A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) and subsequent legislation authorized about $8.3 billion in guaranteed funding for the Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) New Starts program, which funds fixed guideway transit projects, such as rail and trolley projects, through FFGAs. GAO assessed the New Starts process for the fiscal year 2005 cycle. GAO identified (1) the number of projects that were evaluated, rated, and proposed for new FFGAs and how recent changes to the process were reflected in ratings; (2) the proposed funding commitments in the administration's budget request and legislative reauthorization proposals; and (3) the extent to which amounts appropriated since 1998 fulfilled FFGAs."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Improving the federal hiring process is critical given the increasing number of new hires expected in the next few years. Congress asked GAO to report on the (1) status of recent efforts to help improve the federal hiring process and (2) extent to which federal agencies are using two new hiring flexibilities--category rating and direct-hire authority. Category rating permits an agency to select any job candidate placed in a best-qualified category. Direct-hire authority allows an agency to appoint individuals to positions without adherence to certain competitive examination requirements when there is a severe shortage of qualified candidates or a critical hiring need."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Each year, the Department of Defense (DOD) spends an estimated $20 billion to repair the damage to military equipment and infrastructure caused by corrosion. Furthermore, corrosion profoundly impacts military readiness as well as the safety of military personnel. In the Bob Stump National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2003, Congress directed that DOD develop a long-term corrosion strategy, including specific requirements, and that GAO assess it. DOD submitted its strategy in December 2003. This report assesses the potential of the corrosion strategy (in terms of three elements--resources, performance metrics, and policy guidance) to effectively prevent and mitigate corrosion and its effects on military equipment and infrastructure."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In 1982 the Supreme Court ruled that states and school districts cannot deny education to illegal alien children residing here. Issues in estimating the costs of providing education to them are of interest because (1) policy discussions concerning illegal immigration often focus on cost impacts; (2) potential costs are borne mostly at the state and local levels; and (3) the Congress could authorize federal reimbursement for benefits provided to illegal aliens, based on estimated state costs or numbers of illegal aliens. The foreign-born population is growing and is concentrated in certain states; the illegal immigrant component is thought to be substantial. Concerns about education costs may reflect "squeezed" state and local budgets, rising school enrollments, and overcrowded schools. To address the potential for estimating the costs of educating illegal alien schoolchildren, this report (1) identifies major government sources of relevant data, (2) describes a Census Bureau plan for developing new information, and (3) outlines costestimation approaches. GAO provided a draft of this report to the National Center for Education Statistics, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Census Bureau. The agencies informed GAO they had no …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Under section 1115 of the Social Security Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services may waive certain Medicaid requirements for states seeking to deliver services through demonstration projects. By policy, these demonstrations must not increase federal spending. GAO has previously reported concerns with HHS's approval process. GAO was asked to provide information on a new Medicaid section 1115 demonstration initiative called Pharmacy Plus, intended to allow states to cover prescription drugs for seniors not otherwise eligible for Medicaid. GAO reviewed the (1) approval status of state proposals, (2) extent to which HHS ensured that demonstrations are budget neutral, (3) basis for savings assumptions, and (4) federal and state steps to evaluate and monitor the demonstrations."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In 2003, wildfires burned roughly 4 million acres, destroyed over 5,000 structures, took the lives of 30 firefighters, and cost over $1 billion to suppress. The substantial expense of fighting wildfires has exceeded the funds appropriated for wildfire suppression nearly every year since 1990. To pay for wildfire suppression costs when the funds appropriated are insufficient, the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of the Interior have transferred funds from their other programs. GAO was asked to identify (1) the amount of funds transferred and reimbursed for wildfire suppression since 1999, and the programs from which agencies transferred funds; (2) the effects on agency programs from which funds were taken; and (3) alternative approaches that could be considered for estimating annual suppression costs and funding wildfire suppression."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "With rising federal deficits and greater competition for public resources, it is increasingly important for federal programs, such as the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) programs, to show results. This report examines (1) how useful WIA performance data are for gauging program performance; (2) what local areas are doing to manage their WIA performance and assess one-stops on a timely basis, and how states assist these efforts; and (3) the extent to which the Department of Labor is trying to improve WIA's performance measurement system and assess one-stop success."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Small Business Administration (SBA) has been challenged in the past in developing a lender oversight capability and a loan monitoring system to facilitate its oversight. While SBA has made progress in its lender oversight program, its past efforts to develop a loan monitoring system were unsuccessful. In 2003, SBA obtained loan monitoring services from Dun & Bradstreet. GAO evaluated SBA's loan monitoring needs, how well those needs are met by the new service, and the similarities and differences for the purposes of credit risk management between SBA and private sector best practices."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In 2002, the Coast Guard began its $17 billion, 20-year Integrated Deepwater System acquisition program to replace or modernize its cutters, aircraft, and communications equipment for missions generally beyond 50 miles from shore. During fiscal years 2002-03, Deepwater received about $125 million less than the Coast Guard had planned. In fiscal year 2004, Congress appropriated $668 million, $168 million more than the President's request. GAO has raised concern recently about the Coast Guard's initial management of Deepwater and the potential for escalating costs. GAO was asked to review the status of the program against the initial acquisition schedule and determine the impact of the additional $168 million in fiscal year 2004 funding on this schedule."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In their efforts to reduce hazardous fuels and the risk of wildfire on the nation's public lands, the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) expect that stewardship contracting will play a major role. Stewardship contracting involves the use of contracting authorities--such as the exchange of goods for services--first authorized in 1998 and intended to help the agencies achieve land management goals that meet community needs. GAO was asked, among other things, to determine (1) the contracting and financial controls the agencies use to ensure accountability in managing stewardship contracting projects and (2) the steps the agencies have taken to involve communities in the projects."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Recent U.S. combat operations in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq benefited from new Department of Defense (DOD) strategies and technologies, such as improvements in force networks and increased use of precision weapons, designed to address changes in the security environment resulting from the continuing terrorist threat and the advent of the information age. Based on the authority of the Comptroller General, GAO reviewed these conflicts, with a focus on bombing operations, to gain insight into the changes being implemented by DOD. This report focuses on (1) assessing the impact on operational effectiveness of improvements in force networks and in the use of precision weapons and (2) identifying key barriers to continued progress."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In October 2001, in response to the Taliban regime's protection of al Qaeda terrorists who attacked the United States, coalition forces forcibly removed the regime from Afghanistan. In December 2002, Congress passed the Afghanistan Freedom Support Act authorizing assistance funds to help Afghanistan rebuild a stable, democratic society. The act directed GAO to monitor the implementation of U.S. humanitarian and development assistance. This report analyzes, for fiscal years 2002-2003, (1) U.S. obligations and expenditures in Afghanistan, (2) results of assistance projects, (3) the assistance coordination mechanisms and strategy, and (4) major obstacles that affected the achievement of U.S. goals."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Passenger and freight traffic are expected to grow substantially in the future, generating additional congestion and requiring continued investment in the nation's surface transportation system. Over the past 12 years, the federal government has provided hundreds of billions of dollars for investment in surface transportation projects through the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 and its successor legislation, the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century. Reauthorization of this legislation is expected to provide hundreds of billions of dollars more in federal funding for surface transportation projects. For this investment to have the greatest positive effect, agencies at all levels of government need to select investments that yield the greatest benefits for a given level of cost. This report provides information about the processes that state and regional transportation decisionmakers use to analyze and select transportation infrastructure investments. GAO identified (1) key federal requirements for planning and deciding on such investments, (2) how benefit-cost analysis facilitates sound decisionmaking, and (3) other factors that decision-makers consider in evaluating and deciding on investments."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Air Force depot maintenance activity group in-house operations generate about $5 billion in annual revenue principally by repairing aircraft, missiles, engines, and other assets. In doing so, the group operates under the working capital fund concept, where customers are to be charged the anticipated costs of providing goods and services to them. The group's average price for in-house work almost doubled between fiscal years 2000 and 2004 from $119.99 per hour to $237.84 per hour. GAO was asked to determine (1) what factors were primarily responsible for the price increase, (2) if the prices charged recovered the reported actual costs of performing the work, and (3) if the Air Force has taken effective steps to improve efficiency and control the activity group's costs."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "More than a decade after the 1991 Persian Gulf War, there is continued interest in the federal response to the health concerns of Gulf War veterans. Gulf War veterans' reports of unexplained illnesses and possible exposures to various health hazards have prompted numerous federal research projects on Gulf War illnesses. This research has been funded primarily by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Department of Defense (DOD), and the Department of Health and Human Services. GAO is reporting on (1) the status of research and investigations on Gulf War illnesses, (2) the efforts that have been made by VA and DOD to monitor cancer incidence among Gulf War veterans, and (3) VA's communication and collaboration with the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses (RAC)."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Decades of fire suppression, as well as changing land management practices, have caused vegetation to accumulate and become altered on federal lands. Concerns about the effects of wildland fires have increased efforts to reduce fuels on federal lands. These efforts also have environmental effects. Congressional requesters asked GAO to (1) describe effects from fires on the environment, (2) assess the information gathered by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on such effects, and (3) assess the agencies' approaches to environmental risks associated with reducing fuels."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Human capital offices have traditionally used alternative service delivery (ASD)--the use of other than internal staff to provide a service or to deliver a product--as a way to reduce costs for transaction-based services. GAO was asked to identify which human capital activities agencies were selecting for ASD, the reasons why, how they were managing the process, and some of the lessons they had learned. Eight agencies were selected to provide illustrative examples of ASD use."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "For the past 50 years, the federal government has had a metropolitan area program designed to provide a nationally consistent set of standards for collecting, tabulating, and publishing federal statistics for geographic areas in the United States and Puerto Rico. Before each decennial census, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) reviews the standards to ensure their continued usefulness and relevance and, if warranted, revises them. While designed only for statistical purposes, various federal programs use the statistical areas to determine eligibility and to allocate federal funds. OMB advises agencies to carefully review program goals to ensure that appropriate geographic entities are used in making these decisions. GAO was asked to examine the process used for developing the OMB standards issued in 2000 and their effects on certain federal programs. Specifically, GAO agreed to report on (1) the process used to develop the 2000 standards, (2) how the 2000 standards differed from the 1990 standards, (3) how the application of the standards affected the geographic distribution of counties into statistical areas, and (4) the effect of standards on the eligibility and funding allocations for four federal …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and Operation Iraqi Freedom have prompted major changes in the employment of naval forces around the globe. These two events resulted in an ultimate surging to deploy seven carrier strike groups and the largest amphibious task force assembled in decades. According to the Navy, at the time of the September 11 attacks and in preparation for Operation Iraqi Freedom, only a small number of ships at peak readiness were forward deployed. However, most of the Navy's ships were not available for use because they were in early stages of their training cycles. This prompted the Navy, in March 2003, to develop a concept to enhance its deployment readiness strategy. The Navy's Fleet Response Plan, implemented in May 2003, evolved from a concept to institutionalize an enhanced surge capability. Because of potential budget implications, Congress asked us to review the assumption that the Navy's implementation of its Fleet Response Plan would reduce the duration of aircraft carrier depot maintenance intervals between deployment periods from approximately 18 months to 9 months. Specifically, our objectives were to identify the likely impacts and risks for …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Because of concerns raised about the accuracy of National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) stock assessments, GAO reviewed the assessments for five species of Pacific groundfish: Pacific hake and four types of rockfish--bocaccio, canary, darkblotched, and yelloweye. Specifically, for these five species GAO (1) assessed the reliability of NMFS' stock assessments, (2) identified which relevant recommendations from NMFS' stock assessment improvement plan have been implemented and which have not, and (3) identified the costs associated with planned and ongoing improvements to groundfish stock assessments."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO has long held the position that financial regulators can benefit from improved information sharing. As regulators are faced with the challenges of overseeing a myriad of financial products, along with the individuals and organizations that develop and sell them, information sharing among regulators serves as a key defense against fraud and market abuses. However, our system of financial regulation is fragmented and, in many cases, isolated among numerous federal and state financial regulators overseeing the securities, insurance, and banking industries. While there has been a greater effort to improve communication in recent years, the routine sharing of information between the regulators of the three major financial industries--securities, insurance, and banking--continues to be a source of concern. At Congress' request, we have issued reports and testimonies in recent years discussing the benefits of improved sharing of criminal and regulatory information and the consequences of failing to adequately share such information. This report focuses on three areas where greater attention is needed to improve information-sharing capabilities among financial services regulators. First, we highlight the need for insurance regulators to have more consistent access to the Federal Bureau of Investigation …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The fiscal year 2004 National Defense Authorization Act directed GAO to assess the special pays and allowances for servicemembers who are frequently deployed for less than 30 days, and to specifically review the family separation allowance. GAO's objectives were to assess (1) the rationale for the family separation allowance eligibility requirements, including the required duration of more than 30 consecutive days away from a member's duty station; (2) the extent to which DOD has identified short-term deployments as a family separation allowance issue; and (3) what special pays and allowances, in addition to basic military compensation, are available to compensate members deployed for less than 30 days."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "A critical element of the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) information technology program is its continuing work with the Department of Defense (DOD) to achieve the ability to exchange patient health care information and create electronic medical records for use by veterans, active-duty military personnel, and their health care providers."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Centennial of Flight Commission (Commission) was created on November 13, 1998, by the Centennial of Flight Commemoration Act (Public Law 105-389, as amended by Public Law 106-68). The purpose of the Commission is to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers' flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903. The Commission is to provide recommendations and advice to the President, the Congress, and federal agencies on the most effective ways to encourage and promote national and international participation and sponsorships in commemoration of the centennial of powered flight. We are required by the act to audit the financial transactions of the Commission. This report presents the results of our audit of the Commission's financial transactions for fiscal year 2003 and through May 19, 2004, with cumulative information since the Commission's inception. We previously reported the results of our audits on Commission financial transactions for fiscal years 1999 and 2000, 2001, and 2002. This will be our final audit of the Commission because, in accordance with Public Law 105-389, the Commission must issue its final report to the President and the Congress no later than …