Reference - General

Honduras, a Central American nation of 8.2 million people, has had close ties with the United States over many years. The country served as a base for U.S. operations in Central America during the 1980s, and it continues to host a U.S. military presence...

Congress has generally broad authority to impose requirements upon the federal procurement process (i.e., the process whereby agencies acquire supplies and services from other entities for the agency's direct benefit or use). One of the many ways in which Congress has exercised this authority...

Navigating the Internet requires using addresses and corresponding names that identify the location of individual computers. The Domain Name System (DNS) is the distributed set of databases residing in computers around the world that contain address numbers mapped to corresponding domain names, making it...

A total of 20 Littoral Combat Ships (LCSs) have been funded through FY2014. The Navy had been planning to procure an eventual total of 52 LCSs, but on February 24, 2014, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announced that "no new contract negotiations beyond 32...

The Aegis ballistic missile defense (BMD) program, which is carried out by the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the Navy, gives Navy Aegis cruisers and destroyers a capability for conducting BMD operations. Under MDA and Navy plans, the number of BMD-capable Navy Aegis ships...

Names for Navy ships traditionally have been chosen and announced by the Secretary of the Navy, under the direction of the President and in accordance with rules prescribed by Congress. Rules for giving certain types of names to certain types of Navy ships have...

The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) provides funds to states, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories and commonwealths, and Indian tribal organizations (collectively referred to as grantees) primarily to help low-income households pay home energy expenses. The LIHEAP statute provides for two...

The Navy for several years has carried out a variety of irregular warfare (IW) and counterterrorism (CT) activities. Among the most readily visible of the Navy's recent IW operations have been those carried out by Navy sailors serving ashore in Afghanistan and Iraq. Many...

Are you one of the countless people who have a book that is aching to be published? Have you dreamed of getting your ideas in print? If you have the talent, the desire, the motivation, the time, and some limited computer and Internet skills,...

The presidential public campaign financing program (the Presidential Election Campaign Fund [PECF]) is funded through "checkoff" designations on individual income tax returns. Choosing to participate (or not) in the checkoff does not affect one's tax liability or refund. Candidates who choose to participate in...

The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant provides federal grants to the 50 states, the District of Columbia, American Indian tribes, and the territories for a wide range of benefits, services, and activities. It is best known for helping states pay for...

Cuba remains a one-party communist state with a poor record on human rights. The country's political succession in 2006 from the long-ruling Fidel Castro to his brother Raúl was characterized by a remarkable degree of stability. In February 2013, Castro was reappointed to a...

For almost six decades, the United States has played a leading role in global efforts to alleviate hunger and malnutrition and to enhance world food security through international food aid assistance-primarily through either the sale on concessional terms or the donation of U.S. agricultural...

The Internet is often described as a "network of networks" because it is not a single physical entity, but hundreds of thousands of interconnected networks linking hundreds of millions of computers around the world. As such, the Internet is international, decentralized, and comprised of...

The U.S. Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program provides non-reciprocal, duty-free tariff treatment to certain products imported from designated beneficiary developing countries (BDCs). The United States, the European Union, and other developed countries have implemented similar programs since the 1970s.The U.S. program was first...

A data breach can occur under many circumstances and for many reasons. A breach can be inadvertent, such as from the loss of paper documents or a portable electronic device, or deliberate, such as from a successful cyber-based attack by a hacker, criminal, foreign...

The U.S. financial regulatory structure is a complex system of multiple federal and state regulators as well as self-regulatory organizations that operates largely along functional lines. That is, financial products or activities generally are regulated according to their function, no matter which entity offers...

DHS's mission is to lead the unified national effort to secure the United States by preventing and deterring terrorist attacks and protecting against and responding to threats and hazards to the nation. As part of that mission, DHS is responsible for ensuring that the...

This section provides an overview of SEC's history, mission, organization, strategic goals and objectives, year in review, forward looking information, performance highlights and a summary of financial information. This section concludes with management's assurance on internal controls, financial systems and controls, and compliance with...

The following sections discuss in more detail (1) our report on the financial statements and internal control over financial reporting, which includes a matter of emphasis related to the tax gap and tax expenditures, other matters related to the required supplementary information (RSI)1 and...

The U.S. Department of Treasury's Office of Financial Stability presents to the reader the fiscal year 2013 Agency Financial Report for Trouble Asset Relief Program.Author: Department of the TreasuryISBN-10: 150299125XISBN-13: 9781502991256Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing PlatformLanguage: EnglishPublished: 10/31/2014Pages: 102Format: PaperbackWeight: 0.57lbsSize: 11.02h x 8.50w x...

In recent years, U.S. nuclear weapons policy has been focused on arms reduction to address current security challenges posed by the threats of nuclear terrorism and nuclear proliferation. According to the 2010 Nuclear Posture Review, changes in the international nuclear security environment, including an...

Dynamic scoring for tax legislation has been discussed for some time. House Rule 13 has required, since 2003, that the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) provide a macroeconomic impact analysis of legislation to amend the Internal Revenue Code, or a statement explaining why it...

The Bureau's testing program for the 2010 Census relied principally on a small number of large-scale census-like tests. Specifically, the 2010 testing program included two national tests on the content of questionnaires in 2003 and 2005, two site tests focused on datacollection methods and...

The federal government's response to major disasters and emergencies in the United States is guided by the Department of Homeland Security's National Response Framework. The framework is based on a tiered, graduated response; that is, incidents are managed at the lowest jurisdictional level and...

PREA was enacted to, among other things, establish a zero-tolerance standard for rape in U.S. prisons and make the prevention of prison rape a top priority in each prison system. PREA also charged the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission with recommending standards for addressing...

The Navy expects to spend about $15 billion per year to provide its fleet with the most advanced ships to support natural defense and military strategies. Problems with recently delivered ships have focused attention on quality issues.Author: U. S. Government Accountability OfficeISBN-10: 1502986337ISBN-13: 9781502986337Publisher:...

The Army initiated LMP in 1999 to replace two aging materiel management systems-the Commodity Command Standard System and the Standard Depot System. In replacing these systems, which had been used for more than 30 years to manage inventory, depot maintenance, and arsenal manufacturing operations,...

Bank holding companies are companies that own or control one or more banks. In the United States, most banks insured by FDIC are owned or controlled by a bank holding company. In addition to bank subsidiaries engaged in traditional banking activities of deposit-taking and...

Information resellers-sometimes also called data brokers, data aggregators, or information solutions providers-offer several types of products to customers that include retailers, advertisers, private individuals, nonprofit organizations, and law enforcement and other government agencies. Consumer reporting agencies-including the three nationwide credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and...

In March 2003, DHS was created by merging 22 disparate agencies and organizations, many of which had known financial management weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Only 5 of the agencies that transferred to DHS had been subject to financial statement audits-U.S. Customs Service, Transportation Security Administration,...

In 2012, the DNI reported that more than 4.9 million federal government and contractor employees held or were eligible to hold a personal security clearance. Furthermore, GAO has reported that the federal government spent over $1 billion to conduct more than 2 million background...

The Great Lakes Basin spans more than 750 miles from east to west and, as shown in figure 1, encompasses nearly all of Michigan, and parts of Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Ontario, Canada. The U.S. shoreline along the five...

The U.S. government has invested more than $5 billion since 2009 in GPS and provides GPS service free of direct charge to users worldwide. As shown in figure 1, GPS consists of the space segment, the groundcontrol segment, and the user segment. The U.S....

The United States taxes domestic corporations on their worldwide income, regardless of where it is earned, and provides credits for foreign income taxes paid. A U.S. parent corporation may directly or indirectly own multiple corporations, including both domestic and foreign subsidiaries. The U.S. taxes...

As of September 30, 2012, the tax debt of individuals and businesses that owed the U.S. government was about $364 billion, according to the IRS.The tax-debt inventory is the sum of all taxes owed to the IRS at a particular point in time, including...

The security situation in Central America has continued to deteriorate in recent years as Mexican drug trafficking organizations, transnational gangs, and other criminal groups have expanded their activities, contributing to escalating levels of crime and violence. Violence is particularly high in the "northern triangle"...

A high-quality personnel security clearance process is necessary to minimize the associated risks of unauthorized disclosures of classified information and to help ensure that information about individuals with criminal activity or other behavior is identified and assessed as part of the process for granting...

NIH conducts and sponsors biomedical research through its institutes and centers (IC), each of which is charged with a specific mission. ICs' missions generally focus on a given disease; a particular organ; or a stage in development, such as childhood or old age. ICs...

Federal agencies are required to have an occupant emergency program that establishes procedures for safeguarding lives and property during emergencies in their respective facilities.According to ISC, an OEP is a critical component of an effective occupant emergency program. Further, these plans are intended to...

NRC is an independent agency of about 4,000 employees established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 to license and regulate U.S. civilian-that is, commercial, industrial, academic, and medical-use of nuclear materials. NRC is headed by a five-member Commission. The President appoints these Commission...

To determine what is known about the supply and domestic demand for lithium-7, we analyzed data provided by industry representatives, reviewed agency and industry documents, and interviewed agency officials and industry representatives.Author: Government Accountability OfficeISBN-10: 1502965992ISBN-13: 9781502965998Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing PlatformLanguage: EnglishPublished: 10/31/2014Pages: 32Format:...

Millions of passengers use transit services on a daily basis in the United States, and many of the local transit agencies that provide these services receive federal funding. To meet the needs of these passengers in a challenging economy, transit agencies need to use...

To help protect against threats to federal systems, FISMA sets forth a comprehensive framework for ensuring the effectiveness of information security controls over information resources that support federal operations and assets. This framework creates a cycle of risk management activities necessary for an effective...

Within DHS, three components have responsibilities for conducting border and maritime R&D-S&T, the Coast Guard, and DNDO. S&T has five technical divisions responsible for managing the directorate's R&D portfolio and coordinating with other DHS components to identify R&D priorities and needs. The Borders and...

This section discusses BLM's organizational structure for managing oil and gas development, provides an overview of the process for developing federal oil and gas resources, and describes BLM's inspection and enforcement program.Author: Government Accountability OfficeISBN-10: 150296550XISBN-13: 9781502965509Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing PlatformLanguage: EnglishPublished: 10/31/2014Pages: 58Format:...

The Public Safety Partnership and Community Policing Act of 1994, as amended, authorizes grants to states, units of local government, Indian tribal governments, other public and private entities, and multijurisdictional or regional consortia for a variety of community policingrelated purposes. Among other things, this...

FTF is the U.S. government's global hunger and food security initiative. The overarching goal of the initiative is to accelerate progress toward the United Nation's Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty and hunger by 2015. FTF pursues...

Although federal funding may be available to obligate for one-year, multiple years, or until expended (no-year), only accounts with multi-year or no-year funds may carry over amounts that remain legally available for new obligations from one fiscal year to the next. Carryover balances are...

Recruiting and hiring involves developing and implementing strategies to advertise positions and attract top candidates as well as assessing applicants' relative competencies or knowledge, skills, and abilities against job-related criteria to identify the most qualified candidates.Author: Government Accountability OfficeISBN-10: 1502964910ISBN-13: 9781502964915Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing...