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Open Recommendations

Veterans Affairs: Improvements Needed in Estimating Funding for Potential Future Health Emergencies
GAO-24-106359
Feb 08, 2024
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2 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Veterans Affairs The VA Undersecretary for Health should update VHA's standard operating procedure to require documenting and sharing with internal VHA stakeholders the rationale for key decisions made when developing the EHCPM. This should include documentation of key decisions made that led from the development of the initial EHCPM scenario through the scenario ultimately used to develop the President's budget request for VA. (Recommendation 1)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Department of Veterans Affairs The VA Undersecretary for Health should enhance VA's analytical modeling capacity to better enable VHA to prepare estimates of the supplemental funding needed to address catastrophic events, such as pandemics, natural disasters, and terrorist acts. (Recommendation 2)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Federal Spending Transparency: Opportunities to Improve USAspending.gov Data
GAO-24-106214
Nov 07, 2023
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3 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Congress Congress should consider amending the DATA Act to assign Treasury, in coordination with OMB, the responsibilities to periodically assess and determine which agencies must report data to USAspending.gov and to oversee the completeness of reporting by all required agencies. (Matter for Congressional Consideration 1)
Open
As of March 2024, Congress has taken no action on this Matter.
Congress Congress should consider amending the DATA Act to include OTAs in the list of federal awards that agencies must report to USAspending.gov. (Matter for Congressional Consideration 2)
Open
As of March 2024, Congress has taken no action on this Matter.
Office of Management and Budget The Director of OMB, in collaboration with the Secretary of the Treasury, should provide guidance for agencies to ensure that the disaster and emergency budgetary data agencies report to USAspending.gov are consistent and comparable across other public sources, such as agency budget and annual financial reports. (Recommendation 1)
Open
In response to our draft report, OMB stated that it agreed with this recommendation. In March 2024 OMB told us that action is planned for this recommendation but not yet in progress. We will continue to monitor OMB's progress towards implementing this recommendation.

DOD Service Contracts: Actions Needed to Identify Efficiencies and Forecast Budget Needs
GAO-23-106123
Sep 07, 2023
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4 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Air Force The Secretary of the Air Force should revise its service acquisition policy to ensure major commands collectively prioritize service requirements valued between $10 million and under $100 million. (Recommendation 1)
Open
DOD concurred with this recommendation. We will provide an update on the agency's progress once one is available.
Department of the Air Force The Secretary of the Air Force should revise its service acquisition policy to require an official who is responsible for the oversight of services, such as the Air Force's Senior Services Manager, to aggregate and review data on service requirements valued between $10 million and under $100 million to identify efficiencies. (Recommendation 2)
Open
DOD concurred with this recommendation. We will provide an update on the agency's progress once one is available.
Department of the Army The Secretary of the Army should revise its service acquisition policy to require an official who is responsible for the oversight of services, such as the Army's Senior Services Manager, to aggregate and review data on service requirements valued at $10 million or more to identify efficiencies. (Recommendation 3)
Open
DOD partially concurred with this recommendation. We will provide an update on the agency's progress once one is available.
Department of Defense The Secretary of Defense should ensure that the Under Secretary of Defense, Comptroller, in coordination with other relevant offices involved in the recently established services working group, specifies the data sources and methodology for forecasting budget needs for service contracts across the Future-Years Defense Program to inform its fiscal year 2026 and future budget submission. (Recommendation 5)
Open
DOD partially concurred with this recommendation. We will provide an update on the agency's progress once one is available.

Federal Spending Transparency: Opportunities Exist for Treasury to Further Improve USAspending.gov's Use and Usefulness
GAO-22-104127
Dec 16, 2021
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Treasury The Secretary of the Treasury should develop and implement website promotion efforts that are clearly targeted toward the USAspending.gov user personas that it has previously identified. (Recommendation 1)
Open – Partially Addressed
Treasury officials stated that they have tied their USAspending.gov promotion efforts to specific features and initiatives that they have launched for the website. Treasury has taken some steps such as conducting outreach with collaborative partners to help inform its "Data Dives" feature and producing YouTube tutorials on topics of specific interest. As of April 2024, Treasury continues to work on this recommendation.
Department of the Treasury The Secretary of the Treasury should add a broad website search function to USAspending.gov to help users find content on the website. (Recommendation 3)
Open
Treasury officials told us that they are in the process of laying the foundation for a broad ("global") search function across all USAspending.gov content. However, they expect the design work for a global search function will not begin until FY2024 at the earliest. As of April 2024, this status is unchanged.
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