. GAO reviewed documents including TSA's mass transit and passenger rail strategic plan, and interviewed federal officials and industry stakeholders from 30 systems and Amtrak--representing 75 percent of U.S. mass transit and passenger rail ridership."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Millions of individuals receive prescription drugs through federal programs. The increasing cost of prescription drugs has put pressure to control drug spending on federal programs such as the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), Medicare Part D, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Department of Defense (DOD), and Medicaid. Prescription drug spending within the FEHBP in particular, which provides health and drug coverage to about 8 million federal employees, retirees, and their dependents, has been a significant contributor to FEHBP cost and premium growth. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which administers the FEHBP, predicted that prescription drugs would continue to be a primary driver of program costs in 2009. GAO was asked to describe approaches used by the FEHBP to control prescription drug spending and summarize approaches used by other federal programs. This testimony is based on prior GAO work, including Prescription Drugs: Oversight of Drug Pricing in Federal Programs (GAO-07-481T) and Prescription Drugs: An Overview of Approaches to Negotiate Drug Prices Used by Other Countries and U.S. Private Payers and Federal Programs (GAO-07-358T) and selected updates from relevant literature on drug spending controls prepared by …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) was enacted in 1946 and permits individuals injured by the wrongful or negligent acts or omissions of federal employees, including medical malpractice, to seek and receive compensation from the federal government through an administrative process and, ultimately, through the federal courts. The FTCA, with few exceptions, provides the exclusive means by which individuals can seek compensation when injured by federal employees acting within the scope of their work for the federal government; in effect, the FTCA largely immunizes federal government employees from tort liability, including medical malpractice. In 1993, medical malpractice coverage under FTCA was first extended to grantees of the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Health Resources and Services Administration's (HRSA) Health Center Program. The centers funded by this program, referred to in this report as Health Centers, are designed to increase access to primary care for medically underserved populations. While FTCA coverage is available to the approximately 1,100 Health Centers and their employees nationwide, it does not extend to health care providers who volunteer services at the 78 Health Centers currently using volunteers. The Health Care Safety Net …

This report describes U.S. security assistance in Palestine and how such assistance might lead to progress on (1) the Israeli-Palestinian political track, (2) Palestinian civil society, governance, and economic development, and (3) efforts to end geographical and factional divisions between Palestinians in the West Bank and in Gaza. Policymakers disagree on this issue in various ways, all of which are outlined in this report.

Federal policymakers are debating a range of potential initiatives for reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from U.S. energy sources. An overarching policy issue which arises from carbon control proposals is how the CO2 reduction targets could be achieved. One method that has garnered significant attention is increasing the electricity efficiency in buildings. Analysts have identified a number of critical socioeconomic and policy barriers which have historically limited the impact of federal and state building efficiency programs. This report describes those barriers, the degree to which federal law has addressed them, and their implications for meeting future U.S. carbon reduction targets.

This report examines logistical support contracts for troop support services in Iraq and Afghanistan (for Afghanistan, beginning with LOGCAP IV) administered through the U.S. Army's Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP).

The M-4 carbine is the Army's primary individual combat weapon for infantry units. The M-4 uses a direct gas impingement system that blows carbon from the fired cartridge back into the weapon's receiver, which can lead to weapon malfunctions. The U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) is replacing its M-4s with the Special Operations Combat Assault Rifle (SCAR), a modular weapon with a short-stroke piston system that eliminates carbon blow back, which theoretically improves reliability. Some have questioned why the Army has not adopted the SCAR or another similarly designed weapon. A series of studies and tests of the M-4 and potential competitors have added to this debate, and the Army has taken steps to begin evaluating other weapons to replace the M-4.

According to the most recent National Threat Assessment, the global financial crisis and its geopolitical implications pose the primary near-term security concern of the United States. Over the short run, both the EU and the United States are attempting to resolve the financial crisis while stimulating domestic demand to stem the economic downturn. These efforts have born little progress so far as the economic recession and the financial crisis have become reinforcing events, causing EU governments to forge policy responses to both crises. This report discusses this situation in detail and also discusses individual efforts by both the U.S. and EU to combat the effects of the crisis.

This report discusses how the outbreak of the strain of influenza A (H1N1), commonly referred to as "swine flu," affected the domestic and international pork markets.

Aneuploidy, the most common chromosomal abnormality at birth and the main ascertained cause of pregnancy loss in humans, originates primarily from chromosome segregation errors during oogenesis. Here we report that heterozygosity for a mutation in the mitotic checkpoint kinase gene, Bub1, induces aneuploidy in female germ cells of mice, and that the effect increases with advancing maternal age. Analysis of Bub1 heterozygous oocytes showed that aneuploidy occurred primarily during the first meiotic division and involved premature sister chromatid separation. Furthermore, aneuploidy was inherited in zygotes and resulted in the loss of embryos after implantation. The incidence of aneuploidy in zygotes was sufficient to explain the reduced litter size in matings with Bub1 heterozygous females. No effects were seen in germ cells from heterozygous males. These findings show that Bub1 dysfunction is linked to inherited aneuploidy in female germ cells and may contribute to the maternal age-related increase in aneuploidy and pregnancy loss.

The Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI) waste management strategy revolves around specific treatment of individual or groups of separated waste streams. A goal for the separations processes is to efficiently manage the waste to be dispositioned as high level radioactive waste. The Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI) baseline technology for immobilization of the lanthanide (Ln) and transition metal fission product (TM) wastes is vitrification into a borosilicate glass. A current interest is to evaluate the feasibility of vitrifying combined waste streams to most cost effectively immobilize the wastes resulting from aqueous fuel reprocessing. Studies showed that high waste loadings are achievable for the Ln only (Option 1) stream. Waste loadings in excess of 60 wt % (on a calcined oxide basis) were demonstrated via a lanthanide borosilicate (LaBS) glass. The resulting glasses had excellent relative durability as determined by the Product Consistency Test (PCT). For a combined Ln and TM waste stream glass (Option 2), noble metal solubility was found to limit waste loading. However, the measured PCT normalized elemental releases for this glass were at least an order of magnitude below that of Environmental Assessment (EA) glass. Current efforts to evaluate the feasibility of vitrifying combined Ln, TM, alkali …

This report focuses on electricity efficiency in buildings. It also discusses improved energy efficiency in transportation (to and from buildings), reducing direct use of fossil fuels in buildings, and reducing energy use or carbon emissions associated with building materials and construction (e.g., steel and concrete).