Friday, February 27, 2009

Department of Defense Releases Guantanamo Review

As you probably recall, President Obama's first executive order, made on January 22, 2009, was "Review and Disposition of Individuals Detained at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base Closure of Detention Facilities." The U.S. Department of Defense's report, Review of Department Compliance with President’s Executive Order on Detainee Conditions of Confinement, is now available on its website.

According to an article in this week's New York Times, some lawyers and human rights groups are critical of the review. For resources on different sides of the issues, see our guides to Crime & Justice and Human Rights.

GAO Releases This Week

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is often called the investigative arm of Congress. This week they investigated a variety of issues, such as arts education, the tax gap, hiring and retaining older workers, and the Whistleblower Protection Program. If you would like to know more about the GAO, check out the library's guide.

Reports
Correspondence
Testimonies
  • Chemical Regulation: Options for Enhancing the Effectiveness of the Toxic Substances Control Act, by John Stephenson, director, natural resources and environment, before the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection, House Committee on Energy and Commerce. GAO-09-428T, February 26.
    http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-09-428T
    Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d09428thigh.pdf
  • Climate Change Science: High Quality Greenhouse Gas Emissions Data are a Cornerstone of Programs to Address Climate Change, by John Stephenson, director, natural resources and environment, before the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, House Committee on Science and Technology. GAO-09-423T, February 24.
    http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-09-423T
    Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d09423thigh.pdf
  • Defense Acquisitions: Charting a Course for Improved Missile Defense Testing, by Paul Francis, director, acquisition and sourcing management, before the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, House Committee on Armed Services. GAO-09-403T, February 25.
    http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-09-403T
    Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d09403thigh.pdf
  • Excluded Parties List System: Suspended and Debarred Businesses and Individuals Improperly Receive Federal Funds, by Gregory D. Kutz, managing director, forensic audits and special investigations, before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. GAO-09-419T, February 26.
    http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-09-419T
  • Federal Land Management: Potential Effects and Factors to Consider in a Move of the Forest Service into the Department of the Interior, by Robin M. Nazzaro, director, natural resources and environment, before the Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, House Committee on Appropriations. GAO-09-412T, February 24.
    http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-09-412T
    Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d09412thigh.pdf
  • Hardrock Mining: Information on Types of State Royalties, Number of Abandoned Mines, and Financial Assurances on BLM Land, by Robin M. Nazzaro, director, natural resources and environment, before the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, House Committee on Natural Resources. GAO-09-429T, February 26.
    http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-09-429T
    Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d09429thigh.pdf
  • Veterinarian Workforce: The Federal Government Lacks a Comprehensive Understanding of Its Capacity to Protect Animal and Public Health, by Lisa R. Shames, director, natural resources and environment, before the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. GAO-09-424T, February 26.
    http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-09-424T
    Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d09424thigh.pdf
  • Troubled Asset Relief Program: Status of Efforts to Address Transparency and Accountability Issues, by Gene L. Dodaro, acting comptroller general, before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, House Committee on Financial Services. GAO-09-417T, February 24.
    http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-09-417T
  • Workforce Investment Act: Labor Has Made Progress in Addressing Areas of Concern, but More Focus Needed on Understanding What Works and What Doesn't, by George A. Scott, director, education, workforce, and income security, before the Subcommittee on Higher Education, Lifelong Learning, and Competitiveness, House Committee on Education and Labor. GAO-09-396T, February 26.
    http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-09-396T
    Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d09396thigh.pdf

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Budget Takes Center Stage at the White House

Yesterday at the opening of the Fiscal Responsibility Summit, President Obama stated that he is "pledging to cut the deficit we inherited in half by the end of my first term in office. This will not be easy. It will require us to make difficult decisions and face challenges we've long neglected. But I refuse to leave our children with a debt that they cannot repay -- and that means taking responsibility right now, in this administration, for getting our spending under control." You can read a transcript of President Obama's and Vice President Biden's remarks at WhiteHouse.gov. You can read more about the Fiscal Responsibility Summit in the Washington Post.

You can find the Budget of the United States Government, from 1997 to present, on GPO Access. On this page there is already a place-holder for "A New Era of Responsibility: Renewing America’s Promise," the budget overview for fiscal year 2010 that should be available this February 26.

For additional government sources on budget and debt, see

  • Bureau of the Public Debt: This division of the Department of Treasury borrows the money needed to operate the Federal Government and accounts for the resulting debt. This page has information on the size of the debt, savings bonds, and treasury bills.

Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports

Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a research agency of Congress and writes reports at Congress's request. These short reports (usually 10-40 pages long) cover recent topics of concern. This week only brings us a lot of CRS reports, including ones mountain pine beetles, torture, Iraq, and much more. While these reports are in the public domain there is no central database available to the public. To get a copy of a CRS report you can request it from your Senator or Representative. This list is compiled from CRS reports discovered by OpenCRS and Secrecy News:
Interested in historical CRS reports? If you are here at the Boulder campus, check out the LexisNexis Congressional database, which has reports back to 1916.

Not on campus, but still want access to additional reports? The library has a guide linking to various additional sources of CRS reports.

Friday, February 20, 2009

GAO Releases This Week

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is often called the investigative arm of Congress. This week they investigated a variety of issues, such as embassy construction, the Clean Air Act, and veterinarians protecting animal and public health. If you would like to know more about the GAO, check out the library's guide.

Reports
Related Product
Correspondence
Presentations By The Acting Comptroller General
  • "Challenges Facing the New Administration and the 111th Congress," by Gene L. Dodaro, acting comptroller general, before the AGA 2009 Leadership Conference, in Washington, D.C. GAO-09-383CG, February 19, 2009
    http://www.gao.gov/cghome/d09383cg.pdf
  • "GAO's Work on Today's High Risk Issues and Long-Term Challenges," by Gene L. Dodaro, acting comptroller general, before the Arizona Society of CPAs, in Phoenix, Arizona. GAO-09-382CG, February 6, 2009
    http://www.gao.gov/cghome/d09382cg.pdf

FRUS Management Under Review by State Department

A blog post by Secrecy News, one of our sources for Congressional Research Service (CRS) documents, suggests that management problems within the State Department's Office of the Historian (HO) may have a negative impact on the “Foreign Relations of the United States” (FRUS) series of organizational changes are not made within the HO. Read the blog post here.

A State Department press statement from December 23, 2008, shows that then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice talked to the Historical Advisory Committee (HAC) about its concerns regarding the FRUS series, and "she had asked an outside Review Team to provide recommendations about how to ensure the FRUS series remains the gold standard for diplomatic history scholarship." According to the Secrecy News post, the review team's January 13, 2009, report, with suggestions for reorganization of the HO, was submitted to the Secretary of State.


The FRUS series started in 1861 and provides over 350 volumes of historical records of American foreign policy. Each volume features declassified records from the White House, the Department of State, and other foreign affairs agencies. On the State Department's FRUS site you can do a keyword search for specific foreign relations documents, browse among online volumes associated with a particular presidential administration, or view a full list of volumes.

For additional resources, see our guide to Foreign Relations.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Which Projects Will Be Funded by the Stimulus Bill?

President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 into law yesterday at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. You can read about the signing in the Denver Post. You can find links to the full text of the legislation, the conference report, and congressional roll calls on the Library of Congress's THOMAS website.

According to the Post, President Obama claimed "the bill's mix of tax cuts, infrastructure projects, energy and education investments, and aid to the unemployed and poor would create or save 3.5 million jobs over the next two years, including roughly 60,000 in Colorado." Wondering what types of projects your state hopes will benefit from the $787 billion stimulus package? Stimulus Watch is a nongovernmental organization formed "to help the [Obama] administration keep its pledge and to hold public officials to account." Its website provides a list of proposed "shovel-ready projects" released by the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

The Stimulus Watch website allows you to search for project information by state, city, keyword, or program type and indicates each program's cost and the number of jobs it would create. The website also allows visitors to comment on these proposed projects. Note that these projects are not part of the stimulus bill, and they may or may not be funded by it. Stimulus Watch gives you an opportunity to find out what's being proposed so that you can contribute to the discussion on how taxpayer dollars are being used.

For more online resources, see our guide to Federal Contracts.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

National Technical Information Service (NTIS)

It has been a while since we talked in-depth about a government agency and so today I thought I would talk about the National Technical Information Service (NTIS). NTIS is a bit different then many government agencies in that it is allowed to charge for its services, in fact it the American Technology Preeminance Act of 1992 "required all costs associated with bibliographic control to be recovered by fees." To learn more about the development of this agency, check out the About NTIS page.

So what to do they provide access to? NTIS collects all scientific and technical information produced by the government or sponsored by the government. They have provide copies of this material on a cost-recovery basis to the rest of us. Now if you are here in Boulder you are lucky because CU-Boulder has one of the largest collections of technical reports outside of the government.

So how do you find it? There are a variety of tools to choose from:
  • NTIS Index This is a subscription resource from Engineering Village available on CU-Boulder's campus that lets you search the index of the NTIS collection. For help using this database, check out the library's guide.
  • NTIS This is the free search of the NTIS collection (again only an index with no full-text access), you don't get quite the same nice search features, but it is open to everyone with no limitations.
  • National Technical Reports Library (NTRL) This is another subscription resource that CU-Boulder is trialing right now. The first two resources only give you citations, this database provides full-text access to the reports within the database. If you like this database (or hate it), please fill out the library's trial evaluation form.
  • RSS feeds If you don't want to keep searching the databases, but you want to know when new resources come out subscribe to one of these feeds.
A few tips on technical reports:
  • Many of these reports are available online, if you want to check out if they are in another source search the title in a google or another search engine.
  • If you are having trouble finding a copy, visit the library or email us.
Still want more technical reports? There are lots of databases from agencies other then NTIS, check out the library's guide.

Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports

Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a research agency of Congress and writes reports at Congress's request. These short reports (usually 10-40 pages long) cover recent topics of concern. This week only brings us a lot of CRS reports, including ones Iran, nuclear waste, climate change, and much more. While these reports are in the public domain there is no central database available to the public. To get a copy of a CRS report you can request it from your Senator or Representative. This list is compiled from CRS reports discovered by OpenCRS and Secrecy News:
Interested in historical CRS reports? If you are here at the Boulder campus, check out the LexisNexis Congressional database, which has reports back to 1916.

Not on campus, but still want access to additional reports? The library has a guide linking to various additional sources of CRS reports.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

GAO Releases This Week

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is often called the investigative arm of Congress. This week they investigated a variety of issues, such as aviation security, Iraq and Afghanistan, and Social Security and the baby boom generation. If you would like to know more about the GAO, check out the library's guide.

Reports
Correspondence
Testimonies
  • Afghanistan Security: Corrective Actions Are Needed to Address Serious Accountability Concerns about Weapons Provided to Afghan National Security Forces, by Charles M. Johnson, Jr., director, international affairs and trade, before the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. GAO-09-366T, February 12.
    http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-09-366T
  • Defense Management: Actions Needed to Overcome Long-standing Challenges with Weapon Systems Acquisition and Service Contract Management, by Gene L. Dodaro, acting comptroller general, before the Subcommittee on Defense, House Committee on Appropriations. GAO-09-362T, February 11.
    http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-09-362T
    Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d09362thigh.pdf
  • Iraq and Afghanistan: Availability of Forces, Equipment, and Infrastructure Should Be Considered in Developing U.S. Strategy and Plans, by Janet St. Laurent, managing director, defense capabilities and management, before the House Committee on Armed Services. GAO-09-380T, February 12.
    http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-09-380T
    Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d09380thigh.pdf
  • Transportation Research: The Department of Transportation Has Made Progress in Coordinating and Reviewing Its Research Activities, by David J. Wise, acting director, physical infrastructure issues, before the Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation, House Committee on Science and Technology. GAO-09-361T, February 12.
    http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-09-361T
    Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d09361thigh.pdf

Thursday, February 12, 2009

More CRS Reports Made Available Through Wikileaks

Congressional Research Service reports have become even more accessible now that Wikileaks.org has published thousands of thus-far unreleased CRS reports on its website. Yesterday the Washington Post provided a article on Wikileaks efforts as well as differing opinions from congressional and media representatives about whether CRS reports should be made readily available to the public. Also check out Wikileaks' full press release on its involvement with CRS reports.

According to the Post article, Wikileaks will be feeding all newly released CRS reports it receives to OpenCRS.org, which is one of our current sources for the list of CRS reports that we provide on our blog each week.

Remember that it wasn't impossible to find CRS reports before Wikileaks' project. Our guide to CRS provides a number of free and library-accessible sources for searching for and retrieving CRS reports.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Geithner Unveils Financial Stability Plan

Today U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner introduced the Treasury Department's Financial Stability Plan, which will assist banks and credit markets with up to $1 trillion in public and private funds. Read the article in the Washington Post or Secretary Geithner's introduction of the plan on the Treasury Department's website.

In his introduction, Geithner mentions that the "Department of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, and all the financial agencies in our country will bring the full force of the United States Government to bear to strengthen our financial system so that we get the economy back on track." On the Federal Reserve's website you can find Chairman Ben Bernanke's testimony before Congress about the Fed's efforts to boost the economy.

Geithner also remarks that the Treasury is creating a new website, FinancialStability.gov, to provide accountability to American tax-payers about how financial institutions are being regulated and whether funds are being used wisely. This website is still under construction, but it already contains a link to a seven-page fact sheet on the Financial Stability Plan.

For additional resources, see our guide to Business and Economic Information.

Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports

Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a research agency of Congress and writes reports at Congress's request. These short reports (usually 10-40 pages long) cover recent topics of concern. This week only brings us a lot of CRS reports, including ones stimulus, energy, China, and much more. While these reports are in the public domain there is no central database available to the public. To get a copy of a CRS report you can request it from your Senator or Representative. This list is compiled from CRS reports discovered by OpenCRS and Secrecy News:
Interested in historical CRS reports? If you are here at the Boulder campus, check out the LexisNexis Congressional database, which has reports back to 1916.

Not on campus, but still want access to additional reports? The library has a guide linking to various additional sources of CRS reports.

Friday, February 06, 2009

GAO Releases This Week

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is often called the investigative arm of Congress. This week they investigated a variety of issues, such as foster care, Medicaid funding, and the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). If you would like to know more about the GAO, check out the library's guide.

Reports
Correspondence
Testimonies
  • Financial Regulation: A Framework for Crafting and Assessing Proposals to Modernize the Outdated U.S. Financial Regulatory System, by Gene L. Dodaro, acting comptroller general, before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. GAO-09-349T, February 4.
    http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-09-349T
  • Troubled Asset Relief Program: Status of Efforts to Address Transparency and Accountability Issues, by Gene L. Dodaro, acting comptroller general, before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. GAO-09-359T, February 5.
    http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-09-359T
Guidance

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports

Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a research agency of Congress and writes reports at Congress's request. These short reports (usually 10-40 pages long) cover recent topics of concern. This week only brings us a lot of CRS reports, including ones Iraq, DTV, stimulus, and much more. While these reports are in the public domain there is no central database available to the public. To get a copy of a CRS report you can request it from your Senator or Representative. This list is compiled from CRS reports discovered by OpenCRS and Secrecy News:
Interested in historical CRS reports? If you are here at the Boulder campus, check out the LexisNexis Congressional database, which has reports back to 1916.

Not on campus, but still want access to additional reports? The library has a guide linking to various additional sources of CRS reports.

Monday, February 02, 2009

Developments in Iraq

Iraq's provincial elections were held on Saturday, and early reports showed that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki's Dawa party and other secular parties were showing strong results. You can read about the elections in the New York Times, which states that United States had encouraged the provincial elections in order to redistribute power more evenly throughout the country.

One day before the elections, the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) posted its Quarterly Report and Semiannual Report to Congress to its website. The report mentions that "Iraq is entering a new era, embodied by a number of important changes" and includes information about contracts, funds, and U.S. oversight in Iraq. Since 2004, SIGIR has created 20 Quarterly Reports to the Congress, and you can access them all from its Reports to Congress web page.

For additional resources about the war in Iraq and its changing governance, see our guide.

Sunday, February 01, 2009

GAO Releases This Week

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is often called the investigative arm of Congress. This week they investigated a variety of issues, such as the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). If you would like to know more about the GAO, check out the library's guide.

Reports
Correspondence
Testimony
  • U.S. Postal Service: Deteriorating Postal Finances Require Aggressive Actions to Reduce Costs, by Phillip R. Herr, director, physical infrastructure, before the Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. GAO-09-332T, January 28.
    http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-09-332T

    Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d09332thigh.pdf