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Open Recommendations (85 total)

Genetically Engineered Crops: USDA Needs to Enhance Oversight and Better Understand Impacts of Unintended Mixing with Other Crops

GAO-16-241
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2 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture To improve USDA's ability to better understand the economic impacts of unintended mixing of GE and other crops, the Secretary of Agriculture should direct the Administrator of the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) to work with all relevant USDA stakeholders, including APHIS and the Organic Working Group, to determine what additional information should be sought in future organic surveys, such as the costs of reshipping and re-storing shipments rejected because of unintended GE presence, as well as the costs associated with finding new buyers for such shipments.
Open
In its August 2016 Statement of Action on our report, USDA did not provide any new information on actions it has taken, if any, to implement this recommendation. For example, there was no indication whether stakeholders internal to the department had continued to meet to discuss the 2014 Organic Survey results and how to move forward with future survey questions to obtain additional data, such as data needed to better understand the economic impacts of unintended mixing with GE crops. As of February 2022, USDA did not have an update regarding the implementation of this recommendation. We will continue to follow up on USDA's efforts. As of July 2024, we are following up with USDA and will update this recommendation when we have additional information.
Department of Agriculture To improve USDA's ability to better understand the economic impacts of unintended mixing of GE and other crops, the Secretary of Agriculture should direct the Administrator of NASS to include producers, growing identity-preserved crops, in addition to organic producers in USDA's survey efforts.
Open
In its August 2016 Statement of Action on our report, USDA did not provide any new information on actions it has taken, if any, to implement this recommendation. We continue to believe that USDA should survey producers growing identity-preserved crops regarding their potential economic losses from unintended GE presence, as is being done for organic producers. As we previously reported, U.S. acreage planted to identity-preserved crops is significantly greater than that planted to organic crops; yet, little is known about the economic costs to identity-preserved farmers of unintended mixing. As of February 2022, USDA did not have an update regarding the implementation of this recommendation. We will continue to follow up on USDA's efforts. As of July 2024, we are following up with USDA and will update this recommendation when we have additional information.

Agency Relocations: Following Leading Practices Will Better Position USDA to Mitigate the Ongoing Impacts on Its Workforce

GAO-23-104709
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2 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Research, Education, and Economics Under Secretary should require NIFA to more fully follow leading practices for strategic workforce planning, such as documenting a strategic workforce plan and agency succession plans. (Recommendation 4)
Open
As of February 2024, GAO is assessing the actions reported by the agency.
Department of Agriculture The Research, Education, and Economics Under Secretary should require ERS to more fully follow leading practices for training and development, such as planning for, designing, implementing, and evaluating training and development programs and efforts. (Recommendation 5)
Open
As of February 2024, GAO is assessing the actions reported by the agency.

Oil and Gas Pipelines: Agencies Should Improve Oversight of Decommissioning

GAO-24-106444
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Chief of the Forest Service should develop a documented plan to ensure the agency collects and maintains the data necessary to oversee the decommissioning of gathering lines. (Recommendation 7)
Open
USDA concurred with this recommendation and will develop a plan for collecting and maintaining pipeline decommissioning data. The estimated completion date is August 20, 2025.

IT Modernization: USDA Needs to Improve Oversight of Farm Production and Conservation Mission Area

GAO-21-512
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that the Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation (FPAC) directs the Business Center Chief Operating Officer to have the FPAC mission area implement the key IT workforce planning activity of assessing gaps in competencies and staffing. (Recommendation 7)
Open
In August 2023, agency officials noted that the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Workforce Steering Committee had updated the technical competencies for its IT workforce. Subsequently the FPAC Human Resources group used the updated competencies to develop a competency assessment process. However, agency officials stated that that the assessment process was put on hold. FPAC officials noted that in August 2023 they began the process of restarting the competency assessments. We will continue to review FPAC's progress in this area.

Meat and Poultry Worker Safety: OSHA Should Determine How to Address Persistent Hazards Exacerbated by COVID-19

GAO-23-105104
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of the Department of Agriculture should ensure that the Food Safety and Inspection Service meets regularly with DOL's OSHA through their interagency workgroup to resolve longstanding collaboration challenges and incorporate leading collaboration practices. In incorporating these practices, the agencies should clearly define short and long-term outcomes, track and monitor progress towards these outcomes, and publicly report collaborative outcomes. (Recommendation 2)
Open
USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) agreed with this recommendation and noted its commitment to partnering with OSHA and to doing a better job collaborating to resolve challenges. Specifically, FSIS stated that it is committed to clearly defining short- and long-term outcomes, tracking and monitoring progress, and publicly reporting collaborative outcomes related to meat and poultry worker safety. We laud these plans and, as FSIS and OSHA develop additional outcomes through their workgroup, we encourage them to clearly link these outcomes to the leading collaboration practices and to the challenges we identified in this report. In August 2023, DOL stated that OSHA plans to work with FSIS to employ the leading collaborative practices that are already in use to identify and track specific short- and long-term outcomes. In May 2024, FSIS provided information on the steps it has taken so far to implement this recommendation, including holding regular interagency meetings with OSHA, providing worker safety trainings to its in-plant workforce, proposing several short-term outcomes, and addressing aspects of some of the leading collaboration practices. According to FSIS, the agencies will take steps to achieve and monitor these outcomes once they reach concurrence on them. We look forward to seeing the results of FSIS's collaboration with OSHA as the agencies implement this recommendation.

Tribal Food Security: Opportunities Exist to Address Challenges in Federal Nutrition Programs

GAO-24-106218
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that FNS assesses the need for any additional flexibilities in its programs' administrative requirements that could further support tribal food security and any necessary adjustments to support existing flexibilities, and then implements those changes. (Recommendation 6)
Open
USDA agreed with this recommendation. We will monitor the agency's progress to address this recommendation.

National School Lunch Program: USDA Could Enhance Assistance to States and Schools in Providing Seafood to Students

GAO-23-105179
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should develop a plan to enhance its assistance to states and school food authorities in providing seafood to students through the National School Lunch Program. Actions described in such a plan could build upon information that GAO collected regarding factors that selected states and school food authorities said have affected their efforts to provide more seafood to students through the program. The plan could also incorporate USDA's experience and lessons learned from previous efforts aimed at enhancing the variety and availability of other food products, such as dairy products and unprocessed fruits and vegetables. (Recommendation 1)
Open
USDA agreed with our recommendation to develop a plan to enhance its assistance to states and school food authorities in providing seafood to students through the National School Lunch Program. Actions described in such a plan could build upon information that GAO collected regarding factors that selected states and school food authorities (SFAs) said have affected their efforts to provide more seafood to students through the program. USDA developed a plan with activities it carried out in 2023 that included updating some training and a food buying guide. The plan, however, does not discuss if and how the agency will the use the information GAO collected regarding factors that selected states and SFAs said affected their efforts to provide more seafood, nor does the plan identify agency activities beyond 2023, which would signal a continuing effort. In addition, the plan does not discuss the use of the domestic seafood vendors list that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will provide to USDA. Information on NOAA's domestic seafood vendor list would also allow states and SFA officials to identify local vendors on their own, which would also enable them to more easily purchase seafood directly. We will continue to monitor USDA efforts to implement this recommendation.

Artificial Intelligence: Agencies Have Begun Implementation but Need to Complete Key Requirements

GAO-24-105980
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that the department (a) reviews the department's authorities related to applications of AI, and (b) develops and submits to OMB plans to achieve consistency with the Regulation of AI Applications memorandum (M-21-06). (Recommendation 8)
Open
Agriculture agreed with the recommendation and in a March 2024 update, the agency stated that it had plans to address this recommendation. Specifically, Agriculture stated that it would review authorities related to applications of AI and submit a plan to OMB to achieve consistency with M-21-06. These actions are expected to be completed by 12/1/2024. We will continue to monitor the implementation of this recommendation.
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