INFORMATION

Site Map - Government Reports (GAO etc.)

Mail Handling Reviewed

- Mail handling procedures at the U.S. Postal Service need improvement, according to an analysis of the Postal Service’s handling of the October 2003 incident in which an envelope marked “Caution: Ricin Poison” was discovered in an airmail facility. @  Read the full report via SM Online.

Homeland Insecurity

- GAO report finds weak IT security practices at DHS that make it vulnerable to attacks.

Founding Fathers

- GAO gives high marks to federal agencies with facilities on the National Mall.

Classified Data

- Oversight of contractors with foreign connections questioned.

Data Mining

- This GAO Report looks at how federal agencies are data mining personal consumer information.

DHS Criticized for Overuse of Contractors

- GAO says overreliance on contractors to handle certain functions is unwise because it could allow contractors to inappropriately influence government decisions.

Space-based Solar Power Could Aid Security

- A report released this month by the National Security Space Office finds that using space-based solar power is an opportunity for strategic security.

Federal Prisons Don't Have Information to Decide if Outsourcing Saves Cash

- New GAO report says federal prisons have no way to currently compare the costs of keeping inmates at federal prisons or in private prisons.

Quick Bytes: RFID planning

- The Department of Defense (DoD) is using radio frequency ID (RFID) tags throughout its supply-chain operations; by January 2007, all DoD commodities will have these tags.

Flight Crew Training

- The actions TSA has taken to develop guidance and standards for flight and cabin crew security training and to measure the effectiveness of such mandatory training are reviewed in a GAO report.

The Islamic Extremism Evaluated

- The rise of Islamic extremism is examined in a new  GAO report

Efforts to Tighten Borders Continue

- Specially trained border patrol officers have long been authorized to issue removal orders so that illegal immigrants not seeking asylum get deported without a hearing. Called “expedited removal,” the authority previously applied in only three U.S. Customs and Border Protection Border Patrol Sectors across the southwest border. It has now been expanded to nine.

RFID planning

- The Department of Defense (DoD) is using radio frequency ID (RFID) tags throughout its supply-chain operations; by January 2007, all DoD commodities will have these tags. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports that the Pentagon has identified many of the challenges it needs to resolve before this can happen but notes that “it has not yet developed a comprehensive strategic management approach” to guide, monitor, and assess implementation. @  Read the full GAO report at SM Online.