Reports & Testimonies
GAO’s reports and testimonies give Congress, federal agencies, and the public timely, fact-based, non-partisan information that can improve government operations and save taxpayers billions of dollars.
Most Recent Reports
1 - 20 of 58048 Reports
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Veterans Health Care: Improvements Needed in Patient Tracking for Non-Biological Implantable Medical Devices
What happens when there's a recall of a pacemaker, hip implant, or other implantable medical device—after it's already in a patient? If the patient is a veteran, the Veterans Health Administration needs to ensure that health care providers can contact them for follow-up care. But VHA's policies don't ensure that all such devices are effectively trackable. For example, if VHA needed to identify all patients...
Maternal and Infant Health: HHS Should Strengthen Processes for Measuring Program Performance
The U.S. has the highest rates of maternal and infant death of developed countries. The Healthy Start program tries to address this with 3 goals: Reduce infant death rates Improve maternal health Reduce racial and ethnic disparities in health outcomes The Department of Health and Human Services collects data to measure the program's progress on reducing infant deaths and improving maternal health. HHS said it...
Bureau of Indian Education: Improved Oversight of Schools' COVID-19 Spending is Needed
The Bureau of Indian Education and its schools used $1.5 billion in federal COVID-19 relief funds to Give students laptops and resources for distance learning Buy COVID tests and supplies The bureau monitors schools' COVID spending in several ways, such as reviewing financial reports and collecting financial information from school visits. The bureau's policy calls for additional oversight of schools at high risk for financial...
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Improper Payments: Information on Agencies' Fiscal Year 2023 Estimates
Improper payments—those that should not have been made or were made in the incorrect amount—have consistently been a government-wide issue. Since fiscal year 2003, federal agencies reported about $2.7 trillion in total improper payments. In FY 2023 alone, federal agencies made $236 billion in improper payments, a decrease of about $11 billion from the prior fiscal year. This Q&A report shows that this estimate doesn't...
Space Acquisitions: Analysis of Two DOD Reports to Congress
The Department of Defense plans to spend billions on space technology, such as satellites, that could help the U.S. Space Force contribute to national security and more. But in its space acquisitions, DOD has historically struggled with ballooning costs, schedule overruns, and fragmented leadership. This Q&A report discusses two reports that DOD and the Air Force, which oversees the Space Force, released in 2020 and...
Military Readiness: Comprehensive Approach Needed to Address Service Member Fatigue and Manage Related Efforts
When service members don't get enough sleep, it can affect their performance. Fatigue has led to fatal accidents and hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to ships, vehicles, and aircraft. For over a decade, Department of Defense surveys have found that the majority of service members report sleeping less than 6 hours a night—despite DOD recommending 7 or more. DOD has developed guidance on...
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Clinical Research: FDA Should Evaluate Its Efforts to Recruit and Retain Its Inspection Workforce
The FDA oversees clinical trials and other research involving human subjects, mostly for drugs trying to get FDA approval. This includes conducting inspections in hospitals and other healthcare settings in the U.S. and abroad. Recruiting and retaining investigators for these inspections has been a challenge—partly due to low compensation and heavy travel. This has resulted in fewer inspections and a less experienced workforce. FDA has...
Science & Tech Spotlight: At-Home Tools to Diagnose Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Related Diseases
Neurodegenerative diseases affect about 7 million people in the U.S., with cases expected to increase. This Spotlight covers cognitive assessment apps and wearable sensors designed for home use. They can collect data on patients' cognitive and motor abilities and help detect symptoms of Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases. Doctors can use data from these tools to diagnose diseases earlier and more accurately, and these tools...
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Service Members Transitioning to Civilian Life: Agencies Can Improve Warm Handovers for Additional Assistance
Transitioning from military to civilian life can be difficult for some service members as they may lose access to housing, pay, healthcare, and more. DOD provides certain at-risk service members with a person-to-person connection—known as a "warm handover"—to support agencies like VA. But DOD doesn't ensure that warm handovers take place. From April 2021-March 2023, more than 4,300 at-risk service members didn't receive this assistance...
Vehicle Repair: Information on Evolving Vehicle Technologies and Consumer Choice
"Right-to-repair" is the ability to repair your own vehicles or get repairs at auto dealerships or independent repair shops. In this Q&A report, we looked at the effects of changing technologies on the right-to-repair. For example, the use of technology to wirelessly transfer vehicle health and repair data with automakers could give dealerships an advantage. If independent repair shops don't have access to this data...
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Weapons of Mass Destruction: DHS Has Made Progress in Some Areas, but Additional Improvements Are Needed
This testimony discusses DHS's work to combat chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats from weapons of mass destruction. For example, DHS's Securing the Cities program works with federal, state, and local partners to address radiological and nuclear threats by providing detection technologies, leading training, and more. In a recent report, we found that the agency hasn't clearly communicated to these partners how it plans to...
Border Security: Border Patrol's Missing Migrant Program
U.S. Border Patrol's Missing Migrant Program helps rescue migrants in distress, prevent migrant deaths, and recover human remains along the southwest border. Border Patrol must submit annual reports to Congress on this issue, including data on migrant rescues and deaths. In April 2022 , we found that Border Patrol hadn't collected, recorded, or reported to Congress complete data on migrant deaths. As of March 2024...
Army Modernization: Production Challenges for Stryker Upgrade Reinforce Need to Follow Acquisition Leading Practices in Future Efforts
The Army's Stryker combat vehicle is an 8-wheeled armored vehicle that transports infantry into combat. To respond to increased competition from Russia, the Army tried to rapidly upgrade its existing Strykers to have increased firepower. But in doing so, the Army didn't fully analyze and address potential production risks. As a result, it had hardware and software issues with the upgraded Strykers. Our leading practices...
Nuclear Terrorism Prevention: DHS Has Strengthened the Securing the Cities Program, but Actions Are Needed to Address Key Remaining Challenges
The Department of Homeland Security's Securing the Cities program is trying to reduce the risk of terrorist attacks in high-risk urban areas. This program helps state and local agencies in 13 regions detect radiological and nuclear materials that could be used in such attacks—such as by funding the purchase of wearable radiation detectors for police officers. The agency regularly meets with the regions to check...
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Port Infrastructure: U.S. Ports Have Adopted Some Automation Technologies and Report Varied Effects
All 10 of the largest U.S. container ports are using some form of automation technology to process and handle cargo. At least 1 terminal at each port uses it to track and communicate container movements. Port operators consider factors like costs, profitability, priorities, and labor agreements when deciding whether to automate. Some port stakeholders said automation can improve worker safety, simplify tasks, and increase efficiency...
Information Technology: IRS Needs to Complete Planning and Improve Reporting for Its Modernization Programs
The Internal Revenue Service relies extensively on IT systems to collect taxes and distribute refunds. In August 2022, Congress appropriated tens of billions of dollars to the IRS, partly to help the agency modernize its IT systems. The IRS intends to use some of these funds to replace legacy IT systems, give taxpayers more online tools and services, and protect taxpayer privacy and security. However...
Air Quality Sensors: Policy Options to Help Address Implementation Challenges
Portable, low-cost air quality sensors could identify pollution hot spots, improve wildfire smoke warnings, and provide air quality information in rural areas. Current sensors are accurate enough to accomplish these tasks for some pollutants, but more capabilities are still in development. Also, there are challenges to using these sensors. For example, users may not have access to the expertise and information they need to deploy...
Spectrum IT Modernization: Incorporating Leading Practices Could Improve Planning Effort
The radio-frequency spectrum is vital to a variety of commercial and government activities—such as broadcast television and air traffic control. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration manages federal use of this spectrum, and it uses multiple IT systems to do so. The agency is working to modernize these IT systems. For example, it established a team to lead the effort, started market research, and identified...
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SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL FOR GAO-24-106446: Strengthening Coordination and Monitoring of Autism Activities in the Federal Government
The National Institutes of Health helps coordinate federal agencies' activities that promote the health and well-being of people with autism. We reported that NIH has followed several practices to help these agencies work well together. But it could be doing more, and we recommend ways to help. This is an "Easy Read" version of our report. Easy Read is a way some groups make their...