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Open Recommendations (67 total)

2020 Census: Actions Needed to Improve Census Bureau's Process for Working with Governments to Build Address List

GAO-20-17
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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 identifies and tracks specific costs for related address list development efforts. (Recommendation 4)
Open
Commerce agreed with this recommendation. In its April 2020 action plan, the Bureau indicated that it would use existing systems to identify and report the costs of individual address list update-related activities. The Bureau also indicated that it would develop the means for capturing the cost of machine-based methods of updating the address list. In December 2022, Bureau officials said that they have not yet developed a methodology to identify and monitor costs and variances for address list development projects, but they were going to follow up with their Decennial Budget Office regarding recent cost tracking initiatives that might be leveraged moving forward. In March 2024, they stated that they expect to have more information by December 2024. In order to fully implement this recommendation, the Bureau will need to identify and track costs with sufficient detail and breadth to compare the relative cost-effectiveness of alternative efforts it considers and uses to build its address list.

Economic and Commercial Diplomacy: State and Commerce Could Build on Efforts to Improve Coordination and Effectiveness

GAO-22-105860
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce The Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary of State should indicate the methods the agencies will use to maintain an effective working relationship in their Memorandum of Understanding for the Partner Post Program. (Recommendation 1)
Open
The Department of Commerce provided an action plan in January 2023. In collaboration with the Department of State, the Departments have agreed to update and reissue the standard operating procedures for the Partner Post Program no later than Q4 in fiscal year 2023, and update the MOU to include indicating methods for maintaining effective working relationships, by Q2 in 2024. As of April 2023, we continue to monitor Commerce's actions in response to this recommendation.

Export Promotion: Better Information Needed about Federal Resources

GAO-13-644
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1 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce
Priority Rec.
To improve the consistency, comprehensiveness, and transparency of information provided to Congress and policymakers on the federal investment in export promotion programs, the Secretary of Commerce, as chair of the TPCC, should report in its National Export Strategies on how resources are allocated by agency and aligned with priorities.
Open
The Export Enhancement Act [15 U.S.C. Section 4727(c)] states that the Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee's (TPCC) strategies should establish a set of priorities for federal export promotion activities and propose a unified federal trade promotion budget that supports the plan. In written comments on GAO's report, the Director of the TPCC Secretariat generally concurred with the recommendation on behalf of the Secretary. Nevertheless, the Director noted the TPCC's limited authority over budget reporting and resource allocations and gave examples of some challenges they faced, including shifts in the political and budgetary landscape and how different Administrations and Congresses have emphasized different priorities over time. In the years following GAO's 2013 report, the TPCC issued a National Export Strategy (NES) in 2014 and 2016 and 2023; however, these NES documents did not include any budget information on how resources were allocated by agency and aligned with the Strategy's priorities as they had in the past. In March 2024, Commerce officials reported that the TPCC Secretariat has not able to collect complete trade promotion budget data from TPCC agencies and a unified trade promotion budget was not included in the most recently published NES, which was released in June 2023. Because of the challenges collecting agency data, they said there are currently no plans to report a unified trade promotion budget to Congress.

Export Controls: Enforcement Agencies Should Better Leverage Information to Target Efforts Involving U.S. Universities

GAO-22-105727
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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 implements a mechanism to periodically assess the relevance and sufficiency of risk factors used for prioritizing universities for outreach to address new or evolving threats to U.S. university research, including threats pertaining to sensitive technology transfers and unauthorized deemed exports. (Recommendation 3)
Open
The Department of Commerce concurred with the recommendation. In March 2023, Commerce stated that it plans to establish a procedural document to implement a mechanism to periodically assess the relevance and sufficiency of risk factors. Commerce initially expected to complete this effort by the end of the 2023 calendar year but in February 2024 Commerce revised its estimated completion date to December 31, 2024. We will continue to monitor Commerce's progress in implementing this recommendation.

Steel and Aluminum Tariffs: Commerce Should Improve Its Exclusion Request Process and Economic Impact Reviews

GAO-20-517
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce The Secretary of Commerce should direct BIS to identify, assess, and make program changes to address issues that have impeded timeliness and created the backlog of exclusion requests. (Recommendation 2)
Open
In commenting on the report in September 2020, Commerce concurred with GAO's recommendation. In March 2021, Commerce reported changes they had made to their process and additional actions they would be taking during calendar year 2021. For instance, to reduce issues that have impeded timeliness, Commerce officials stated that they would be issuing new General Approved Exclusions for products demonstrated not to be produced domestically, and would explore additional technical modifications to help automate their process. Commerce also said they would continue to work to identify, assess, and address issues that slow timeliness in the 232 Exclusion Portal. As of November 2023, Commerce officials stated that they planned to issue guidance in 2024 addressing the issues that GAO has raised. GAO will continue to monitor Commerce's efforts to implement 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.

2020 Census: Actions Needed to Improve Census Bureau's Process for Working with Governments to Build Address List

GAO-20-17
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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 improves the use of LUCA results to inform procedures of other decennial operations, such as sharing information on address update quality to inform NRFU planning or administrative records modeling. (Recommendation 5)
Open
Commerce agreed with this recommendation. In its April 2020 action plan, the Bureau indicated that it would investigate how best to improve the flow of address data from governments into other census activities, such as research on administrative records or address canvassing. In December 2022, Bureau officials said that they are documenting various ways this may be implemented. Officials expect that later in the decade the process diagrams that will control the flows of geographic information to and from the Census Data Lake will likely demonstrate the use of address-update data by other decennial activity, such as by administrative-record modeling staff. As of March 2024, officials reported that they had determined the steps required to add LUCA data to the Enterprise Data Lake, but were waiting until other research or operational uses identified their needs for the data before adding LUCA data to the data lake. In order to fully implement this recommendation, the Bureau will need to establish and demonstrate the use of pathways for data on addresses collected from governments and their quality to inform the planning of other census activities that rely on address data.

Economic and Commercial Diplomacy: State and Commerce Could Build on Efforts to Improve Coordination and Effectiveness

GAO-22-105860
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce The Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary of State should clarify how Commerce and State will sustain program leadership over the long term, such as with succession planning, in their Memorandum of Understanding for the Partner Post Program. (Recommendation 2)
Open
The Department of Commerce provided an action plan in January 2023. In collaboration with the Department of State, the Departments have agreed to update and reissue the standard operating procedures for the Partner Post Program (PPP) no later than Q4 in fiscal year 2023 and update the MOU to include clarifying how to sustain PPP leadership over the long term, by Q2 in 2024. As of April 2023, we continue to monitor Commerce's actions in response to this recommendation.

2020 Census: Bureau Needs to Better Leverage Information to Achieve Goals of Reengineered Address Canvassing

GAO-17-622
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce Early in the next decennial cycle, the Secretary of Commerce should direct the Under Secretary of the Economics and Statistics Administration and the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau to plan and execute more flexible, and perhaps smaller, address canvassing test and evaluation activity needed to support key design decisions having significant effect on the cost and quality of the census.
Open
In March 2024, Bureau officials updated us on their planned reliance on machine-learning tools to help improve detection of changes to the address list during the decade. They expect the tools to help provide "rolling" updates that would eliminate the need for manual review of potential additions and changes to the address list, notably reducing staff time preparing the address list for the 2030 Census. Officials had previously noted that as other decennial enhancements are researched and tested later in the decade, they expect the demand for large-scale field testing of address canvassing activity will be lower. In order to fully implement this recommendation, the Bureau will need to demonstrate how its key design decisions for the 2030 Census are less dependent on large, costly, or time-consuming tests, such as of address canvassing.

Tribal Economic Development: Action is Needed to Better Understand the Extent of Federal Support

GAO-22-105215
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce The Director of Commerce's Office of Native American Business Development, in coordination with tribes, should establish a plan for periodically publicly reporting the amount of economic development assistance provided by Commerce to tribal entities and using that information to identify opportunities to improve assistance to tribal entities. (Recommendation 3)
Open
The Department of Commerce agreed with this recommendation. When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
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