Transcript of a public hearing held by the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq & Afghanistan held May 24, 2010. This hearing includes testimony from two panels representing governmental agencies and criminal investigative organizations on issues that confront law-enforcement officials in a contingency environment and the work of USAID, the DoD and DoS since the 2009 hearing.

Medicine Lake Volcano is a Quaternary shield volcano located in a tectonically complex and active zone at the transition between the Basin and Range Province and the Cascade Range of the Pacific Province. The volcano is topped by a 7x12 km elliptical depression surrounded by a discontinuous constructional ring of basaltic to rhyolitic lava flows. This thesis explores the possibility that the depression may have formed due to regional extension (rift basin) or dextral shear (pull-apart basin) rather than through caldera collapse and examines the relationship between regional tectonics and localized volcanism. Existing data consisting of temperature and magnetotelluric surveys, alteration mineral studies, and core logging were compiled and supplemented with additional core logging, field observations, and fault striae studies in paleomagnetically oriented core samples. These results were then synthesized with regional fault data from existing maps and databases. Faulting patterns near the caldera, extension directions derived from fault striae P and T axes, and three-dimensional temperature and alteration mineral models are consistent with slip across arcuate ring faults related to magma chamber deflation during flank eruptions and/or a pyroclastic eruption at about 180 ka. These results are not consistent with a rift or pull-apart basin. Limited subsidence can be …

This report documents the marketing campaign that has been designed for middle and high school students in New Mexico to increase interest in participation in national security careers at the National Nuclear Security Administration. This marketing campaign builds on the research that was previously conducted, as well as the focus groups that were conducted. This work is a part of the National Nuclear Security Preparedness Project (NSPP) being performed under a Department of Energy (DOE) / National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) grant. Outcome analysis was performed to determine appropriate marketing strategies. The analysis was based upon focus groups with middle school and high school students, student interactions, and surveys completed by students to understand and gauge student interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) subjects, interest in careers at NNSA, future job considerations, and student desire to pursue post-secondary education. Further, through the focus groups, students were asked to attend a presentation on NNSA job opportunities and employee requirements. The feedback received from the students was utilized to develop the focus and components of the marketing campaign.

This report summarizes USAID's programs and financial information during the 2014 fiscal year.

"This report represents input from a variety of NMFS staff engaged in habitat science, stock assessments, and resource management at the six Science Centers and Regional Offices, the Office of Science and Technology, the Office of Habitat Conservation, and science program managers at each Science Center."

During the period April to June 2008, at the behest of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration, Nevada Site Office (NNSA/NSO); the Desert Research Institute (DRI) constructed and deployed two portable environmental monitoring stations at the Tonopah Test Range (TTR) as part of the Environmental Restoration Project Soils Sub-Project. The TTR is located within the boundaries of the Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR) near the northern edge, and covers an area of approximately 725.20 km2 (179,200 acres). The primary objective of the monitoring stations is to evaluate whether and under what conditions there is wind transport of radiological contaminants from one of the three Soil Sub-Project Corrective Action Units (CAUs) associated with Operation Roller Coaster on TTR. Operation Roller Coaster was a series of tests, conducted in 1963, designed to examine the stability and dispersal of plutonium in storage and transportation accidents. These tests did not result in any nuclear explosive yield. However, the tests did result in the dispersal of plutonium and contamination of surface soils in the surrounding area.

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy project sheet summarizing general information about the Batteries for Electrical Energy Storage in Transportation (BEEST) program including critical needs, innovation and advantages, impacts, and contact information. This sheet discusses a new lithium-air battery for electric vehicles as part of the "High Performance Cathodes for Lithium-Air Batteries" project.

This document was developed to be used as a general guide to the agencies involved with regulating storage-tank systems, whether underground or aboveground.

This guidance describes the process to apply institutional controls as required by the Texas Risk Reduction Plan (TRRP).

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The decline of home prices in many parts of the country has left millions of homeowners with negative home equity, meaning that their outstanding mortgage balances exceed the current value of their homes. As we reported to you previously, a substantial proportion of borrowers with active nonprime mortgages (including subprime and Alt-A loans) had negative equity in their homes as of June 30, 2009. For example, among the 16 metropolitan areas examined, we estimated that the percentage of nonprime borrowers with negative equity ranged from about 9 percent (Denver, Colorado) to more than 90 percent (Las Vegas, Nevada). Research indicates that negative home equity substantially increases the risk of mortgage delinquency, making it an important dimension of ongoing problems in the nonprime market. To provide insight into how negative equity and loan performance among nonprime borrowers have varied by location and over time, this report examines, at the state level, the estimated proportion of nonprime borrowers with active loans that were in a negative equity position and the proportion that were seriously delinquent on their loan payments from 2006 through the end of 2009. This report is part …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report responds to Congress' request for information on federal funds provided for fiscal years 2002 through 2009 to selected organizations involved in health-related activities and their affiliates: Advocates for Youth, the Guttmacher Institute, the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Population Council, and the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States. Specifically, Congress requested that GAO identify the amount of federal funds provided to the selected organizations and their affiliates for each of fiscal years 2002 through 2009 and the sources of these federal funds (for example, family planning grants authorized under Title X of the Public Health Service Act). Congress also asked us to provide information on expenditures of federal funds reported by these organizations and their affiliates. For this report, GAO identified (1) reported obligations and disbursements of federal funds that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) provided directly to the selected organizations and their affiliates, and (2) expenditures of federal funds reported by organizations and their affiliates in instances in which an organization or an affiliate …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This letter formally transmits and summarizes an oral briefing we gave on April 12, 2010, in response to House of Representatives Explanatory Statement, 155 Cong. Rec. H2113 (daily ed., Feb. 23, 2009), accompanying the Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009 (Pub. L. No. 111-8, 123 Stat. 524) (2009). GAO was directed to review the indirect costs the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) paid the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Specifically, our objectives were to (1) describe CDC's methodology for determining and allocating indirect costs to bill ATSDR for administrative services and (2) determine if the methodology CDC uses to bill ATSDR appropriately considers relevant laws and guidance."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In addition to providing health care to over 5 million veterans each year, the Veterans Health Administration, part of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), funds research on specific health conditions that veterans may experience. One condition that is examined in VA-funded research is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an anxiety disorder that can occur after a person is exposed to a life-threatening event. According to VA, experts estimate that up to 30 percent of Vietnam veterans and up to 20 percent of Operation Enduring Freedom veterans and Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans have experienced PTSD. Veterans suffering from PTSD may experience problems sleeping, maintaining relationships, and returning to their previous civilian lives. Additionally, studies have shown that many veterans suffering from PTSD are more likely to be diagnosed with cardiovascular disease and other diseases. After the Vietnam War, Congress wanted information about the psychological effects of the war on Vietnam veterans to inform the need for PTSD services at VA. Consequently, in 1983, Congress mandated that VA provide for the conduct of a study on PTSD and related postwar psychological problems among Vietnam veterans. VA contracted with an external …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Terrorist attacks on mass transit and commuter rail facilities in Moscow, Madrid, London, and Mumbai, and the significant loss of life and disruption they caused, have highlighted the vulnerability of transportation facilities to terrorism and the need for greater focus on securing these facilities, including intermodal transportation terminals. Such intermodal transportation terminals--locations where multiple modes or types of passengers or cargo transportation connect an merge--are potentially high value targets for terrorists because the large number of passengers or volume of cargo can lead to significant loss of human life and economic disruption. For example, New York City's Pennsylvania ("Penn") Station, the nation's busiest rail station, functions as an intermodal hub for Amtrak, two ma commuter rail lines (New Jersey Transit and the Long Island Rail Road), as well as six city subway routes. According to Amtrak, an average of 500,000 passengers the station daily. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has primary responsibility for homeland security, including transportation security, under the Homeland Security Act. Within DHS, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has primary responsibility for securing the aviation and surface transportation sectors. The Department of Transportation (DOT) supports …

A statement of record issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Securing the nation's borders from illegal entry of aliens and contraband, including terrorists and weapons of mass destruction, continues to be a major challenge. In November 2005, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the launch of the Secure Border Initiative (SBI)--a multiyear, multibillion dollar program aimed at securing U.S. borders and reducing illegal immigration. Within DHS, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) provides agents and officers to support SBI. As requested, this statement summarizes (1) the findings and recommendations of GAO's reports on SBI's technology, known as SBInet (including such things as cameras and radars), and DHS's recent actions on SBInet; and (2) the findings and recommendations of GAO's reports on tactical infrastructure, such as fencing, and the extent to which CBP has deployed tactical infrastructure and assessed its operational impact. This statement is based on products issued from 2007 through 2010, with selected updates as of April 2010. To conduct these updates, GAO reviewed program schedules, status reports and funding and interviewed DHS officials."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "From September 2001 through January 2010, Congress provided about $1.023 trillion in supplemental and annual appropriations in response to Department of Defense (DOD) requests for funding to support overseas contingency operations (OCO). In March 2010, DOD reported obligations of about $825 billion attributed to OCO for the period September 2001 through January 2010. DOD uses available cost-related information, along with other financial information, to evaluate OCO trends, formulate OCO funding requests, and monitor the costs of overseas operations. In addition, Congress considers this information in its deliberations on DOD requests for additional OCO funding. Our prior reviews have found the financial information in DOD's monthly OCO reports to be of questionable reliability. For example, we identified problems in DOD's processes for recording and reporting obligations, such as not including all OCO costs and the lack of a systematic process for ensuring that data are correctly entered into those systems. Consequently, we concluded DOD's reported OCO costs should be considered approximations. Based on our prior work, we made a number of recommendations to improve the reliability of OCO reported costs, with which DOD generally concurred. Consistent with our recommendations, …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report is in response to section 352 of Public Law 111-84, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010. The statute requires the Comptroller General to conduct an assessment of the ground combat uniforms and camouflage utility uniforms currently in use in the Department of Defense and provide the results to the congressional defense committees not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of the act."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In December 2009, recognizing that the situation in Afghanistan had become more grave since the March 2009 announcement of the U.S. strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, the administration concluded a 10-week review of the strategy's goals and the methods needed to achieve them. In announcing the results of this review, the President reaffirmed the core strategic goal of disrupting, dismantling, and eventually defeating extremists in Afghanistan and Pakistan and preventing them from threatening the United States and its allies in the future. To meet this goal, the President announced his decision to rapidly deploy an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan. In addition, he pledged a "surge" of civilian experts to help enhance the capacity of Afghan government institutions and assist in the rehabilitation of key economic sectors. Since the President's December 2009 announcement, about 16,000 of the additional U.S. troops have gradually deployed to Afghanistan--including about 10,000 as of March 2010 and approximately another 6,000 since that time--and the number of U.S. government civilians present in country has grown by about 200. In February 2010, in what senior Department of Defense (DOD) officials have described as the …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "For decades, the United States has worked toward the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, most recently under the 2003 Roadmap for Peace, which calls for an independent Palestinian state coexisting peacefully with the State of Israel. The United States had obligated more than $2.9 billion in bilateral assistance to the West Bank and Gaza focused on further developing the Palestinian economic, social services, and civil society sectors and on strengthening the processes, governance, and security-providing capacity of Palestinian Authority (PA) institutions from fiscal years 1993 through 2009. An additional $400.4 million is planned for fiscal year 2010. Since June 2007, when Hamas-a U.S. designated terrorist organization-seized control of the Gaza Strip, the United States has directed most of its assistance to the West Bank. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is primarily responsible for administering Economic Support Fund (ESF) appropriations. Fiscal year 2008 and 2009 ESF funds support, among other things, priority needs identified in the 2007 Palestinian Reform and Development Plan, as well as humanitarian needs in Gaza following the Israeli-Hamas conflict there from December 2008 through January 2009. For fiscal years 2008 and 2009, the …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "On March 23, 2010, we issued a report entitled Firms Reported in Open Sources as Having Commercial Activity in Iran's Oil, Gas, and Petrochemical Sectors. Based on open sources, we identified 41 foreign firms as having commercial activity in these vital sectors of Iran's economy from 2005 to 2009. As you requested, this report identifies which of the 41 firms in our March 2010 report had contracts with the United States government from fiscal years 2005 to 2009. Our March 2010 report and this report are intended to support congressional consideration of U.S. sanctions against Iran, including proposed legislation to expand the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA)."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The military exchange services purchase alcoholic beverages for resale on military installations as part of their mission to provide quality goods and services at competitive low prices to their customers--primarily military service members and their families. The revenue generated from the retail sale of products, including alcoholic beverages, supports most of the operating costs of the exchanges and military package stores as well as Morale, Welfare, and Recreation programs. Such programs generally provide for the physical, cultural, and social needs of service members and their families, and include fitness centers, child development services, libraries, and recreation centers. As primarily self-supporting enterprises, military exchanges and package stores are funded predominantly with nonappropriated funds, such as cash and other assets generated through business operations and sales to Department of Defense (DOD) authorized patrons, but certain administrative and support costs of the exchanges are paid by DOD using appropriated funds. In Guam, the Navy Exchange Service Command (NEXCOM) operates exchange activities on Naval Base Guam and the Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) operates exchange activities on Andersen Air Force Base. Section 652 of the National Defense Authorization Act for …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The St. Lawrence Seaway is a 50-year-old binational transportation asset jointly operated by the United States and Canada that is used to move cargo between North America and international markets. In 2009, the U.S. Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation (SLSDC), which is responsible for operating and maintaining the two locks and navigation channels in the U.S. portion of the Seaway, initiated a 10-year Asset Renewal Program (ARP) to address long-term needs of the locks, navigation channels, and related facilities and equipment. In 2009, Congress instructed GAO to examine the ARP. Accordingly, GAO examined (1) how the cost estimates have changed from February 2009 to February 2010, (2) the extent to which the ARP covers all asset renewal needs, and (3) the steps U.S. and Canadian authorities have taken to coordinate their asset renewal programs. To conduct this work, GAO reviewed agency program documents, interviewed SLSDC officials, and analyzed ARP estimates and fiscal year 2009 contract data."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The financing of the federal government depends importantly on the effectiveness of the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) ability to administer the tax laws, including achieving its goals of providing taxpayer services to make voluntary compliance easier and enforcing tax laws to ensure everyone meets their obligations to pay taxes. The President requested $12.6 billion to fund IRS's fiscal year (FY) 2011 operations, including $5.8 billion for enforcement, $4.1 billion for operations support, and $2.3 billion for taxpayer services. Another $387 million is for IRS's Business Systems Modernization (BSM) program, IRS's ongoing effort to improve the agency's tax processing systems. In addition to its annual appropriation, IRS projects that it will also collect and have available to use about $339 million in offsetting collections, including user fees and reimbursable programs. IRS's Strategic Plan 2009-2013 guides budget and program decisions and emphasizes IRS's goals. It recognizes the increasing complexity of tax laws, changing business models, expanding use of electronic data and related security risks, accelerating growth in international tax activities, and growing human capital challenges. With all of these competing priorities for spending in IRS programs, limited resources make it …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) has sought improved efficiencies and cost reductions in its delivery of services that could be provided by the private sector, using both competitions with private companies and processes to create high performing organizations (HPO). The Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Circular A-76 establishes federal policy for the competition of commercial activities. According to the circular, the longstanding policy of the federal government has been to rely on the private sector for needed commercial services. To ensure that the American people receive maximum value for their tax dollars, it is the federal government's policy that commercial activities should be subject to the forces of competition. As the largest federal agency, DOD has conducted more A-76 competitions than any other federal agency. However, the A-76 process has drawn criticism from both the public and private sectors. These criticisms largely center on the costs and length of time required to conduct competitions and the manner in which long-term savings are calculated. In light of these concerns, a panel of public and private sector experts convened in 2001 to identify ways in which the federal government …