The federal government has made significant strides in improving financial management since enactment of the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 (CFO Act). Substantial progress has occurred in areas such as improved internal controls, reliable agency financial statements, and establishment of chief financial officer (CFO) positions. To help ensure that the CFO Act achieves its full potential, the...

Congress and the administration face serious economic, security, and social challenges that will require difficult policy choices in the near term in setting national priorities and helping promote economic growth. This will influence the level of federal spending and how the government obtains needed resources. At the same time, the federal government is highly leveraged in debt by historical no...

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has longstanding management challenges. As a result, GAO added several VA programs to its High-Risk List. This list focuses attention on government operations that are most vulnerable to fraud, waste, abuse, or mismanagement, or in need of transformation. These include managing risks and improving VA health care, VA acquisition management, and improving and...

GAO's 2019 annual report identifies 98 new actions that Congress or executive branch agencies can take to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government in 28 new areas and 11 existing areas. For example:GAO found that the Department of Energy could potentially avoid spending billions of dollars by developing a program-wide strategy to improve decision-making on cleaning up radioactive and...

With the support and commitment of top leadership, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has made important progress in strengthening its management functions; however, considerable work remains. As of March 2019, DHS had fully addressed 17 of the 30 outcomes related to its management functions (see table). DHS needs to continue to show sustained leadership commitment in implementing its Inte...

Since 2014, this Subcommittee has provided funding that has resulted in our work achieving over $340 billion in financial benefits and more than 6,300 other improvements in federal programs and operations for our government. In fiscal year (FY) 2018, GAO's work yielded a record $75.1 billion in financial benefits, a return of about $124 for every dollar invested in GAO. We also identified 1,294 ot...

The ratings for more than half of the 35 areas on the 2019 High-Risk List remain largely unchanged. Since GAO's last update in 2017, seven areas improved, three regressed, and two showed mixed progress by improving in some criteria but declining in others. Where there has been improvement in high-risk areas, congressional actions have been critical in spurring progress in addition to actions by ex...

The ratings for more than half of the 35 areas on the 2019 High-Risk List remain largely unchanged. Since GAO's last update in 2017, seven areas improved, three regressed, and two showed mixed progress by improving in some criteria but declining in others. Where there has been improvement in high-risk areas, congressional actions have been critical in spurring progress in addition to actions by ex...

Since 2014, this Subcommittee has provided funding that has resulted in our work achieving over $340 billion in financial benefits and more than 6,300 other improvements in federal programs and operations for our government. In fiscal year (FY) 2018, GAO’s work yielded a record $75.1 billion in financial benefits, a return of about $124 for every dollar invested in GAO. We also identified 1,294...

Fundamental changes over the past 40 years have led to various risks and challenges for the three main pillars supporting the U.S. retirement system. For example, current projections indicate that by 2034, the Old-Age and Survivors trust fund for Social Security's retirement program—the first pillar—will only be sufficient to pay 77 percent of scheduled benefits, due in part to the aging of th...