http://www.gao.gov/docsearch/repandtest.html Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:28:33 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2-ppt http://www.gao.gov/images/title_object.jpg http://www.gao.gov/ http://www.gao.gov/pdfs/GAO-10-248?source=ra The 2005 Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users authorized the Department of Transportation to establish a highway research program to address future challenges facing the U.S. highway system. In 2006, the Second Strategic Highway Research Program was established to conduct research in four areas--safety, renewal, reliability, and capacity. The Transportation Research Board manages this program ... Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.gao.gov/pdfs/GAO-10-25?source=ra The Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) was created by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal Reserve) to help meet consumer and small business credit needs by supporting issuance of asset-backed securities (ABS) and commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS). This report assesses (1) the risks TALF-eligible assets pose to the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), (2) Department of the Treasury's (Treasury) ... Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.gao.gov/pdfs/GAO-10-419T?source=ra Biomonitoring, which measures chemicals in people's tissues or body fluids, has shown that the U.S. population is widely exposed to chemicals used in everyday products. Some of these have the potential to cause cancer or birth defects. Moreover, children may be more vulnerable to harm from these chemicals than adults. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is authorized under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to control chemicals ... Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.gao.gov/pdfs/GAO-10-387T?source=ra The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is in the midst of many changes and one of the most challenging periods in its history. The space shuttle is slated to retire this year, the International Space Station nears completion but remains underutilized, and a new means of human space flight is under development. Most recently, the administration has proposed a new direction for NASA. Amid all this potential change, GAO was ... Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.gao.gov/pdfs/GAO-10-257?source=ra The Navy plans to spend about $28 billion to buy 55 Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) and at least 64 interchangeable mission packages to perform one of three missions--mine countermeasures, antisubmarine warfare, and surface warfare--in waters close to shore. The Navy has been developing two different LCS seaframes and plans to select one for production in 2010. Due to the small 78-person crew size--40 core crew, 23 for aviation detachment, ... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.gao.gov/pdfs/GAO-10-227SP?source=ra The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) plans to invest billions in the coming years in science and exploration space fl ight initiatives. The scientifi c and technical complexities inherent in NASA's mission create great challenges in managing its projects and controlling costs. In the past, NASA has had diffi culty meeting cost, schedule, and performance objectives for many of its projects. The need to effectively manage ... Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.gao.gov/pdfs/GAO-10-350R?source=ra The Department of Defense (DOD) is the federal government's largest purchaser of contractor-provided services and relies on contractors to support its varied missions. DOD's contractors provide a range of services, such as consulting and administrative support, information technology services, and weapon system and base operations support. However, DOD contract management has been on our high-risk list since 1992, and our recent work continues ... Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.gao.gov/pdfs/GAO-10-243?source=ra With current rising unemployment rates and the need for a more skilled workforce, it is important for the Department of Labor's (Labor) Employment and Training Administration (ETA) to invest in sound research that identifies the most effective and efficient ways to train and employ workers for 21st century jobs. While ETA traditionally has played an important role in providing job training, employment assistance, and labor market information ... Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.gao.gov/pdfs/GAO-10-334?source=ra The Treasury Department's Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund awarded $26 billion in New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC) through 2009 for investment in low-income communities. The NMTC allows investors to claim a tax credit totaling 39 percent of their investment in Community Development Entities (CDE) over 7 years which CDEs reinvest in qualified communities. This mandated report (1) describes where and how CDEs are using ... Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.gao.gov/pdfs/GAO-10-275?source=ra The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks raised concerns about the security of Department of Energy's (DOE) sites with weapons-grade nuclear material, known as Category I Special Nuclear Material (SNM). To better protect these sites against attacks, DOE has sought to transform its protective forces protecting SNM into a Tactical Response Force (TRF) with training and capabilities similar to the U.S. military. DOE also has considered whether ... Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.gao.gov/pdfs/GAO-10-281?source=ra The Institute of Medicine (IOM) estimated in 1999 that preventable medical errors cause as many as 98,000 deaths a year among hospital patients in the United States. Congress passed the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 (the Patient Safety Act) to encourage health care providers to voluntarily report information on medical errors and other events--patient safety data--for analysis and to facilitate the development of improvements ... Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.gao.gov/pdfs/GAO-10-213?source=ra For years, the disability compensation claims process has been the subject of concern and attention by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Congress, and veteran service organizations (VSO), due in part to long waits for decisions and the large number of claims pending a decision. As GAO and other organizations have reported over the last decade, VA has also faced challenges in improving the accuracy and consistency of disability decisions. ... Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.gao.gov/pdfs/GAO-10-284?source=ra The Department of Defense (DOD) is the federal government's largest purchaser of contractor-provided services, obligating more than $207 billion on services contracts in fiscal year 2009. DOD contract management has been on GAO's high-risk list since 1992, in part because of continued weaknesses in DOD's management and oversight of contracts for services. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 directed DOD to issue ... Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.gao.gov/pdfs/GAO-10-299?source=ra To meet urgent needs, DOD can issue undefinitized contract actions (UCA), which authorize contractors to begin work before reaching a final agreement on contract terms. Such actions are considered to be a risky contract vehicle for the government because contractors lack incentives to control costs during this period. Defense regulations provide that the government determination of contractors' allowable profit or fee should reflect any ... Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.gao.gov/pdfs/GAO-10-332?source=ra The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 required the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to accelerate their exchange of health information and to develop capabilities that allow for interoperability (generally, the ability of systems to exchange data) by September 30, 2009. It also required compliance with federal standards and the establishment of a joint interagency program office ... Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.gao.gov/pdfs/GAO-10-254?source=ra To sustain a viable military force, the Department of Defense (DOD) depends on recruiting several hundred thousand qualified individuals into the military each year. The service components rely on their recruiters to act with the utmost integrity because even a single incident of wrongdoing on the part of a recruiter--a recruiter irregularity--can adversely affect the service components' ability to recruit qualified individuals. GAO was ... Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.gao.gov/pdfs/GAO-10-401T?source=ra The December 25, 2009, attempted bombing of flight 253 raised questions about the federal government's ability to protect the homeland and secure the commercial aviation system. This statement focuses on the government's efforts to use the terrorist watchlist to screen individuals and determine if they pose a threat, and how failures in this process contributed to the December 25 attempted attack. This statement also addresses the Transportation ... Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.gao.gov/pdfs/GAO-10-366T?source=ra The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), whose reauthorization is the subject of today's hearing, plays a vital role in advancing transportation safety by investigating accidents, determining their causes, issuing safety recommendations, and conducting safety studies. To support the agency's mission, NTSB's Training Center provides training to NTSB investigators and others. NTSB's 2006 reauthorization legislation mandates an annual ... Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.gao.gov/pdfs/GAO-10-327?source=ra Many federal contractors establish offshore subsidiaries to take advantage of labor and market conditions. GAO has found that they also use offshore subsidiaries to reduce their U.S. tax burdens. In 2008, Congress passed the Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Tax (HEART) Act which resulted in contractor offshore subsidiaries paying certain payroll taxes for U.S. personnel working abroad. Fiscal year 2009's National Defense Authorization ... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.gao.gov/pdfs/GAO-10-120?source=ra The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) predicts that the national airspace system will become increasingly congested over time, imposing costs of delay on passengers and regions. While transforming the current air-traffic control system to the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) may provide additional en route capacity, many airports will still face constraints at their runways and terminals. In light of these forecasts, ... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.gao.gov/pdfs/GAO-10-381T?source=ra Potential terrorist attacks and the possibility of naturally occurring disease outbreaks have raised concerns about the "surge capacity" of the nation's health care systems to respond to mass casualty events. The statement GAO is issuing today summarizes a June 2008 report, Emergency Preparedness: States Are Planning for Medical Surge, but Could Benefit from Shared Guidance for Allocating Scare Medical Resources (GAO-08-668). In that report, ... Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.gao.gov/pdfs/GAO-10-264R?source=ra This letter responds to the requirement of the Competition in Contracting Act of 1984, 31 U.S.C. 3554(e)(2) (2006), that the Comptroller General report to Congress each instance in which a federal agency did not fully implement a recommendation made by our Office in connection with a bid protest decided the prior fiscal year. There was one such occurrence in fiscal year 2009, regarding our recommendation in Mission Critical Solutions, B-401057, ... Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.gao.gov/pdfs/GAO-10-104?source=ra The Department of Defense (DOD) consumes about 60 percent of all energy used at federal government facilities. To encourage an increased use of energy from renewable sources, such as solar and wind power, (1) the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (the 2005 Act) directs DOD to consume at least 3 percent of its total electricity from renewable resources starting in fiscal year 2007; (2) Executive Order 13423 (the 2007 Executive Order) directs that ... Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.gao.gov/pdfs/GAO-10-235SP?source=ra This report presents the highlights of GAO's fiscal year 2009 Performance and Accountability Report. The Government Accountability Office, the audit, evaluation, and investigative arm of the Congress, exists to support the Congress in meeting its constitutional responsibilities and to help improve the performance and accountability of the federal government for the American people. GAO examines the use of public funds; evaluates federal ... Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.gao.gov/pdfs/GAO-10-66?source=ra Due to the federal government's role as guarantor, floods impose an enormous potential financial burden on the federal government. Consequently, decision makers at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the Congress need accurate and timely financial information to assess the effectiveness of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). This report assesses whether controls in place ... Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100