GAO summarized the key elements of financial management reform facing the new administration and Congress.

GAO found that the new administration will need to: (1) restructure the budget to include capital and operating subtotals for general, trust, and enterprise activities; (2) reformulate deficit reduction targets with the revised budget structure; (3) develop a biennial budgeting approach on macro budget levels with legislative and executive branch agreement to streamline the budget; (4) establish a chief financial officer to provide central leadership, policy direction, and oversight for federal financial management; (5) maintain effective internal controls among all government programs and operations; and (6) give greater attention to auditing accounting systems, financial data, and internal controls to assist inspector general efforts to prevent and detect fraud, waste, and abuse.