Government Accountability Office

The authors are providing information on (1) federal funding DOE receives for electricity-related R&D, including funding by type of fuel; (2) tax expenditures the federal government provides to subsidise electricity production, including expenditures by type of fuel; and (3) other ways the federal government subsidises electricity. The authors examined federal electricity-related subsidies over a 6-year period, from fiscal year 2002 through fiscal year 2007. This is an excerpted and indexed version.

Somalia has lacked a functioning central government since 1991. In December 2006, the Ethiopian military intervened in Somalia to support Somalia's transitional government, opening what many considered a window of opportunity to rebuild the country and restore effective governance. The United States has been the largest bilateral donor to Somalia, providing roughly $362 million in assistance since 2001. In this book, the author assesses (1) U. S. and international efforts to stabilise Somalia, (2) U. S. and international efforts to provide humanitarian and development assistance to Somalia, and (3) strategic planning efforts to guide U. S. activities related to Somalia.

Human trafficking is a transnational crime whose victims include men, women, and children and may involve violations of labour, immigration, antislavery, and other criminal laws. To ensure punishment of traffickers and protection of victims, Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA), which is subject to reauthorization in 2007. The Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Homeland Security (DHS) lead federal investigations and prosecutions of trafficking crimes. This book discusses (1) key activities federal agencies have undertaken to combat human trafficking crimes, (2) federal efforts to co-ordinate investigations and prosecutions of these crimes, and (3) how the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) supported federally funded state and local human trafficking task forces.

The Forest Service and Interior agencies have initiated a number of steps to address key operational areas previously identified as needing improvement to help federal agencies contain wildland fire costs, but the effects on containing costs are unknown, in part because many of these steps are not yet complete. First, federal fire-fighting agencies are developing a system to help them better identify and set priorities for lands needing treatment to reduce fuels, but they have yet to decide how they will keep data in the system current. Second, federal agencies have taken some steps to improve how they acquire and use personnel, equipment, and other fire-fighting assets -- such as implementing a computerised system to more efficiently dispatch and track available fire-fighting assets -- but have not yet completed the more fundamental step of determining the appropriate type and quantity of fire-fighting assets needed for the fire season. Third, the agencies have clarified certain policies and are improving analytical tools that assist officials in identifying and implementing an appropriate response to a given fire, but several other policies limit the agencies' use of less aggressive fire-fighting strategies, which typically cost less. Fourth, federal agencies, working with non-federal entities, have recently taken steps to clarify guidance to better ensure that fire-fighting costs are shared consistently for fires that threaten both federal and non-federal lands and resources, but it is unclear how the agencies will ensure that this guidance is followed. This book is an edited and excerpted version.

Concerns over national security, environmental stresses, and high fuel prices have raised interest in reducing oil consumption. Through the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) program, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) requires cars and light trucks to meet certain fuel economy standards. As requested, the author discusses (1) how CAFE standards are designed to reduce fuel consumption, (2) strengths and weaknesses of the CAFE program and NHTSA's capabilities, and (3) market-based policies that could complement or replace CAFÉ. This is an excerpted and edited version.

Discusses collaborative resource management. This book describes the challenges that agencies face as they participate in such efforts and how the Cooperative Conservation initiative has addressed them.

In 2006, consumers paid over $36 billion in fees associated with checking and savings accounts, raising questions about consumers' awareness of their accounts' terms and conditions. The author was asked to review (1) trends in the types and amounts of checking and deposit account fees since 2000, (2) how federal banking regulators address such fees in their oversight of depository institutions, and (3) the extent that consumers are able to obtain account terms and conditions and disclosures of fees upon request prior to opening an account. The author analysed fee data from private data vendors, publicly available financial data, and information from federal regulators; reviewed federal laws and regulations; and used direct observation techniques at depository institutions nation-wide. This is an excerpted and indexed version.

The U. S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Park Service, and the U. S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service manage about 628 million acres of public land, mostly in the 11 western states and Alaska. Under the Federal Land Transaction Facilitation Act (FLTFA), revenue raised from selling BLM lands is available to the agencies, primarily to acquire non-federal land within the boundaries of land they already own -- known as in-holdings, which can create significant land management problems. To acquire land, the agencies can nominate parcels under state-level interagency agreements or the Secretaries can use their discretion to initiate acquisitions. FLTFA expires in 2010. The author was asked to determine (1)FLTFA revenue generated, (2)challenges to future sales, (3)FLTFA expenditures, and (4)challenges to future acquisitions. This is an edited and indexed edition.

Congress granted financial regulators flexibility to establish their own compensation systems and required certain agencies to seek to maintain comparability with each other in pay and benefits to help the agencies overcome impediments to recruiting and retaining employees and avoid competing for the same employees. In response to a request, this book reviews (1) how the performance-based pay systems of 10 financial regulators are aligned with six key practices for effective performance management systems, (2) the actions these agencies have taken to assess and implement comparability in pay and benefits, and (3) the extent to which employees in selected occupations have moved between or left any of the agencies. The author analysed agency guidance and policies, agency data on performance ratings and pay increases, agency pay and benefits surveys, data from the Central Personnel Data File, and interviewed agency officials. This is an excerpted and edited edition.

The authors are pleased to present the annual update of the third edition of Volumes I and II of 'Principles of Federal Appropriations Law.' Their objective in this publication is to present a cumulative supplement to the published third edition text that includes all relevant decisions from 1 January to 31 December 2007.

Over the past half-century, the number of state and local government workers has grown significantly. In 2006, this sector accounted for about 12 percent of the nation's workforce. Since 1996, accounting standards calling for state and local governments to report their liabilities for future pension costs have been in place, but standards calling for similar treatment of the future costs of retiree health benefits have only recently been issued. It is unclear as yet, what actions state and local governments may take once the future costs of these benefits are known. However, future decisions about the appropriate levels of benefits for retirees will likely occur in a broader context of persistent fiscal challenges that state and local governments will face in the next decade. Hence, concerns have been raised about the public sector's capacity to meet the rising cost of providing its retirees with promised pension and other post-employment benefits, such as retiree health care. State and local retiree benefits are not subject, for the most part, to federal laws governing private sector retiree benefits. Nevertheless, there is a federal interest in ensuring that all Americans have a secure retirement, an interest that is reflected in preferential tax treatment for contributions and investment earnings associated with qualified pension plans in both the public and the private sectors. This is an excerpted and indexed edition.

The first wave of the 78 million member baby boom generation is now reaching retirement age. The number of people age 62, the earliest age of eligibility for Social Security retired worker benefits, is expected to be 21 percent higher in 2009 than in 2008. In addition, by 2030, the number of workers supporting each retiree is projected to be 2.2, down from 3.3 in 2006. This demographic shift poses challenges to the economy, federal tax revenues, the nation's old-age programs, and individuals' financial security in retirement. For those who are able to work longer, later retirement can strengthen the economy and also retiree incomes by postponing the time at which people will start drawing retirement benefits rather than working. A wide range of factors including the features of employers' benefit plans, personal finances, social norms, health, and individual attitudes influence workers' decisions about when to retire. Federal policies may also play a role: these include Social Security, Medicare, and tax policies related to certain private retiree health and defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) pension plans.1 Identifying both the incentives posed by these policies and the extent to which workers respond to them can help to inform policy makers as they consider ways to address the demographic challenges facing the nation. To determine the extent to which federal policiesdirectly and indirectly-pose incentives and are influencing individuals' decisions about the age at which they retire, the authors have pursued the following questions: (1) What incentives do federal policies provide about when to retire? (2) What are the recent retirement patterns, and is there evidence that recent changes in Social Security requirements have resulted in later retirements? (3) Is there evidence that tax-favored private retiree health insurance and pension benefits have influenced when people retire? This is a revised and excerpted version.

Pandemic influenza poses a threat to public health at a time when the United Nations' World Health Organization (WHO) has said that infectious diseases are spreading faster than at any time in history. The last major influenza pandemic occurred from 1918 to 1919. Estimates of deaths worldwide if a similar pandemic were to occur have ranged between 30 million and 384 million people. Individual countries and international organisations have developed and begun to implement a strategy for forestalling (that is, containing, delaying, or minimising the impact of) the onset of a pandemic. Antivirals and vaccines may help forestall a pandemic. This is an excerpted and indexed version.

Over the last 25 years, pension coverage has shifted primarily from "traditional" defined benefit (DB) plans, in which workers accrue benefits based on years of service and earnings, toward defined contribution (DC) plans, in which participants accumulate retirement balances in individual accounts. DC plans provide greater portability of benefits, but shift the responsibility of saving for retirement from employers to employees. This book addresses the following issues: (1) What percentage of workers participate in DC plans, and how much have they saved in them? (2) How much are workers likely to have saved in DC plans over their careers and to what degree do key individual decisions and plan features affect plan saving? (3) What options have been recently proposed to increase DC plan coverage, participation, and savings? GAO analysed data from the Federal Reserve Board's 2004 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), the latest available, utilised a computer simulation model to project DC plan balances at retirement, reviewed academic studies, and interviewed experts. This is an excerpted and indexed version.

To better understand how changes in domestic and international petroleum products markets have affected prices, this book evaluated trends in: (1) the international trade of petroleum products, (2) refining capacity and intensity of refining capacity use internationally and in the United States, (3) international and domestic crude oil and petroleum product inventories, and (4) domestic petroleum supply infrastructure.

The nation's critical infrastructure sectors - such as public health, energy, water, and transportation -- rely on computerised information and systems to provide services to the public. To fulfil the requirement for a comprehensive plan, including cyber aspects, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a national plan in June 2006 for the sectors to use as a road map to enhance the protection of critical infrastructure. Lead federal agencies, referred to as sector-specific agencies, are responsible for co-ordinating critical infrastructure protection efforts, such as the development of plans that are specific to each sector. This book determines if these sector-specific plans address key aspects of cyber security, including cyber assets, key vulnerabilities, vulnerability reduction efforts, and recovery plans. To accomplish this, the authors analysed each sector-specific plan against criteria that were developed on the basis of DHS guidance. This book is an excerpted and indexed edition.

This book provides: (1) simulations of the state and local government sector's long-term fiscal outlook, (2) an analysis of the underlying causes of potential fiscal difficulties for the sector, (3) a discussion of the extent to which the long-term simulations are sensitive to alternative assumptions, and (4) an examination of how the state and local government sector could add to future federal fiscal challenges. This is an excerpted and indexed edition.

As a group, Asian American and Pacific Islanders represent about 5 percent of the U. S. population and hold about 8 percent of the college degrees. To better understand the educational attainment and average incomes of the subgroups that comprise this population, the authors asked: 1) What are Asian American and Pacific Islander subgroups' educational attainment and household income levels? (2) What challenges, if any, Asian American and Pacific Islander students face in pursuing and completing their post-secondary education? and (3) What federal and institutional resources do institutions with large Asian American and Pacific Islander student enrolment use to address the particular needs of these students? The authors analysed data from the U. S. Census Bureau and the U. S. Department of Education (Education) and spoke with officials and Asian American and Pacific Islander students at eight post-secondary institutions.

This book analyses: (1) other countries' major efforts to reform entitlement programs, (2) the pressure(s) that led countries to undertake the reforms, (3) how reform proposals were developed, and (4) to what extent enacted reforms built in triggers requiring future actions under certain conditions; and where such trigger mechanisms did not exist, whether some adjustments nonetheless occurred. This book is an excerpted and indexed edition.

"Extradition" is the formal surrender of a person by a state to another state for prosecution or punishment. Extradition to or from the United States is a creature of treaty. The United States has extradition treaties with over a hundred of the nations of the world, although they are many with whom it has no extradition treaty. International terrorism and drug trafficking have made extradition an increasingly important law enforcement tool. This book is a review of the adjustments made in recent treaties to accommodate American law enforcement interests, and then a nutshell overview of the federal law governing foreign requests to extradite a fugitive found in this country and a United States request for extradition of a fugitive found in a foreign country.