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New GAO Reports: Social Security Administration's Electronic Data Exchanges, Protecting Marine Mammals from Commercial Fishing

  • Information Technology: Demand for the Social Security Administration’s Electronic Data Exchanges Is Growing and Presents Future Challenges, GAO-09-126, December 04, 2008: “Through more than 3,000 data exchanges with federal and state agencies, SSA both receives incoming data to support its own programs and provides outgoing data to support programs of other federal and state agencies. Most of these exchanges involve collecting incoming electronic data from other agencies, primarily to support the administration of Social Security benefits programs. The outgoing data from SSA to other federal and state agencies typically provide Social Security number verifications or are used to implement payment offsets in support of other agencies’ business operations. In this regard, the agency performs more than a billion transactions to verify Social Security numbers for federal and state agencies each year.”
  • National Marine Fisheries Service: Improvements Are Needed in the Federal Process Used to Protect Marine Mammals from Commercial Fishing, GAO-09-78, December 08, 2008: “Because marine mammals, such as whales and dolphins, often inhabit waters where commercial fishing occurs, they can become entangled in fishing gear, which may injure or kill them – this is referred to as “incidental take.” The 1994 amendments to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) require the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to establish take reduction teams for certain marine mammals to develop measures to reduce their incidental takes. GAO was asked to determine the extent to which NMFS (1) can accurately identify the marine mammal stocks— generally a population of animals of the same species located in a common area — that meet the MMPA’s requirements for establishing such teams, (2) has established teams for those stocks that meet the requirements, (3) has met the MMPA’s deadlines for the teams subject to them, and (4) evaluates the effectiveness of take reduction regulations. GAO reviewed the MMPA, and NMFS data on marine mammals, and take reduction team documents and obtained the views of NMFS officials, scientists, and take reduction team members.”

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