Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This document is in response to the mandate contained in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Authorization Act of 2010, Pub. L. No. 111-267, Section 503(c)(2), for GAO to provide an evaluation of the accuracy and level of confidence in the findings contained in NASA's assessment of the essential modules, operational systems and components, structural elements, and permanent scientific equipment required to ensure complete, effective, and safe functioning and full scientific utilization of the International Space Station through 2020. We provided to Congress a draft copy of this briefing in meetings with them on April 6 and 7, 2011. We also provided a draft to NASA for comment. NASA agreed with our findings and provided technical comments that we incorporated as appropriate."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Explosives represent a continuing threat to aviation security. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA), within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), seeks to ensure through the Electronic Baggage Screening Program (EBSP) that checked-baggage-screening technology is capable of detecting explosives. Generally, the explosives detection system (EDS) is used in conjunction with explosives trace detection (ETD) machines to identify and resolve threats in checked baggage. As requested, GAO assessed the extent to which: (1) TSA revised explosives detection requirements and deployed technology to meet those requirements, and (2) TSA's approach to the current EDS acquisition meets best practices for schedules and cost estimates and includes plans for potential upgrades of deployed EDSs. GAO analyzed EDS requirements, compared the EDS acquisition schedule against GAO best practices, and interviewed DHS officials. This is a public version of a sensitive report that GAO issued in May 2011."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In examining the history of the Kachemak Bay ferry project, GAO found that the Seldovia Village Tribe’s federally funded ferry differs significantly from its original proposal. In 2002, the tribe proposed a vehicle and passenger ferry with year-round service between Homer, Alaska, on the north shore of Kachemak Bay and multiple southern ports, including the city of Seldovia. Federal funding was appropriated in fiscal years 2004, 2005, and 2006, from which about $8.5 million was provided to the tribe for a ferry. The state also provided $1.5 million. The tribe subsequently built a ferry and dock facilities that cost about $8.8 million, but the project was significantly more limited in scope and service than the original proposal. Specifically, the ferry, known as the Kachemak Voyager began operating in May 2010, but it only provided passenger and light-freight service between Homer and Seldovia and only during the summer months."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "These new organizations--the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) and Office of Financial Research (OFR)--face challenges in achieving their missions. Key FSOC missions--to identify risks and respond to emerging threats to financial stability--are inherently challenging, in part, because risks to financial stability do not develop in precisely the same way in successive crises. Collaboration among FSOC members can also be challenging at times, as almost all of them represent independent agencies that retained existing authorities. OFR faces the challenge of trying to establish and build a world-class research organization while meeting shorter-term goals and responsibilities."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) and the Small Business Administration (SBA) have 10 disaster assistance programs that small agricultural producers and businesses that support agriculture can use to recover from natural disasters. These programs serve largely different populations but leave few gaps in the disaster assistance available to most small agricultural producers. Aquaculture and nursery producers could be eligible for six of these programs, but their participation is limited by awareness and eligibility issues."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The key issues, based on existing GAO work, suggest specific areas for oversight on the following topics:"

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) met the presidentially announced time frame to deploy initial ballistic missile defense (BMD) capabilities in Europe under the European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA) but did not fully identify and plan to resolve implementation issues before deployment. As a result, DOD experienced implementation issues, such as incomplete construction of housing facilities for soldiers arriving at the EPAA radar site in Turkey and incomplete implementing arrangements defining how to operate with allies when certain BMD elements arrived in the host country. U.S. Strategic Command, in coordination with other combatant commands, developed criteria to assess whether a BMD capability is ready for operational use to ensure that BMD capabilities can be used as intended when they are delivered. However, the assessment criteria used during this process focused on effectiveness, suitability, and interoperability areas—such as whether BMD elements can work together to track ballistic missile threats—and did not explicitly require DOD to comprehensively identify and plan to resolve implementation issues prior to deploying these capabilities. DOD plans to continue to use its existing process to accept BMD capabilities planned for Europe in the future. Without …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Global hunger continues to worsen despite world leaders' 1996 pledge--reaffirmed in 2000 and 2009--to halve hunger by 2015. To reverse this trend, in 2009 major donor countries pledged $22 billion in a 3-year commitment to agriculture and food security in developing countries, of which $3.5 billion is the U.S. share. Through analysis of agency documents, interviews with agency officials and their development partners, and fieldwork in five recipient countries, GAO examined (1) the types and funding of food security programs and activities of relevant U.S. government agencies; and (2) progress in developing an integrated U.S. governmentwide strategy to address global food insecurity as well as potential vulnerabilities of that strategy."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has used various approaches to inform the public about SaferProducts.gov, including using social media, public service announcements, and printed materials, and promoting the site during speeches and events. CPSC's efforts to inform the public about SaferProducts.gov have been part of a larger effort to raise awareness about the agency as a whole. While CPSC has employed many key practices for consumer education planning, it has not established metrics for measuring the success of its efforts. Without such metrics, the agency cannot determine which efforts have had the most impact on increasing awareness and use of the site."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO found that government agencies were increasingly using reverse auctions as a means to drive down prices but without adequate guidance to ensure that the potential benefits were maximized. GAO's analysis of the data also identified some common characteristics among contract awards resulting from reverse auctions."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO has previously reported that the SM-3 Block IIB program did not conduct a formal analysis of alternatives (AoA) prior to beginning technology development. AoAs provide insight into the technical feasibility and costs of alternatives by determining if a concept can be developed and produced within existing resources. Although the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is not required to do an AoA for its programs because of its acquisition flexibilities, GAO has previously reported that an AoA can be a key step to ensure that new programs have a sound acquisition basis."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are collectively responsible for providing radiological emergency preparedness oversight and guidance to commercial nuclear power plant licensees and local and state authorities around the plants. In general, NRC is responsible for overseeing licensees' emergency preparedness at the plant (on-site), and FEMA is responsible for overseeing preparedness by local and state authorities around the plant (off-site). NRC and FEMA have also established a 10-mile emergency planning zone around nuclear power plants. Licensees are responsible for managing on-site radiological emergency preparedness and developing and maintaining plans that define activities that the nuclear power plant must take to prepare for and respond to a potential incident at the plant. Participating local and state authorities within the 10-mile zone must develop protective actions for responding to a radiological incident, including plans for evacuations and sheltering in place. A recent NRC task force considered the adequacy of the zone size and concluded that no change was currently needed but will be re-evaluated as part of its lessons learned efforts for the Fukushima incident."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "While the eight agencies GAO reviewed—the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Homeland Security, Justice, Labor, and Veterans Affairs, and the Environmental Protection Agency—varied in the extent to which their cost-estimating policies and procedures addressed best practices, most had significant weaknesses. For example, six of the eight agencies had established a clear requirement for programs to develop life-cycle cost estimates. However, most of the eight agencies’ policies lacked requirements for cost-estimating training, a standard structure for defining work products, and a central, independent cost-estimating team, among other things. The weaknesses in agencies’ policies were due, in part, to the lack of a priority for establishing or enhancing department or agency-level cost-estimating functions. Until agencies address weaknesses in their policies, it will be difficult for them to make effective use of program cost estimates for informed decision making, realistic budget formation, and meaningful progress measurement."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins ""

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Decisions by the military services on where to base their force structure can have significant strategic, socioeconomic, and cost implications for the Department of Defense (DOD) and the communities surrounding the bases. Each service uses its own process to make basing decisions. The House Committee on Armed Services directed GAO to review the services' basing decision processes. GAO examined the extent to which (1) the services have comprehensive processes in place that are designed to result in well-informed basing decisions and (2) DOD exercises management control of these processes. GAO reviewed and analyzed DOD and service guidance, studies, and relevant documents on implementation and oversight of the services' basing processes."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins ""

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report responds to questions that Congress raised about Air Force engine maintenance and repair work currently performed at Kelly Aviation Center (KAC) and the potential transfer of that work to another location. In 1999, Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center (OC-ALC) awarded a contract to KAC to perform work, including depot-level maintenance, repair, and overhaul on TF39 engines, which are typically used for C-5 Galaxy aircraft; T56 engines, which are typically used for C-130 aircraft; and fuel accessories on these engines. The Air Force estimates the total expenditure under the contract for this work to be $3.7 billion from February 16, 1999, through December 1, 2010. The contract is not to exceed 15 years (the contract had an initial 7-year ordering period that could be extended to 15 years or reduced to 5 years based on performance), and will expire not later than February 15, 2014. The Air Force will need to determine how to conduct the engine maintenance work after the term of the contract ends. Congress requested that we review the potential transfer of the engine maintenance and repair workload from KAC. Our objectives were to …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins ""

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in consultation with the Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorology (OFCM) and other agencies, has identified federal and nonfederal storm data collection efforts that may provide the covered data--specified in the act to include wind speeds, storm surge, and other measures--for a post-storm model required by the Consumer Option for an Alternative System to Allocate Losses Act of 2012 (COASTAL Act). However, NOAA officials said they will not know which specific data collection efforts will be used until they develop the model, which the act requires NOAA develop by regulation by December 28, 2013. According to agency officials and representatives from nonfederal entities, such as a university and a nonprofit organization, efforts that can collect surface level water, wave, and wind measurements over land will likely provide important sources of data. NOAA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), as well as some nonfederal entities, such as universities and private companies, currently collect some surface level data on wind and water. However officials and representatives from the agencies and nonfederal entities, respectively, said current efforts may not be sufficient for the …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) procures and manages large supplies of spare parts to keep military equipment ready and operating. At a time when U.S. military forces and equipment are in high demand and the nation faces long-term fiscal challenges, it is critical that DLA ensure that the warfighter is supplied with the right items at the right time and exercise good stewardship over the billions of dollars invested in its inventories. GAO has identified supply chain management as a high-risk area due in part to high levels of inventory beyond what is needed to support requirements and problems in accurately forecasting demand for spare parts. GAO's objectives were to (1) determine the extent to which DLA's inventory of spare parts reflects the amount needed to support requirements; and (2) identify causes, if applicable, for DLA's having spare parts inventory that does not align with requirements. GAO analyzed DLA inventory data for fiscal years 2006 through 2008."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Indian Health Service's (IHS) federal contract health services (CHS) programs primarily paid physicians at their billed charges, which were significantly higher than what Medicare and private insurers would have paid for the same services. IHS's policy states that federal CHS programs should purchase services from contracted providers at negotiated, reduced rates. However, of the almost $63 million that the federal CHS programs paid for physician services provided in 2010, they paid about $51 million (81 percent) to physicians at billed charges and about $12 million (19 percent) to physicians at negotiated, reduced rates. Payments for other types of nonhospital services followed similar trends, with about $40 million out of $52 million (77 percent) paid at billed charges. GAO estimated that IHS's federal CHS programs paid two times as much as what Medicare would have paid and about one and a quarter times as much as what private insurers would have paid for the same physician services provided in 2010. If federal CHS programs had paid Medicare rates for these services, they could have used an estimated $32 million in savings to pay for many of …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The use of information technology (IT) is crucial to helping the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) effectively serve the nation's veterans, and the department has expended billions of dollars annually over the last several years to manage and secure its information systems and assets. VA has, however, experienced challenges in managing its IT. GAO has previously highlighted VA's weaknesses in managing and securing its information systems and assets. GAO was asked to testify on its past work on VA's weaknesses in managing its IT resources, specifically in the areas of systems development, information security, and collaboration with the Department of Defense (DOD) on efforts to meet common health system needs."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Global hunger continues to worsen despite world leaders' 1996 pledge--reaffirmed in 2000 and 2009--to halve hunger by 2015. To reverse this trend, in 2009 major donor countries pledged about $22.7 billion in a 3-year commitment to agriculture and food security in developing countries, of which $3.5 billion is the U.S. share. This testimony addresses (1) the types and funding of food security programs and activities of relevant U.S. government agencies and (2) progress in developing an integrated U.S. governmentwide strategy to address global food insecurity and the strategy's potential vulnerabilities. This is based on a new GAO report being released at today's hearing (GAO-10-352)."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses strategies that health centers-- facilities that provide primary care and other services to individuals in communities they serve regardless of ability to pay--employ that may help reduce hospital emergency department use. Hospital emergency departments are a major component of the nation's health care safety net as they are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and generally are required to medically screen all people regardless of ability to pay. From 1997 through 2007, U.S. emergency department per capita use increased 11 percent. In 2007, there were approximately 117 million visits to emergency departments; of these visits, approximately 8 percent were classified as nonurgent. The use of emergency departments, including use for nonurgent conditions, may increase as more people obtain health insurance coverage as the provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) are implemented. Some nonurgent visits are for conditions that likely could be treated in other, more cost-effective settings, such as health centers. In 2008, the average amount paid for a nonemergency visit to the emergency department was seven times more than that for a health center visit, according to …