FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found The insurance plan sponsors that provide Medicare Part D drug coverage have increasingly become vertically integrated—that is, under common ownership—with pharmacy benefit managers and pharmacies. GAO found that, for four large Part D plan sponsors, the pharmacies they owned accounted for about 28 percent of the Part D drugs they provided to their enrollees (drug utilization) and about 24 percent of the total payments to pharmacies in 2023 (see figure). Payments included both reimbursement from plan sponsors and cost sharing paid by or on behalf of beneficiaries. When these vertically integrated plan sponsors’ own pharmacies provided drugs to their enrollees, they primarily d.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found The Rural Health Transformation program provides funding for states to conduct rural health activities, such as recruiting clinicians to rural areas and providing training and technology to improve care delivery in rural hospitals. In the latter half of 2025, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) completed a number of early key actions to implement the Rural Health Transformation program. These actions included the release of the notice of funding opportunity—which provided details on program goals and requirements—and initial funding awards to all 50 states totaling $10 billion. The initial allotment of state funding ranged from $147 million for New Jersey to $2.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found When homebuyers apply for a mortgage, lenders request their credit reports from credit reporting agencies. These agencies may then sell the homebuyers’ contact and credit information to other lenders and brokers, which use it to send competing loan offers. Before recent legislation, credit reporting agencies could, without the homebuyer’s consent, provide this information to those that did not have an existing relationship with the homebuyer (see figure). Thus, homebuyers could receive dozens of mortgage solicitations by phone or text in a short period. Example of the Mortgage Trigger Lead Marketing Process According to industry stakeholders, the primary benefit of trigger le.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found Quantum computers leverage qubits (the quantum equivalent of classical computer bits) to solve specific problems significantly faster than classical computers. However, the emergence of quantum computers could undermine the cryptography (e.g., encryption) that federal agencies use to secure their systems. Today’s quantum computers cannot yet break this cryptography. But a future quantum computer of sufficient size and sophistication—referred to as a cryptographically relevant quantum computer (CRQC)—could potentially do so for certain cryptography. Most industry experts believe that a CRQC will be developed, possibly as soon as the 2030s. However, development estimates vary w.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 503) requires certain federal contractors to take proactive steps to employ people with disabilities. The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) within the Department of Labor (DOL) oversees contractors’ compliance with Section 503. Since January 2025, DOL has reduced its oversight activities. For example, DOL has suspended audits of selected contractors, which were a key tool for monitoring compliance. From fiscal years 2017 through 2025, 532 audits found Section 503 violations. Without resuming audits, DOL has less assurance that contractors are supporting employment of people with disabilities. Further,.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found The Concrete Masonry Checkoff (CMC) program is a federally authorized, industry-funded program that supports research, education, and promotion projects intended to strengthen the concrete masonry industry and expand markets for its products. The term checkoff refers to the way similar programs are funded—that is, through assessments. The CMC Board administers the program, which is funded through mandatory assessments on specified concrete masonry units sold. From 2023 through 2025, the board collected over $27 million in assessments and spent nearly $15 million of the funds, primarily on 17 national projects and 69 regional projects. CMC Program Assessments and Projects, 202.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) is an independent establishment in the executive branch that coordinates the federal response to homelessness. It consists of representatives from designated federal agencies (the Council) and a staff that has ranged from 10 to 18 full-time employees over the past decade. USICH’s enabling legislation—the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act—requires it to maintain certain personnel and perform specified duties. These include providing technical assistance to state and local governments through five to 10 regional coordinators employed by the Council, reporting annually to the President and Congress on federal efforts to a.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
This Scroll-Driven Narrative tells the story of how the federal government is trying to strengthen U.S. manufacturing through Manufacturing USA—a national network of institutes that are partnerships between federal agencies, companies, universities, and others. It is a companion to a series of reports GAO has issued examining the Manufacturing USA program—for example, Advanced Manufacturing: Aligning Strategies and Improving Agency Reviews Could Help Institutes Achieve National Goals, GAO-25-107369. This product highlights key themes and recommendations from GAO’s prior work, such as recommendations to better measure performance across the Manufacturing USA network, as well as agency effort.
CABI U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found In 2016, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expanded its authority to oversee all tobacco products, including millions of e-cigarettes that were already on the market. In response, it received a surge of applications from manufacturers in 2020 for products seeking authorization to remain on the market legally. Specifically, it received over 25 million applications in 2020 and 2021, compared to just over 1 thousand applications in 2018 and 2019. This led to a backlog of applications. While FDA has since reviewed most of the applications submitted during this period, almost 132 thousand remained without a completed review as of December 31, 2025. (See figure.) Figure: FDA T.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) sold 1,316 pieces of unneeded laboratory equipment in fiscal years 2022 through 2025. Of that 1,316, GAO identified nine pieces of equipment–freeze dryers and mass spectrometers–that were on the Commerce Control List and sold to individuals and companies in the U.S. and Canada, some of which appeared to be resellers. These items are subject to export controls because they could be used by certain countries of concern to develop biological weapons or to gain a military advantage. Examples of Laboratory Equipment on the Commerce Control List GAO found that HHS and USDA, in selling th.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found The Fly America Act requires that, except under certain circumstances, all air travel funded by the U.S. government use a U.S.-flag air carrier service—which is generally provided by a U.S. airline or under a code share agreement with a foreign air carrier. GAO found that the Act increases State Department travel costs by an estimated $0.7 million to $1.5 million annually—about 1 to 2 percent of the $69 million State spent on air travel in fiscal year (FY) 2025. To derive this estimate, GAO analyzed a generalizable sample of simulated international travel itineraries for FY 2026. This sample consisted of 1,000 ticket pairs, each containing the least expensive unrestricted far.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found Most U.S. property owners are unprotected from flood risk. As of April 2026, 86 percent of high-risk properties did not have National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) coverage. The number of NFIP policies declined from 5.5 million in 2010 to 4.5 million in 2026. Growth in the private market offset this decline, and private policies accounted for 14 percent of all policies in 2025. Federal law requires property owners with federally backed mortgages to purchase flood insurance if their property is in a special flood hazard area (SFHA) designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). This mandatory purchase requirement is the primary reason consumers purchase flood i.
