Emergency Criteria: How Five States Budget for Uncertainty

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on how five states budget for uncertainty, focusing on: (1) state criteria designed to control the use of reserve emergency funds; (2) how state criteria compared with criteria being proposed at the federal level; (3) how states determined whether the criteria have been met; (4) whether state criteria contain any escape clauses; and (5) whether states' criteria are useful in controlling costs.