Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Bureau of the Census' participation in a Los Angeles symposium on the challenges facing the African American community has been criticized. Concerns have been raised about whether the event was being held for political purposes and whether federal funding was inappropriately used. GAO concludes that the Bureau's participation complied with federal regulations prohibiting agencies from using appropriated funds for publicity and propaganda. According to the Bureau, its presence at the symposium was strictly for informational purposes and did not promote the agency. GAO found no evidence that the event had any political connections; the Democratic National Convention, which was held two days later, was not connected to the symposium. The Bureau's decision to partner with the organizers of the event was consistent with its policy to work with any organization that can reach traditionally hard-to-count populations, such as African Americans. The Bureau viewed the symposium as an opportunity to further the goals of its outreach program. The cost to participate in the symposium was nominal, according to Bureau officials. Posters costing about $117, promotional items from its Los Angeles office's inventory, and compensatory time for two employees …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Army's current accounting practices and manual procedures for calculating operating materials and supplies (OM&S) balances caused accounting errors that understated the Army's fiscal year 1999 OM&S balance by at least $1.5 billion. In addition, ammunition held at retail-level installations for training purposes was excluded from the financial reports."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The determination of royalty payments for natural gas produced from outer-continental shelf (OCS) leases falls to the Minerals and Management Service (MMS). Gas royalty payments are determined by multiplying the gross sales value by a royalty rate. Disagreement over the interpretation of key values in the formula has led to several lawsuits between MMS and the gas industry. With the deregulation of the gas market, determining the sale of gas produced and sold from OCS leases has become more difficult. To help resolve these pricing issues, MMS is pilot-testing a royalty-in-kind program. Royalty-in-kind payments mean that royalty payments are paid in the form of physical gas. MMS and the industry believe that this is an appropriate solution to some pricing issues, but that it is not suitable to all transactions."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided a status report on the Navy's initiatives to address a number of in-transit inventory problems that GAO identified in previous reports."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) congressional reports on depot maintenance workloads, focusing on: (1) DOD's compliance with the 50-50 requirement in 10 U.S.C. 2466 for fiscal years 1998 and 1999; (2) GAO's views on DOD's progress in improving the quality of the workload data for the previous fiscal years; and (3) the reasonableness of DOD's estimates of expenditures for fiscal years 2000 through 2004."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the benefits and risks of food irradiation, focusing on the: (1) extent and the purposes for which food irradiation is being used in the United States; and (2) scientifically supported benefits and risks of food irradiation."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Foreign Military Sales Program, focusing on: (1) the Department of Defense's (DOD) implementation of its requirement to observe and report on defense articles and services transferred under the Foreign Military Sales program; (2) DOD's implementation of requirements to perform end-use checks; and (3) the extent to which DOD has satisfied the reporting requirements of the end-use monitoring amendment to the Arms Export Control Act."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Forest Service's Washington Office funding allocations to Region 4, focusing on: (1) funds allocated to Region 4 during fiscal years 1995-2000 for budget line items under the National Forest System (NFS) appropriation; (2) reasons for trends and year-to-year changes in NFS' funding allocations to Region 4; (3) how budget line item amounts in the budget requests Region 4 submitted for fiscal years 1998-2000 differed from the final allocations it received; and (4) funds allocated to all regions during fiscal years 1995-2000 for the Fire Preparedness budget line item under the Wildland Fire Management appropriation."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on federal and selected state funding of invasive species activities, focusing on: (1) federal and selected state funding in fiscal years (FY) 1999 and 2000 and the departments' views on the effectiveness of coordination efforts with other entities; (2) funding by selected states for invasive species activities in fiscal years 1999 and 2000 and the states' views on the effectiveness of coordination with federal departments and other entities; and (3) actions taken by the Invasive Species Council to implement Executive Order 13112."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on funding for San Francisco under the Ryan White CARE Act, focusing on: (1) comparing San Francisco's fiscal (FY) 2000 title I grant award, which was determined using the act's hold-harmless provision, with what the award would have been had deceased acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) cases been included in the calculation; and (2) how funding for San Francisco that was based on the inclusion of deceased AIDS cases would have compared with the amount San Francisco would have received if the FY 2000 hold-harmless level had been reduced by 25 percent."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Army Corps of Engineers' environmental impact statement (EIS) of the Lower Snake River dams, focusing on: (1) extent to which the Corps followed applicable procedures and guidelines in preparing the draft EIS; and (2) reasonableness of the methodology the Corps used to analyze and present the effects of breaching the dams, specifically with respect to electricity costs, transportation costs, and air quality."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) funding of Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act projects, focusing on: (1) what process HUD uses to select projects for funding, whether this process is consistent with relevant statutes, and how HUD treats new projects and projects that have been funded in the past (renewal projects); (2) the extent to which HUD funds projects that communities rank as high-priority under their Continuums of Care, and why some high-priority projects are not funded while some low-priority projects are funded; and (3) whether communities face any common problems when applying for funds from HUD, and what actions are needed to correct these problems."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed various laws, rules, and policies related to the political activities of U.S. Attorneys, focusing on: (1) what laws and Department of Justice (DOJ) rules and policies govern U.S. Attorneys' involvement in Hatch Act partisan political activities; (2) what types of activities are permitted and what types are prohibited; (3) to what extent have U.S. Attorneys been involved in Hatch Act partisan political activities; (4) what DOJ rules and policies govern U.S. Attorneys' involvement in issue-oriented political activities; (5) to what extent have U.S. Attorneys been involved in issue-oriented political activities; and (6) what statutory or other provisions govern U.S. Attorney Offices' expenditure of federal funds and resources for political activities."

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) application of the Government Performance and Results Act in its Chemical and Biological Defense Program."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Commodity Credit Corporation's (CCC) new rule on the Farm Storage Facility Loan Program. GAO noted that: (1) the rule implements CCC's Farm Storage Facility Loan Program utilizing authority in the CCC Charter Act; (2) the program will provide financing for producers to build or upgrade farm storage and handling facilities; and (3) CCC 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 Department of Education's financial management problems, focusing on: (1) Education's fiscal year (FY) 1999 financial audit results; (2) the relationship between the audit findings and the potential for waste, fraud, and abuse, and (3) the results of GAO's review of the Department's grantback account."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the management of the National Park Service's concessions programs."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the profiles of felons incarcerated in federal and state correctional facilities, focusing on: (1) the overall profiles for state and federal prison inmates in 1997; and (2) acomparison of 1991 and 1997 profiles to determine whether there were any changes in the overall profiles for state and federal inmates."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) second Information Technology Investment Account (ITIA) expenditure plan, focusing on: (1) the progress IRS has made in meeting the commitments in its first expenditure plan; (2) whether the plan satisfies the conditions specified in the Department of the Treasury's fiscal year 1998 and 1999 appropriations acts; (3) whether the plan is consistent with GAO's open recommendations on IRS' systems modernization; and (4) whether GAO have any other observations about IRS' systems modernization efforts."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Advanced Technology Program (ATP), focusing on: (1) whether, in the past, ATP had funded projects with research goals that were similar to projects funded by the private sector; and (2) if such cases were identified, whether ATP's award selection process ensures that such research would not be funded in the future."

A briefing report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on Balkans security issues, focusing on: (1) the current security situation in the Balkans, particularly in Kosovo and Bosnia; (2) the projected security in the region over the next 5 years; (3) factors in the decision to withdraw Yugoslav security forces from Kosovo; and (4) how the executive branch has defined U.S. interests in the region in the National Security Strategy and public statements."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the role of chief information officers (CIO) in the federal government."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the tax expenses associated with building the Department of Energy's Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) project, focusing on whether it would be less expensive to build the project at any of the participating national laboratories."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) implementation of the Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic program, focusing on: (1) the steps IRS has taken to implement the Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic program; (2) the key tax problems facing low-income taxpayers served by the clinics and the reasons for these problems; (3) the role that the program plays in addressing these taxpayers' problems; and (4) other actions IRS or Congress could consider to address the types of tax problems the clinics are facing."