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Open Recommendations (71 total)

Environmental Justice: Federal Efforts Need Better Planning, Coordination, and Methods to Assess Progress

GAO-19-543
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce The Secretary of Commerce should issue a progress report on the department's environmental justice efforts each year. (Recommendation 11)
Open – Partially Addressed
In April 2023, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the U.S. Digital Service published the first phase of a publicly available Environmental Justice (EJ) Scorecard, as directed by the February 2021 Executive Order 14008, "Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad." Additionally, in April 2023, the White House issued Executive Order 14096, "Revitalizing Our Nation's Commitment to Environmental Justice for All." Executive Order 14096 builds on the foundational 1998 environmental justice Executive Order 12898 as well as Executive Order 14008. Executive Order 14096 directs agencies to develop an EJ strategic plan and submit to CEQ and make public an EJ assessment that evaluates the plan's effectiveness within two years, based on additional guidance to be provided by CEQ. This EJ assessment would fulfill the Executive Order 12898 requirement for agencies to submit annual EJ progress reports, and be included among other items in the EJ Scorecard. As of September 2023, the department is developing an EJ strategic plan, has published baseline information on the EJ Scorecard, and has prepared but not yet publicly posted two annual EJ progress reports. We will continue to review the department's baseline information, actions, and provide updated information.

Commerce Working Capital Fund: Policy and Performance Measure Enhancements Could Help Strengthen Management

GAO-23-104624
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce Commerce's Chief Financial Officer/Assistant Secretary for Administration should document a policy for managing the WCF's balances—including the end-of-year unobligated and obligated balances—that describes how fund managers should evaluate, use, and maintain the balances over time. (Recommendation 2)
Open – Partially Addressed
In its comments on our report, Commerce agreed with this recommendation and stated that it planned to document a policy for managing the Working Capital Fund's (WCF) balances in the next WCF Handbook. In February 2023, Commerce updated its WCF Handbook and documented its goal of maintaining the WCF's year-end carry-over balance at four percent of the annual final operating budget. However, the WCF Handbook does not document Commerce's policy for managing the fund's obligated balance. We sent follow-up questions to Commerce about that policy in July 2023, but as of December 2023, Commerce had not responded to those questions. We will provide updated information when we receive Commerce's responses.

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.

SEC Conflict Minerals Rule: Companies Face Continuing Challenges in Determining Whether Their Conflict Minerals Benefit Armed Groups

GAO-16-805
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1 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce
Priority Rec.
To improve the effectiveness of the SEC's conflict minerals disclosure rule, the Secretary of Commerce should submit to the appropriate congressional committees a plan outlining steps that Commerce will take, with associated time frames, to (1) assess the accuracy of the independent private sector audits (IPSA) and other due diligence processes described under section 13(p) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934; (2) develop recommendations for the process used to carry out such audits, including ways to improve the accuracy of the audits and establish standards of best practices for such audits; and (3) acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities to carry out these responsibilities.
Open
Commerce agreed with this recommendation. In response to this recommendation, Commerce indicated in an October 25, 2016 letter to GAO that it has developed a three-step approach which parallels the three distinct elements of the recommendation. To fully implement this recommendation, Commerce needs to submit the said three-step plan, including associated timeframes for their completion, to the appropriate congressional committees. Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act defines "appropriate committees" to mean the Committee on Appropriations, the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Committee on Ways and Means, and the Committee on Financial Services of the House of Representatives; and the Committee on Appropriations, the Committee on Foreign Relations, the Committee on Finance, and the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate. In a January 2018 email, a Commerce official indicated to GAO that the agency had reviewed the 19 IPSA audits filed by companies in 2016, and the agency plans to complete a review of the 16 IPSA audits filed in 2017 by the end of FY 2018. However, the official noted that the "Department will not undertake the development of recommendations and best practices while the SEC is revising its rule." Commerce cited SEC staff's recent updated guidance and ongoing reviews of the conflict minerals rule, among other things, as their primary reason. However, the SEC staff's updated guidance also clarified that the guidance "does not express any legal conclusion on the rule" and is "subject to any further action that may be taken by the Commission." Therefore, the rule is still in effect, according to SEC staff. We requested a status update in October 2019 and Commerce responded: "In National Association of Manufacturers v. United States SEC, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 135732 (2017), the District Court for the District of Columbia declared an element of the relevant SEC rule unconstitutional, necessitating that the SEC determine how that decision affects overall implementation of the Conflict Minerals rule. Until the SEC completes its deliberative process, makes such determination, and implements any necessary revisions to the rule, the Department does not intend to undertake additional work under Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act with regard to the assessment of the accuracy of the audits and other due diligence processes or recommendations regarding the audits. After which point, the Department will assess how the SEC determination and any revisions to the rule affect the Department's plans for implementing GAO's recommendation." The team confirmed that the SEC did not make the aforementioned revisions to the rule in 2020 for Commerce to consider implementing GAO's recommendation. We contacted Commerce in early 2021 to ask about the status of the recommendation. Commerce responded on March 10, 2021 and stated that the Department has not assessed the Independent Private Sector Audits (IPSAs) submitted to the SEC in 2018, 2019, or 2020, and cannot confirm how many IPSAs were submitted in each of those years. Commerce officials reiterated that when the SEC takes action regarding the relevant regulations, the Department will assess how the SEC action affects the Department's plans for implementing the Secretary's responsibilities under Section 1502 and the GAO recommendation. On March 4, 2022, Commerce responded to our request for an update and reported that there has been no change in the status of the agency's response to the recommendation. On February 21, 2023, Commerce responded to our request for an update, stating that there once again has been no change in the status of the agency's response to the recommendation.

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 include steps in its 2030 schedule management plans for learning lessons from systematic ex-post evaluation of the Bureau's extensive decennial and related schedule data. (Recommendation 2)
Open
Commerce agreed with this recommendation. In August 2023, the Bureau provided us with its action plan describing steps it will take. The plan refers to providing 2030 Census planners with schedule data and lessons learned from the 2020 Census--steps we described in our report--but the plan makes no reference to either a systematic ex-post evaluation of the schedule data for the 2020 Census or plans to do so for the 2030 Census, as recommended. In March 2024, the Bureau briefed us on steps it is taking with preparation of its 2030 Census schedule and provided us with a copy of its latest schedule management plan, which also makes no reference to systematic ex-post evaluation of 2030 Census schedule data. They also referred to their formal process of documenting schedule lessons learned drawn from the experiences of decennial staff with the 2020 Census scheduling activity, which we had reported on. In order to fully address this recommendation, the Bureau will need to demonstrate how it plans to leverage the extensive quantitative data it accumulates with its decennial scheduling activity to look for and document possible additional lessons learned.

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, as part of the Bureau's strategic planning process for geographic programs, reexamines LUCA in conjunction with stakeholders, other federal agencies as appropriate, and Congress to address the issues we have identified, including but not limited to:
  • Identifying and assessing alternatives and describing corresponding effects on the decennial census.
  • Reporting out on the assessment of alternatives, including justifications.
  • Developing legislative proposals, as appropriate, for any changes needed to LUCA and address data in order to implement preferred alternatives. (Recommendation 8)
Open
Commerce agreed with this recommendation. In its April 2020 action plan, the Bureau indicated that it would reach out to stakeholders in the Summer of 2022 to discuss reexamining LUCA and other address frame initiatives. In March 2022, Bureau officials described the status of that ongoing outreach and the wide range of issues it is raising. They said they anticipate developing some earlier proposals for administrative changes that work within current legislative authorities before considering more broadly what legislative proposals might be needed. In March 2024, Bureau officials said they were continuing this reexamination. In order to fully implement this recommendation, the Bureau will need to carry out a reexamination with stakeholders on the issues identified in our report as well as identify and report on alternatives and legislative proposals as may be appropriate.

2020 Census: Office Managers' Perspectives on Recent Operations Would Strengthen Planning for 2030

GAO-21-104071
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce The Secretary of Commerce and the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau should collect and consider perspectives of selected former area census office managers on future design options and their implementation and use them as formal input to the planning of the 2030 Decennial Census. (Recommendation 2)
Open
Commerce agreed with our recommendation. The Bureau indicated in its December 2021 action plan that it plans to conduct focus groups of persons who served as Area Census Office Managers during the 2020 Census and use these focus groups to share ideas around the preliminary 2030 Census field structure and elicit feedback and input based on the participants' 2020 Census experience. The Bureau plans to conduct these focus groups and document the results by September 30, 2024. In March 2024, Bureau officials confirmed they plan to provide related documentation by September 2024. In order to implement this recommendation, the Bureau will need to demonstrate that these ACOM perspectives were collected and used to inform subsequent planning for the 2030 Census.

IT Modernization: Census Bureau Needs Reliable Cost and Schedule Estimates

GAO-24-105979
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce The Secretary of Commerce should direct the Director of the Census Bureau to ensure that the CEDSCI program develops its schedule using the best practices described in GAO's Schedule Assessment Guide. (Recommendation 3)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

2020 Census: Additional Steps Needed to Finalize Readiness for Peak Field Operations

GAO-19-140
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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 implements changes to align census field supervisor screening, authorities, and information flows to allow greater use of the census field supervisor position to provide supervisory support to enumerators. (Recommendation 2)
Open
In its February 2019 action plan, the Bureau indicated having updated the Census Field Supervisor hiring assessment to include questions on supervisory experience, in line with draft documentation provided near the end of our engagement. The Bureau also indicated that, by June 2019, it would communicate as part of supervisor training increased supervisory responsibilities and the need to more actively work with enumerators in answering casework questions. The Bureau informed us in August 2020 that the Bureau would not be altering the information flows for 2020 operations to ensure that census field supervisors receive the same guidance and procedural updates that managers within the area census office receive. As of March 2024, we await Bureau officials to revisit this issue after they conclude analysis related to how field data collection will be managed for the 2030 Census, expected by the end of September 2024. To fully implement this recommendation for the 2030 Census fieldwork, the Bureau's planned or other actions later in the decade will need to demonstrate how the census field supervisors will have the information they need to carry out their responsibilities to provide supervisory support to enumerators.

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 State and the Secretary of Commerce should clarify how their agencies will sustain program leadership over the long term, such as with succession planning, in their guidance cables for the Deal Team Initiative. (Recommendation 7)
Open
As of April 2023, we continue to monitor Commerce's actions in response to this recommendation.
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