FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found In May 2025, GAO identified 39 priority recommendations for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Since then, DHS has implemented five of these recommendations. GAO also closed two recommendations that were no longer valid. In July 2026, GAO identified an additional seven priority recommendations, bringing the total to 39. GAO is highlighting the following three areas that warrant timely and focused attention: Improving disaster preparedness and response, Enhancing information technology and cybersecurity, and Strengthening immigration and border security policies and data. Addressing GAO's recommendations in these areas would improve DHS and Federal Emergency Management.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found The Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) was enacted in 1980, in part to address individuals’ and organizations’ ability to challenge or defend themselves against civil or administrative actions involving the federal government. EAJA authorizes the award of legal fees to parties that prevail against the federal government and meet other eligibility criteria, under certain circumstances. Federal agencies reported paying over $116 million for about 15,000 EAJA awards, on average per year from fiscal years 2019 through 2025. Among the three selected agencies GAO reviewed, the agencies reported the following EAJA data to the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) for.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found Rideshare and taxi services help meet the transportation needs of people in the U.S, but stakeholders have raised questions about the services’ safety. Available data sources do not provide a full picture of the number of rideshare and taxi assaults against drivers and passengers from 2021 through 2025. There is no federal requirement to collect such data, but GAO identified some sources at the federal, local, and industry level. For example: Two federal databases provide some information. For example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated 20 nonfatal injuries to taxi and rideshare drivers due to violent acts by other people from 2023 through 2024, not including self-emplo.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found Most of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) major projects in development reported no schedule delays or cost overruns in the last year. These projects are in the phase of building and testing their designs. Two of these 18 projects reported annual schedule delays (totaling 2 months) and three reported cost overruns (totaling $501.4 million). Similarly, the portfolio’s cumulative costs and delays increased slightly, from $4.4 billion to nearly $4.7 billion and from 13.1 years to 14 years, respectively. The Orion crew capsule accounts for over half of the major projects’ annual cost overruns and almost 75 percent of their cumulative cost overruns. Cost a.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found The Office of Isotope Research and Development and Production (IRP), within the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science, produced, sold, and distributed 265 isotopes during fiscal years 2020 through 2025. Many of these isotopes are critical to medical diagnosis and treatment, national security, industrial processes and manufacturing, and quantum science. IRP made over 7,700 isotope shipments, most of which were for medical purposes. Department of Energy Isotope Production Facility IRP assesses market needs for isotopes on a case-by-case basis and manually tracks interactions with industry, customers, and others. However, IRP has not systematically assessed needs or ali.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found The Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) invests funding in agency projects to, among other things, modernize aging federal information technology (IT) systems. From fiscal years 2018 through 2025, the TMF received over $1 billion in net appropriations, of which the Technology Modernization Board invested about $1.03 billion in 68 unclassified projects (see figure). As of June 2025 (the latest data available at the time of this analysis), 24 TMF projects expected to achieve total savings of about $1.06 billion. Eleven of these projects had collectively realized savings of about $13.5 million, and 13 had not yet begun to achieve savings. While savings thus far have been small,..
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found According to U.S. Census Bureau data, an estimated 13.8 million adults enrolled in Medicaid and 10.6 million adults living in households that received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits worked at some point during 2024. This is out of approximately 28 million and 20 million adults ages 19–64 in these programs, respectively. GAO’s analysis of Census data showed that about two-thirds of these adults in each program worked full-time (35 hours or more a week). However, when compared to other wage-earning adults not participating in either program, wage-earning adult Medicaid enrollees and SNAP recipients were less likely to work full-time hours for 50 or mo.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found The Individual Longitudinal Exposure Record (ILER) is a web application that links service members’ and veterans’ military toxic exposures and related information from Department of Defense (DOD) and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) databases. DOD and VA intend ILER to be a multi-purpose tool to support clinicians in providing diagnoses and treatment decisions, researchers in conducting health surveillance and epidemiological research, and Veterans Benefit Administration (VBA) claims benefits staff in processing disability claims. Use of the ILER web application among DOD and VA staff increased after the Honoring our PACT Act of 2022 (PACT Act) was enacted in August 2022...
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found GAO identified 117 cybersecurity regulations established by 37 federal agencies for private entities, spanning nine critical infrastructure sectors. Most of those regulations either contain the same kind of reporting requirement applicable to a sector or the same reporting requirement as at least one other regulation, which may lead to duplication. Specifically, 80 of the 117 regulations (about 70 percent) had at least 125 total reporting requirements (see figure), with some regulations requiring multiple types of reporting. Cybersecurity Regulations with Reporting Requirements, as of June 2026 These regulations included sector-specific and cross-sector reporting requirements.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has not fully implemented selected leading planning and management practices for its enterprise software asset management (eSAM) program. eSAM is a department-wide effort intended to change how VA manages software assets by, among other things, requiring VA offices to coordinate with, and centrally report software license data to, VA’s IT management organization. This will require a change in organizational practices, given that VA programs have historically acquired their software independently. Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Implementation of Selected Leading Program Planning and Management Practice Areas for the Enterprise Soft.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found Federal broadband efforts are fragmented, with over 100 programs administered by 15 agencies, as GAO reported in May 2022. Some programs support broadband as their main purpose, while others support broadband as one possible purpose (see figure). The Mosaic of Federal Programs with Broadband as a Main Purpose as of November 2021, by Purpose Category GAO has found that a national strategy, continued interagency coordination, and better mapping data could strengthen federal broadband efforts. National Strategy. Strategies to coordinate programs that address issues of broad national need can help mitigate the negative effects of fragmented federal programs, but no national strat.
CABI U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found The size of passenger vehicles on U.S. roads has grown over the past 30 years. Selected studies that GAO reviewed generally found that larger vehicles, certain design features (see figure), and turning maneuvers may limit a driver’s visibility and pose greater risks to pedestrians and cyclists. Data on driver visibility, such as the size of blind zones around a vehicle, are not readily available. As such, GAO used turning maneuvers to analyze the potential relationship between vehicle type and involvement in fatal pedestrian crashes. GAO found that larger vehicles had higher odds of turning compared with going straight in fatal pedestrian crashes than cars in the same scenari.
