U.S. Government Accountability Office (U.S. GAO)

The Month in Review is a comprehensive list of all reports, testimony, correspondence and other publications issued by GAO during the month, grouped according to topics. We assign more than one topic to a report when that makes sense. For example, a report about education for veterans will be categorized as both a Veterans report and an Education report. So, you may see the same report in more than one topic below.

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Agriculture and Food

What GAO Found The Thrifty Food Plan (TFP) describes how much it costs to eat a healthy diet on a limited budget, and is the basis for maximum Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. In 2021, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reevaluated the Thrifty Food Plan and made decisions...

Auditing and Financial Management

What GAO Found Created in 1944, the Department of Commerce's Working Capital Fund (WCF) supports services that are performed more efficiently when centralized. WCFs may also allow agencies to benefit from economies of scale and take advantage of specialized expertise. Since GAO's last review in 2011,...

Budget and Spending

What GAO Found Tactical aircraft—fixed-wing fighter and attack planes—provide air-to-air, air-to-ground, and electronic warfare capabilities that are vital to combat operations and homeland defense. Recent studies conducted by the Department of Defense's (DOD) Joint Staff and the military services...

Coronavirus Oversight

What GAO Found The Sourcebook of United States Executive Agencies describes over 60 structural characteristics or features related to an agency's organization or design. These features can affect an agency's degree of autonomy from political influences and help insulate it from political interference....

What GAO Found GAO analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that, from June 2020 through December 2021, nursing homes faced many separate COVID-19 outbreaks, with the average outbreak lasting 4 weeks. Officials GAO interviewed at six selected nursing homes in four...

What GAO Found Agencies used various approaches to provide COVID-19 pandemic relief to tribal entities, tribal members, and American Indian or Alaska Native individuals (tribal recipients). Disbursement and eligibility requirements, distribution and reporting deadlines, and the number and type of steps...

What GAO Found GAO identified 47 waivers and flexibilities that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued to sustain Medicare's provider workforce capacity and beneficiary access to services during the COVID-19 pandemic. This included changes to provider enrollment screening, such...

Economic Development

What GAO Found As of July 2022, the seven states and territories receiving the vast majority of the 2017 and 2018 Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds had disbursed 28 percent of the $11.9 billion they allocated for housing activities. The grantees' disbursements for housing...

Education

What GAO Found Most colleges are not following best practices for providing clear and standard information in their financial aid offers. According to GAO's review of financial aid offers from a nationally representative sample of colleges, nearly two-thirds of colleges follow half or fewer of the 10...

Employment

What GAO Found In recent years, women were underrepresented in management positions and the gender pay gap was greater for certain groups of women, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's (Census Bureau) published American Community Survey (ACS) data on full-time workers. For example, in 2021: Women made...

Energy

What GAO Found According to data from fiscal year 2021, federal agencies have a mixed record meeting the six energy and water efficiency requirements that GAO reviewed. There are 27 agencies that use the Department of Energy (DOE) Compliance Tracking System to report data on their performance in meeting...

Why This Matters Batteries are critical for powering many of our everyday technologies. Increased demand in areas such as transportation and electric grid storage will require longer-lasting batteries with more capacity. Scientific advances in batteries could meet the demand for more energy storage while...

Equal Opportunity

What GAO Found Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) data that GAO analyzed on diversity in the financial services industry show slight increases in representation of minorities (racial/ethnic groups other than White) and women in management positions from 2007 to 2020. For instance, for senior...

What GAO Found The views of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) employees on certain personnel management topics—such as staff morale—have improved since 2013 (see figure). In 2022, employees also expressed positive views on the support SEC provided to employees during pandemic-related telework...

Background This supplemental material presents the results from two GAO surveys of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) employees. The purpose of these surveys was to obtain employees’ views about SEC’s personnel management, including questions on (1) recruitment, training, staff development,...

What GAO Found The Department of Defense's (DOD) policies to prevent and respond to incidents of gender discrimination, sexual harassment, and sexual assault are applicable department-wide. But some of the implementing service policies related to the environments in which U.S. Special Operations Command...

Financial Markets and Institutions

What GAO Found In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal Reserve) authorized 13 emergency lending programs—known as facilities—to ensure the flow of credit to various parts of the economy. To improve its oversight of these facilities, the...

What GAO Found As of September 30, 2022, the Department of the Treasury had disbursed $31.66 billion (about 97 percent) of the $32.55 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds. These funds were obligated to the Making Home Affordable (MHA), Housing Finance Agency Innovation Fund for the Hardest...

Government Operations

What GAO Found The Chief Data Officer Council—established by the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 (Evidence Act)—has taken a range of actions intended to strengthen federal evidence-building activities. The act established the Council as an entity within the Office of Management...

Month in Review, December 2022

Agriculture and Food

Better Planning and Accountability Could Help Ensure Quality of Future Reevaluations

Auditing and Financial Management

Policy and Performance Measure Enhancements Could Help Strengthen Management

Budget and Spending

DOD Needs Additional Portfolio Analysis to Inform Future Budget Decisions

Coronavirus Oversight

Structural Characteristics That Can Help Insulate HHS Agencies against Potential Political Interference

Outbreak Duration Averaged 4 Weeks and Was Strongly Associated with Community Spread

Lessons Learned Could Improve Future Distribution of Federal Emergency Relief to Tribal Recipients

CMS Needs to Address Risks Posed by Provider Enrollment Waivers and Flexibilities

Economic Development

Lessons Learned Could Improve Future Distribution of Federal Emergency Relief to Tribal Recipients

Better Information Is Needed on the Progress of Block Grant Funds

Education

Action Needed to Improve Information on College Costs and Student Aid

Employment

The Gender Pay Gap Is Greater for Certain Racial and Ethnic Groups and Varies by Education Level

Energy

Agencies Report Mixed Success in Meeting Efficiency Requirements, and Additional Data Are Needed

Advanced Batteries

Equal Opportunity

Overview of Representation of Minorities and Women and Practices to Promote Diversity

Employee Views of Personnel Management Improved, but Action Needed on Measuring Diversity and Inclusion Goals

SEC Personnel Survey Results

Improvements to Policy, Data, and Assessments Needed to Better Understand and Address Career Barriers