Federal Programs: OMB Needs a Structure to Govern and a Plan to Develop a Comprehensive Inventory

What GAO Found

The federal government spends trillions of dollars on federal programs that support the American people and address policy goals. However, it does not have a full inventory of these programs, although requirements have existed since 2011 to develop and annually update one on a publicly available website.

In February 2024, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published an inventory that represents substantial progress and an important first step in fulfilling the statutory requirements. It identified more than 2,000 federal financial assistance programs—programs that provide grants, loans, and other assistance to recipients such as state and local governments and individuals—covering approximately $4.47 trillion in spending from fiscal year 2022. By leveraging data from existing federal systems and websites, OMB was able to provide additional information and spending data for these programs. See figure for an example.

Sample Inventory Information for Federal Flood Insurance Program

Since publishing the inventory, OMB has taken several actions to enhance the consistency, quality, and usefulness of this information. For example, it worked with an interagency council to develop data standards to ensure consistency in how agencies report some of the program information presented on the site.

However, GAO found that OMB had not yet established an effective data governance structure for the federal program inventory. Specifically, OMB had not taken actions fully consistent with GAO’s prior work on effective data governance activities, such as developing policies and procedures and defining roles and responsibilities. Establishing a data governance structure fully consistent with those activities would help ensure that the data collected and reported for the federal program inventory are transparent, accessible, and of sufficient quality.

In addition, the inventory does not yet include all federal programs or required information. For example, it does not include foreign assistance or defense programs, nor does it include certain spending and performance information.

OMB has not publicly articulated plans to include the additional programs and information necessary to fully implement the inventory by a January 2025 statutory deadline or any future date. GAO’s prior work identified a seven-step systematic approach to effectively implement a program inventory. GAO’s work has also found that to successfully manage federal projects, agencies should (1) involve key stakeholders in their efforts, and (2) develop plans that identify what the project seeks to achieve, how it will be achieved—including intended actions and needed resources—and by when.

Taking a systematic approach to articulate plans would help ensure OMB has identified all the actions needed to fully implement an inventory of all federal programs, along with the resources and time frames for doing so. Involving key stakeholders in its planning efforts would help OMB determine priorities and target resources to ensure the resulting inventory provides information that meets stakeholders’ needs.

Why GAO Did This Study

A comprehensive listing of programs, along with related funding and performance information, would help federal decision-makers and the public better understand what the government does, what it spends, and what it achieves each year. An inventory of federal programs could also be a critical tool to help decision-makers better identify and manage fragmentation, overlap, and duplication across the federal government.

The William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 includes provisions for GAO to review program inventory implementation. This is the first of a series of products responding to these provisions. This report provides information about OMB’s efforts to develop, maintain, and update a program inventory to ensure it is comprehensive and provides useful information.

To assess OMB’s efforts, GAO reviewed publicly available information on OMB’s inventory website and compared it to statutory requirements and our prior related work. GAO also reviewed relevant OMB policy documents and interviewed OMB staff to assess its data governance activities for maintaining its current inventory and plans to update and fully develop an inventory of all programs.