Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on how five states budget for uncertainty, focusing on: (1) state criteria designed to control the use of reserve emergency funds; (2) how state criteria compared with criteria being proposed at the federal level; (3) how states determined whether the criteria have been met; (4) whether state criteria contain any escape clauses; and (5) whether states' criteria are useful in controlling costs."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO determined the source of information states used to derive both the fiscal year (FY) 1998 and the base numbers of finalized foster care adoptions, and identified factors that contributed to the increases in foster care adoptions in 5 states--Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, and Texas."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Military Traffic Management Command's (MTMC) first interim progress report on the Department of Defense's demonstration program (MTMC pilot) to improve personal property shipments of the armed forces, focusing on MTMC's plan for evaluating the: (1) pilot results; and (2) proposed industry alternative called the Commercial-Like Activities for Superior Quality (CLASS) proposal."

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 Retired Enlisted Association, Incorporated, for the fiscal years ended December 31, 1995, 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 congressional request, GAO provided information on the Postal Service's Preliminary Performance Plan for fiscal year (FY) 2000."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on whether the greater discretion allowed to banks as opposed to securities broker/dealers under accounting standards and practices may have resulted in less transparency in the value of asset-backed securities held by banks, focusing on: (1) mortgage-backed securities (MBS); (2) the accounting treatment applied to securities (including MBS) held by banks and broker/dealers; and (3) the accounting for securities holdings by the six largest bank holding companies and whether such holdings might have affected the transparency of financial statements."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) new rule on the average fuel economy standards for light trucks. GAO noted that: (1) NHTSA interprets section 322 of the Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for fiscal year 1999 as requiring it to prescribe the same light truck corporate average fuel economy standard for model year 2001 that applies to model year 2000; (2) accordingly, the rule continues the 20.7 miles per gallon standard for 2001; (3) this is the same interpretation NHTSA has applied for the three preceding model years and Congress has continued to insert the same language in the yearly Appropriations Acts and has not objected to NHTSA's interpretation; and (4) NHTSA complied with the applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

A statement of record issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed S.746, the Regulatory Improvement Act of 1999, focusing on: (1) the effectiveness of previous regulatory reform initiatives; (2) agencies' cost-benefit analysis practices and the trigger for the analytical requirements; (3) peer review of agencies' regulatory analyses; and (4) the transparency of the regulatory development and review process."

A statement of record issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) information management initiatives, focusing on the: (1) status of EPA's efforts to create a central office responsible for information management, policy, and technology issues; and (2) major challenges that the new office needs to address to achieve success in collecting, using, and disseminating environmental information."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the number of Haitian nationals who have applied and been approved for adjustment of their status to legal permanent residence."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the challenges facing the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) in addressing the year 2000 problem."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided suggestions for improving internal controls and operations at the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC). The suggestions are provided by KPMG LLP, an independent public accounting firm GAO contracted with to conduct the audit of ABMC's consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ended September 30, 1998. GAO concurs with KPMG's suggestions."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the General Services Administration (GSA) and the Department of Defense (DOD) personal property programs."

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 Reserve Officers Association of the United States for the fiscal year ended March 31, 1998, 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 congressional request, GAO reviewed the audit report covering the financial statements of the National Ski Patrol System, Incorporated, for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1998, focusing on whether the audit report complied with the financial reporting requirements of the law."

A staff study issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO presented a compendium of fiscal year (FY) 2000 budget accounts to give users a convenient way to: (1) sort through the fiscal structure of the federal government; and (2) determine the level of budgetary resources--used, estimated, or requested by fiscal year--for individual accounts."

A statement of record issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the challenges facing the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in transforming health care, focusing on: (1) VA's transformation progress to date; (2) challenges that remain to be confronted; and (3) the implications for VA's fiscal year (FY) 2000 budget."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided an interpretation of certain parts of Title 7 of its Policy and Procedures Manual for Guidance of Federal Agencies, focusing on whether it is acceptable: (1) for disbursing officers to authorize payment without reviewing evidence transmitted directly by an authorized employee attesting to the receipt and acceptance of goods and services; (2) for disbursing officers to authorize payment after reviewing the vendor's invoice and vendor maintained delivery data without first reviewing evidence of receipt and acceptance by a government official; and (3) to verify receipt and acceptance after payment authorization based on review of a statistically selected sample of invoices in lieu of conducting prepayment verification. GAO noted that the Department of Defense's (DOD) Inspector General (IG) requested clarification of GAO's guidance because it was reviewing the propriety of the process used to authorize payments for certain fuel purchases."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on how the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) distributed its fiscal year (FY) 1999 Science and Technology funds among specific objectives in its FY 2000 budget request."

A statement of record issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO discussed the status of the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board's: (1) investigations and recommendations; (2) pay structure and use of staff; and (3) contracting activities."

A statement of record issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) information management initiatives, focusing on the: (1) status of EPA's efforts to create a central office responsible for information management, policy, and technology issues; and (2) major challenges that the new office needs to address in order to achieve success in collecting, using, and disseminating environmental information."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the free admission policy of the National Gallery of Art and its contract for the distribution of tickets for major exhibitions held at the Gallery."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the government's best-value awards to contractors other than those submitting the lowest-priced offers."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Social Security Administration's (SSA) new rule on Old-age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance and Supplemental Social Security Income for the aged, blind, and disabled. GAO noted that: (1) the rule would revise the monthly earnings guidelines for determining when earnings demonstrate the ability to engage in substantial gainful activity (SGA); (2) specifically, the final rule raises from $500 to $700 the average monthly earnings guidelines used to determine whether work done by persons with impairments other than blindness is SGA; and (3) SSA complied with the applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."