Report that describes the well-established routine that occurs on the opening day of a new Congress.

Report that provides background information and potential oversight issues for Congress on the Coast Guard's programs for procuring eight National Security Cutters (NSCs), 25 Offshore Patrol Cutters (OPCs), and 58 Fast Response Cutters (FRCs).

Report that surveys the various authorities governing immigration detainers, including the standard detainer form (Form I-247) sent by ICE to other law enforcement agencies. The report also discusses key legal issues raised by immigration detainers.

Report that describes the declaration process of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act and the types of declarations that can be made under the Stafford Act.

Report regarding congressional efforts to structure federal actions and programs so they provide incentives to reduce flood risk without unduly infringing on private property rights or usurping local decision making.

Report that analyzes the legal and policy issues associated with reallocation of water under the Water Supply Act of 1958 (WSA) and industrial (M&I) water supply use at Lake Lanier as an example.

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In summary, the Army and the Marine Corps have taken steps to determine the future usefulness of nonstandard equipment but have not finalized all of the decisions on whether to add such equipment to unit authorization documents. As of November 2011, the Army had reviewed 409 equipment systems through its Capabilities Development for Rapid Transition process, determining that about 11 percent of that equipment is useful for the future and about 37 percent is not needed and should be terminated. The Army has not made a final decision on the future need for the remaining 52 percent of the equipment, which it continues to sustain for current operations primarily through the use of overseas contingency operations funds. The Army has also taken some additional actions to review nonstandard equipment through other forums and reviews which have led to recommendations for some items to be retained for the future. Since 2008, the Marine Corps has reviewed 144 different requests for capabilities to fill gaps identified by commanders. Of these, the Marine Corps has determined that about 63 percent will continue to be needed in the future to meet enduring …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "During the 5-year period from fiscal year 2007 through 2011, the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Inspector General (OIG) had budget and staffing resources that were consistent with other OIGs, and a monetary return for each budget dollar which exceeded the average return for Cabinet-level OIGs. During the 5-year period, the HUD OIG had total budgetary resources ranging from $121 million to $144 million, consistently ranking it fifth among all Cabinet-level OIGs. However, while the total budgetary resources for all Cabinet-level OIGs increased by about 45 percent over the 5-year period, the HUD OIG’s total budgetary resources increased by 19 percent. In terms of staffing, the HUD OIG’s full-time-equivalent staff (FTE) consistently ranked in the top four or five of the Cabinet-level OIGs. Also, the HUD OIG’s FTEs increased by about 13 percent during the 5-year period, as compared to about a 17 percent average increase for all Cabinet-level OIGs. During the same 5-year period, the HUD OIG reported an estimated average dollar return of about $13.62 for each HUD OIG total budgetary dollar received, while the 16 OIGs in the Cabinet-level …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "A workgroup—led by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and made up of DHS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)—has attempted to address GAO’s recommendations to (1) validate environmental sampling methods for detecting Bacillus anthracis and (2) conduct studies to develop probability-based sampling approaches for indoor environments. This workgroup has taken some actions to validate environmental sampling methods (collection, transportation, preparation, analysis) and develop statistically based sampling approaches that will provide confidence statements when test results are negative. These activities were projected to be completed by fiscal year 2013, but delays are now expected."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins ""

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Technological developments since the Privacy Act became law in 1974 have changed the way information is organized and shared among organizations and individuals. Such advances have rendered some of the provisions of the Privacy Act and the E-Government Act of 2002 inadequate to fully protect all personally identifiable information collected, used, and maintained by the federal government. For example, GAO has reported on challenges in protecting the privacy of personal information relative to agencies’ use of Web 2.0 and data-mining technologies."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Several information security threats exist that can exploit vulnerabilities in active implantable medical devices, but experts caution that efforts to mitigate information security risks may adversely affect device performance. Threats to active devices—that is, devices that rely on a power source to operate—that also have wireless capability can be unintentional, such as interference from electromagnetic energy in the environment, or intentional, such as the unauthorized accessing of a device. Several experts consider certain threats to be of greater concern than others; for example, experts noted less concern about interference from electromagnetic energy than other threats. Incidents resulting from unintentional threats have occurred, such as a malfunction resulting from electromagnetic interference, but have since been addressed. Although researchers have recently demonstrated the potential for incidents resulting from intentional threats in two devices—an implantable cardioverter defibrillator and an insulin pump—no such actual incidents are known to have occurred, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Medical devices may have several such vulnerabilities that make them susceptible to unintentional and intentional threats, including untested software and firmware and limited battery life. Information security risks resulting from certain threats …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In July 2010, the federal government finalized guidance to address weaknesses in the watchlist nominations process that were exposed by the December 2009 attempted attack and to clarify how agencies are to nominate individuals to the watchlist. The nominating agencies GAO contacted expressed concerns about the increasing volumes of information and related challenges in processing this information. Nevertheless, nominating agencies are sending more information for inclusion in the terrorist watchlist after the attempted attack than before the attempted attack. Agencies are also pursuing staffing, technology, and other solutions to address challenges in processing the volumes of information. In 2011, an interagency policy committee began an initiative to assess the initial impacts the guidance has had on nominating agencies, but did not provide details on whether such assessments would be routinely conducted in the future. Routine assessments could help the government determine the extent to which impacts are acceptable and manageable from a policy perspective and inform future efforts to strengthen the nominations process."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The act requires that OMB develop federal government priority goals (crosscutting goals) and a federal government performance plan, which is to be updated annually and released concurrently with the President’s budget. Specifically, it requires OMB, starting with the 2015 budget and in coordination with agencies and in consultation with the Congress, to develop—every 4 years—long-term, outcome-oriented goals for a limited number of crosscutting policy areas and goals for management improvement areas, including: financial management; human capital management; information technology management; procurement and acquisition management; and real property management. The goals are to be updated or revised every 4 years. In addition, OMB is required to develop interim priority goals, starting with the 2013 budget. OMB is also required to provide information on how these federal government priority goals will be achieved in a federal government performance plan."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Support function costs at NNSA and Science sites for fiscal years 2007 through 2011 are not fully known because DOE changed its data collection approach beginning in 2010 to improve its data and, as a result, does not have complete and comparable cost data for all years. In fiscal years 2007 through 2009, total support costs for NNSA and Science sites grew from $5 billion to about $5.5 billion (nominal dollars). Costs for fiscal year 2010 are unknown because DOE was pilot-testing its new reporting system and only collected data from some sites. For fiscal year 2011, the data are more complete, but changes to DOE’s definitions for support functions make it difficult to compare costs across all years. DOE has taken some steps to ensure the quality of the data in its new system and plans to fully implement a quality control process, such as peer reviews, to ensure data can be compared across sites, but has not yet done so."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "As of August 2012, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) had completed 42 of 100 planned Megaports projects in 31 countries and, as of December 2011, NNSA had spent about $850 million on the Megaports Initiative (Initiative). NNSA’s Initiative has equipped these seaports with radiation detection equipment, established training programs for foreign personnel, and created a sustainability program to help countries operate and maintain the equipment. However, the administration’s fiscal year 2013 budget proposal would reduce the Initiative’s budget by about 85 percent, and NNSA plans to shift the Initiative’s focus from establishing new Megaports to sustaining existing ones. As a result, NNSA has suspended ongoing negotiations and cancelled planned deployments of equipment in five countries."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Under section 319 of the Clean Water Act, state-selected projects to reduce nonpoint source pollution have helped restore more than 350 impaired water bodies since 2000, but other projects have encountered significant challenges. According to GAO survey results, 28 percent of projects did not achieve all objectives originally identified in the project proposal (e.g., implementing the desired number of pollution reduction practices), while many that did so still faced considerable challenges. About half such challenges were beyond staff control (e.g., bad weather or staff turnover), but the other half were challenges that generally could have been identified and mitigated before projects were proposed and selected for funding, such as gaining access to desired properties. In one state, for example, $285,000 in section 319 funds was to subsidize the cost to homeowners of repairing damaged septic systems. Once the grant was awarded, however, one homeowner signed up to participate."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "State has an extensive process designed to make the country reports on human rights as comprehensive, objective, and uniform as possible. This process includes annually issuing detailed instructions, consulting and assessing information from multiple sources, and collaboratively and iteratively drafting and reviewing the reports. State issues instructions for preparing the country reports each year, outlining a consistent structure and describing, for example, the topics that should be included in each subsection. The instructions also, among other things, indicate that the country reports should build on the previous year’s reports and specify guidelines for new and updated content. In addition, the instructions state that staff preparing the country reports are to use and assess multiple sources, including host governments, local and international human NGOs, labor unions, and host country media as well as classified information. State officials told us that they also obtain information from business leaders and industry groups, although there is no legal requirement to do so. In general, according to State officials, Foreign Service officers—often on their first or second tour of duty—prepare first drafts of the country reports with the assistance of other embassy personnel, …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Fleet Mix Phase One, which was not cost constrained, indicated that the planned program of record does not fully meet long-term strategic goals and found that, to meet these goals, the Coast Guard requires a fleet that could cost as much as $65 billion to acquire, which is about $40 billion more than the $24.2 billion program of record. Coast Guard officials stated that the analysis supports the continued pursuit of the program of record. However, DHS Program Analysis & Evaluation (PA&E) and OMB officials told us that the analysis has limited utility without cost constraints and trade-offs."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Our review identified articles that used varying approaches to estimate the savings associated with generic drug use in the United States. One group of studies estimated the savings in reduced drug costs that have accrued from the use of generics. For example, a series of studies estimated the total savings that have accrued to the U.S. health care system from substituting generic drugs for their brand-name counterparts, and found that from 1999 through 2010 doing so saved more than $1 trillion. A second group of studies estimated the potential to save more on drugs through greater use of generics. For example, one study assessed the potential for additional savings within the Medicare Part D program—which provides outpatient prescription drug coverage for Medicare—and found that if generic drugs had always been substituted for the brand-name drugs studied, about $900 million would have been saved in 2007. A third group of studies estimated the effect on health care costs of using generic versions of certain types of drugs where questions had generally been raised about whether substituting generic drugs for brand-name drugs was medically appropriate. Unlike the other …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The major components of the Departments of Homeland Security, Defense, Justice, and Health and Human Services have taken a variety of actions to improve management of their Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) programs. To reduce their backlogs of outstanding requests, agencies have taken actions that include regularly reporting to management, mobilizing extra resources, and streamlining procedures for responding to requests. These actions have had mixed results. For example, since 2009, 10 of the 16 agency components in GAO’s study succeeded in decreasing their backlogs, 2 had no material change, and the remaining 4 had larger backlogs. The agencies have also taken actions to reduce their use of exemptions—provisions of FOIA that allow agencies to withhold certain types of information. Agencies’ actions to reduce their use of exemptions included training, reviews, and guidance. While 7 components reduced the rate at which they applied exemptions, 3 stayed about the same, and 6 had an increase."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Our analysis showed that DOD’s Fiscal Year 2010 Annual Energy Management Report fully addressed two, did not address one (issue 4), and partially addressed five of the eight expanded reporting requirements. In some cases, it was difficult to determine the extent to which DOD had addressed an issue because information related to a specific reporting requirement was fragmented or scattered throughout the report. With regard to the one issue not addressed, DOD indicated it had plans to address it in a separate report tentatively scheduled to be published in early 2012."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "At the departmental level, neither the Department of Defense (DOD) nor the individual military departments know the extent to which weapon system programs rely on long-term maintenance contracts. DOD policy requires DOD and the military departments to approve acquisition strategies and lifecycle sustainment plans, which include information on contractor support, but DOD officials reported that they do not collect information on the use of long-term contracts. DOD’s limited visibility over long-term maintenance contracts reflects broader DOD challenges with managing services acquisition. GAO’s past work has identified the need for DOD to obtain better data on its contracted services to enable it to make more strategic decisions. DOD is considering a number of policy- and data-related initiatives that could improve its knowledge of these contracts, but these efforts are in the early stages of development."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The services have coordinated some sea turtle protection efforts, including jointly developing recovery plans, and they established a memorandum of understanding in 1977 to define their roles in joint administration of their efforts. Nevertheless, neither the memorandum nor the services have clearly defined how and when the services are to coordinate; also, the services do not consistently share information about the majority of the take they authorize. According to sea turtle experts GAO spoke with, each service may therefore be authorizing sea turtle take without knowing how much its counterpart has authorized, and the combined allowance may be harming threatened and endangered sea turtles and delaying their recovery."