Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Commerce's U.S. Census Bureau (Bureau) seeks updated information on the addresses and maps of housing units from state, local, and tribal governments through the Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA) program. This testimony discusses (1) the status of the LUCA program, and (2) the Bureau's response to prior issues raised by GAO as well as new challenges related to the program. The testimony is based on a GAO report issued on June 14, 2007. GAO reviewed LUCA program documents, met with and surveyed participants in the LUCA Dress Rehearsal, and interviewed Bureau officials and local officials."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "For the 2010 Census, the U.S. Census Bureau (Bureau) faces the daunting challenge of cost-effectively counting a population that is growing steadily larger, more diverse, increasingly difficult to find, and more reluctant to participate in the decennial census. Managing its human capital, maintaining community partnerships, and developing advertising strategies to increase response rates for the decennial census are several ways that the Bureau can complete the 2010 Census accurately and within budget. This testimony, based primarily on past GAO work, provides information on (1) diversity in the Bureau's workforce, (2) plans for partnering with others in an effort to build public awareness of the census; and (3) certain requirements for ensuring contracting opportunities for small businesses."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) downsized its acquisition workforce by half in the past decade. It now faces serious imbalances in the skills and experience of its remaining workforce and the potential loss of highly specialized knowledge if many of its acquisition specialists retire. DOD created the Acquisition 2005 Task Force to study its civilian acquisition workforce and develop a strategy to replenish personnel losses. In response to a legislative mandate, DOD reported on its plans to implement the task force's recommendations as required by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002. DOD's report shows that it has made progress in reshaping its acquisition workforce. For example, DOD is working to remove barriers to its strategic planning initiative; continuing to test various human capital innovations; and has begun making significant changes to its acquisition workforce-training program. DOD's report provides information on implementation of the task force's recommendations and their status. However, for many initiatives, DOD did not clearly describe the actions taken or when they occurred, nor did it identify all planned actions and schedules for completing the initiatives."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Advanced Technology Program (ATP) supports research that accelerates the development of high-risk technologies with the potential for broad-based economic benefits for the nation. Under the program, administrators at the National Institute of Standards and Technology are to ensure that they do not fund research that would be conducted in the same period without ATP funding. Between 1990 and September 2004, ATP funded 768 projects at a cost of about $2.3 billion. There is a continuing debate over whether the private sector has sufficient incentives to undertake research on high-risk, high-payoff emerging technologies without government support, such as ATP. This testimony discusses the results of GAO's April 2000 report, Advanced Technology Program: Inherent Factors in the Selection Process Could Limit Identification of Similar Research (GAO/RCED-00-114) and provides updated information. GAO determined (1) whether ATP had funded projects with research goals that were similar to projects funded by the private sector and (2) if ATP did, whether its award selection process ensures that such research would not be funded in the future."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has been unable to collect hundreds of millions of dollars in antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duties. The Department of Commerce imposes these duties to remedy injurious unfair foreign trade practices (unfairly low prices or subsidies). The noncollection of AD/CV duties means that the U.S. government has not fully remedied the unfair trade practices and bears a substantial loss of revenue. GAO was asked to examine the (1) nature and extent of uncollected AD/CV duties, (2) factors contributing to uncollected AD/CV duties and steps taken to address these factors, and (3) options for aiding duty collections. To analyze these issues, GAO reviewed CBP data for fiscal years 2001 through 2007, agency documents and reports, and interviewed government officials and private sector representatives"

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO assisted the Department of Transportation determine whether the net excise tax revenue distributed to the Airport and Airway Trust Fund (AATF) for fiscal year 2000 was supported by the underlying records. GAO agreed to (1) perform detailed tests of transactions that represent the underlying basis of amounts distributed to AATF, (2) review the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) quarterly AATF certifications, (3) review the Department of the Treasury Financial Management Service adjustments to AATF for FY 2000, (4) review the Office of Tax Analysis process for estimating amounts to be distributed to AATF for the fourth quarter of FY 2000, (5) compare net excise tax distributions to AATF during FY 2000 and amounts reported in the financial statements prepared by the Bureau of the Public Debt for AATF and the Federal Aviation Administration's consolidated financial statements, and (6) review key reconciliations of IRS records to Treasury records."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO performed procedures to determine whether the net federal unemployment tax revenue distributed to the Unemployment Trust Fund for fiscal year 2000 is supported by the underlying records. The procedures GAO agreed to perform include (1) detailed tests of transactions that represent the underlying basis of amounts distributed to the UTF and (2) a review of key reconciliations of the Internal Revenue Service records to those of the Department of the Treasury."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO assisted the Department of Transportation determine whether the net excise tax revenue distributed to the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) for the fiscal year 2000 was supported by the underlying records. GAO agreed to (1) perform detailed tests of transactions that represent the underlying basis of amounts distributed to HTF, (2) review the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) quarterly HTF certifications, (3) review the Financial Management Service adjustments to HTF for FY 2000, (4) review the Office of Tax Analysis process for estimating amounts to be distributed to HTF for the fourth quarter of FY 2000, (5) compare net excise tax distributions to the HTF during FY 2000 and amounts reported in the financial statements prepared by the Bureau of Public Debt for HTF and HTF's financial statements, and (6) review key reconciliations of IRS records to Treasury records."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has authority to approve air carrier requests to deploy less-than-lethal weapons, including electric stun devices, onboard commercial aircraft to thwart an attack. Since the terrorist attacks of 2001, one air carrier received approval to deploy electric stun devices. To address concerns regarding reports of injuries after the use of these devices and to ensure that the impacts of these devices onboard aircraft have been fully evaluated, this report answers the following: (1) What analyses has the federal government conducted to assess the safety and effectiveness of these devices onboard commercial aircraft? (2) What controls does TSA have in place to help ensure uniform and timely review of air carrier requests to deploy these devices onboard commercial aircraft?"

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The National Weather Service (NWS), an agency under the Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), provides staff on-site at each of the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) en route centers--the facilities that control high-altitude flight outside the airport tower and terminal areas. This group of NWS meteorologists provides air traffic managers with forecasts and briefings on regional conditions such as turbulence and icing. Over the last few years, FAA has been exploring options for enhancing the efficiency of the aviation weather services provided by these NWS meteorologists. In late December 2007, FAA delivered revised requirements and associated performance measures to NWS to improve these services. GAO was asked to summarize key segments of its report being released today, including its assessment of NWS and FAA efforts to ensure the quality of aviation weather services at en route centers, and its recommendations to improve these efforts. In addition, GAO was asked to provide an update on FAA's recent efforts to establish aviation weather requirements and performance measures, and NWS's plans for responding to these requirements. To do so, GAO summarized segments of its report, reviewed FAA's recently …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Financial relationships between individual investigators or their research institutions and private industry have yielded significant results, including treatments for such diseases as AIDS and strokes. However, some collaborations have raised concerns that the focus on financial reward might compromise the integrity of the research and the safety of human research subjects. GAO reviewed five universities with broad policies and procedures on financial conflicts of interest. All five had difficulty providing basic data on individual investigators' financial conflicts of interest in clinical research involving human subjects. The universities acknowledged a need for better coordination of information on investigators' financial relationships, and several universities were developing ways to do so. Policies and procedures at the five universities addressed financial conflicts of interest affecting institutions, including technology transfer activities and financial relationships with small start-up companies that market products developed by the universities. The Department of Health and Human Services has had limited success in promoting the integrity of biomedical research and protecting human subjects. HHS has taken steps to improve its oversight and monitoring and has drafted guidance on financial conflicts of interest, but this guidance does not …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report identifies civilian nondefense agency capital projects with estimated costs of $175.6 billion, based on agency budget justifications and other data. Costs for incrementally funded and high technology civilian projects are estimated at $154.7 billion. Of this amount, $78.5 billion in budget authority has been provided through fiscal year 2000, leaving $76.2 billion of budget authority still required after fiscal year 2000 to complete these projects, a requirement that constitutes a claim on discretionary spending in future years. About half of the $154.7 billion is for high technology projects. Because some capital projects have unknown funding requirements beyond the fiscal year 2001 request, the remaining budget authority needed to complete all projects exceeds the $76.2 billion identified and assumes no further cost growth. This budget authority relates only to civilian projects. Department of Defense spending for capital acquisitions is generally fully funded; its fiscal year 1999 capital spending totaled almost $53 billion. If the Navy shipbuilding and conversion account were to be moved from full to incremental funding for a given period of time, this would not allow the Navy to procure more ships for a given …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO updated its long-term economic model using the latest economic and budget assumptions from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Twenty-one percent of grant-eligible applicants who did not use the District of Columbia's tuition assistance grant (TAG) funding to attend a participating college or university may have encountered such barriers as college entrance requirements and the absence of minority outreach programs. Whether enrollment caps at colleges posed a barrier for applicants is unclear. In the program's first year, 516 of the nearly 2,500 eligible applicants did not use the grants. About 21 percent of the institutions in which applicants expressed interest restrict the number of out-of-state students that they will accept, although the extent to which this played a role in limiting access to these institutions is unclear. Enrollment at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) changed little during the TAG program's first year. The TAG program and UDC appeared to serve different freshmen populations, which may account for the TAG program's minimal impact on UDC enrollment. Although concerns about TAG program administration were largely resolved with the revision of program regulations in December 2000, other administrative issues may hinder program operations, including the determination of applicant eligibility and the distribution of information on …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony reviews the Department of Defense's (DOD) handling of appropriated funds from expired appropriation accounts. In 1990, Congress changed the law governing the use of appropriation accounts because it concluded that controls over them were not working. Without adequate controls, Congress was concerned that agencies could disburse money in amounts and for purposes that it had not approved. GAO found that DOD improperly charged appropriation accounts after they were closed. GAO also found that DOD did not establish the requisite systems, controls, and managerial attention required to properly account for its disbursements consistent with the 1990 account closing law, and as a result, DOD made at least $615 million of illegal or otherwise improper adjustments during fiscal year 2000 alone. DOD was aware of the limitations the account closing law placed on the availability of canceled appropriations and that the law was enacted because of previous abuses by DOD's use of old appropriations. DOD also knew that a major system used to control its use of appropriations allowed for disbursements to be charged in a way that was inconsistent with the law. However, DOD did nothing to …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report reviews the Department of Defense's (DOD) handling of appropriated funds from expired appropriation accounts. In 1990, Congress changed the law governing the use of appropriation accounts because it concluded that controls over them were not working. Without adequate controls, Congress was concerned that agencies could disburse money in amounts and for purposes that it had not approved. GAO found that DOD improperly charged appropriation accounts after they were closed. GAO also found that DOD did not establish the requisite systems, controls, and managerial attention required to properly account for its disbursements consistent with the 1990 account closing law. As a result, DOD made at least $615 million of illegal or otherwise improper adjustments during fiscal year 2000 alone. DOD was aware of the limitations the account closing law placed on the availability of canceled appropriations and that the law was enacted because of previous abuses by DOD. DOD also knew that a major system used to control its use of appropriations allowed for disbursements to be charged in a way that was inconsistent with the law. However, DOD did nothing to fix the system, …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. stockpile of 1,269 tons of VX nerve agent stored at the Newport Chemical Depot (Newport), Indiana, is one of nine stockpiles that the Department of Defense (DOD) must destroy in response to congressional direction initially provided in 1985. In addition, the stockpile must be destroyed to comply with the requirements of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which the United States became a party to in 1997. The stockpile at Newport is the first U.S. stockpile containing VX that will be destroyed by using neutralization--a process that mixes hot water and sodium hydroxide (a caustic chemical) with VX to change the chemical composition to a less toxic form. The resulting by-product is a liquid wastewater commonly referred to as hydrolysate that consists mostly of water but also has a caustic component and organic salts that need further treatment to meet Chemical Weapons Convention requirements and to meet federal and state environmental requirements for disposal. The Army, DOD's designated executive agent, began neutralizing Newport's VX stockpile on-site in May 2005 and, as of December 1, 2006, reports neutralizing about 34 percent of the stockpile. None of the generated hydrolysate--expected …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Congress passed the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) in 1976, authorizing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to obtain information on the risks of industrial chemicals and to control those that EPA determines pose an unreasonable risk. However, EPA does not have sufficient chemical assessment information to determine whether it should establish controls to limit public exposure to many chemicals that may pose substantial health risks. In reports on TSCA, GAO has recommended statutory changes to, among other things, provide EPA with additional authorities to obtain health and safety information from the chemical industry and to shift more of the burden to chemical companies for demonstrating the safety of their chemicals. The most important recommendations aimed at providing EPA with the information needed to support its assessments of industrial chemicals have not been implemented--a key factor leading GAO in January 2009 to add transforming EPA's process for assessing and controlling toxic chemicals to its list of high-risk areas warranting attention by Congress and the executive branch. This testimony, which is based on prior GAO work, addresses EPA's implementation of TSCA and options for (1) obtaining information on the risks …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "To increase child support collections, Congress has considered proposals to improve the ability of private firms to gather information to help locate noncustodial parents and enforce the payment of child support. At the end of fiscal year 2000, the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) indicated that $89 billion in child support was owed but unpaid--a 96-percent increase since the end of fiscal year 1996. GAO believes that this amount is understated. Thousands of private and public sector entities can collect child support. Both private firms and state agencies reported collections from about 60 percent of their cases. Twenty-two of the 24 private firms GAO reviewed reported that they relied on private information vendors--commercial firms that sell information such as addresses, telephone numbers, and social security numbers--as their primary information source, whereas about one-third of state agencies reported using this source. State agencies relied heavily on state and federal automated databases to locate noncustodial parents and their assets. Additionally, private firms and the state agencies reported calling noncustodial parents to collect child support. However, only the private firms called third parties, such as relatives and neighbors …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on college tuition and fees, focusing on the changes in the 1995-1996 and 1999-2000 period compared with median household income."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Before 1850, an estimated 16 million salmon and steelhead returned to the Columbia River Basin annually to spawn. Over the past 25 years, the number of salmon and steelhead returning to the Columbia River Basin has averaged only 660,000 per year although annual population levels have varied widely. Factors such as over-harvesting, construction and operation of dams, degradation of spawning habitat, increased human population, and unfavorable weather and ocean conditions have contributed to the long-term decline. The population decline has resulted in the listing of 12 salmon and steelhead populations in the basin as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Once a species is listed as threatened or endangered, the act requires that efforts be taken to allow its recovery. Eleven federal agencies are involved with salmon and steelhead recovery efforts in the Columbia River Basin. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), as the lead agency, is responsible for preparing a recovery plan and consulting with the other federal agencies on their planned actions. The 11 federal agencies estimate expenditures of $1.8 billion from fiscal year 1982 through fiscal year 1996 and $1.5 billion …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Money laundering is a serious crime, with hundreds of billions of dollars laundered annually. Congress passed the Money Laundering and Financial Crimes Strategy Act of 1998 to better coordinate the efforts of law enforcement agencies and financial regulators in combating money laundering. This act required the issuance of an annual National Money Laundering Strategy for 5 years, ending with the issuance of the 2003 strategy. To help with deliberations on reauthorization, GAO determined (1) agency perspectives on the benefit of the strategy and factors that affected its development and implementation, (2) whether the strategy has served as a useful mechanism for guiding the coordination of federal law enforcement agencies' efforts, (3) the role of the strategy in influencing the activities of federal financial regulators, and (4) whether the strategy has reflected key critical components."

A briefing report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Congress responded to the attacks of September 11, 2001, with dramatic funding increases to combat terrorism. Even before these attacks, Congress was concerned about increased funding in this area, and based on findings from a 1997 GAO report, mandated that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) report annually on funding to combat terrorism. In this review, GAO was asked to analyze such funding trends, describe difficulties in coordinating combating terrorism budgets, assess data reported to Congress, and describe the executive branch's efforts to maximize the effective use of combating terrorism funds. The review relied on OMB's definition of "combating terrorism" to include both homeland security and overseas combating terrorism missions."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the threat of terrorist attacks involving chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN) materials, focusing on: (1) the threat and risk assessments to help develop a national strategy and help prioritize and focus program investments to combat terrorism; and (2) observations on how other countries allocate resources and determine funding priorities to combat terrorism."