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Open Recommendations (67 total)

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 Commerce The Secretary of Commerce should ensure that the department develops a plan to either achieve consistency with EO 13960 section 5 for each AI application or retires AI applications found to be developed or used in a manner that is not consistent with the order. (Recommendation 10)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

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 Commerce The Secretary of Commerce should ensure that the department updates its AI use case inventory to include all the required information, at minimum, and takes steps to ensure that the data in the inventory aligns with provided instructions. (Recommendation 11)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Cybersecurity: Federal Agencies Made Progress, but Need to Fully Implement Incident Response Requirements

GAO-24-105658
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce The Secretary of Commerce should ensure that the agency fully implements all event logging requirements as directed by OMB guidance. (Recommendation 2)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Steel and Aluminum Tariffs: Agencies Should Ensure Section 232 Exclusion Requests Are Needed and Duties Are Paid

GAO-23-105148
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce The Secretary of Commerce should ensure that the Under Secretary for Industry and Security fully assesses the effectiveness of the quantity certification requirement BIS put in place and takes further actions, as needed, to improve the Section 232 exclusion request process. (Recommendation 1)
Open
In commenting on the report, Commerce concurred with this recommendation. The comments noted the known challenges in administering the Section 232 Exclusions Portal and stated that Commerce had proactively begun to take steps to limit the amount of unutilized and underutilized exclusions prior to the release of the report. In January 2024, Commerce stated that it would conduct an internal analysis of unutilized or underutilized quantities since mid-2019 in order to understand the impact of the quantity certification and volume certification reviews. This analysis will review the number of exclusions and quantities requested to determine whether the reviews have had an impact on requestor behavior. Finally, Commerce will also incorporate regular tracking of exclusion quantities and volume certification reviews into its existing weekly Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) so trends can be better monitored in real-time. Commerce expects to complete this by June 30, 2024. GAO continues to monitor Commerce's actions in response to this recommendation.

Steel and Aluminum Tariffs: Agencies Should Ensure Section 232 Exclusion Requests Are Needed and Duties Are Paid

GAO-23-105148
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce The Secretary of Commerce should ensure that the Under Secretary for Industry and Security, in consultation with CBP, explores the development of a data transfer process that reduces the potential for inconsistencies between the two respective agency systems. (Recommendation 2)
Open
In commenting on the report, Commerce concurred with this recommendation. The comments noted the known challenges in administering the Section 232 Exclusions Portal, and said that Commerce had proactively begun to take steps to improve the transfer of information with U.S. Customs and Border Protection prior to the release of the report. In January 2024, Commerce stated that it would establish a staff-level working group with members of CBP's Trade Remedy Branch to further improve the transfer of exclusion data between the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) and CBP. This group is expected to meet monthly, and additionally on an ad hoc basis as needed. Commerce proposed several other potential steps, including: (1) making process refinements to ensure accurate Importer of Record information; (2) considering regulatory changes that would facilitate data transfer between the agencies; (3) drafting public guidance to clarify Importer of Record requirements; and (4) creating a shared formal log of changes made to granted exclusions. Commerce reported that it expects to establish the BIS-Trade Remedy Branch working group by March 31, 2024, but did not provide dates for other proposed actions. GAO continues to monitor Commerce's actions in response to this recommendation.

Export Promotion: Commerce Should Improve Workforce Planning and Management of Its Global Markets Unit

GAO-23-105369
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce The Secretary of Commerce should ensure that the Director General Global Markets regularly reviews the allocation of Foreign Commercial Service Officers and U.S. Field staff, including the justifications of positions that continue to exceed modeled projections for domestic and overseas posts. (Recommendation 2)
Open
The Department of Commerce, the International Trade Administration (ITA), and Global Markets (GM) concurred with our recommendations. Officials said the process for updating GM's staff allocation models began in earnest in May of 2021, but that they still had work to do. They said they conducted an internal study on how to bridge human capital gaps across GM and transformed GM's staffing plan into a table of organization that would help them link budget to staffing and sharpen their understanding of how to measure productivity enhancements. They reported that a cross-organizational approach would be an intense and ongoing multi-year effort. In response to our recommendation, they plan to build on their review of staff allocations, update these procedures, and include them in the Director General's regular review cycle. We will continue to monitor their progress.

Export Promotion: Commerce Should Improve Workforce Planning and Management of Its Global Markets Unit

GAO-23-105369
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3 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce The Secretary of Commerce should ensure that there is a workforce plan that comprehensively and strategically considers GM's entire overseas and domestic workforce and describes leadership action to improve diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. (Recommendation 3)
Open
The Department of Commerce, the International Trade Administration (ITA), and Global Markets (GM) concurred with our recommendations. They said that GM must manage the relationships between its three workforce segments to ensure the systemic linkages between them remain in balance and have upward productivity gains, aligned with their ongoing desire to invest in technology enhancements. They believed this work will allow GM to deliver a comprehensive, iterative workforce plan, which they will map out this fiscal year. In the process, they planned to document linkages with ITA-level efforts related to employees hired using Title 5 authorities. They reported recent success in standardizing and linking its position descriptions for almost all client-facing Civil Service and Locally Employed Staff overseas as a notable starting point. In addition, ITA and GM are working on an ITA wide table of organization which will maintain position information and employee data that will provide a complete picture of filled and vacant positions across ITA. They plan to use the Office of Personnel Management's workforce planning model to serve as a best practice guide and template for GM's efforts to prepare, draft and finalize a comprehensive workforce plan. We will continue to monitor their progress.
Department of Commerce The Secretary of Commerce should ensure that the Director General of Global Markets fully documents how to use the staffing models and the process for updating the models, including changes to the variables and weights. (Recommendation 1)
Open
The Department of Commerce, the International Trade Administration (ITA), and Global Markets (GM) concurred with our recommendations. Officials said that, in addition to establishing internal control to memorialize current procedures and regularize justification reviews, GM will codify the ORAM and DRAM data model processes in a way that fully describes the relationships between the data models and how they relate to the staffing and resource allocation decision making process. They also noted the Office of Strategy and Engagement will issue documentation on how to use and update the models. We will continue to monitor their progress.
Department of Commerce The Secretary of Commerce should ensure that the Director General of Global Markets takes steps to address staffing vacancies in the Office of Global Talent Management. (Recommendation 4)
Open
The Department of Commerce, the International Trade Administration (ITA), and Global Markets (GM) concurred with our recommendations. Officials responded that addressing staff vacancies in the Office of Global Talent Management has been a priority for the organization, as they recognize the need to have a solid backbone of support for officers and staff overseas. GM officials reported they have made progress filling these vacancies and are now 87% staffed (with 4 remaining vacancies) toward the authorized target of 30 FTE. Officials said they will continue to fill the remaining vacancies, budget permitting. If funding resources are unavailable, they plan to document the vacancies in their staffing plan as unfunded. In November 2023, they reported that staffing vacancies we identified had been filled or had hiring actions underway. We have requested documentation of these actions and will continue to monitor their progress.

2020 Census: A More Complete Lessons Learned Process for Cost and Schedule Would Help the Next Decennial

GAO-23-105819
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce The Secretary of Commerce should ensure that the Director of the Census Bureau document and take steps during the 2030 Census to evaluate the Bureau's comprehensive lessons-learned process. (Recommendation 1)
Open – Partially Addressed
Commerce agreed with this recommendation. In August 2023, the Bureau provided us with its action plan describing steps it will take, culminating in an audit report of related actions it plans to complete in September 2025. In March 2024, Bureau officials provided us with and briefed us on an updated quality assurance management plan documenting procedures that help address this recommendation, such as the regular internal reporting to managers on the status of prior lessons learned. The implementation of those procedures as documented in the management plan partially implement this recommendation. In order to fully close this recommendation, the Bureau will need to follow through on other steps it described, completing its evaluation of the lessons learned process.
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