A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Hypertension was the most commonly reported medical condition among adults that could result in a health insurer denying coverage, requiring higher-than-average premiums, or restricting coverage. GAO’s analysis found that about 33.2 million adults age 19-64 years old, or about 18 percent, reported hypertension in 2009. Individuals with hypertension reported average annual expenditures related to treating the condition of $650, but maximum reported expenditures were $61,540. Mental health disorders and diabetes were the second and third most commonly reported conditions among adults. Cancer was the condition with the highest average annual treatment expenditures—about $9,000."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "As requested, this statement summarizes our two reports being released today on (1) the status, plans, and risks for JPSS and (2) the status, schedule management process, and risk management process within the GOES-R program. We found that the JPSS cost and GOES-R contractor cost data were sufficiently reliable for our purposes. Further, while we found that the GOES-R schedule and management reserve data were not sufficiently reliable, we reported on the data’s shortcomings in our report."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Generally consistent with the views of key stakeholders we interviewed, state and school district officials cited 17 federal requirements as most burdensome for them. These requirements were related to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Title I, Part A; the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part B; national school meals programs; or other requirements related to the receipt of federal funds. Officials described the burdens associated with these requirements as complicated, time-intensive, and duplicative, among other things, and characterized most of the requirements as being burdensome in multiple ways. For example, several officials told us that collecting data for IDEA reporting requirements—such as the number of data elements collected—takes a significant amount of time and resources. State and district officials also noted benefits of some requirements, for example, that the process to create individualized education programs can help protect the rights of students with disabilities."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO identified 32 practices and approaches as effective for applying Agile software development methods to IT projects. The practices generally align with five key software development project management activities: strategic planning, organizational commitment and collaboration, preparation, execution, and evaluation. Officials who have used Agile methods on federal projects generally agreed that these practices are effective. Specifically, each practice was used and found effective by officials from at least one agency, and ten practices were used and found effective by officials from all five agencies. The ten practices are:"

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In Georgia, quality and sustainability issues jeopardize the long-term usefulness of the Samtskhe-Javakheti road project. The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) funded the rehabilitation of about 217 kilometers of road linking the previously isolated Samtskhe-Javakheti region with Tbilisi, the country’s capital, and reducing the driving time from 8 ¼ hours to 2 ¾ hours. The project was intended to increase exports from the region, integrate people in the region with the rest of Georgia, and expand trade with Turkey and Armenia. However, the urgency to meet fixed time frames resulted in problems implementing the project’s quality assurance framework. For example, the construction supervisor did not have enough staff to properly monitor construction and ensure quality. Despite several recommendations from MCC’s independent engineer, MCC and its Georgian counterpart, the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA-Georgia), did not adequately increase the number of construction supervisors, which resulted in pavement defects in parts of 5 of the 11 road sections and deterioration of structures such as drainage and retaining walls. One 15-kilometer section contained enough defects that the road had to be completely repaved. Furthermore, much of the repair work was to …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Federal agencies have used a variety of mechanisms to implement interagency collaborative efforts, such as the President appointing a coordinator, agencies co-locating within one facility, or establishing interagency task forces. These mechanisms can be used to address a range of purposes including policy development; program implementation; oversight and monitoring; information sharing and communication; and building organizational capacity, such as staffing and training. Frequently, agencies use more than one mechanism to address an issue. For example, climate change is a complex, crosscutting issue, which involves many collaborative mechanisms in the Executive Office of the President and interagency groups throughout government."

This report provides background information and issues for Congress on multiyear procurement (MYP) and block buy contracting (BBC), which are special contracting mechanisms that Congress permits the Department of Defense (DOD) to use for a limited number of defense acquisition programs. Compared to the standard or default approach of annual contracting, MYP and BBC have the potential for reducing weapon procurement costs by several percent.

This report discusses issues regarding the Presidential Nomination Process including information about the 2008 election, calendar changes from 1988 to 2008, changes to national party rules for 2012, an evaluation of the primary system, reform proposals, and legislative considerations.

This report provides background information and potential issues for Congress on the Navy's irregular warfare (IW) and counterterrorism (CT) operations. News reports about the May 1, 2011, U.S. military operation in Pakistan that killed Osama Bin Laden state that the operation was carried out by a team of 20 to 25 Navy special operations forces, known as SEALs, specifically an elite unit known as Seal Team 6.

This report discusses the background of cluster munitions in the U.S. military, and the current Department of Defense (DOD) and Obama Administration stances on the topic. It also discusses the two major international initiatives to address cluster munitions: the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) and negotiations under the U.N. Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW).

This report outlines many of the budgetary procedures that are performed by the President, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and agencies. This report provides an overview of the development, submission, and justification of the President’s budget proposal. This report also describes how the President, OMB, and agencies execute the federal budget following the enactment of appropriations and other budgetary legislation by Congress.

This report provides a background of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) financial crisis and the issues for Congress.

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Application of the Open Meetings Act, chapter 551 of the Government Code, to a coordinated county transportation authority created under chapter 460 of the Transportation Code, and to its committees (RQ-1042-GA)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a commissioners court may execute a surface lease of county school land that contains a term obligating the lessee to make expenditures for land management and maintenance.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether a justice of the peace may adjudicate truancy cases where an interlocal agreement between the county and the school district provides that a school attendee officer will serve as juvenile court coordinator (RQ-0994-GA)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether an eight-liner machine that dispenses tickets for prizes redeemable only at the bingo hall in which the machine is located is a "gambling device" within the meaning of section 47.01(4) of the Penal Code (RQ-0995-GA)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether the Board of Physical Therapy Examiners may provide the social security numbers of its licensees to a nonprofit organization composed of physical therapy licensing authorizes in the United States (RQ-0996-GA)

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Retirement annuities for civilian federal employees are provided mainly through two programs: the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). These annuities are financed through a combination of employee contributions and payments made by the federal government to the civil service retirement trust fund. This report discusses the two programs, how they work, and how they are financed.

This report offers background information and recent more development in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia political and economic situation. It also discusses U.S. policy, U.S. aid, U.S. trade and investments to these countries, congressional response and other legislation.

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This report addresses key questions concerning the impact of enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on the TRICARE and VA health care programs. To provide some context to this discussion, the report begins with a brief overview of the two health systems and eligibility for care under each system.

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