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Open Recommendations (91 total)

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

GAO-23-104709
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1 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.

Alaska Land Management: Resolving Ownership of Submerged Lands

GAO-23-106235
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that the Chief of the Forest Service coordinates with the Directors of BLM, FWS, and NPS to secure an independent third-party facilitator to help agencies within the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture and the State of Alaska work toward agreement on a collaborative approach for the management of submerged lands in Alaska while ownership is being resolved. (Recommendation 2)
Open
As of November 2023, we are following up with the agency and will update the response to this recommendation in the future.

Farm Programs: USDA Should Take Additional Steps to Ensure Compliance with Wetland Conservation Provisions

GAO-21-241
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that the Chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service instructs state and field offices to consistently report any potential violations they observe. (Recommendation 5)
Open
As of August 2022, the agency has not implemented this recommendation. In commenting on our draft report, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) agreed that policy clarification is needed and said the agency would develop policy that clearly identifies when NRCS will submit reports of potential violations.

Federal Software Licenses: Agencies Need to Take Action to Achieve Additional Savings

GAO-24-105717
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that the agency tracks software licenses that are currently in use for its widely used licenses by, at a minimum, consistently implementing its procedures for tracking license usage. (Recommendation 1)
Open
The Department of Agriculture generally concurred with this recommendation. When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

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 Director for Customer Experience to establish a timeframe for releasing the customer service survey results and plans for addressing the customer feedback to the public. (Recommendation 15)
Open
In August 2023, agency officials stated that the FPAC Customer Service division had gathered feedback and completed analysis of the 2020 Producer Satisfaction Survey by December 2021. They also stated that they had developed plans for addressing customer service feedback. However, the agency has yet to provide us with the documentation. We will continue to monitor the status of this recommendation.

Cloud Security: Selected Agencies Need to Fully Implement Key Practices

GAO-23-105482
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that the agency fully implements continuous monitoring for its selected PaaS system, to include reviewing the continuous monitoring deliverables from the CSP and committing to a time frame to review audit logs. (Recommendation 2)
Open – Partially Addressed
In September 2023, Agriculture officials described their plans for addressing our recommendation. Specifically, the officials stated that they plan to develop and adopt procedures that detail the process for implementing and documenting continuous monitoring for its selected system. According to the officials, the procedures would include the review of continuous monitoring deliverables from the cloud service provider, and the frequency for review of audit logs. In January 2024, the agency provided documentation of its continuous monitoring procedures. The procedures including, among other things, steps for reviewing the continuous monitoring deliverables from the CSP. However, the agency did not provide documentation showing that these efforts were implemented. We will continue to monitor the agency's efforts to address our recommendation.

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

GAO-23-104709
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
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.

Sugar Program: Alternative Methods for Implementing Import Restrictions Could Increase Effectiveness

GAO-24-106144
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should evaluate the effectiveness of the WTO raw sugar tariff-rate quota allocation method versus other tariff-rate quota allocation methods to determine which would most effectively maintain an adequate sugar supply and minimizes costs to the government. (Recommendation 1)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Biodefense: After-Action Findings and COVID-19 Response Revealed Opportunities to Strengthen Preparedness

GAO-21-513
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture, should, with input from key nonfederal partners, work through the Biodefense Steering Committee to ensure that the Biodefense Coordination Team defines the set of capabilities needed to prepare for and respond to nationally significant biological incidents. (Recommendation 4)
Open
USDA concurred with our recommendation and described Biodefense Coordination Team efforts to identify capabilities necessary for advancing the goals and objectives of the National Biodefense Strategy. In March 2022, officials from USDA reported that a prior presidential memorandum establishing processes and leadership for the biodefense enterprise, was undergoing revision. In August 2022, USDA officials reported that they were working with other interagency partners to address our recommendation. In October 2022, the White House released an updated National Biodefense Strategy and associated implementation plan. As of January 2024, we have started new work to assess the updated National Biodefense Strategy and its associated implementation plan. As part of this work, we will determine if the changes meet the intent of our recommendation, or if agencies need to take action to meet that intent.

Federal Software Licenses: Agencies Need to Take Action to Achieve Additional Savings

GAO-24-105717
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that the agency compares the inventories of software licenses that are currently in use with information on purchased licenses to identify opportunities to reduce costs and better inform investment decision making for its widely used licenses on a regular basis. At a minimum, it should consistently implement its procedures for comparing the inventories of licenses in use to purchase records. (Recommendation 2)
Open
The Department of Agriculture generally concurred with this recommendation. As of March 2024, the department statement that it is in the process of developing a new enterprise-wide process to consistently reconcile purchased licenses with active usage. We will continue to monitor the department's efforts to fully implement this recommendation.
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