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.