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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Auditing and Financial Management

What GAO Found Based on the limited procedures GAO performed in reviewing the independent public accountant's (IPA) audit of the Congressional Award Foundation's fiscal year 2021 financial statements, GAO did not identify any significant issues it believes require attention. Had GAO performed additional...

What GAO Found The Department of Defense (DOD) has taken steps to address the material weakness that auditors identified related to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program, including establishing milestone dates for addressing underlying issues. However, GAO found that because it lacks a fully developed...

What GAO Found During the audits of the 2021 and 2020 financial statements of the two funds that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) administers—the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) and the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation Resolution Fund (FRF)—GAO continued to identify deficiencies...

What GAO Found During its audit of the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) fiscal years 2021 and 2020 financial statements, GAO identified four new deficiencies in internal control over financial reporting. The new deficiencies related to information system controls, specifically in the areas of access...

Budget and Spending

What GAO Found The federal government faces an unsustainable fiscal future. At the end of fiscal year 2021, debt held by the public was about 100 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), a 33 percent increase from fiscal year 2019. Projections from the Office of Management and Budget and the Department...

What GAO Found The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) provides information to tribal stakeholders and others on agency-reported federal funding for programs that benefit Native Americans (see figure). This information is known as the Native American Crosscut. Proposed Funding for Programs That Benefit...

Business Regulation and Consumer Protection

What GAO Found Consumer scores are indicators that group consumers based on their past actions and characteristics. Score creators use public records and nonpublic information such as purchase histories to create scores. Businesses and other entities use these scores to segment or rank individuals to...

Coronavirus Oversight

What GAO Found The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) took several actions aimed at increasing the availability of COVID-19 tests in the United States. This included granting emergency use authorizations (EUA) for more than 400 COVID-19 tests and sample collection devices by the end of 2021 (see figure)....

What GAO Found Starting in March 2020, Congress passed several laws, including the CARES Act, to provide employers with tax relief in response to the economic burden brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Provisions in these laws established the paid sick and family leave credits (leave credits), the Employee...

What GAO Found During the 2020-21 school year, students in all grade levels, whether learning in person or virtually, struggled with many obstacles. These ranged from lack of appropriate workspaces and adequate support to competing demands on their time, disengagement, and absences. Such obstacles hindered...

What GAO Found While the pandemic presented obstacles for many students during the 2020-21 school year, GAO's nationwide survey of public K-12 teachers showed that teachers with certain vulnerable student populations were more likely to have students who faced significant obstacles to learning and an...

This supplement is a companion to GAO's report entitled, "Pandemic Learning: As Students Struggled to Learn, Teachers Reported Few Strategies as Particularly Helpful to Mitigate Learning Loss," GAO-22-104487, as well as two forthcoming reports on pandemic learning. This supplement provides detailed...

What GAO Found One option that may be available to those who lose jobs with employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) during the COVID-19 pandemic is short-term plans, which can cover certain health expenses. These plans are generally not subject to federal requirements for individual health insurance coverage...

Economic Development

What GAO Found Federal broadband efforts are fragmented and overlapping, with more than 100 programs administered by 15 agencies. Many programs have broadband as their main purpose, and several overlap because they can be used for the purpose of broadband deployment, as shown in the figure. Programs...

Education

What GAO Found At least 550 colleges worked with an online program manager (OPM) to support at least 2,900 education programs (e.g., certificate and degree programs) as of July 2021, according to the most recently available market research data. However, the exact number of OPM arrangements is unknown,...

What GAO Found A variety of Department of Defense (DOD) programs support military families who have children with disabilities in preK-12 schools. School Liaisons are the primary contacts for military families with preK-12 students who seek support, including special education issues. Four DOD officials...

Employment

What GAO Found The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) helps contractors comply with affirmative action provisions for veterans protected under the Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 (VEVRAA). OFCCP provides web-based resources and coordinates with contractors...

What GAO Found The Department of Labor (DOL) completed over 5,000 Service Contract Act (SCA) cases in fiscal years 2014 through 2019 according to available data. For many, this, which for many resulted resulted in awarding of back wages to federally contracted security guards, janitors, and other service...

What GAO Found From February 2020 through June 2021, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) relied primarily on existing workplace safety and health standards and voluntary employer guidance for its COVID-19-related enforcement. Before June 2021, without COVID-19-specific standards...

Energy

What GAO Found The Department of Energy's (DOE) two petroleum product reserves as currently structured—holding 2 million barrels of heating oil and gasoline in commercial terminals across the Northeast—are not well suited to address the risks of supply disruptions in the region. GAO assessed DOE's...

What GAO Found The Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) manages DOE's radioactive and hazardous waste cleanup program across 16 sites (see fig.), using both capital asset projects and operations activities. According to EM data, there were 23 active capital asset projects...

What GAO Found The Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) has experienced frequent turnover in its top leadership position, with the average top leader serving for less than 2 years. In the last 2 decades, there have been five Senate-confirmed assistant secretaries (political...

Month in Review, May 2022

Auditing and Financial Management

Review of the FY 2021 Financial Statement Audit

Additional Actions Would Improve Reporting of Joint Strike Fighter Assets

Improvements Needed in FDIC's Internal Control over Contract Documentation and Payment-Review Processes

IRS Needs to Improve Financial Reporting and Information System Controls

Budget and Spending

Federal Action Critical to Pivot toward Fiscal Sustainability

Actions Needed to Improve Information on Federal Funds That Benefit Native Americans

Business Regulation and Consumer Protection

Congress Should Consider Enhancing Protections around Scores Used to Rank Consumers

Coronavirus Oversight

FDA Took Steps to Help Make Tests Available; Policy for Future Public Health Emergencies Needed

IRS Implemented Tax Relief for Employers Quickly, but Could Strengthen Its Compliance Efforts

As Students Struggled to Learn, Teachers Reported Few Strategies as Particularly Helpful to Mitigate Learning Loss

Teachers Reported Many Obstacles for High-Poverty Students and English Learners As Well As Some Mitigating Strategies

Technical Materials for Teacher Survey and Discussion Groups with Public K-12 School Principals, Teachers, and Parents

Limited Data Hinders Understanding of Short-Term Plans' Role and Value During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Economic Development

National Strategy Needed to Guide Federal Efforts to Reduce Digital Divide

Education

Education Needs to Strengthen Its Approach to Monitoring Colleges' Arrangements with Online Program Managers

As Students Struggled to Learn, Teachers Reported Few Strategies as Particularly Helpful to Mitigate Learning Loss

Teachers Reported Many Obstacles for High-Poverty Students and English Learners As Well As Some Mitigating Strategies

Technical Materials for Teacher Survey and Discussion Groups with Public K-12 School Principals, Teachers, and Parents

DOD Programs and Services for Military-Dependent Students with Disabilities

Employment

Better Assistance and Data Use Could Improve Oversight of Veterans' Federal Contractor Employment

Opportunities Remain for Department of Labor to Improve Enforcement of Service Worker Wage Protections

Data and Enforcement Challenges Limit OSHA's Ability to Protect Workers during a Crisis

Energy

DOE's Northeast Petroleum Product Reserves

Status of Major DOE Projects and Operations

DOE Needs Greater Leadership Stability and Commitment to Accomplish Cleanup Mission