Skip to content
TeamCOG
TeamCOG
Citizens Observing Government
Try
Reports Agencies Topics Broadcasts Newsroom About Subscribe
Legislation

Topic: Legislation

CABI U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits

Federal Real Property: Further Consolidating DOT Office Space Could Save Hundreds of Millions of Dollars

What GAO Found The Department of Transportation (DOT) and its component agencies are underutilizing their office space department-wide based on the Utilizing Space Efficiently and Improving Technologies (USE IT) Act benchmark of 60 percent utilization. Specifically, GAO found that 89 percent of DOT’s 189 office buildings, including the DOT and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) headquarters complexes, were underutilized in August and September 2025 based on the USE IT benchmark. This was largely consistent with DOT’s USE IT Act reporting in March 2026. DOT’s underutilized office space costs hundreds of millions of dollars annually to lease, operate, and maintain. In August 2025, DOT..

FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits

Nuclear Waste: DOE’s Plans to Complete Cleanup and Transfer of Moab Mill Site

What GAO Found Through the Moab Cleanup Project, the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) has removed over 16 million tons of uranium mill tailings and other materials at the Moab Mill Site in Utah, as of 2026. Tailings are leftover waste after uranium has been removed from rock. EM has sent the tailings and contaminated material to a nearby disposal site. EM is also working to remediate contaminated groundwater, which threatens the nearby Colorado River. Moab Mill Site and Surrounding Area The Moab Cleanup Project has cost approximately $970 million through fiscal year 2025 and is expected to reach around $1.16 billion. The federal government pays 100 percen.

FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits

SBA Disaster Loans: Assistance for Businesses Affected by Low Snowfall or Warm Winters

What GAO Found The Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) provide necessary working capital to help small businesses affected by a disaster meet financial obligations until normal operations resume. Relatively low snowfall and warm winters are not included in the statutory definition for “major disaster” contained in the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (Stafford Act) or the definition of “disaster” in the Small Business Act. The Stafford Act establishes the programs and processes through which the federal government, led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, provides major disaster assistance, and the Small Business..

FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits

U.S. Customs and Border Protection: Actions Needed to Ensure Complete Reports to Congress on Unidentified Remains and Rescue Beacons

What GAO Found Border Patrol—a component of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)— established a program in 2017 to help rescue individuals in distress and reduce deaths along the border. The program includes various efforts such as placing rescue beacons and 911 placards in remote areas. Border Patrol Sectors Operating Programs to Reduce Deaths and Rescue Individuals Attempting to Illegally Enter the U.S., as of April 2026 CBP used data in its fiscal year 2025 report to Congress that Border Patrol recorded using practices and systems that have not changed since our April 2025 report on these activities. However, CBP’s fiscal year 2025 report did not include all required information abou.

CABI U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits

Environmental Liabilities: Coast Guard Should Give Congress More Information on Millions of Dollars in Potential Costs

What GAO Found As of September 2025, the Coast Guard reported about $448 million in environmental liabilities related to its shore infrastructure. This includes about $228 million for structures, like housing, presumed to be contaminated with asbestos-containing material or lead-based paint based on their age. It also includes about $220 million in cleanup projects at sites with a known or suspected release of contaminants. Several factors create uncertainty that could potentially lead to hundreds of millions of dollars of additional cleanup costs that the Coast Guard has not communicated to Congress. For example, the Coast Guard has identified properties which may be contaminated with “for.

FEDE Office of the Federal Register / National Archives and Records Administration · Rulemaking audits

Loan Guaranty: Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Amendments

Veterans Affairs Department | Notice | The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is announcing that it will make no change in regulation to adjust for inflation the amount of civil monetary penalties that are allowed within VA's authorities. This notice is in accordance with the requirement in the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, as amended by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015, to make annual adjustments to the penalties, based on the prior year's October Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and as interpreted and determined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in Memorandum M-.

FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits

Health Insurance Marketplaces: CMS Needs Stronger Controls to Prevent Unauthorized Actions by Agents and Brokers

What GAO Found Millions of consumers rely on the assistance of health insurance agents and brokers to purchase health insurance plans through federal and state Marketplaces established by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The federal Marketplace is maintained by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). To assist consumers in the federal Marketplace, agents and brokers must be licensed to sell health plans and be registered with the Marketplace, among other things. CMS conducts routine validation checks to help ensure that federal Marketplace agents and brokers are licensed. The agency also restricts access to its systems to only registered agents and brokers. Howeve.

FEDE Office of the Federal Register / National Archives and Records Administration · Rulemaking audits

Information Collection Being Submitted for Review and Approval to Office of Management and Budget

Federal Communications Commission | Notice | As part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork burdens, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or the Commission) invites the general public and other Federal Agencies to take this opportunity to comment on the following information collection. Pursuant to the Small Business Paperwork Relief Act of 2002, the FCC seeks specific comment on how it might further reduce the information collection burden for small business concerns with fewer than 25 employees. The Commission may not conduct or sponsor a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid Office of Managemen.

FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits

Inflation Reduction Act: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Should Develop Performance Goals for Its Wildlife Refuge Projects

What GAO Found The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) provided $125 million in supplemental appropriations to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to rebuild and restore units of the National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS) and state wildlife management areas. Among other things, the appropriations are intended to increase the resiliency of habitats and infrastructure to withstand weather events. As of April 1, 2026, FWS had obligated 99.6 percent of the appropriations, primarily for financial awards to state agencies and other partners for the design, implementation, and monitoring of nine projects across 23 states and more than 75 NWRS units. For example, a northern forest project ai.

FEDE Office of the Federal Register / National Archives and Records Administration · Rulemaking audits

Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Programs

Federal Reserve System | Proposed Rule | The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the Board) is inviting comment on a proposed rule that would require its supervised banks to establish and maintain effective anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) programs reasonably designed to identify, assess, and mitigate risks of illicit finance. Among other changes, this proposed rule would ensure that Board-supervised banks establish and maintain effective AML/CFT programs that are intended to better achieve the purposes of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), culminating in the development of highly useful information related to illicit financial transactions fo.

FEDE Office of the Federal Register / National Archives and Records Administration · Rulemaking audits

Schedules of Controlled Substances: Placement of Tianeptine in Schedule I

Justice Department, Drug Enforcement Administration | Proposed Rule | The Drug Enforcement Administration proposes placing the substance tianeptine (7-[(3-chloro-6,11-dihydro-6-methyl-5,5- dioxidodibenzo[c,f][1,2]thiazepin-11-yl)amino]heptanoic acid), including its isomers, esters, ethers, salts, and salts of isomers, esters, and ethers whenever the existence of such isomers, esters, ethers, salts, and salts of isomers, esters, and ethers is possible, in schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. If finalized, this action would impose the regulatory controls and administrative, civil, and criminal sanctions applicable to schedule I controlled substances on persons who handle (manufacture,.

FEDE Office of the Federal Register / National Archives and Records Administration · Rulemaking audits

Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Threatened Species Status With Section 4(d) Rule for the Kern Canyon Slender Salamander and Endangered Species Status for the Relictual Slender Salamander; Designation of Critical Habitat

Interior Department, Fish and Wildlife Service | Proposed Rule | We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), are reopening the comment period on our October 18, 2022, proposed rule (2022 proposed rule), and November 21, 2023, revised proposed rule (2023 revised proposed rule) to list the Kern Canyon slender salamander (Batrachoseps simatus) and the relictual slender salamander (Batrachoseps relictus) under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act), to designate critical habitat for both species, and to issue a rule under section 4(d) of the Act for the Kern Canyon slender salamander. This action will allow all interested parties an additional opportunity to comment on the p.