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The program’s acquisition approach involves the conversion of Sikorsky S-92A helicopters into VH-92A presidential helicopters by incorporating a unique mission interior that accommodates government-provided equipment such as, communications and mission systems. The program is limiting modifications to the aircraft to a... | The mission of the presidential helicopter fleet is to provide safe, reliable, and timely transportation for the President, Vice President, foreign heads of state, and other official parties as directed by the White House Military Office. The Navy plans to acquire VH-92A helicopters to replace its aging fleet. Initial ... |
Over the past few years, both IRS’ Office of Internal Audit and we have reported on the need for improved controls to protect against unauthorized accesses of taxpayer data by IRS employees. In October 1992, Internal Audit reported that IRS had limited ability to prevent unauthorized accesses and detect such accesses o... | Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) implementation of the Taxpayer Browsing Protection Act, focusing on: (1) actions IRS has taken to implement the law; and (2) the number of potential and proven incidents of unauthorized access by IRS employees that IRS... |
With a few exceptions, the volume of salvage timber the Forest Service has offered for sale has remained fairly constant over the years. However, as the green (or nonsalvage) timber sale program has decreased in size, the salvage sale program has increased as a percentage of the total volume offered for sale. For examp... | Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the status of the Salvage Sale Fund's balance and the management practices affecting the replenishment of the fund. GAO noted that: (1) after reaching a high of $247 million at the end of fiscal year (FY) 1993, the Salvage Sale Fund's balance declined 25 percent to $186... |
In November 2013, we issued the first report, which examined (1) actual government support for banks and bank holding companies during the financial crisis and (2) recent statutory and regulatory changes related to government support for banks and bank holding companies. See GAO, Government Support for Bank Holding Com... | “Too big to fail” is a market notion that the federal government would intervene to prevent the failure of a large, complex financial institution to avoid destabilizing the financial sector and the economy. Expectations of government rescues can distort investor incentives to properly price the risks of firms they view... |
As we discussed in our 2002 report, TPCC member agencies perform functions that include identifying export opportunities, providing financing and insurance, and working to create open markets for U.S. exports and investments. Chaired by the Secretary of Commerce, the TPCC currently has a staff of three Commerce trade p... | In 1992, Congress established the Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee (TPCC) to provide a unifying interagency framework to coordinate U.S. export promotion activities and to develop a governmentwide strategic plan. TPCC member agencies' activities include providing training, market information, advocacy, trade fina... |
The role of women in the military has evolved from the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act of 1948— which afforded women the opportunity to serve in the military services—to January 2013, when the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff directed the services to open closed units and positi... | Since September 2001 more than 300,000 women have been deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, where more than 800 women have been wounded and more than 130 have died. A 1994 rule prohibited women from being assigned to many direct ground-combat units, but on January 24, 2013, the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the... |
In 2008, the most recently available data, more than 153 million cattle, sheep, hogs, and other animals ultimately destined to provide meat for human consumption were slaughtered at about 800 slaughter plants throughout the United States that engage in interstate commerce. Under federal law, meat-processing facilities ... | Concerns about the humane handling and slaughter of livestock have grown; for example, a 2009 video showed employees at a Vermont slaughter plant skinning and decapitating conscious 1-week old veal calves. The Humane Methods of Slaughter Act of 1978, as amended (HMSA) prohibits the inhumane treatment of livestock in co... |
Decisions made in setting requirements very early in a ship’s development have enormous impact on the total ownership costs. Total ownership costs include the costs to research, develop, acquire, own, operate, maintain, and dispose of weapon and support systems; the costs of other equipment and real property; the costs... | The cost of a ship's crew is the single largest incurred over the ship's life cycle. One way to lower personnel costs, and thus the cost of ownership, is to use people only when it is cost-effective--a determination made with a systems engineering approach called human systems integration. GAO was asked to evaluate the... |
The military services annually determine their current and future munition procurement requirements in accordance with the Defense Planning Guidance. Historically, the Defense Planning Guidance has directed the military services to arm a given force structure to win two nearly simultaneous major theaters of war. In rec... | To determine the number and type of munitions needed, the military annually evaluates its munition requirements using a multiphase analytical process. The Department of Defense (DOD) is working to ensure that the requirements determination process yields accurate numbers and the types of munitions needed to defeat thre... |
DOD has substantially restructured the JSF program over the past 15 months, taking positive actions that should lead to more achievable and predictable outcomes. Restructuring has consequences—higher development costs, fewer aircraft in the near term, training delays, and extended times for testing and delivering capab... | The F-35 Lightning II, also known as the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), is the Department of Defense's (DOD) most costly and ambitious aircraft acquisition, seeking to simultaneously develop and field three aircraft variants for the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and eight international partners. The JSF is critical for r... |
Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has dramatically decreased its overseas basing of military forces. The Air Force’s presence in Europe, for example, shrank from 25 bases with 850 aircraft in 1990 to just 6 bases and 174 aircraft in 1999. In preparation for Operation Allied Force, the Air Force augmented... | Following the failure of peace talks and escalating violence against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, the United States provided military support to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) combat operations against Yugoslavia in March 1999. This report reviews how well the United States was prepared for basing its com... |
Small employers with fewer than 50 employees represent more than three- fourths of all U.S. private establishments and employ nearly one-third of the private sector workforce. (See fig. 1.) However, small employers are less likely than large employers to offer health insurance to their employees. In 1998, whereas 96 pe... | Many small employers--those with 50 or fewer workers--do not offer health benefits to their employees. This is particularly true for employers with fewer than 10 workers. The families of workers employed by small employers are about twice as likely to be uninsured as households with a worker at a large employer. Despit... |
The Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act (P.L. 100-77, July 1987) was the first comprehensive federal law designed to assist the homeless. Although the McKinney Act authorized a number of direct assistance programs to provide shelter and support services for the homeless, it did not consolidate the funding for o... | Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the federal approach to meeting the needs of the homeless, focusing on: (1) identifying and describing characteristics of the federal programs specifically targeted, or reserved, for the homeless, and key nontargeted programs available to assist low-income people genera... |
In 2002, DHS established its Directorate of Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection. In 2005, the directorate was divided into two offices—I&A and the Office of Infrastructure Protection. I&A is headed by the Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis, who is responsible for providing homeland security in... | Information sharing among federal, state, and local officials is crucial for preventing acts of terrorism on U.S. soil. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), through its Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A), has lead federal responsibility for such information sharing. GAO was asked to assess (1) actions I&A ... |
Recognizing the need to modernize its IT systems, FBI proposed a major technology upgrade plan to Congress in September 2000. FBI’s Information Technology Upgrade Project, which FBI subsequently renamed Trilogy, was FBI’s largest automated information systems initiative to date. Trilogy consisted of three parts: (1) th... | The Trilogy project--initiated in 2001--is the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) largest information technology (IT) upgrade to date. While ultimately successful in providing updated IT infrastructure and systems, Trilogy was not a success with regard to upgrading FBI's investigative applications. Further, the pr... |
Overall, our analysis of the $33 billion in reported excess commodity disposals in fiscal years 2002 through 2004 showed that $4 billion related to items in new, unused, and excellent condition. Of the $4 billion, we determined that $3.5 billion (88 percent) included substantial waste and inefficiency because new, unus... | GAO was asked to assess the overall economy and efficiency of the Department of Defense (DOD) program for excess property reutilization (reuse). Specifically, GAO was asked to determine (1) whether and to what extent the program included waste and inefficiency and (2) root causes of any waste and inefficiency. GAO was ... |
When selecting contractors, the FAR generally requires agencies to consider past performance as a factor in most competitive procurements. During source selection, contracting officials often rely on various sources of past performance information, such as the prospective contractor’s performance on prior government or... | Having complete, timely, and accurate information on contractor performance allows officials responsible for awarding new federal contracts to make informed decisions. Agencies generally are required to document contractor performance on contracts or orders exceeding certain dollar thresholds. Section 853 of the Nation... |
To help manage its multi-billion dollar acquisition investments, DHS has established policies and processes for acquisition management, test and evaluation, and resource allocation. The department uses these policies and processes to deliver systems that are intended to close critical capability gaps, helping enable DH... | In fiscal year 2016, DHS planned to invest about $7 billion in major acquisitions. DHS's acquisition activities are on GAO's High Risk List, in part due to program management, requirements, and funding issues. The Explanatory Statement accompanying the DHS Appropriations Act, 2015 included a provision for GAO to review... |
This section discusses the offices within FDA and other federal agencies that help oversee imported food products. It also discusses FDA’s approach for overseeing the safety of the imported food products for which it is responsible, including milk, seafood, fruits, and vegetables. FDA’s responsibilities for overseeing ... | Imported food makes up a substantial and growing portion of the U.S. food supply. FDA is responsible for oversight of more than 80 percent of the U.S. food supply. However, because the volume of imported food is so high, FDA physically examines only about 1 percent of imported food annually. In 2011, FDA implemented PR... |
Under the PPACA MLR requirements, private insurers must report annually to CMS their MLRs by each state and insurance market in which they operate, as well as the dollar amounts for the components that make up their MLRs, such as premiums. Insurers must pay rebates when their MLRs do not meet or exceed the minimum appl... | Private insurers are required to meet minimum PPACA MLR standards— expressed as the percent of premium dollars spent on patient care and related activities—and beginning in 2011 they must pay rebates back to enrollees and policyholders who paid premiums if they do not meet these standards. GAO was asked to review the e... |
Land use and institutional controls are usually linked, and should be considered together during the investigation phase of cleanup, according to EPA guidance. As a site moves through the early stages of the cleanup process, site managers should develop assumptions about reasonably anticipated future land uses and cons... | The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Superfund and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) programs were established to clean up hazardous waste sites. Because some sites cannot be cleaned up to allow unrestricted use, institutional controls--legal or administrative restrictions on land or resource use to ... |
The Forest Service and Interior manage about 700 million acres of federal land between them, much of which is considered to be at high risk of fire. Federal researchers estimate that from 90 million to 200 million acres of federal lands in the contiguous United States are at an elevated risk of fire because of abnormal... | In an effort to reduce the risk of wildland fires, many federal land managers--including the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)--are placing greater emphasis on thinning forests and rangelands to help reduce the buildup of potentially hazardous fuels. These thinning efforts generate considerable qua... |
Transitional Medicaid assistance offers families moving from cash assistance to employment the opportunity to maintain health insurance coverage under Medicaid, a joint federal-state health insurance program. Medicaid spent about $216 billion in fiscal year 2001 on coverage for certain low-income individuals. Transitio... | Welfare reform significantly changed federal policy for low-income families with children and established a five-year lifetime limit on cash assistance. Welfare reform also extended transitional Medicaid assistance through 2001. States have implemented various initiatives to help families move from cash assistance to t... |
Federal operations and facilities have been disrupted by a range of events, including the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001; the Oklahoma City bombing; localized shutdowns due to severe weather conditions, such as the closure of federal offices in the Washington, D.C., area in September 2003 due to Hurricane Isab... | To ensure that essential government services are available in emergencies, federal agencies are required to develop continuity of operations plans. According to guidance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is responsible for providing guidance for and assessing agency continuity plans, a key elem... |
Local jurisdictions (i.e., counties and municipalities) administer criminal courts and permit pretrial detention of defendants accused of serious offenses and deemed to be dangerous to prevent them from committing crimes prior to trial, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Many local jurisdictions have begun ... | Most veterans transition to civilian life trouble-free. For those who struggle with their transition to the point that they are arrested and jailed, VA created the VJO Program, which connects veterans with supports and services to help avoid re-incarceration. The program relies on VJO specialists to link veterans to tr... |
NRC is an independent agency established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 to regulate civilian use of nuclear materials. NRC is headed by a five-member commission. The President designates one commission member to serve as Chairman and official spokesperson. The commission as a whole formulates policies and reg... | The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks intensified the nation's focus on national preparedness and homeland security. Among possible terrorist targets are the nation's nuclear power plants--104 facilities containing radioactive fuel and waste. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) oversees plant security through a... |
Traffic safety data are the primary source of knowledge about crashes and how they are related to the traffic safety environment, human behavior, and vehicle performance. Most states have developed traffic safety data systems and manage these data through the initial reporting of crashes by law enforcement officers thr... | Auto crashes kill or injure millions of people each year. Information about where and why such crashes occur is important in reducing this toll, both for identifying particular hazards and for planning safety efforts at the state and federal levels. Differences in the quality of state traffic data from state to state, ... |
This report is based on our reviews of 24 major agencies’ strategic plans that were formally submitted to Congress and OMB by September 30, 1997. To do these reviews, we used the Results Act supplemented by OMB’s guidance on developing the plans (Circular A-11, part 2) as criteria to determine whether the plans contain... | Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed federal agencies' strategic plans submitted in response to the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, focusing on: (1) summarizing its observations on agencies' September plans; and (2) providing additional information on how the next phase of the Results Act's... |
HUD’s purchase card program is part of the governmentwide commercial credit card program established to simplify federal agency acquisition processes by providing a low-cost, efficient vehicle for obtaining goods and services from vendors. According to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 13.201(b), government pur... | Due to the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) increasing use of purchase cards and the inherent risk associated with their use, Congress asked GAO to audit the purchase card program concentrating on assessing internal controls and determining whether purchases being made are a valid use of government f... |
GPRA is intended to shift the focus of government decisionmaking, management, and accountability from activities and processes to the results and outcomes achieved by federal programs. New and valuable information on the plans, goals, and strategies of federal agencies has been provided since federal agencies began imp... | This report reviews the Small Business Administration's (SBA) fiscal year 2000 performance report and fiscal year 2002 performance plan required by the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 to assess SBA's progress in achieving selected key outcomes that are important to its mission. SBA's reported progress in... |
The secretary of the Department of the Interior created OAS in 1973 to resolve several aviation program problems: numerous accidents, improper budgeting and financial management, and poor utilization of aircraft. A 1973 task force, comprising representatives from across the Interior bureaus, attributed these problems t... | The Department of the Interior has cut its aviation accident rate in half since 1975--from 18.8 accidents to 8.7 per 100,000 flight hours. The department's lower accident rate can be attributed to the implementation of a standard aviation operating policy and to aviation safety standards that exceed the Federal Aviatio... |
The retention allowance authority was established by section 208 of the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act of 1990 (FEPCA). The act required OPM to issue governmentwide regulations on retention allowances, which it did on March 28, 1991. The act and OPM’s implementing regulations require agencies to document that ... | Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed federal agencies' use of retention allowances as salary supplements to retain essential employees, focusing on: (1) the total and average value of the allowances from 1991 to 1994; (2) the extent to which Senior Executive Service employees received retention allowances;... |
The Navy’s purchase card program is part of the governmentwide Commercial Purchase Card Program established to simplify federal agency acquisition processes by providing a low-cost, efficient vehicle for obtaining goods and services directly from vendors. DOD has mandated the use of the purchase card for all purchases ... | The Department of Defense (DOD) is promoting departmentwide use of purchase cards for obtaining goods and services. It reported that for the year ended September 30, 2001, purchase cards were used by 230,000 cardholders to make 10.7 million transactions valued at more than $6.1 billion. The benefits of using purchase c... |
The Council on Foreign Relations study sets the stage for rethinking the federal role in assisting communities prepare for homeland security. Although acknowledging that the nation’s preparedness has improved, the Council’s report highlights some of the significant gaps in preparedness including shortfalls in personnel... | The challenges posed in strengthening homeland security exceed the capacity and authority of any one level of government. Protecting the nation calls for a truly integrated approach bringing together the resources of all levels of government. The Council on Foreign Relations study--Emergency Responders: Drastically Und... |
The Army National Guard of the United States and the Air National Guard of the United States are two components of the armed forces Selected Reserve. The National Guard Bureau is the federal entity responsible for the administration of both the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard. The Army National Guard, wh... | Recent military operations have required that the Army rely extensively on Army National Guard forces, which currently comprise over 30 percent of the ground forces in Iraq. Heavy deployments of Army National Guard forces and their equipment, much of which has been left overseas for follow-on forces, have raised questi... |
Since DHS began operations in March 2003, it has developed and implemented key policies, programs, and activities for implementing its homeland security missions and functions that have created and strengthened a foundation for achieving its potential as it continues to mature. However, the department’s efforts have be... | The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, led to profound changes in government agendas, policies and structures to confront homeland security threats facing the nation. Most notably, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) began operations in 2003 with key missions that included preventing terrorist attacks from ... |
The federal government makes loans to students through private- and public-sector lenders in the FFELP or directly to students through FDLP. These two programs are among the largest of the federal government’s credit programs. At the end of 2004, there were about $245 billion in outstanding FFELP loans, about 20 percen... | In fiscal year 2004, the federal government made or guaranteed about $84 billion in loans for postsecondary education through two loan programs--the Federal Family Education Loan Progam (FFELP) and the Federal Direct Loan Program (FDLP). Under FFELP, private lenders fund the loans and the government guarantees them a m... |
The college textbook market is complex, with a number of parties involved in the development and distribution of course materials. First, publishers develop and produce textbooks and accompanying materials for faculty and students. Publishers then market their materials to faculty, school administrators, and sometimes ... | The rising costs of postsecondary education present challenges to maintaining college affordability. Textbooks are an important factor students need to consider when calculating the overall cost of attending college. In an effort to ensure that faculty and students have sufficient information about textbooks, Congress ... |
Employers have been the driving force behind the growing move to compare health care providers and plans on the basis of their performance. These employers have worked both individually and collaboratively with providers, health plans, and government to produce information that will allow them to assess the quality of ... | Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on health care quality issues, focusing on: (1) how consumers use health care performance reports that contain comparative data on the quality of health care providers; and (2) what information consumers consider most important. GAO found that: (1) employers... |
Crude oil is a naturally occurring substance generated by geological and geochemical processes. A variety of petroleum products, such as gasoline, diesel fuel, and heavy fuel oil are derived from this natural resource. Crude oil and petroleum products can vary greatly depending on where and how they were extracted and ... | In April 2010, an explosion onboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico led to a release of approximately 206 million gallons of oil. When an oil spill occurs, responders have several options for managing the environmental impacts, including using chemical dispersants to break the oil into smaller ... |
The MHS is a complex organization that provides health services to almost 10 million beneficiaries across a range of care venues, including the battlefield, traditional hospitals and clinics at stationary locations, and authorized civilian providers. Responsibility for the delivery of care is shared among the Office of... | In 2013, DOD created the DHA to provide administrative support for the services' respective medical programs and combine common “shared” services to achieve cost savings. House Report 113-446 included a provision that GAO review DOD's progress in implementing the DHA. This report addresses the extent to which DOD has m... |
To meet our three objectives, we took the following steps. Reviewed and analyzed IRS reports, testimonies, budget submissions, and other documents and data, including performance and workload data, and compared these to IRS’s goals and past performance to identify trends and anomalies in performance. We also tested for... | The Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) filing season is an enormous undertaking that includes processing tax returns, issuing refunds, and responding to taxpayer questions. IRS's efforts to ensure compliance begin during the filing season. GAO was asked to assess IRS's 2009 filing season performance, identify ways to red... |
Economic growth—which is central to almost all our major concerns as a society—requires investment, which, over the longer term, depends on saving. Since the 1970s, nonfederal saving has declined while federal budget deficits have consumed ever-higher levels of these increasingly scarce savings. The result has been to ... | Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the long-term economic impacts of the budget deficit. GAO found that: (1) some progress has been made in reducing the deficit since 1992, but the long-term deficit outlook remains a national problem; (2) inaction in reducing the deficit would inevitably r... |
CBP began operation of Predator B aircraft in fiscal year 2006, and as of fiscal year 2016, operates nine Predator B aircraft from four AMO National Air Security Operations Centers (NASOC) in Arizona, Florida, Texas, and North Dakota. Based on CBP data provided to us for fiscal year 2015, annual obligations for CBP’s P... | As the lead federal agency charged with securing U.S. borders, the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) CBP has employed a variety of technologies and assets to assist with its border security efforts. In support of its mission, CBP operates a fleet of remotely piloted Predator B UAS and uses aerostats, including ta... |
To ensure core capability is maintained, Congress enacted Section 2464 of Title 10, which requires, in part, that the Secretary of Defense maintain a core logistics capability that is government owned, government operated, and that uses government personnel, equipment, and facilities. The authority and responsibility o... | The Department of Defense (DOD) is required, by law, to maintain a core logistics capability that is government owned and government operated to meet contingency and other emergency requirements. Military depots play a key role in maintaining this "core capability," although in recent years DOD has significantly increa... |
DHS has increased its global outreach efforts. Historically, DHS and its components, working with State, have coordinated with foreign partners on an ongoing basis to promote aviation security enhancements through ICAO and other multilateral and bilateral outreach efforts. For example, DHS and TSA have coordinated thro... | The attempted December 25, 2009, terrorist attack and the October 2010 bomb attempt involving air cargo originating in Yemen highlight the ongoing threat to aviation and the need to coordinate security standards and practices to enhance security with foreign partners, a process known as harmonization. This testimony di... |
Prior to the 1930s, securities markets were overseen by various state securities regulatory bodies and the securities exchanges themselves. In the aftermath of the stock market crash of 1929, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (SEA) created SEC as a new federal agency and gave it authority to register and oversee secu... | The conference report accompanying the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2010 directed GAO to assess the joint report of the (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on harmonization of their regulatory approaches. In October 2009, CFTC and SEC issued this report in response to the Department of the T... |
We found that Indian Affairs does not have complete and accurate information on safety and health conditions at all BIE schools because of key weaknesses in its inspection program. In particular, Indian Affairs does not inspect all BIE schools annually as required by Indian Affairs’ policy, limiting information on scho... | This testimony summarizes the information contained in GAO's March 2016 report, entitled Indian Affairs: Key Actions Needed to Ensure Safety and Health at Indian School Facilities , GAO-16-313 . The Department of the Interior's (Interior) Office of the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs (Indian Affairs) lacks sound inf... |
The Navy operates thousands of shore activities worldwide and employs over 1 million military and civilian personnel. Hundreds of Navy Fund Administering Activities at the field level provide budgeting and accounting for more than 9,000 Navy cost centers. A cost center is the lowest level in the Navy’s financial manage... | GAO reviewed the Defense Finance and Accounting Service's (DFAS) efforts to reduce the number of Navy accounting systems and to enhance and implement a Navy-wide system to account for general fund operations. GAO found that: (1) DFAS selected the Navy's Standard Accounting and Reporting System (STARS) to serve as the N... |
State and local governments that receive grants from HHS must follow the uniform administrative requirements set forth in federal regulations.When procuring property and services, these regulations require that states follow the same policies and procedures they use for procurements supported with nonfederal funds. Und... | The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 changed the nation's cash assistance program for needy families with children by replacing the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program, with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant. As specified in PRWORA... |
Organ transplants are becoming increasingly common. The 28,352 organ transplants performed in the United States in 2007 represent an increase of about 40 percent since 1997. (See fig. 1.) Kidney transplants are the most common procedure, accounting for almost 60 percent of transplants. Most transplanted organs come fro... | Media reports in 2005 and 2006 highlighted serious problems at organ transplant programs, calling attention to possible deficits in federal oversight. Two agencies in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) oversee organ transplant programs: the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) oversees transpla... |
Fuel for commercial nuclear power reactors is typically made from low enriched uranium fashioned into thumbnail-size ceramic pellets of uranium dioxide. These pellets are fitted into 12- to 15-foot hollow rods, referred to as cladding, made of a zirconium alloy. The rods are then bound together into a larger assembly. ... | DOE is responsible for disposing of commercial spent nuclear fuel. DOE entered into contracts with owners and generators of spent nuclear fuel to begin disposing of it beginning in 1998, with plans for disposal in a national repository. DOE, however, was unable to meet the 1998 date and, as a result of lawsuits, the fe... |
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee: I am pleased to be here today to provide an update on the Census Bureau’s dress rehearsal for the 2000 Census and the Bureau’s readiness for carrying out the 2000 Decennial Census. The dress rehearsal, currently under way at three sites—Sacramento, CA; 11 counties in the Colum... | GAO discussed the Bureau of the Census' dress rehearsal for the 2000 Census and the Bureau's readiness for carrying out the 2000 Decennial Census, focusing on how key census-taking operations have performed thus far during the dress rehearsal and the implications that may exist for 2000. GAO noted that: (1) when it las... |
The Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Disability Insurance (DI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs are the two largest federal programs providing cash and medical assistance to people with severe, long-term disabilities, at an annual cost of more than $100 billion. The DI program offers partial income... | Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Social Security Administration's (SSA) Plan for Achieving Self-Support (PASS) Program, focusing on: (1) SSA management of the program and its impact on employment of the disabled; and (2) the program's vulnerability to abuse. GAO found that: (1) SSA has poorly imp... |
RHS, a component of USDA’s RD mission area, is responsible for rural housing and community facilities programs. Under the single-family guarantee program, RHS provides lenders guarantees on residential mortgage loans to households with low to moderate incomes in areas statutorily designated as rural. The guarantees cov... | In recent years, RHS's single-family mortgage guarantee program has grown significantly, and RHS currently manages a guaranteed portfolio of more than $100 billion. RHS helps low- and moderate-income rural residents purchase homes by guaranteeing mortgages made by private lenders. GAO was asked to examine the program's... |
The United States and Mexico share a nearly 2,000-mile border that stretches from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. Although more than half of this boundary is delineated by the Rio Grande, communities on both sides of the border are affected by the region’s air quality as well as such common natural resources a... | GAO provided information on the U.S.-Mexican border region's unmet environmental infrastructure needs, focusing on: (1) the financial and institutional challenges facing the United States and Mexico; and (2) how the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identifies and prioritizes funding for environmental problems alon... |
Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act in 1970 to ensure safe and healthful working conditions for working men and women, including federal employees. While OSHA was created to administer the OSH Act, the act also gave federal agencies primary responsibility for providing federal employees with wo... | Federal workers' compensation costs exceeded $1.5 billion in 2004, with approximately 148,000 new claims filed that year. Because of concerns for the safety of federal workers, as well as the costs associated with unsafe workplaces, GAO described the characteristics of federal agencies' safety programs and the implemen... |
After 36 years of using chemical and mechanical processes to produce slightly enriched uranium from ore, DOE’s Fernald site is faced with a variety of environmental problems. As with other sites in DOE’s nuclear weapons complex, an emphasis on production versus safety has produced a legacy of contaminated radioactive a... | Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on: (1) the extent to which the Department of Energy (DOE) is providing effective management and oversight of two key cleanup projects at its Fernald site--the vitrification pilot plant project and the uranyl nitrate hexahydrate project--that were reported o... |
The Army has around 97,000 “medium tactical wheeled vehicles” (about 57,000 5-ton trucks and 41,000 2-1/2-ton trucks) in its fleet. The M939 accounts for more than half its 5-ton trucks. The truck is used to carry personnel or pull equipment under all weather and road conditions, including rain, snow, ice, unpaved road... | Instructor shortages are affecting the quality and quantity of Army truck driver training. Fort Leonard Wood, which trains about 90 percent of truck drivers, is especially affected by the instructor shortage. The result is that student drivers are not fully trained in all aspects of the instruction program when they gr... |
Since 1994, when the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) was enacted, sales of dietary supplements have soared. In 2000, total U.S. sales for herbal and specialty supplements reached $5.8 billion. Surveys have found that many older Americans use these supplements to maintain overall health, increase ene... | Dietary supplements marketed as anti-aging therapies may pose a potential for physical harm to senior citizens. Evidence from the medical literature shows that a variety of frequently used dietary supplements can have serious health consequences for seniors. Particularly risky are products that may be used by seniors w... |
SNPs, including D-SNPs, have been reauthorized several times since their establishment was first authorized in 2003. For example, the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (MIPPA) and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) both contained provisions reauthorizing and modifying SNPs... | About 9 million of Medicare's over 48 million beneficiaries are also eligible for Medicaid because they meet income and other criteria. These dual-eligible beneficiaries have greater health care challenges than other Medicare beneficiaries, increasing their need for care coordination across the two programs. In additio... |
To help identify priorities for highway and traffic safety programs, states maintain six core types of traffic safety data systems: vehicle, driver, roadway, crash, citation and adjudication, and injury surveillance (see table 1). Organizations responsible for implementing and maintaining these systems vary among state... | Traffic crashes kill or injure millions of people each year. High-quality traffic safety data is vital to allocate resources and target programs as the Department of Transportation's (DOT) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and states work to improve traffic safety through data-driven approaches. To... |
FCRA was enacted, among other reasons, to provide more accurate measures of the costs of federal loan programs and to more accurately compare costs among credit programs and between credit and noncredit programs. FCRA requires agencies with loan guarantee programs to estimate the subsidy cost, or the cost to the govern... | The Small Business Administration (SBA) approved about $8.6 billion in loan guarantees through its 7(a) loan program in fiscal year 2003. SBA must estimate the subsidy cost of this program. Since fiscal year 2003, SBA has been using econometric modeling to estimate the subsidy. This report reviews SBA's estimation meth... |
From 1944 until the 1980s, the United States used nuclear reactors to produce plutonium and other materials for nuclear weapons. Plutonium was extracted from the fuels used by these reactors by a chemical process known as reprocessing. As a result of these activities, after the shutdown of weapons production and of som... | The Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) is responsible for storing and managing a total of about 13,000 metric tons of nuclear waste--spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste--at five DOE sites in Colorado, Idaho, New York, South Carolina, and Washington. Also, a joint DOE-Navy program s... |
The federal government has historically established minimum eligibility requirements for Medicaid and CHIP and provided states with considerable flexibility in expanding eligibility to individuals in households with higher incomes. PPACA made numerous changes to existing federal Medicaid and CHIP eligibility requiremen... | PPACA sought to increase access to affordable health insurance, and major provisions, such as a tax credit to offset the cost of private insurance premiums, will become effective in 2014. GAO estimated the extent to which (1) uninsured children would be eligible for Medicaid, CHIP, or the premium tax credit under PPACA... |
Established as a department in 1913, Labor carries out its mission by administering and enforcing a variety of federal labor laws guaranteeing workers’ rights to a workplace free from safety and health hazards, a minimum hourly wage and overtime pay, family and medical leave, freedom from employment discrimination, and... | GAO discussed the: (1) Department of Labor's progress in strategic planning as envisioned by the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993; and (2) challenge Labor faces in ensuring the effective information management necessary for Labor to fully realize the benefits of that planning. GAO noted that: (1) Labor's ... |
DHS’s mission is to lead the unified national effort to secure America by preventing and deterring terrorist attacks and protecting against and responding to threats and hazards to the nation. DHS is also responsible for ensuring that the nation’s borders are safe and secure, that they welcome lawful immigrants and vis... | DHS has responsibility for the development and management of the IT systems for the 22 federal agencies and offices under its jurisdiction. Of its 363 IT investments, 68 are in development and are classified by DHS as a major investment that requires special management attention because of its mission importance. Giv... |
NEDCTP’s mission is to deter and detect the introduction of explosive devices into U.S. transportation systems. As of February 2016, NEDCTP has deployed 787 of the 997 canine teams for which it has funding available in fiscal year 2016 across transportation systems. There are four types of LEO canine teams: aviation, m... | TSA has implemented a multilayered system composed of people, processes, and technology to protect the nation's transportation systems. One of TSA's security layers is comprised of nearly 800 deployed explosives detection canine teams—a canine paired with a handler. These teams include PSC teams trained to detect explo... |
In our earlier work on studies comparing federal and non-federal pay, we noted how the composition of the federal workforce has changed over the past 30 years, with the need for clerical and blue collar roles diminishing, and the need for professional, administrative, and technical roles increasing. Today’s federal job... | Skilled federal workers are critical to the successful operation of government. At the same time, personnel costs for current and former federal civilian employees represented about 26 percent of total discretionary spending in 2012; these personnel costs are outlays from budget authority authorized by appropriations a... |
From May 2003 through June 2004, the CPA, led by the United States and the United Kingdom, was the UN-recognized coalition authority responsible for the temporary governance of Iraq and for overseeing, directing, and coordinating the reconstruction effort. In May 2003, the CPA dissolved the military organizations of th... | The United States, along with coalition partners and various international organizations, has undertaken a challenging and costly effort to stabilize and rebuild Iraq following multiple wars and decades of neglect by the former regime. This enormous effort is taking place in an unstable security environment, concurrent... |
To enable the Department of Defense (DOD) to close unneeded bases and realign others, Congress enacted base realignment and closure legislation that instituted base closure rounds in 1988, 1991, 1993, and 1995. In some cases, DOD retained some of the property and created military enclaves on closed installations. Gener... | When the Department of Defense closed military installations as a part of the base realignment and closure process and transferred properties to public and private ownership, it in some cases retained a portion of an installation as a military enclave. During this process, legal jurisdiction over an enclave may be tran... |
FDA is responsible for helping to ensure that food products marketed in the United States meet the same statutory and regulatory requirements, whether they are produced in the United States or another country. FDA shares responsibility for the oversight of food safety with the United States Department of Agriculture’s ... | FDA has responsibility for ensuring the safety and proper labeling of more than 80 percent of the U.S. food supply, including an increased volume of imported food. Beginning in 2008, FDA established foreign offices to help prevent unsafe products from reaching U.S. borders. In 2010, GAO examined FDA's foreign offices a... |
About 374,000 single, active-duty enlisted servicemembers are housed in the United States. Of this number, about 212,000 are permanently assigned to installations and live in barracks, about 96,000 receive a housing allowance and live off base in civilian communities near military installations, about 36,000 live on Na... | Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) barracks program in the United States, focusing on: (1) the status of the services' implementation of the 1 plus 1 barracks design standard, which calls for more space and increased privacy in new barracks; (2) DOD's rationale for adopt... |
SAFETEA-LU authorized over $52 billion for federal transit programs, including the New Starts and JARC programs, from fiscal year 2005 through fiscal year 2009. SAFETEA-LU authorized $7.9 billion for the New Starts program and $727 million for the JARC program. Both of these programs are managed by FTA. The New Starts ... | The Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) authorized a significant level of investment--over $52 billion--for federal transit programs. SAFETEA-LU also added new transit programs and made changes to existing programs, including the New Starts and Job Access an... |
Most Americans rely on employer-sponsored health plans or government programs like Medicaid and Medicare to help them select and finance their family’s health insurance coverage. But about 10.5 million Americans rely exclusively on their own resources to select and pay for their family’s coverage. These participants in... | Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the private individual health insurance market, focusing on the: (1) size of the market and characteristics of its participants; (2) structure of the market, including how individuals access the market, the prices, other characteristics of health plans of... |
A federal grant is an award of financial assistance from a federal agency to an organization to carry out an agreed-upon public purpose. A Direct Payment for Specified Use (direct assistance) is an award of financial assistance from the federal government to individuals, private firms, and other private institutions to... | Since February 2004, GAO has reported that weaknesses in the federal programs and controls that allowed thousands of federal contractors, tax exempt entities, and Medicare providers to receive government money while owing taxes. GAO was asked to determine if these problems exist for entities who receive federal grants ... |
Energy commodities are bought and sold on both the physical and financial markets. The physical market includes the spot market where products such as crude oil or gasoline are bought and sold for immediate or near-term delivery by producers, wholesalers, and retailers. Spot transactions take place between commercial p... | Energy prices for crude oil, heating oil, unleaded gasoline, and natural gas have risen substantially since 2002, generating questions about the role derivatives markets have played and the scope of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC) authority. This testimony focuses on (1) trends and patterns in the fut... |
CPSC was created in 1972 under the Consumer Product Safety Act to regulate consumer products that pose an unreasonable risk of injury; to assist consumers in using products safely; and to promote research and investigation into product-related deaths, injuries, and illnesses. The Consumer Product Safety Act consolidate... | The growing volume of consumer products imported into the United States has strained the resources of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), challenging the agency to find new ways to ensure the safety of these products. The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) mandated that GAO assess the effectiven... |
Prior to the redesign initiated in 2011, TAP consisted of four core components: (1) pre-separation counseling, (2) an employment workshop, (3) an optional briefing on federal veteran benefits, and (4) the Disabled Transition Assistance Program. Pre-separation counseling, which includes VA benefits information, was requ... | Over the next few years, over a million military servicemembers are expected to transition to civilian life and some may face challenges such as finding employment. To help them, TAP provides departing servicemembers employment assistance and information on VA benefits, among other things. Begun in 2011, efforts to rev... |
The Workforce Investment Act created a new, comprehensive workforce investment system designed to change the way employment and training services are delivered. When WIA was enacted in 1998, it replaced the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) with three new programs—Adult, Dislocated Worker, and Youth—that allow for a ... | To create a more comprehensive workforce investment system, the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998 requires states and localities to coordinate most federally funded employment and training services into a single system, called the one-stop center system. This report examines how selected one-stop centers have used... |
IRS’s fiscal year 2006 budget request reflects a continuing shift in priorities by proposing reductions in taxpayer service and increases in enforcement activities. The request does not provide details about how the reductions will impact taxpayers in the short-term. Nor does IRS have long-term goals; thus the contribu... | The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has been shifting its priorities from taxpayer service to enforcement and its management of Business Systems Modernization (BSM) from contractors to IRS staff. Although there are sound reasons for these adjustments, they also involve risks. With respect to the fiscal year 2006 budget ... |
The national information and communications networks consist of a collection of mostly privately owned networks that are critical to the nation’s security, economy, and public safety. The communications sector operates these networks and is comprised of public- and private-sector entities that have a role in, among oth... | Ensuring the effectiveness and reliability of communications networks is essential to national security, the economy, and public health and safety. The communications networks (including core and access networks) can be threatened by both natural and human-caused events, including increasingly sophisticated and prevale... |
Interior, created by the Congress in 1849, oversees and manages the nation’s publicly owned natural resources, including parks, wildlife habitats, and minerals, including crude oil and natural gas resources, on over 260 million surface acres and 700 million subsurface acres onshore and in the waters of the Outer Contin... | In fiscal year 2007, domestic and foreign companies received over $75 billion from the sale of oil and gas produced from federal lands and waters, according to the Department of the Interior (Interior), and these companies paid the federal government about $9 billion in royalties for this oil and gas production. The go... |
Initial joint reform efforts have, in part, aligned with key practices that we have identified for organizational transformations, such as having committed leadership and a dedicated implementation team, but reports issued by the Joint Reform Team do not provide a strategic framework that contains other important eleme... | This testimony discusses the key recommendations from the two reports we recently released, which include (1) the need for a fully developed strategic framework for the reform process that includes outcome-focused performance measures to show progress and (2) more transparency in annually reporting to Congress on the t... |
FDIC was established by Congress to maintain the stability of and public confidence in the nation’s financial system by insuring deposits, examining and supervising financial institutions, and resolving troubled institutions. Congress created FDIC in 1933 in response to the thousands of bank failures that had occurred ... | FDIC has a demanding responsibility enforcing banking laws, regulating financial institutions, and protecting depositors. Because of FDIC's reliance on information systems, effective information security controls are essential to ensure that the corporation's systems and information are adequately protected from inadve... |
DHS has made progress in addressing high-risk areas for which it has sole responsibility, but significant work remains. DHS has made important progress in implementing, transforming, strengthening, and integrating its management functions in human capital, acquisition, financial management, and IT. This has included ta... | Since 1990, GAO has regularly reported on government operations identified as high risk because of their greater vulnerability to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement, or the need for transformation to address economy, efficiency, or effectiveness challenges. DHS has sole or critical responsibility for four GAO high-... |
In 1998, following a presidential call for VA and DOD to start developing a “comprehensive, life-long medical record for each service member,” the two departments began a joint course of action aimed at achieving the capability to share patient health information for active duty military personnel and veterans. Their f... | For the past 7 years, the Departments of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Defense (DOD) have been working to exchange patient health information electronically and ultimately to have interoperable electronic medical records. Sharing medical information helps (1) promote the seamless transition of active duty personnel to vete... |
VA’s mission is to serve America’s veterans and their families and to be their principal advocate in ensuring that they receive medical care, benefits, and social support in recognition of their service to our nation. VA, headquartered in Washington, D.C., is the second largest federal department and operates the large... | GAO previously reported that continuing problems in billing and collection processes at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) impaired VA's ability to maximize revenue from private (third-party) insurance companies. VA has undertaken several initiatives to address these weaknesses. GAO was asked to perform a follow-u... |
For further information on this statement, please contact J. Alfredo Gomez, at (202) 512-4101 or gomezj@gao.gov. In addition, contact points for our Offices of Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may be found on the last page of this statement. Individuals who made key contributions to this testimony include Kim... | This testimony discusses the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) for Firms program, which is administered by the Department of Commerce's (Commerce) Economic Development Administration (EDA). Over the past decade U.S. imports have almost doubled, reaching $2.7 trillion in 2011. During the same period, the United States e... |
The Drug-Free Communities Act of 1997 established the Drug-Free Communities Support Program. The program’s two major goals are to: (1) establish and strengthen collaboration among communities, private non- profit agencies, and federal, state, local, and tribal governments to support the efforts of community coalitions ... | Twenty-five percent of American students ages 13-17 reported using illicit drugs in 2007. The Drug-Free Communities Support Program provides grants to community coalitions involved in reducing youth substance abuse. The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) administers the program. ONDCP selected the Substance... |
DOE laboratories have primarily used the following types of agreements to transfer technology to U.S. businesses and other organizations: CRADAs: A DOE laboratory and its nonfederal partner(s) agree that their scientists will collaborate on a research project of mutual interest and consistent with the laboratory’s miss... | Since 1980 Congress has passed laws to facilitate the transfer of technology from federal laboratories to U.S. businesses. In particular, the National Competitiveness Technology Transfer Act of 1989 authorized federal laboratories operated by contractors, including the Department of Energy's (DOE) national laboratories... |
Customs and Border Protection. From November 28, 2009, to March 1, 2010, CBP officers working at the Saipan and Rota airports processed 103,565 arriving travelers, granting 11,760 (11 percent) parole. During this period, more than 80 percent of arriving travelers came from Japan or South Korea. Of arriving travelers fr... | This testimony discusses our work on the status of efforts to establish federal border control in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and implement the Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008 (CNRA) with regard to foreign workers, visitors, and investors in the CNMI. In May 2008, the United State... |
Nationwide implementation of E911 by local wireline telephone companies began in the 1970s. With wireline E911 service, emergency calls are automatically routed to the appropriate 911 call center, and the call taker receives the telephone number and street address of the caller. In 1996, FCC adopted rules for wireless ... | Wireless E911 service refers to the capability of 911 call takers to automatically receive location information from 911 callers using mobile phones. The current E911 system is not designed to accommodate emergency communications from the range of new technologies in common use today that support text, data, and video.... |
To conduct this work, we first identified the top four federal construction agencies based on the amount of funds obligated during fiscal year 2013 using data from USASpending.gov. We selected three of the top four agencies for further review. These agencies were the Departments of Defense—specifically the Departments ... | In fiscal year 2014, the federal government obligated almost $32 billion for construction projects using primarily competitive, fixed-price contracts. In these contracts, the government holds the prime contractor fully responsible for project delivery at the agreed-to price and schedule. Once a construction contract is... |
The mission of VA is to serve America’s veterans and their families with dignity and compassion and to be their principal advocate in ensuring that they receive medical care, benefits, social support, and lasting memorials. VA is a cabinet-level agency with a budget of over $127 billion and is one of the world’s larges... | The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has undertaken various planning efforts to realign its real property portfolio, including the Capital Asset Realignment for Enhanced Services (CARES), creation of a 5-year capital plan, and its newest effort, the Strategic Capital Investment Planning process (SCIP). Through these... |
In carrying out its Afghan assistance efforts, USAID has experienced a number of systemic challenges that have hindered its ability to manage and oversee contracts and assistance instruments, such as grants and cooperative agreements. These challenges include gaps in planning for the use of contractors and assistance r... | Since 2002, the United States has appropriated nearly $90 billion to help stabilize Afghanistan and build the Afghan governments capacity to provide security, enhance governance, and develop a sustainable economy. To assist Congress in its oversight, GAO has issued over 100 reports and testimonies related to U.S. effo... |
NTIS’s basic statutory function is to collect research reports, maintain a bibliographic record and permanent repository of these reports, and disseminate them to the public. In addition, NTIS has developed a variety of information-related services. NTIS charges user fees for the sale of its products to the public and ... | NTIS was established by statute in 1950 to collect scientific and technical research reports, maintain a bibliographic record and repository of these reports, and disseminate them to the public. NTIS charges fees for its products and services and is required by law to be financially self-sustaining to the fullest exten... |
By definition, alien smuggling (sometimes called people smuggling or human smuggling) is transnational in that it involves more than one country and also usually involves persons who have consented to be transported to another country. This activity generally produces short- term profits for the smugglers. That is, aft... | Globally, alien smuggling generates billions of dollars in illicit revenues annually and poses a threat to the nation's security. Creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in March 2003 has provided an opportunity to use financial investigative techniques to combat alien smugglers by targeting and seizing t... |
The Air Force and the Navy budget and spend billions annually to procure and repair aviation spare parts. For example, for fiscal year 1997, the Navy budgeted $1.4 billion for this purpose. For fiscal year 1996, the Air Force budgeted $3.9 billion to procure and repair aviation spare parts. The Air Force’s F-100 engine... | GAO reviewed the Air Force's and Navy's policies and procedures for procuring aviation spare parts, focusing on whether their requirements and budgets reflect the amounts they actually need. GAO found that: (1) the Air Force and Navy budgeted $132 million more than needed for aviation spare parts because they used ques... |
Ephedra, the most widely used ingredient in dietary supplements for weight loss, is a powerful stimulant that can affect the nervous and cardiovascular systems. Adverse events among consumers of dietary supplements containing ephedra have been described in scientific literature and in detailed adverse event reports. Be... | Dietary supplements containing ephedra have been associated with serious health-related adverse events, including heart attacks, strokes, seizures, and deaths. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates dietary supplements under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA). Reports of adverse e... |
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