Recent GAO reports

From the Government Accountability Office (GAO):

LOBBYING DISCLOSURE: Observations on Lobbyists' Compliance with New Disclosure Requirements, GAO-08-1099 (pdf, 37pp/1.5MB), Sept. 30, 2008

This is GAO's first annual report on the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act (HLOGA) of 2007, P.L. 110-81 (pdf, 42pp.), which requires GAO to report on (1) lobbyists' compliance with the Act with supporting documents, (2) challenges to complying with the Act, and (3) the process for referring cases to the Dept. of Justice and other means to enforce the Act.


ELECTIONS: States, Territories, and the District Are Taking a Range of Important Steps to Manage Their Varied Voting System Environments, GAO-08-874 (pdf, 129pp/1.98MB), Sept. 25, 2008

For this study GAO was asked to answer the following questions: (1) what voting methods and systems are jurisdictions using in federal elections and what changes are underway; (2) how do they certify or otherwise approve voting systems; (3) what other steps do they take to ensure the accuracy, reliability, and security of voting systems; (4) how do they identify, evaluate, and respond to voting system problems; and (5) how do they view federal voting system-related resources and services.


WILDLIFE REFUGES: Changes in Funding, Staffing, and Other Factors Create Concerns about Future Sustainability, GAO-08-797 (pdf, 131pp/3.2MB), Sept. 22, 2008

The National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS) comprises 548 wildlife refuges and 37 wetland management districts. (Hawaii has 18 wildlife refuges.) GAO's study covers funding, staffing, policy initiatives, external factors (extreme weather, adjacent development), habitat management, and visitor services in FY 2002-2007.


PENSION BENEFIT GUARANTY CORPORATION: Improvements Needed to Address Financial and Management Challenges, GAO-08-1162T (pdf, 29pp/504kB), Sept. 24, 2008

PENSION BENEFIT GUARANTY CORPORATION: Need for Improved Oversight Persists, GAO-08-1062 (pdf, 34pp/964kB), Sept. 10, 2008

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) insures the pensions of nearly 44 million private-sector workers and retirees. The Sept. 24 testimony covers (1) PBGC's role in protecting pension benefits and how it is funded, (2) the financial challenges facing PBGC, and (3) PBGC's governance, oversight and management challenges. It focuses on the single-employer pension insurance program. The Sept. 10 study covers (1) the steps PBGC has taken to improve policy direction and oversight, and (2) Congressional and other governmental oversight.


COASTAL ZONE MANAGEMENT: Measuring Program's Effectiveness Continues to Be a Challenge, GAO-08-1045 (pdf, 59pp/1.18MB), Sept. 12, 2008

Coastal zone management is administered by the Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management (OCRM), of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), that provides grants to participating states under the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA). There are 34 state programs (including territories and commonwealths). GAO reported on (1) NOAA's methodology for awarding CZMA grants, (2) how NOAA ensures that grant activities comply with the CZMA, and (3) how NOAA measures the effectiveness of state programs. There are tables for each of the grant types: coastal zone management, coastal zone enhancement, and coastal nonpoint pollution control. Allocations for the 3 types of grants for Hawaii in FY 2008 were $1.8 million, $174,000, and $42,000, respectively.

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The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law is a non-partisan public policy and law institute that focuses on fundamental issues of democracy and justice.

from The Brennan Center for Justice mission statement

The Brennan Center for Justice recently released two reports on the "barriers to voting" preventing eligible voters from casting their ballots. The first report deals with the purging of voter registration records.

A citizen typically cannot cast a vote that will count unless her name appears on the voter registration rolls. Yet state and local officials regularly remove-or "purge"-citizens from voter rolls. In fact, thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia reported purging more than 13 million voters from registration rolls between 2004 and 2006...

Officials strike voters from the rolls through a process that is shrouded in secrecy, prone to error, and vulnerable to manipulation.

The report goes on to state that the absence of transparency and consistency in the purging process makes it nearly impossible to determine the number of voters erroneously removed from the rolls.

The Brennan Center's second report addresses the de facto disenfranchisement from a criminal conviction.

State laws vary widely on when voting rights are restored. Maine and Vermont do not deny the franchise based on a criminal conviction; even prisoners may vote there. Kentucky and Virginia are the last two states to continue to permanently disenfranchise all people with felony convictions unless they receive individual, discretionary clemency from the governor. The remaining 46 states fall somewhere in between, with the varied state laws forming a patchwork across the country.

The lack of training for election officials in the local felony disenfranchisement policies, and the little or no communication between the criminal justice system and election offices:

result in the mass dissemination of inaccurate and misleading information, which in turn leads to the de facto disenfranchisement of untold hundreds of thousands of eligible would-be voters throughout the country.

Voter Purges - by Myrna Pérez
(September 2008; pdf, 52pp/644kB)

De Facto Disenfranchisement - by Erika Wood and Rachel Bloom
(October 2008; pdf, 24pp/272kB)

"Emerging challenges"

"Issues Over the Horizon: Eleven Emerging Challenges" is the cover story of the Summer 2008 issue of the RAND Review (pdf, 32pp/2.17MB), a publication of the RAND Corporation. There are 11 essays on "important policy issues not currently receiving the attention they deserve in the public debate." Among the issues:

• The Aging Couple - Social Security and Medicare
• Corporate America's Next Big Scandal - corporate income tax avoidance
• Innovative Infrastructure - using electronic sensors instead of human inspection
• The Day After - when electronic voting machines fail
• Beating the Germ Insurgency - drug-resistant diseases
• A Second Reproductive Revolution - "egg banking" will stop the biological clock
• From Nation-State to Nexus-State - networks without boundaries

Just in...

Developing a Dream Destination: Tourism and Tourism Policy Planning in Hawaii, by James Mak, professor of economics at the University of Hawaii (UH), covers the development of tourism policy in Hawaii from the 1960s to the present. Chapters discuss the genesis of tourism policy; taxing tourism; promoting tourism; the Hawaii Convention Center (HCC) and the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA); improving Waikiki; the Neighbor Islands; and lessons from Hawaii's experience. 255 pp. (G155 H3 M34 2008) (ISBN 0824832439).

See press release.


In Gaming the Vote: Why Elections Aren't Fair (and What We Can Do About It), author William Poundstone posits the "spoiler effect"--in five U.S. presidential elections, the second most popular candidate won because of a spoiler, a minor candidate who tipped the election from the most popular to someone else (think Ralph Nader). Poundstone also proffers remedies to the problem, favoring range voting, in which voters rank the candidates. Range voting, he says, "has become the favored voting method of the Internet." 338 pp. (JK1976 P68 2008) (ISBN 0809048939).

See NY Times review, 3.20.08

Recent GAO reports

From the Government Accountability Office (GAO):

LONG-TERM FISCAL OUTLOOK: Action Is Needed to Avoid the Possibility of a Serious Economic Disruption in the Future, GAO-08-411T (pdf, 21pp/376kB), January 29, 2008

In testimony by the Comptroller General, 3 key points:

• The federal budget is on an imprudent and unsustainable path
• Rapidly rising health care costs are our nation's number one fiscal challenge
• The window of opportunity for action is shrinking as the first baby boomers retire and begin tapping into Social Security and Medicare

STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS: Growing Fiscal Challenges Will Emerge during the Next 10 Years, GAO-08-317 (pdf, 78pp/716kB), January 22, 2008

As is true for the federal sector, the growth in health-related expenditures is the primary driver of the fiscal challenges facing the state and local government sector. In particular, two types of state and local expenditures will likely rise quickly. The first is Medicaid expenditures, and the second is expenditures by these governments for health insurance for state and local employees and retirees.

ELDERLY VOTERS: Some Improvements in Voting Accessibility from 2000 to 2004 Elections, but Gaps in Policy and Implementation Remain, GAO-08-442T (pdf, 30pp/792kB), January 31, 2008

This report covers voting accessibility by seniors and the disabled, specifically getting to polling places and being able to cast votes once they arrive. Besides impediments to wheelchair users, the forms of ballots, type size of voting instructions, and lack of ballots with audio-tape or braille ballots may affect access. GAO noted an increase in states' providing alternative voting methods such as early voting, absentee voting without medical certification, curbside voting, allowing voters to go to more accessible polling places, and taking ballots to a voter's residence. Some election officials reported that early and absentee voting added to the "cost and complexity" of elections.


BILINGUAL VOTING ASSISTANCE: Selected Jurisdictions' Strategies for Identifying Needs and Providing Assistance, GAO-08-182 (pdf, 86pp/2.8MB), January 18, 2008

This study was mandated by the "Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006," P.L. 109-246 (pdf, 5pp.), section 9, regarding the implementation of section 203 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Section 203 is codified at 42 USC 1973b(f). GAO gathered information from 14 of the 296 jurisdictions required to provide bilingual voting assistance. It found that evaluating the effectiveness of these programs is difficult, therefore the extent to which they are helpful to language minority voters is unknown.