A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed events related to personnel reassignments, appointments, and activities at the Small Business Administration (SBA)."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the total acquisition costs of the Air Force's B-2A bomber program through completion of the production program, focusing on the: (1) deficiencies in achieving B-2A operational requirements; and (2) status of acquisition costs."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed four areas related to the Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) use of personally identifiable health information, focusing on: (1) HCFA's need for personally identifiable health information to manage the Medicare program and accomplish other purposes; (2) HCFA's policies and practices regarding disclosure of information on Medicare beneficiaries; (3) the adequacy of HCFA's safeguards for protecting the confidentiality of electronic information and HCFA's monitoring of others' protection of beneficiary information; and (4) the effect on HCFA of state restrictions on the disclosure of confidential health information."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO provided information on the impact of federal requirements on local school districts, focusing on how some states may not be fully implementing the provisions of federal law that allow local school districts to submit consolidated plans for federal funding."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed federal programs created to address the needs of at-risk and delinquent youths, focusing on: (1) identifying at-risk and delinquent youth programs that included mentoring as a type of service; (2) who administers the programs; (3) the objectives of the programs; and (4) the authorizing legislation for the programs."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) information management systems, focusing on: (1) recent initiatives designed to help EPA improve the accuracy, completeness, and compatibility of its data; (2) the impact of data gaps and inconsistencies on EPA's ability to evaluate and report on the results of its programs under the Government Performance and Results Act; and (3) the major management challenges facing EPA's new central information office."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the: (1) distribution of Medicare home health agencies' (HHA) closures across urban and rural counties and the characteristics of closed agencies; and (2) effect of closures on beneficiary access to home health services."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO examined the type and extent of consumer education that occurred since the revised children's sleepwear safety standard went into effect in January 1997, focusing on three voluntary point-of-sale practices that the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and others recognize as important for informing consumers about the new standard."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Department of Transportation's (DOT) proposed policy concerning aviation competition, focusing on: (1) why DOT developed the proposed policy; (2) what process DOT used to develop the proposed policy; and (3) whether the proposed policy addresses the specific problems that led DOT to issue it."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the experiences of foreign countries that are consolidating their food safety responsibilities, focusing on the: (1) reasons for and approaches taken to consolidation, the costs and savings, if any, associated with consolidation, and efforts to assess the effectiveness of the revised food safety systems; and (2) lessons that the United States might learn from these countries' experiences in consolidating their food safety functions."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined several issues related to the Department of Defense's (DOD) administration of its animal research programs, focusing on: (1) the extent to which DOD's research using animals addresses validated military objectives, does not unnecessarily duplicate work done elsewhere, and incorporates methods to reduce, replace, and refine the use of animals; and (2) problems with the accuracy of information in the Biomedical Research Database (BRD)."

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 States Olympic Committee for the year ended December 31, 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 Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) use of funds for its brownfield-related initiatives, focusing on the: (1) amount of funds that EPA actually obligated in fiscal years (FY) 1997-1999; (2) amount it plans to obligate in FY 2000; and (3) number of grants and agreements that EPA awarded or plans to award with these funds, along with the recipients of these awards."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of the Treasury's fiscal year (FY) 2000 performance plan that was submitted to Congress as required by the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, focusing on the: (1) usefulness of the agency's plan for decisionmaking; and (2) degree of improvement the agency's FY 2000 performance plan represents over the FY 1999 plan."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the dispute between the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the industrial laundry industry regarding EPA's cost benefit analyses of its proposed pretreatment standards, focusing on: (1) EPA's implementation of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (UMRA); (2) the significant differences between EPA's and the industry's cost estimates of this proposed regulation; (3) ascertaining how EPA estimated the benefits of the proposed rule and disclosed the uncertainties associated with the accuracy of its estimates; and (4) how EPA's analysis supports its belief that the agency has chosen the least costly, most cost-effective, or least burdensome regulatory alternative."

A staff study issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO provided information on the three components needed to ensure compliance with international environmental agreements."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the status of the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) efforts to implement the mutual recognition agreement (MRA) between the United States and the European Union."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on three selected research and development initiatives using the plasma arc technology to treat waste, focusing on comparing the characteristics of the largest of the Department of Energy (DOE) initiatives and both Navy shore and ship initiatives."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on: (1) the Department of Justice's (DOJ) implementation of its False Claims Act guidance; and (2) DOJ's U.S. Attorneys' Offices' involvement in DOJ's national health care initiatives."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the fiscal year (FY) 2000 performance plan for the Department of Education, focusing on: (1) assessing the usefulness of the agency's plan for decisionmaking; and (2) identifying the degree of improvement the agency's FY 2000 performance plan represents over its FY 1999 plan."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Department of Defense's (DOD) relief efforts in Central America in the wake of Hurricane Mitch."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on federally funded fishery buyback programs, focusing on the: (1) number, objectives, and key features of federally funded buyback programs since 1976; (2) costs, sources of funds, and results of these programs; and (3) key features and estimated costs of proposed federally funded buyback programs."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the funding requirements for the technical assistance that the Natural Resources Conservation Service provides to the Conservation Reserve Program, focusing on: (1) the nature and costs of the Conservation Service's technical assistance; (2) the reasons the Conservation Service suspended its technical assistance for the program; (3) budgetary authorities and other statutory requirements that constrain the Conservation Service's performance of technical assistance for the program; and (4) the potential to use contractors to provide this assistance in lieu of the Conservation Service."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Defense Security Cooperation Agency's (DSCA) decision to lower the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program's administrative fee from 3 percent to 2.5 percent, focusing on how the: (1) FMS program recovers its costs, as required by the Arms Export Control Act; and (2) projected sales levels made through the program will affect cost recovery in the future."