Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report presents the highlights of GAO's fiscal year 2005 Performance and Accountability report. In short, fiscal year 2005 was an exceptional year for GAO. For example, we received a clean opinion from independent auditors on our financial statements and met or exceeded targets for 10 of 14 key performance measures, while setting or matching all-time records for 3 measures. We documented $39.6 billion in financial benefits--a return of $83 for every dollar we spent--and over 1,400 nonfinancial benefits--a record for us. The work we did to produce these benefits helped to shape important legislation, such as the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (Pub. L. No. 108-458), and increase the efficiency of various federal programs, thus improving the lives of millions of Americans. In addition, the rate at which our recommendations were implemented by the Congress or federal agencies rose to 85 percent in fiscal year 2005, and the percentage of our fiscal year 2005 products containing recommendations increased to 63 percent--exceeding the targets we set for both of these measures this year. In addition, in the first year that we are reporting …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Elevated lead levels in the District of Columbia's tap water in 2003 prompted questions about how well consumers are protected nationwide. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), states, and local water systems share responsibility for providing safe drinking water. Lead typically enters tap water as a result of the corrosion of lead in the water lines or household plumbing. EPA's lead rule establishes testing and treatment requirements. This report discusses (1) EPA's data on the rule's implementation; (2) what implementation of the rule suggests about the need for changes to the regulatory framework; and (3) the extent to which drinking water at schools and child care facilities is tested for lead."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) operates a nursing home program that provides or pays for veterans' care in three nursing home settings: VA-operated nursing homes, community nursing homes, and state veterans' nursing homes. In addition, veterans needing nursing home care may also receive it from non-VA providers that are not funded by VA. VA is faced with a large elderly veteran population, many of whom may be in need of nursing home care. In 2004, 38 percent of the nation's veteran population was over the age of 65, compared with 12 percent of the general population. The Veterans Millennium Health Care and Benefits Act (Millennium Act) of 1999 and VA policy require that VA provide nursing home care to certain veterans. This statement focuses on VA's nursing home program and trends in nursing home expenditures, trends in the number of patients served, or "patient workload," and key challenges VA faces in planning for nursing home care for veterans. To examine these trends, GAO updated information from prior work with spending and patient workload data for fiscal year 2005 that VA provided. In a November 2004 report, GAO …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Corporate failures and accounting scandals led to changes in legislation governing U.S. securities markets, which resulted in increased workload demands on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). As a result, Congress provided SEC with substantial budgetary increases to obtain more resources to help fulfill the agency's mission. GAO was asked to review SEC's strategic workforce planning efforts to efficiently and effectively utilize its resources. This report discusses (1) the progress SEC has made toward developing a strategic human capital plan and (2) whether SEC uses effective strategic workforce planning principles for acquiring, developing, and retaining staff."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "U.S. companies adversely affected by unfair imports may seek a number of relief measures, including antidumping (AD) duties. The Department of Commerce (Commerce) classifies China as a nonmarket economy (NME) and uses a special methodology that is commonly believed to produce AD duty rates that are higher than those applied to market economies. Commerce may stop applying its NME methodology if it finds that China warrants designation as a market economy. In light of increased concern about China's trade practices, the conference report on fiscal year 2004 appropriations requested that GAO review efforts by U.S. government agencies responsible for ensuring free and fair trade with that country. In this report, the last in a series, GAO (1) explains the NME methodology, (2) analyzes AD duties applied to China and compares them with duties applied to market economies, and (3) explains circumstances in which the United States would stop applying its NME methodology to China and evaluates the potential impact of such a step. Commerce agreed with our findings, commenting that our report provides timely and helpful information on the NME methodology and its application to China."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "An important goal of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, is to ensure access to telecommunications services for all Americans. The Federal Communications Commission has made efforts to improve the historically low subscribership rates of Native Americans on tribal lands. In addition, Congress is considering legislation to establish a grant program to help tribes improve telecommunications services on their lands. This report discusses 1) the status of telecommunications subscribership for Native Americans living on tribal lands; 2) federal programs available for improving telecommunications on these lands; 3) barriers to improvements; and 4) how some tribes are addressing these barriers."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Each year, agencies submit to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a Capital Asset Plan and Business Case--the exhibit 300--to justify each request for a major information technology (IT) investment. The exhibit's content should reflect controls that agencies have established to ensure good project management, as well as showing that they have defined cost, schedule, and performance goals. It is thus a tool to help OMB and agencies identify and correct poorly planned or performing investments. In its budget and oversight role, OMB relies on the accuracy and completeness of this information. GAO was asked to determine the extent to which selected agencies have underlying support for the information in their fiscal year 2006 exhibit 300s. From five major departments having over $1 billion in IT expenditures in that year, GAO chose for analysis 29 exhibits for projects that supported a cross section of federal activities."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The federal government contracts with public relations firms, advertising agencies, media organizations, and individual members of the media to provide, among other things, messages about its programs and services. As we have reported, there is a lack of accurate governmentwide information on these contracts. Seven federal departments account for nearly all the obligated federal dollars for public relations and advertising activities in fiscal year 2003--Commerce, Defense, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Interior, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs. GAO submitted a questionnaire to each of these seven departments to obtain information for fiscal year 2003 through the second quarter of fiscal year 2005 on (1) the number of contracts with public relations firms, advertising agencies, media organizations, and individual members of the media for which obligations have been incurred; (2) the total amount of contract obligations incurred on each contract by fiscal year; (3) the method by which the contract was awarded--competed, noncompeted, follow-on to competed action, or not available for competition; and (4) summaries of the purpose and scope of work to be performed under each contract."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) added a prescription drug benefit to the Medicare program, which became effective January 1, 2006. To assist Medicare beneficiaries with their prescription drug costs until the new benefit became available, the MMA also required the establishment of a temporary program, the Medicare Prescription Drug Discount Card and Transitional Assistance Program, which began in June 2004. The drug card program offers Medicare beneficiaries access to discounts off the retail price of prescription drugs at the point of sale. All Medicare beneficiaries, except those receiving Medicaid drug coverage, were eligible to enroll in the drug card program. Certain low-income beneficiaries without other drug coverage qualified for an additional benefit, a transitional assistance (TA) subsidy that can be applied toward the cost of drugs covered under the drug card program. Drug cards were offered and are managed by private organizations, known as drug card sponsors. General drug cards were available to all eligible beneficiaries living in a card's service area; there are both national and regional general cards. Exclusive and special endorsement drug cards were available to specific beneficiary groups. …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Government-sponsored public service announcement (PSA) campaigns are prepackaged messages generally placed for free through various media to promote designated government activities, programs, or services. Although PSAs may be placed for free, PSA campaigns may still incur financial obligations for production. GAO was mandated to provide information about federal PSA campaign activities by a House Appropriations Committee report (House Report No.108-671). GAO received detailed information on PSA campaigns for the seven federal departments with the highest obligations for public relations and advertising in fiscal year 2003--Commerce, Defense, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Interior, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs--as reported in a governmentwide federal procurement data system. GAO submitted questionnaires to these seven departments to obtain information for fiscal year 2003 through the second quarter of fiscal year 2005 on (1) obligations incurred for PSA campaigns, including whether obligations were incurred externally, such as through a contract, or internally; (2) the purpose, audience, and type of media employed; and (3) whether campaigns were evaluated for success and their results published in performance reports, including Government Performance Results Act (GPRA) reports."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The President's annual budget reports on federal funding dedicated to combating terrorism activities. Identification of such funding is inherently difficult because a significant portion of combating terrorism funding is embedded within appropriation accounts that include funding for other activities as well. In 2002, GAO reported on the difficulties that the executive branch faced in reporting funding for combating terrorism to Congress (see GAO-03-170). This report updates the information contained in the 2002 report by providing information on (1) the methods agencies use to determine the portion of their annual appropriations related to combating terrorism, and (2) the status of recommendations from GAO's 2002 report."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "On November 9, 2005, GAO testified before the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs at a hearing on "Access Delayed: Fixing the Security Clearance Process, Part II." This letter responds to three questions for the record that Senator Daniel K. Akaka posed."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) has been working to develop and implement a standard end-to-end travel system for the last 10 years. Over the past several years numerous GAO reports and testimonies have highlighted problems with DOD's travel practices that resulted in wasteful spending of millions of dollars. In response, the department has noted that the Defense Travel System (DTS), in part, will help correct these problems. Because of the widespread congressional interest in DTS, GAO initiated the audit under the statutory authority of the Comptroller General of the United States. The objectives of the audit were to (1) determine if DOD effectively tested key DTS functionality, (2) ascertain if DTS will correct the weaknesses previously identified, (3) identify the challenges that remain, and (4) identify opportunities to streamline DOD's travel process."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "According to one report, at the end of 2004, some 70 million U.S. adults logged on to access the Internet during a typical day. As public use of the Internet grew from the mid-1990s onward, Internet access became a potential target for state and local taxation. In 1998, Congress imposed a moratorium temporarily preventing state and local governments from imposing new taxes on Internet access. Existing state and local taxes were grandfathered. In amending the moratorium in 2004, Congress required GAO to study its impact on state and local government revenues. This report's objectives are to determine the scope of the moratorium and its impact, if any, on state and local revenues. For this report, GAO reviewed the moratorium's language, its legislative history, and associated legal issues; examined studies of revenue impact; interviewed people knowledgeable about access services; and collected information about eight case study states not intended to be representative of other states. GAO chose the states considering such factors as whether they had taxes grandfathered for different forms of access services and covered different urban and rural parts of the country."

A statement of record issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Chairman, Subcommittee on Labor, HHS and Education, Senate Committee on Appropriations, asked GAO to submit a statement for the record highlighting findings from our 2003 report on how well the Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) oversees its process for reviewing and approving critical types of mine plans and the extent to which MSHA's inspections and accident investigations processes help ensure the safety and health of underground coal miners."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Recent data breaches highlight how identity theft may occur when businesses share individuals' personal information, including Social Security Numbers (SSNs), with contractors. Because private sector entities are more likely to share consumers' personal information via contractors, members of Congress raised concerns about the protection of this information in contractual relationships. In response, GAO examined (1) how entities within certain industries share SSNs with contractors; (2) the safeguards and notable industry standards in place to ensure the protection of SSNs when shared with contractors; and (3) how federal agencies regulate and monitor the sharing and safeguarding of SSNs between private entities and their contractors."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), established in 1968, provides property owners with some insurance coverage for flood damage. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) within the Department of Homeland Security is responsible for managing the NFIP. The unprecedented magnitude and severity of the flood losses from hurricanes in 2005 challenged the NFIP to process a record number of claims. These storms also illustrated the extent to which the federal government has exposure for claims coverage in catastrophic loss years. FEMA estimates that Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma will generate claims and payments of about $23 billion--far surpassing the total claims paid in the entire history of the NFIP. This testimony provides information from past and ongoing GAO work on issues including: (1) NFIP's financial structure; (2) the impact of properties with repetitive flood losses on NFIP's resources; (3) proposals to increase the number of policies in force; and (4) the status of past GAO recommendations."

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 Congress. We are required to audit these consolidated financial statements (CFS) and report on the results of our work. An issue meriting concern and close scrutiny that emerged during our fiscal year 2004 CFS audit was the growing number of Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act agencies that restated certain of their financial statements for fiscal year 2003 to correct errors. Errors in financial statements can result from mathematical mistakes, mistakes in the application of accounting principles, or oversight or misuse of facts that existed at the time the financial statements were prepared. Frequent restatements to correct errors can undermine public trust and confidence in both the entity and all responsible parties. Further, when restatements do occur, it is important that financial statements clearly communicate, and readers of the restated financial statements understand, that the financial statements originally issued by management in the previous year and the opinion thereon should no longer be …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has established a program--the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT)--to collect, maintain, and share information, including biometric identifiers, on selected foreign nationals who enter and exit the United States. US-VISIT uses these biometric identifiers (digital fingerscans and photographs) to screen persons against watch lists and to verify that a visitor is the person who was issued a visa or other travel document. Visitors are also to confirm their departure by having their visas or passports scanned and undergoing fingerscanning at selected air and sea ports of entry. GAO was asked to testify on (1) the status of US-VISIT and (2) DHS progress in implementing recommendations that GAO made as part of its prior reviews of US-VISIT annual expenditure plans. The testimony is based on GAO's prior reports as well as ongoing work for the House Committee on Homeland Security. GAO's recommendations are directed at helping the department improve its capabilities to deliver US-VISIT capability and benefit expectations on time and within budget. According to DHS, the recommendations have made US-VISIT a stronger program."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Defense trade impacts many issues of importance to the Department of Defense (DOD), including maintaining a healthy supplier base, protecting critical technologies, ensuring access to a secure supply of defense-related items and services, managing technology transfers, and increasing interoperability with allies. A critical element to guide decision makers is access to comprehensive and reliable data. The Committee on Armed Services, through its report on the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006, directed GAO to identify and assess defense trade data. In response, we (1) identified defense trade data available from U.S. government sources and their limitations, and (2) determined defense trade balances as indicated by the data for years 2000 through 2004."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Terrorist attacks on U.S. chemical facilities could damage public health and the economy. While the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) formerly led federal efforts to ensure chemical facility security, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is now the lead federal agency coordinating efforts to protect these facilities from terrorist attacks. GAO reviewed (1) DHS's actions to develop a strategy to protect the chemical industry, (2) DHS's actions to assist in the industry's security efforts and coordinate with EPA, (3) industry security initiatives and challenges, and (4) DHS's authorities and whether additional legislation is needed to ensure chemical plant security. GAO interviewed DHS, EPA, and industry officials, among others."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Primarily because of concerns that noise from air tours over national parks could impair visitors' experiences and park resources, Congress passed the National Parks Air Tour Management Act of 2000 to regulate air tours. The act requires the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Park Service to develop air tour management plans for all parks where air tour operators apply to conduct tours. A plan may establish controls over tours, such as routes, altitudes, time of day restrictions, and/or a maximum number of flights for a given period; or ban all air tours. GAO was asked to (1) determine the status of FAA and the Park Service's implementation of the act; (2) assess how the air tour operators and national parks have been affected by implementation; and (3) identify what issues, if any, need to be addressed to improve implementation."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Department of Defense (DOD) officials currently estimate that the department will spend approximately $34 billion through 2011 to develop the core network of the Global Information Grid (GIG), a large and complex undertaking intended to provide on-demand and real-time data and information to the warfighter. DOD views the GIG as the cornerstone of information superiority, a key enabler of network-centric warfare, and a pillar of defense transformation. A high degree of coordination and cooperation is needed to make the GIG a reality. In prior work GAO found that enforcing investment decisions across the military services and assuring management attention and oversight of the GIG effort were key management challenges facing DOD. This report assesses (1) the management approach that DOD is using to develop the GIG and (2) whether DOD's three major decision-making processes support the development of a crosscutting, departmentwide investment, such as the GIG."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Air Force is in the process of transforming its force to meet today's new and emerging threats. Its "Future Total Force" concept is intended to maximize future capabilities by integrating its active, National Guard, and reserve components to a greater degree. While the Air Force was making force structure decisions and developing its 20-year plan, the Air National Guard embarked on its own "Vanguard" transformation initiative to ensure its role and relevance in the new Air Force. This report discusses (1) the processes and events that surrounded the Air Force's development of its 20-year force structure plan, including the involvement of key stakeholders and the development of the Guard's Vanguard initiative, and (2) the extent to which the Air Force is utilizing key results-oriented management tools to guide its effort to identify new missions for the Air National Guard and integrate active and Guard forces as part of its Future Total Force effort."