Reports & Testimonies

There are 18 intelligence community agencies and organizations in the federal government. They have guidance that provides protections to service members under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act. Of these 18 agencies and organizations, 7 must include specific reemployment information for service members in their guidance by law. However, 4 of these 7 haven't included everything that the Act requires, such as procedures...

The Department of Veterans Affairs delivers health care to millions of veterans. In the process, VA uses external service providers to create, maintain, and transmit protected health information. VA took steps to protect the privacy of information that it shared with these service providers. For example, VA regularly enters into agreements with them to ensure they meet the requirements of health information privacy laws. Additionally...

The U.S. government funds billions of dollars in research each year. However, results of the research are often behind expensive paywalls. This makes it harder for others to read and build on it. In 2022, the Office of Science and Technology Policy told agencies to make new federally funded research immediately public for free. But without subscription revenue, publishers need to charge fees to make...

The potential for artificial intelligence to spur economic growth, enhance social well-being, and improve national security has led to a global AI race. How can the U.S. find out if its AI abilities stack up? And what can the U.S. do to improve its standing in the AI competition? We created a framework that analysts can use to assess U.S. AI competitiveness, which could include...

We testified on the cybersecurity of drinking water and wastewater systems. Our testimony, given before the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology's Subcommittee on the Environment, is based on: Critical Infrastructure Protection: EPA Urgently Needs a Strategy to Address Cybersecurity Risks to Water and Wastewater Systems It also discusses recommendations we've made and the Environmental Protection Agency's efforts to address them. Capitol building with...

The Hanford Site in Washington State is one of the largest and most expensive environmental cleanup projects in the world. The Department of Energy must treat and dispose of about 55 million gallons of radioactive waste that has been stored in underground tanks for decades. In this Q&A report, we reviewed DOE's plan to grout, or harden the waste into a concrete-like material, and dispose...

The Congressional Award Foundation is a privately funded charity that Congress established. It recognizes American youth for excellence in public service, personal development, physical fitness, and exploring other cultures or the wilderness. The Foundation's financial statements must have an independent audit each year, and we are required to review those audits. For FY 2024, the independent auditor concluded that the Foundation's financial statements fairly presented...

Suicide Prevention: DOD Should Improve Monitoring and Assessment of Training Suicide rates for active-duty service members have been increasing since 2011. Providing training on suicide prevention can help the Department of Defense ensure service members are aware of suicide risk factors and warning signs, as well as available resources for help and support. But we found issues with how DOD and the military services monitor...

When enforcing regulations, federal agencies use fines to hold violators accountable and to deter future violations. But if agencies don't regularly adjust these fines for inflation, they may become less effective. Congress enacted the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990 partly to address this issue. In 2015, Congress amended the act to require GAO to annually review agencies' compliance with certain provisions. For...

The federal government depends on a network of telecommunications and video surveillance equipment to do its work. However, foreign adversaries could exploit this equipment, putting critical systems at risk. The six agencies we reviewed have searched for vulnerable equipment connected to their IT networks. Specifically, they looked for equipment produced by certain companies linked to the People's Republic of China. Two of the agencies, the...

Disasters such as floods, hurricanes, and wildfires afflict hundreds of American communities and millions of people each year. The resulting federal disaster response—i.e., billions of dollars distributed quickly—also attracts scammers. In this Q&A, we looked at ways federal and state agencies are educating people to protect them from disaster assistance scams. For example, information booths at disaster recovery centers display signs with tips about identifying...

The Department of Energy's Office of Environmental Management's federal staff oversee nuclear cleanup work across the U.S. In 2024, we reported that the office was understaffed, with a 17% vacancy rate—and that workforce challenges had caused delays, cost overruns, and accidents. At the end of FY 2025, it had even fewer staff, with vacancy rate of 45%. Almost half of its vacancies were in mission-critical...

The Export-Import Bank of the United States supports American jobs by facilitating U.S. exports. It offers loans, loan guarantees, and other help to U.S. companies that can't get private financing for their deals. It may assume risks that the private sector won't, including risk of losses due to fraud. In doing so, the Bank evaluates the effectiveness of its fraud prevention activities. We found that...

The Small Business Administration's Disaster Loan Program provides low-interest loans to help businesses and homeowners recover after a natural disaster. SBA increased loan limits in 2023. In 2024, FEMA started allowing certain disaster survivors to apply for some types of FEMA assistance without applying for an SBA loan. SBA's disaster offices issue press releases and fact sheets after disasters and include information about the loans...

The Department of Homeland Security is modernizing the financial management systems affecting many of its component agencies—including the Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. However, we found that the department’s cost and schedule estimates for these efforts weren’t always reliable. Additionally, DHS’s guidance and plans for modernizing these systems weren’t consistent. We recommended that DHS address these and other...

Customs and Border Protection can grant parole to noncitizens, giving them temporary permission to stay in the United States. CBP granted roughly 2.4 million paroles at the southwest border from late 2018 through May 2025. Once parole is granted, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is supposed to monitor them to make sure they follow release requirements, like attending immigration court proceedings. But ICE doesn’t readily have...

Three Air Force aviation depots maintain critical aircraft, such as the F-16 fighter and C-17 cargo transport. But maintenance delays are increasing—reducing aircraft availability for operations and training. Also, the Air Force's method for tracking target completion dates of the maintenance process does not fully reflect delays, including the extent of unplanned work discovered during maintenance. The Air Force is also competing with the private...

Individuals and businesses may be required to file the same financial data with different federal regulatory agencies. Submitting data once electronically and sharing automatically with multiple agencies at the same time may be more efficient. But the United States doesn't have a regulatory reporting system with government-wide data standards that would help automate data sharing. The Financial Data Transparency Act is a step toward building...