Department of Agriculture, which administers agricultural conservation programs a source of federal funding that can complement EPA's water quality improvement efforts. USDA's conservation programs provide billions of dollars in assistance to farmers. In particular, through its Environmental Quality Incentives Program, which is implemented by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, USDA develops contracts with agricultural producers to implement conservation practices on working agricultural land to, for example, reduce soil erosion and nonpoint source water pollution.

GAO reviewed the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) program to determine whether: (1) planned testing would demonstrate operational effectiveness before a significant number of units are produced for deployment; and (2) missile target resources are adequate to support testing plans. GAO noted that: (1) the current THAAD program review and evaluation provides the Department of Defense (DOD) with the opportunity to: (a) reduce risk and minimize the number of initial quantities of unproven system hardware by reexamining the schedule for operational testing and production; and (b) ensure that realistic targets will be used for testing; (2) the last approved THAAD acquisition plan calls for significant production of deployment hardware almost 2 years before beginning independent operational testing to assess the system's operational effectiveness; (3) the Army maintains that it needs to buy a number of THAAD systems during low-rate initial production to "ramp-up" to the full rate of production; (4) delaying production until after completing sufficient testing that provides assurance that key performance requirements can be met reduces the risk of buying unproven systems and facilitates production of proven systems at more efficient rates; (5) a suitable target for testing the THAAD system against longer range missiles does not exist, and funds have not been requested for target development and production; and (6) without a longer range test target to represent the more formidable, higher velocity missiles that THAAD could face, the system's operational effectiveness will remain in doubt and DOD will not have reasonable assurance that it could rely on THAAD in an actual conflict.

GAO provided information regarding the Air Force's progress in achieving and sustaining full operational capability for the Peacekeeper missile force. GAO found that the Air Force: (1) delayed its plans to start full operational capability testing, citing congressional directions, basing mode redirections, gaps between developmental and operational flight testing, and production delays; (2) believes that developmental flight testing has demonstrated the system's capability; (3) plans to conduct only three phase I flight tests a year until fiscal year 1994 in order to meet the scheduled full operational capability milestone for the Peacekeeper in Minuteman Silo Program; (4) plans phase II testing to consist of 84 flight tests over 12 years; (5) plans to sustain required alert rates for a force of 50 Peacekeeper missiles with an inventory of 61 serviceable units and 20 units in repair; (6) had accepted 81 units by December 1988, although only 71 were fully operational; (7) improved its mean recycling time from 2,444 to 2,839 hours, but had not attained its planned level of 3,000 hours; and (8) will have difficulty sustaining its average 30-day repair time.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent agency that works for Congress. The GAO watches over Congress, and investigates how the federal government spends taxpayers dollars. The Comptroller General of the United States is the leader of the GAO, and is appointed to a 15-year term by the U.S. President. The GAO wants to support Congress, while at the same time doing right by the citizens of the United States. They audit, investigate, perform analyses, issue legal decisions and report anything that the government is doing. This is one of their reports.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent agency that works for Congress. The GAO watches over Congress, and investigates how the federal government spends taxpayers dollars. The Comptroller General of the United States is the leader of the GAO, and is appointed to a 15-year term by the U.S. President. The GAO wants to support Congress, while at the same time doing right by the citizens of the United States. They audit, investigate, perform analyses, issue legal decisions and report anything that the government is doing. This is one of their reports.

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the effects of leveraged buyouts (LBO) and hostile business takeovers, focusing on: (1) what happened to companies that had been taken over through LBO; (2) how those companies have performed since the takeover; and (3) the effect on communities. GAO found that: (1) in five LBO that GAO reviewed, purchasers bought out the target companies' equity holders with money from loans and bond issues; (2) the capitalization of the companies studied changed from primarily equity to primarily long-term debt after LBO or recapitalization; (3) employment at the companies declined after LBO and recapitalization as a result of asset divestitures and cost reduction efforts; (4) the overall performance of three of the five companies reviewed diminished after LBO, while one company's performance initially was mixed but then improved, and the last company's fluctuated; (5) since of the companies had locations across the country and were generally a small part of the economic base of any one community, communities were not adversely affected, but one company's headquarters formed a major part of the economic base for the local community and layoffs affected the overall earning power of the community; (6) financial success of the companies after LBO depended largely on their ability to meet the service requirements when due, which was dependent upon the initial price paid, future economic conditions, the value of the company's assets, and management's ability to cut costs, reduce debt, and improve profits afterwards; and (7) in these highly leveraged transactions the purchasers had little to lose if they paid too much and a lot to gain if they could make the surviving company a success, while their advisers earned large fees regardless of the price paid or ultimate fate of the surviving company.

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) efforts to ensure that high-risk contractors reduce the government's vulnerability to contract overpricing, focusing on the: (1) extent to which contractors are correcting significant cost-estimating system deficiencies; (2) actions DOD contracting officers are taking to encourage contractors to improve their cost-estimating systems; and (3) adequacy of DOD controls to ensure that deficiencies are timely corrected. GAO found that: (1) contractors' performance in correcting their significant cost-estimating system deficiencies has been mixed; (2) 11 of 30 high-risk DOD contractors have significant uncorrected deficiencies that have been outstanding an average of 3.8 years; (3) the failure to timely correct estimating deficiencies creates a variety of problems for DOD, including increased costs and delays in contract awards; (4) although DOD contracting officers take various actions to encourage contractors to correct cost-estimating deficiencies, contracting officers do not use the most stringent measures available, such as reducing progress payments or recommending nonaward of future contracts; (5) even when contractors have long-standing estimating system deficiencies, the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) does not attempt to determine the reasons for delays in correcting the deficiencies or ensure that contractors and DOD contracting officers are taking all appropriate actions to correct them; and (6) DLA oversight of contracting officers is important, since they have considerable latitude in deciding how to obtain corrective action and DOD does not specify criteria used to determine timeliness of corrective actions.

In response to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Zilwaukee Bridge Project to: (1) determine whether the testing program that the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) implemented confirmed that the bridge was structurally sound; (2) identify construction problems causing concerns about the bridge and determine whether they would affect its ability to perform as designed; and (3) assess the MDOT draft bridge maintenance manual. GAO found that: (1) the tests indicated that the Zilwaukee Bridge had performed as designed and that the concrete exceeded design requirements for strength and durability; (2) repairs made after a 1982 construction accident fully restored the damaged areas of the bridge; (3) concrete spalling and cracking did not affect the bridge's ability to perform as designed; (4) MDOT took corrective action to ensure proper bonding of all areas with a concrete overlay; and (5) although an independent panel's review of the maintenance manual concluded that the manual was generally well prepared, it recommended several changes that, if followed, would provide for more adequate future maintenance.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent agency that works for Congress. The GAO watches over Congress, and investigates how the federal government spends taxpayers dollars. The Comptroller General of the United States is the leader of the GAO, and is appointed to a 15-year term by the U.S. President. The GAO wants to support Congress, while at the same time doing right by the citizens of the United States. They audit, investigate, perform analyses, issue legal decisions and report anything that the government is doing. This is one of their reports.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent agency that works for Congress. The GAO watches over Congress, and investigates how the federal government spends taxpayers dollars. The Comptroller General of the United States is the leader of the GAO, and is appointed to a 15-year term by the U.S. President. The GAO wants to support Congress, while at the same time doing right by the citizens of the United States. They audit, investigate, perform analyses, issue legal decisions and report anything that the government is doing. This is one of their reports.