FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found The Export-Import Bank of the United States’ (EXIM) loan guarantee transactions are approved by EXIM’s Board of Directors, staff with individual delegated authority, or delegated authority lenders. The underwriting process for loan guarantee transactions approved by EXIM includes several steps, such as screening applications for completeness, reviewing for minimal eligibility requirements, and performing due diligence to assess transactions’ risks. Selected Underwriting Processes EXIM Performs for Loan Guarantees EXIM followed its underwriting guidelines but has not fully leveraged available data to identify participants with delinquent federal nontax debt. By law, a person o.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found Under federal law, insurance plans offered in health insurance exchanges—known as qualified health plans (QHP)—may cover abortion services consistent with federal and state laws. Based on federal law applicable in 2026, QHPs are prohibited from using federal funds, such as income-based tax credits, to help pay for abortion services except where the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, or the life of the pregnant woman would be endangered unless an abortion is performed. GAO refers to services that do not meet that exception as “non-excepted abortion services.” In 2026, federal data show 26 percent of QHPs (1,719 of 6,655) in the 50 states and District of Columbia covere.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
Why GAO Did This Study From September 2026 through December 2026, GAO is seeking input and feedback on this exposure draft from all interested parties. Please use this link [email protected] to provide us with comments on the guide. Federal agencies spend billions of dollars each year buying commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) products. When agencies want to buy a COTS product, first they need to determine whether a vendor’s product is right for them. One way that agencies assess a product is by conducting testing and evaluation (T&E). Agencies can then use the results of the T&E to inform their purchasing decisions. Prior GAO work has identified problems with how agencies con.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found In the first half of 2025, the President issued a series of executive orders directing federal agency heads—in consultation with the United States DOGE Service (also known as the Department of Government Efficiency) agency team leads—to review and terminate contracts in order to reduce federal spending, among other things. In response, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) conducted a department-wide review of over 17,000 contracts to assess their level of importance to the agency’s mission. This assessment resulted in DHS components completely or partially terminating contracts for cost savings. In addition, in March 2025, DHS began requiring approval by the Deputy Secre.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found After three unsuccessful attempts over two decades, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) undertook a fourth effort in 2017—the Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) program—to modernize its legacy health information system. GAO has previously reported on the challenges VA has experienced with this effort. In these reports, GAO made 18 recommendations to improve cost estimating, schedule, program management, user adoption and satisfaction, and operational testing. GAO deemed 12 of these as priority recommendations because of their criticality to successful future deployments. As of August 2026, VA has not yet fully implemented 14 of the 18 recommendations. Implement.
CABI Office of the Federal Register / National Archives and Records Administration · Rulemaking audits
Interior Department, National Park Service | Proposed Rule | The National Park Service (NPS) proposes to modify the procedural requirements in existing NPS regulations for the designation of roads and trails for bicycle use within park areas. The changes would align NPS regulations with applicable Federal law and policy, remove unnecessary requirements, and ensure public involvement when needed. The changes in this rule would allow the NPS to manage its resources and allocate taxpayer funds more efficiently and streamline the approval of new and expanded opportunities for use and enjoyment of park areas by the American public.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found Qualified Opportunity Zones (Zone)—low-income census tracts nominated by governors and designated by the Department of the Treasury—have lower incomes and higher poverty than other census tracts. The law commonly known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) changed the eligibility criteria for Zone designation, which resulted in fewer eligible tracts for future selection. Stakeholders, including some states and subject-matter specialists, reported that this may allow better targeting of the tax incentive to the most economically distressed areas. Stakeholders reported the incentive is primarily funding real estate development. According to state officials and Qualified Opp.
FEDE Office of the Federal Register / National Archives and Records Administration · Rulemaking audits
Agriculture Department, U.S. Codex Office | Notice | The U.S Codex Office is sponsoring a public meeting on September 17, 2026. The objective of the public meeting is to provide information and receive public comments on agenda items and draft U.S. positions to be discussed at the 11th Session of the Codex Committee on Milk and Milk Products (CCMMP11) of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC). CCMMP11 will be held by correspondence from September 29-October 29, 2026. The U.S. Manager for Codex Alimentarius and the Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs recognize the importance of providing interested parties the opportunity to obtain background information on the 11th S.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What the OIG Found GAO aims to provide Congress, the heads of executive agencies, and the public with timely, fact-based, non-partisan information that can be used to improve government and save taxpayers billions of dollars. To execute its mission, GAO relies on a highly-qualified workforce that includes employees in mission-critical occupations (MCO) such as contracting, human resources management, and information technology management. In FY 2024, GAO’s hiring of MCO employees took about 103 days on average, which is longer than its internal target of 98 or 101 days (depending on the application review process used), OPM’s goal of 80 days for executive branch agencies, and executive bran.
FEDE Office of the Federal Register / National Archives and Records Administration · Rulemaking audits
Treasury Department, Internal Revenue Service | Proposed Rule | This document contains proposed regulations that would amend existing regulations that require certain trusts to report all charitable contributions and amounts permanently set aside for a charitable purpose on Form 1041-A, U.S. Information Return Trust Accumulation of Charitable Amounts. The proposed regulations would remove the reporting requirement for these trusts with respect to taxable years in which the trust's only claimed charitable contribution deduction results from charitable contributions made by a passthrough entity in which the trust owns an interest. The proposed regulations would also modify the existing regula.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found The Anniston and Red River Army Depots, among other things, perform maintenance and repairs on ground vehicles, including vehicles such as tanks, personnel carriers, and self-propelled artillery systems; trucks for hauling fuel and supplies; and light armored vehicles for transporting personnel and cargo. The maintenance and repairs performed at both depots include overhauls, major repairs, repairable parts, and other depot work. The annual total workload at Anniston Army Depot varied and slightly declined overall when comparing FY 2021 to FY 2025. The depot workload at Red River Army Depot generally trended up when comparing FY 2021 to FY 2025. The largest share of the workl.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found The Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) overall processing performance during the 2026 filing season was similar to 2025. IRS processed about 98 percent of the 177 million individual and business returns that it received during the 2026 filing season—the same percentage as last year. However, according to IRS, unavailable processing systems and reduced staffing delayed paper return processing. IRS said the systems were not available due in part to recent staff losses that delayed programming updates. IRS sent about half of paper returns to outside vendors to scan and submit to IRS electronically, but paper return processing took longer than prior years. For example, on average,..
