A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) planning, programming, budgeting, and evaluation (PPBE) process provides a framework for the agency to plan, prioritize, fund, and evaluate its program activities. Formal policies guide NNSA and management and operating (M&O) contractors through each of four phases of the agency’s PPBE cycle—planning, programming, budgeting, and evaluation. These phases appear to be sequential, but the process is continuous and concurrent because of the amount of time required to develop priorities and review resource requirements, with at least two phases ongoing at any time."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "From fiscal years 2005 through 2011, the physical condition of the Coast Guard’s legacy vessels was generally poor; and the Coast Guard has taken two key actions to improve the vessels’ condition: reorganizing its maintenance command structure and implementing sustainment initiatives for portions of its legacy vessel fleet. The Coast Guard’s primary measure of a vessel’s condition is the operational percent of time free of major casualties (a major casualty is a deficiency in mission essential equipment that causes the major degradation or loss of a primary mission). This measure shows that the 378-foot high endurance cutters (HEC), the 210-foot and 270-foot medium endurance cutters (MEC), and 110-foot patrol boats generally remained well below target levels from fiscal years 2005 through 2011. To improve the condition of the vessel fleet, in 2009, the Coast Guard reorganized its maintenance command structure to focus on standardization of practices, and reported it was on schedule to complete sustainment initiatives by fiscal year 2014, which are intended to improve vessel operating and cost performance."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Federal dollars obligated to tribal 8(a) firms grew from $2.1 billion in fiscal year 2005 to $5.5 billion in 2010, a greater percentage increase than non-tribal 8(a) obligations (160 percent versus 45 percent). Obligations to 8(a) firms owned by Alaska Native Corporations (ANC) represented the majority of tribal obligationsevery year during the period, rising to $4.7 billion in 2010. While tribal 8(a) firms comprised 6.2 percent of total 8(a) firms, their obligations accounted for almost a third of total 8(a) obligations in fiscal year 2010. Over the 6 years, the percentage of competitively awarded obligations to tribal 8(a) firms rose; however, solesource contracts remained the primary source of growth, representing at least 75 percent of all tribal 8(a) obligations in a given year."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Air Force has not fully implemented the recommendations from GAO’s 2009 report. With regard to GAO’s recommendation that the military services should formally assign ASA duties to the units that consistently conduct them and ensure that the readiness of those units is fully assessed, the Air Force did so. However, the National Guard Bureau is considering reversing that action because it believes that the recommendation can be better addressed through the Air Force’s standard deployment process. The Air Force has also not established a timetable to implement ASA as a steady-state mission; has not developed and implemented a plan to recapitalize the aging fighter aircraft that conduct ASA operations before the end of their service lives; and, when ASA units are deployed to support other ongoing operations, the Air Force continues to identify replacement units to perform the ASA mission on an ad hoc basis. All of the above were related to recommendations GAO made to the Air Force in its 2009 report. Separately, GAO found considerable confusion about the capabilities associated with ASA operations in part because, in September 2011, NORAD stopped using the …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Rural Housing Service (RHS) has identified improper rental assistance payments caused by certain sources of errors, but its reported error rate (total amount improperly paid divided by program outlays) may understate the magnitude of the problem. RHS has identified improper payments resulting from inaccurate calculations of tenant subsidies and incomplete supporting documents. From fiscal years 2007 through 2010, RHS reduced its reported error rate from 3.95 percent (representing $35 million in errors) to 1.48 percent (representing $15 million in errors). However, these figures may be understated because RHS has not estimated improper payments due to unreported tenant income, and it lacks the authority to match tenant data to federal income data for this purpose. These data include the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) New Hires database and the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) data on benefits payments. RHS has proposed legislation to gain access to the HHS data but not the SSA data. Additionally, RHS has not recently estimated payment processing errors and has not strictly adhered to procedures for classifying payments as improper. Further, in 2008, RHS began excluding improper payments of less …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In fiscal year 2010, 117,000 individuals received concurrent cash benefit payments from the Disability Insurance (DI) and Unemployment Insurance (UI) programs of more than $850 million, which is allowable in certain circumstances under current program authority. While these individuals represented less than 1 percent of the total beneficiaries of both programs, the cash benefits they received totaled over $281 million from DI and more than $575 million from UI. One individual GAO selected for further investigation received over $62,000 in overlapping benefits in a year. Based on GAO inquiries, state UI officials are reviewing the person’s UI eligibility because of earnings that may be related to work that makes the person ineligible for UI benefits."

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

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "FDA has not taken sufficient steps to ensure that antibiotic labels contain up-to-date breakpoints. FDA designates certain drugs as “reference-listed drugs” and the sponsors of these drugs play an important role in ensuring the accuracy of drug labels. Reference-listed drugs are approved drug products to which generic versions are compared. As of November 2011, FDA had not yet confirmed whether the breakpoints on the majority of reference-listed antibiotics labels were up to date. FDA contacted sponsors of 210 antibiotics in early 2008 to remind sponsors of the importance of maintaining their labels and requested that they assess whether the breakpoints on their drugs’ labels were up to date. Sponsors were asked to submit evidence to FDA showing that the breakpoints were either current or needed revision. As of November 2011, over 3.5 years after FDA contacted sponsors, the agency had not yet confirmed whether the breakpoints on the labels of 70 percent, or 146 of the 210 antibiotics, were up to date. FDA has not ensured that sponsors have fulfilled the responsibilities outlined in the early 2008 letters. For those submissions FDA has received, it has …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of State’s (State) Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC), the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have evaluated a wide variety of President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program activities, demonstrating a clear commitment to evaluation. However, GAO found that the findings, conclusions, and recommendations were not fully supported in many PEPFAR evaluations. Agency officials provided nearly 500 evaluations addressing activities ongoing in fiscal years 2008 through 2010 in all program areas relating to HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention, and care. GAO’s assessment of a selected sample of seven OGAC-managed evaluations found that they generally adhered to common evaluation standards, as did most of a selected sample of 15 evaluations managed by CDC and USAID headquarters. Based on this assessment, GAO determined that these evaluations generally contained fully supported findings, conclusions, and recommendations. However, based on a similar assessment of a randomly selected sample taken from 436 evaluations provided by PEPFAR country and regional teams, GAO estimated that 41 percent contained fully supported findings, conclusions, and recommendations, …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In summary, this report provides information on the incidence of treatment exclusions for MH/SU for the 2011 or 2010 plan year and the 2008 plan year for employers that responded to our survey. In total, for the 2011 or 2010 plan year, of the 96 employers that responded to our question about whether their most popular plan excluded coverage for any specific treatments related to MH/SU, 39 employers reported excluding a treatment. In comparison, for the 2008 plan year, of the 81 employers that responded to our question about whether their most popular excluded coverage for any specific treatments related to MH/SU, 27 employers reported excluding a treatment."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The fundamental objectives of U.S. nuclear deterrence policy have remained largely consistent since 1991, even as the threat environment and the size of the nuclear weapons stockpile have changed. The current process for developing nuclear targeting and employment guidance has remained consistent. However, the structure of the nuclear war plan, and the categories and number of targets in the plan, have changed. DOD continues to exercise civilian oversight of the targeting process. The indirect relationship between the targeting process and DOD’s determination of requirements for nuclear weapons and delivery systems also continues."

Guidance issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins ""

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has conducted about 2,800 security surveys and vulnerability assessments on critical infrastructure and key resources (CIKR). DHS directs its protective security advisors to contact owners and operators of high-priority CIKR to offer to conduct surveys and assessments. However, DHS is not positioned to track the extent to which these are performed at high-priority CIKR because of inconsistencies between the databases used to identify these assets and those used to identify surveys and assessments conducted. GAO compared the two databases and found that of the 2,195 security surveys and 655 vulnerability assessments conducted for fiscal years 2009 through 2011, 135 surveys and 44 assessments matched and another 106 surveys and 23 assessments were potential matches for high-priority facilities. GAO could not match additional high-priority facilities because of inconsistencies in the way data were recorded in the two databases, for example, assets with the same company name had different addresses or an asset at one address had different names. DHS officials acknowledged that the data did not match and have begun to take actions to improve the collection and organization of the …

This report investigated the use of two-dimensional (2D) modeling strategy to predict channel adjustment in the lower San Antonio River in response to a range of flood magnitudes.

This report looks at the cost to fund the Coast Guard's program of record's (POR) call for procuring eight National Security Cutters (NSCs), 25 Offshore Patrol Cutters (OPCs), and 58 Fast Response Cutters (FRCs) as replacements for 90 aging Coast Guard cutters and patrol craft. It also addresses issues for maintenance, future acquisition, and definitions of the types of cutters.

This report covers the background of the Organization of American States (OAS). It discusses the importance of U.S. participation in this organization in order to exert authority and shape outcomes in the Western Hemisphere.

This report covers potential oversight issues for Congress in regard to China's military modernization effort. The following topics are discussed: whether the U.S. Navy in coming years will be large enough to adequately counter improved Chinese maritime anti-access forces while also adequately performing other missions of interest to U.S. policymakers around the world; the Navy's ability to counter Chinese ASBMs and submarines; and whether the Navy, in response to China's maritime anti-access capabilities, should shift over time to a more distributed fleet architecture.

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: Whether a local election under section 1502.055, Government Code, is required before a municipality may sell its sewage collection system and treatment plant to a river authority: Possible conflict with chapter 30, Water Code.

This report provides a brief overview of the climate change, power plant, and air quality standard issues, as well as information o other Clean Air Act issues that the 112th Congress addressed.

This report provides A Brief Review of Provisions in District of Columbia Appropriations Acts Restricting the Funding of Abortion Services in the District of Columbia.

The report summarizes research to Quantify the Value of Hydropower in the Electric Grid. This 3-year DOE study focused on defining value of hydropower assets in a changing electric grid. Methods are described for valuation and planning of pumped storage and conventional hydropower. The project team conducted plant case studies, electric system modeling, market analysis, cost data gathering, and evaluations of operating strategies and constraints. Five other reports detailing these research results are available a project website, www.epri.com/hydrogrid. With increasing deployment of wind and solar renewable generation, many owners, operators, and developers of hydropower have recognized the opportunity to provide more flexibility and ancillary services to the electric grid. To quantify value of services, this study focused on the Western Electric Coordinating Council region. A security-constrained, unit commitment and economic dispatch model was used to quantify the role of hydropower for several future energy scenarios up to 2020. This hourly production simulation considered transmission requirements to deliver energy, including future expansion plans. Both energy and ancillary service values were considered. Addressing specifically the quantification of pumped storage value, no single value stream dominated predicted plant contributions in various energy futures. Modeling confirmed that service value depends greatly on location and …

This project investigated solar variability, power conversion and electric power grid response aspects of high penetration solar PV. These are the primary determining factors for acceptable penetration levels. Therefore, the study not only focused on the power system interactions, but also on the design of advanced power conditioners to explore more efficient design options and to look into advanced control impacts to the higher penetration PV deployment systems. Through extensive laboratory and field testing, the team gathered the essential information to better understand grid characteristics, PV systems configuration and power conditioning systems.

Grand Rapids, Michigan is striving to reduce it environmental footprint. The municipal government organization has established environmental sustainability policies with the goal of securing 100% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. This report describes the process by which the City of Grand Rapids evaluated, selected and installed solar panels on the Water/Environmental Services Building. The solar panels are the first to be placed on a municipal building. Its new power monitoring system provides output data to assess energy efficiency and utilization. It is expected to generate enough clean solar energy to power 25 percent of the building. The benefit to the public includes the economic savings from reduced operational costs for the building; an improved environmentally sustainable area in which to live and work; and increased knowledge about the use of solar energy. It will serve as a model for future energy saving applications.