Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the United Service Organizations, Incorporated, for the years ended December 31, 1996 and 1997, focusing on whether the audit report complied with the financial reporting requirements of the law."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Homeowners Protection Act of 1998, focusing on the: (1) act's cancellation and termination provisions for private mortgage insurance; (2) act's high-risk provisions; (3) effect high-risk provisions would have on mortgage lenders; and (4) number and characteristics of residential mortgage loans that are considered high risk and are therefore excluded from the routine cancellation and termination provisions."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS) new rule on migratory bird hunting regulations on certain federal Indian reservations and ceded lands for the 1999-2000 early season. GAO noted that: (1) the rule would prescribe special early-season hunting regulations for certain tribes on federal Indian reservations, off-reservation trust lands, and ceded lands; and (2) FWS complied with applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO performed procedures to assist the House Committee on International Relations in evaluating the extent to which five House interparliamentary groups' financial records appropriately reflected their cash receipts and disbursements and fund balance for the years ended December 31, 1997 and 1998."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO followed up on the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) efforts to implement GAO's recommendations addressing FDA's property control weaknesses."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO compared airlines' contracts of carriage with the Air Transport Association's (ATA) Customer Service Commitment."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on quality management in the federal government, focusing on: (1) whether a vigorous quality management program should be implemented in addition to the strategic planning framework mandated by the Government Performance and Results Act; (2) whether the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has the necessary resources and institutional knowledge to implement a quality management initiative; (3) whether the National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR) initiative should be located in an agency like OMB; (4) whether there were other quality management programs that were initiated by previous administrations; (5) how information in agency strategic plans, annual performance plans, and performance reports can be used to identify and facilitate improvements in the quality processes; (6) whether agencies can successfully integrate total quality management and the Results Act to address management problems; (7) how Congress can best use agencies' strategic and performance plans to identify the degree to which agencies have implemented quality management; and (8) how the Results Act provides for employee involvement."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Coast Guard's major administrative and support functions, focusing on: (1) areas of possible budget savings; and (2) if additional opportunities for cost savings exist."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the challenges facing the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) Office of the Taxpayer Advocate, focusing on IRS' need to: (1) address complex staffing and operational issues within the Advocate's Office; (2) strengthen efforts within the Advocate's Office to determine the causes of taxpayer problems; and (3) develop performance measures that the National Taxpayer Advocate needs to manage operations and measure effectiveness."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Department of Defense's (DOD) monitoring of health care claims processing activities, focusing on: (1) GAO's preliminary findings on claims processing timeliness and accuracy; and (2) the effectiveness of a commercially available software program to edit TRICARE claims."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS) new rule on early-season migratory bird hunting. GAO noted that: (1) the rule would establish the early-seasons frameworks from which states, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands may select dates and other options available to them for the 1999-2000 migratory bird hunting season; and (2) FWS complied with applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the effect of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (BBA) on the Medicare Fee-for-Service Program, focusing on the: (1) payment reforms for providers under the fee-for-service portion of the program; and (2) changes made to skilled nursing facility (SNF) and home health agency (HHA) payment policies."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the barriers and opportunities for generating revenue on lands managed by the Forest Service."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed minorities and Social Security, focusing on: (1) how minorities currently fare under social security; (2) how they might be affected by some of the proposed changes in benefits to restore the program's solvency; and (3) how minorities might fare under a system restructured to include individual accounts."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the management of health care assets within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the year 2000 compliance status of biomedical equipment, focusing on: (1) the status of the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Federal Year 2000 Biomedical Equipment Clearinghouse; (2) compliance status information on manufacturers' web sites referred to in FDA's clearinghouse; (3) FDA's efforts to address GAO's recommendation to obtain and review the test results supporting manufacturers' compliance certifications for critical care/life support medical devices; and (4) information on the biomedical equipment compliance status of health care providers."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Department of Defense's (DOD) $1.3 billion pharmacy programs and efforts under way to redesign DOD's pharmacy benefit."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed airport funding issues, focusing on: (1) the amount airports are spending on capital development and the sources of those funds; (2) comparing airports' plans for development with current funding levels; and (3) what effect will various proposals to increase or make better use of existing funding have on airports' ability to fulfill their capital development plans."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the President's recent proposal for addressing Medicare and use of the projected budget surpluses over the next 15 years, focusing on: (1) the overall fiscal consequences of the proposal; (2) what it does and does not do for the Medicare Program; and (3) the importance of and difficulty in making fundamental changes to the program."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the major challenges faced by the government in improving its performance and strengthening accountability, focusing on agencies' need to: (1) adopt an effective results orientation; (2) improve the use of information technology to achieve results; (3) strengthen financial management decision-making and accountability; and (4) build, maintain, and marshal the human capital needed to achieve results."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed computer security weaknesses within 22 federal agencies' operations."

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, Jim Mattox, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Authority of the Spencer Road Public Utility District to buy land for a public park (RQ-1814)

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, Jim Mattox, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a community justice council created pursuant to article 42.13, Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, is subject to the Open Meetings Act, V. T. C. S. art. 6252-17 (RQ-1879)

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, Jim Mattox, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Authority of a local governmental body to pay for an item purchased under contract executed prior to the effective date of section 140.003 of the Local Government Code (RQ-2017)