A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 phased out the government's control over fares and service and allowed market forces to determine the price and level of domestic airline service in the United States. The intent was to increase competition and thereby lead to lower fares and improved service. In 2005, GAO reported on the tenuous finances of some airlines that have led to bankruptcy and pension terminations, in particular among those airlines that predated deregulation (referred to as legacy airlines). The House Report accompanying the 2006 Department of Transportation (DOT) Appropriation Act expressed concern about airline pension defaults and charged GAO with analyzing the impact of reregulating the airline industry on reducing potential pension defaults by airlines. GAO subsequently agreed to address the pension issue within a broad assessment of the airline industry since deregulation. Specifically, GAO is reporting on, among other things, (1) broad airline industry changes since deregulation, (2) fare and service changes since deregulation, and (3) whether there is evidence that reregulation of entry and fares would benefit consumers or the airline industry, or save airline pensions. DOT agreed with the conclusions in …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Amtrak has provided food and beverage service on its trains since it began operations in 1971. Amtrak has struggled since its inception to earn sufficient revenues and depends heavily on federal subsidies to remain solvent. While a small part of Amtrak's overall expenditures, Amtrak's food and beverage service illustrates concerns in Amtrak's overall cost containment, management and accountability issues. This testimony is based on GAO's work on Amtrak's management and performance as well as additional information gained from Amtrak and other transportation providers. This testimony focuses on (1) the provisions written into Amtrak's contract with Gate Gourmet to control costs, (2) the types of management controls Amtrak exercises to prevent overpayments, and (3) the information Amtrak collects and uses to monitor the service and to report to stakeholders such as its Board of Directors."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Department of Defense (DOD) spending on service contracts approaches $100 billion annually, but DOD's management of services procurement is inefficient and ineffective and the dollars are not always well spent. Recent legislation requires DOD to improve procurement practices to achieve savings. Many private companies changed management practices based on analyzing spending patterns and coordinating procurement in order to achieve major savings. This report evaluates five companies' best practices and their conduct and use of "spend analysis" and the extent that DOD can pursue similar practices."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO determined the potential cost of equipping and maintaining the capability of cities to respond to a terrorist incident involving a chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear device (CBRN), focusing on the: (1) views of federal, state, and local officials on equipment they believed would provide various levels of capability to respond to a CBRN incident; and (2) potential procurement and sustainment costs of these items."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed its prior work and observations on federal efforts to combat terrorism, focusing on: (1) the foreign- and domestic-origin terrorism threats, as GAO understands them from intelligence analyses; (2) the growth in federal programs to provide training and equipment to local first responders--police, fire, and emergency medical services--and the expansion of the federal response elements and teams to deal with a possible chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN) terrorist attack; and (3) steps the executive branch has taken to better manage federal efforts to combat terrorism and some opportunities GAO sees for additional focus and direction."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the city of Philadelphia's efforts to relocate and compensate Logan Triangle Area residents whose homes are sinking into a landfill, focusing on the: (1) status of relocations of property owners and tenants; and (2) management challenges the Logan Assistance Corporation faces in completing the remaining relocations."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO examined the type and extent of consumer education that occurred since the revised children's sleepwear safety standard went into effect in January 1997, focusing on three voluntary point-of-sale practices that the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and others recognize as important for informing consumers about the new standard."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "According to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), a "conversion" occurs whenever an employee changes from one personnel "status" or "service" to another without a break in federal government service of more than 3 days. There are many kinds of conversions. This report focuses on one type of conversion, i.e., employees converting from noncareer to career positions. Conversions of individuals from noncareer to career positions must conform to applicable regulations and qualification requirements. As requested, we are providing Congress with information on the number of employees who were converted from noncareer to career positions during the 32-month period from May 1, 2001, through December 31, 2003, as reported to us by 41 departments and agencies. The types of positions this letter covers and a definition of each, along with the criteria we used to select the 41 departments and agencies, are listed in the scope and methodology section. As agreed with Congress, we will report at a later date on conversions reported by departments and selected agencies from May 1, 2001, through April 30, 2005. That report will discuss (1) the number of all conversions occurring during that …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Military personnel and their families can expect to relocate many times during a servicemember's career. As the moving industry's single largest customer, the Department of Defense (DOD) spends more than $1.7 billion annually for its personal property program, which provides household goods transportation and storage services for military personnel and their families when they relocate. The program manages more than 600,000 personal property shipments each year. For more than 10 years, DOD has been pursuing various initiatives for improving the quality of its personal property program. In June 2002, the U.S. Transportation Command completed an extensive study that compared the features of the current personal property program with three pilot programs that tested alternative approaches for improving the current program. In November 2002, DOD issued a report to Congress that included three recommended program improvement initiatives resulting from this study and estimated that an additional 13 percent increase over current program costs would be required to implement two of these initiatives. In April 2003, we reported on the pilot program evaluation and stated that the recommendations contained in DOD's November 2002 report offered solutions to long-standing problems in …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, Congress mandated higher vehicle fuel economy by model year 2020 and established the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) loan program in the Department of Energy (DOE). ATVM is to provide up to $25 billion in loans for more fuel-efficient vehicles and components. Congress also provided $7.5 billion to pay the required credit subsidy costs--the government's estimated net long-term cost, in present value terms, of the loans. This testimony is based on GAO's February 2011 report on the ATVM loan program (GAO-11-145). It discusses (1) steps DOE has taken to implement the program, (2) progress in awarding loans, (3) how the program is overseeing the loans, and (4) the extent to which DOE can assess progress toward its goals."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO, answering a request from the House Committee on Ways and Means, compiled information concerning amounts charged by the White House for Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) events attended by President George W. Bush and charged to any department within HHS."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Department of Transportation's (DOT) new rule on credit assistance for surface transportation projects. GAO noted that: (1) the final rule would implement the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act of 1998 to provide credit assistance to surface transportation projects; (2) the Act authorizes DOT to provide secured loans, lines of credit, and loan guarantees to public and private project sponsors of eligible surface transportation projects; and (3) DOT complied with applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In November 2003, GAO testified on the significant level of improper premium class travel purchased with centrally billed accounts. These findings led to concerns over the Department of Defense's (DOD) overall management of the centrally billed account program. At the request of this Committee, Senator Grassley, and Representative Schakowsky, GAO performed work to determine whether DOD controls were adequate to protect the centrally billed accounts from fraud, waste, and abuse. This testimony focuses on whether DOD (1) paid for airline tickets that it did not use and did not process for refund, (2) improperly reimbursed travelers for the cost of airline tickets paid for with centrally billed accounts, and (3) adequately secured access to centrally billed accounts against improper and fraudulent use. This testimony also addresses the internal control breakdowns that led to instances of fraud, waste, and abuse and DOD's corrective actions. In two companion reports issued today, DOD concurred with the 31 recommendations GAO made-- including moving to a well- managed individually billed account program--to improve the management of unused tickets, recover the value of outstanding unused tickets, prevent and detect improper payments, reduce the risk …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Ineffective management and oversight of the Department of Defense's (DOD) premium class travel and unused airline tickets led to concerns about DOD's overall management of the centrally billed accounts. GAO was asked to determine whether (1) DOD improperly reimbursed travelers for airline tickets DOD paid for using centrally billed accounts, (2) internal controls were effective in preventing issuance of unauthorized airline tickets, and (3) other control weaknesses led to compromised and fraudulently used centrally billed accounts."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Congress passed the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to address public concerns over the mismanagement and abuse of private sector employee benefit plans by some plan sponsors and administrators. The Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) shares responsibility with the Internal Revenue Service and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation for enforcing ERISA. EBSA works to safeguard the economic interest of more than 150 million people who participate in an estimated 6 million employee benefit plans with assets in excess of $4.4 trillion. EBSA plays a primary role in ensuring that employee benefit plans operate in the interests of plan participants, and the effective management of its enforcement program is pivotal to ensuring the economic security of workers and retirees. Recent scandals involving abuses by pension plan fiduciaries and service providers, as well as trading scandals in mutual funds that affected plan participants and other investors, highlight the importance of ensuring that EBSA has an effective and efficient enforcement program. Accordingly, this testimony focuses on describing EBSA's enforcement strategy, EBSA's efforts to address weaknesses in its enforcement program along with the challenges that remain."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) new rule on reducing interstate ozone transport of nitrogen oxides. GAO noted that: (1) in accordance with section 126 of the Clean Air Act, the rule contains EPA's final action on petitions filed by eight northeastern states seeking to mitigate significant transport of nitrogen oxides, one of the main precursors of ground-level ozone, across state lines; (2) in the rule, EPA determines that portions of six of the petitions are technically meritorious; (3) those portions will be automatically deemed granted or denied at certain later dates pending actions by the states and EPA regarding state submittals in response to the final nitrogen oxides state implementation plan call; and (4) EPA complied with applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report responds to a Congressional request for additional information related to the May 2, 2006 Congressional hearing entitled FBI Oversight. Our responses are based largely on information contained in our published report, entitled Federal Bureau of Investigation: Weak Controls over Trilogy Project Led to Payment of Questionable Contractor Costs and Missing Assets, GAO-06-306."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. transportation sector relies almost exclusively on oil; as a result, it causes about a third of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions. Advanced technology vehicles powered by alternative fuels, such as electricity and ethanol, are one way to reduce oil consumption. The federal government set a goal for federal agencies to use plug-in hybrid electric vehicles--vehicles that run on both gasoline and batteries charged by connecting a plug into an electric power source--as they become available at a reasonable cost. This goal is on top of other requirements agencies must meet for conserving energy. In response to a request, GAO examined the (1) potential benefits of plug-ins, (2) factors affecting the availability of plug-ins, and (3) challenges to incorporating plug-ins into the federal fleet. GAO reviewed literature on plug-ins, federal legislation, and agency policies and interviewed federal officials, experts, and industry stakeholders, including auto and battery manufacturers."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The federal government holds more than 45,000 underutilized properties that cost nearly $1.7 billion annually to operate, yet significant obstacles impede efforts to close, consolidate, or find other uses for these properties. GAO has designated federal real property management as a high-risk area, in part because of the number and cost of these properties. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is responsible for reviewing federal agencies' progress in real property management. In 2007, GAO recommended that OMB assist agencies by developing an action plan to address key obstacles associated with decisions related to unneeded real property, including stakeholder influences. In May 2011, the administration proposed legislation, referred to as the Civilian Property Realignment Act (CPRA), to, among other things, establish a legislative framework for disposing of and consolidating civilian real property and that could help limit stakeholder influences in real property decision making. This statement identifies (1) progress the government has made toward addressing obstacles to federal real property management, (2) some of the challenges that remain and how CPRA may be responsive to those challenges, and (3) key elements of the Department of Defense's (DOD) base …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) has been on GAO's high-risk list since March 2006 because of concerns about its long-term financial solvency and related operational issues. Significant management challenges also affect the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) ability to administer NFIP. This report examines (1) the extent to which FEMA's management practices affect the administration of NFIP; (2) lessons learned from the cancellation of FEMA's attempt to modernize NFIP's insurance management system; and (3) limitations on FEMA's authority that could affect NFIP's financial stability. To do this work, GAO reviewed internal control standards and best practices, analyzed agency documentation, reviewed previous work, and interviewed relevant agency officials."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Secretary of the Treasury, in coordination with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), is required to annually prepare and submit audited financial statements of the U.S. government to the President and the Congress. We are required to audit these consolidated financial statements (CFS) and report on the results of our work. In connection with fulfilling our requirement to audit the fiscal year 2004 CFS, we evaluated the Department of the Treasury's (Treasury) financial reporting procedures and related internal control over the process for compiling the CFS, including the management representation letter provided us by Treasury and OMB. Written representation letters from management, required by U.S. generally accepted government auditing standards, ordinarily confirm oral representations given to the auditor, indicate and document the continuing appropriateness of those representations, and reduce the possibility of a misunderstanding between management and the auditor. The purpose of this report is to communicate our observations on the Department of Transportation's (DOT) fiscal year 2004 management representation letter. Our objective is to help ensure that future management representation letters submitted by DOT are sufficient to help support Treasury and OMB's …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLBA) has focused national attention on increasing accountability for states and school districts to improve student achievement. While increasing accountability, NCLBA also provided states and school districts with additional flexibility. The act established two flexibility demonstration programs--State- and Local-Flex--which allow up to 7 states and 80 school districts to redirect up to 100 percent of certain NCLBA program funds. GAO was asked to determine factors that affect states' and districts' decisions whether or not to apply for the demonstration programs and to determine the extent to which the U.S. Department of Education publicized, provided guidance, and established a process to review and award flexibility demonstration programs. To address these questions, GAO conducted a study, using telephone interviews with officials in 22 states and 37 school districts, and site visits to 2 of the four applicants."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) approval of the Social Security Act's title IV-E reimbursements for foster care placements, focusing on: (1) the number of title IV-E foster care placements made by juvenile justice agencies in fiscal year (FY) 1998 and the amount of federal care funding expended for these placements; (2) how selected states ensure that title IV-E funds are not used for placements in detention facilities and ensure that procedural requirements to protect the welfare of children in title IV-E funded juvenile cases are met; and (3) HHS' processes for ensuring the appropriate use of funds and compliance with these procedural requirements in title IV-E funded juvenile justice placements."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) oversight of and the funding for capital development at general aviation airports, focusing on: (1) the adequacy of FAA's oversight and enforcement of general aviation airports' compliance with federal requirements related to the use of their land; and (2) how general aviation airports' planned capital development costs compare with funding levels."