Department of Agriculture

Recent Reports

Dietary Guidelines for Americans: Strengthening Interagency Collaboration Could Help Inform Nutrition Research and Future Guidelines

Published: Oct 18, 2023.

Publicly Released: Nov 16, 2023.

Equal Employment Opportunity: Additional Actions Would Improve USDA's Collection and Reporting of Key Data

Published: Nov 02, 2023.

Publicly Released: Nov 02, 2023.

Sugar Program: Alternative Methods for Implementing Import Restrictions Could Increase Effectiveness

Published: Oct 31, 2023.

Publicly Released: Oct 31, 2023.

Manufactured Housing: Further HUD Action is Needed to Increase Available Loan Products

Published: Sep 26, 2023.

Publicly Released: Sep 26, 2023.

School Meals: USDA Should Address Challenges in Its “Foods in Schools” Program

Published: Published: Jun 14, 2023..

Publicly Released: Publicly Released: Jul 14, 2023..

Hunger and Homelessness: Funding Distribution for Key Programs

Published: Jun 27, 2023.

Publicly Released: Jun 27, 2023.

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Open Recommendations (94 total)

Equal Employment Opportunity: Additional Actions Would Improve USDA's Collection and Reporting of Key Data

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1 Open Recommendations

Agency Affected	Recommendation	Status
Department of Agriculture	The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that OASCR develops internal guidance on how to compare the data in USDA's No FEAR Act and EEOC Form 462 reports when reviewing for inconsistencies during the data review process. (Recommendation 4)	Open When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Equal Employment Opportunity: Additional Actions Would Improve USDA's Collection and Reporting of Key Data

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5 Open Recommendations

Agency Affected	Recommendation	Status
Department of Agriculture	The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that OASCR updates USDA's website to note which of the department's No FEAR Act reports prior to 2022 may contain inaccurate data for complaints by the basis of race or national origin because of a data input error. (Recommendation 2)	Open When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Department of Agriculture	The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that OASCR adds a section to Farm Bill reports that explains the methods used to analyze EEO complaints, including data sources and any changes to those sources or related analyses that were made from the prior year. (Recommendation 5)	Open When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Department of Agriculture	The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that OASCR documents and implements a process to review and compare selected complaint data in USDA's No FEAR Act and EEOC Form 462 reports, and identifies and resolves, as appropriate, any inconsistencies before issuing the No FEAR Act reports. (Recommendation 3)	Open When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Department of Agriculture	The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that OASCR updates the software for USDA's EEO database so that database users can only select categories for race consistent with EEOC guidance. (Recommendation 1)	Open When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Department of Agriculture	The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that OASCR documents and implements an internal quality review process for Farm Bill reports to identify and correct any errors and incomplete information. This process should include assigning the role of quality review to someone, independent from the work itself, who verifies that the key facts, figures, and findings align with the sources and are correctly reported. (Recommendation 6)	Open When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Sugar Program: Alternative Methods for Implementing Import Restrictions Could Increase Effectiveness

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1 Open Recommendations

Agency Affected	Recommendation	Status
Department of Agriculture	The Secretary of Agriculture should evaluate the effectiveness of the WTO raw sugar tariff-rate quota allocation method versus other tariff-rate quota allocation methods to determine which would most effectively maintain an adequate sugar supply and minimizes costs to the government. (Recommendation 1)	Open When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Dietary Guidelines for Americans: Strengthening Interagency Collaboration Could Help Inform Nutrition Research and Future Guidelines

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1 Open Recommendations

Agency Affected	Recommendation	Status
Department of Agriculture	The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that the Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics—as co-chair of the Interagency Committee on Human Nutrition Research—fully incorporates seven leading interagency collaboration practices in order to better inform and prioritize DGA-related nutrition research. Actions to incorporate these practices could include ensuring that agency research plans are complementary and reflect the current desired outcomes and conducting an inventory of federal authorities, activities, and appropriations related to nutrition research that could inform the DGA development process. (Recommendation 2)	Open When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Alaska Land Management: Resolving Ownership of Submerged Lands

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1 Open Recommendations

Agency Affected	Recommendation	Status
Department of Agriculture	The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that the Chief of the Forest Service coordinates with the Directors of BLM, FWS, and NPS to secure an independent third-party facilitator to help agencies within the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture and the State of Alaska work toward agreement on a collaborative approach for the management of submerged lands in Alaska while ownership is being resolved. (Recommendation 2)	Open As of November 2023, we are following up with the agency and will update the response to this recommendation in the future.

Meat and Poultry Worker Safety: OSHA Should Determine How to Address Persistent Hazards Exacerbated by COVID-19

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1 Open Recommendations

Agency Affected	Recommendation	Status
Department of Agriculture	The Secretary of the Department of Agriculture should ensure that the Food Safety and Inspection Service meets regularly with DOL's OSHA through their interagency workgroup to resolve longstanding collaboration challenges and incorporate leading collaboration practices. In incorporating these practices, the agencies should clearly define short and long-term outcomes, track and monitor progress towards these outcomes, and publicly report collaborative outcomes. (Recommendation 2)	Open USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) agreed with this recommendation and noted its commitment to partnering with OSHA and to doing a better job collaborating to resolve challenges. Specifically, FSIS stated that it is committed to clearly defining short- and long-term outcomes, tracking and monitoring progress, and publicly reporting collaborative outcomes related to meat and poultry worker safety. We laud these plans and, as FSIS and OSHA develop additional outcomes through their workgroup, we encourage them to clearly link these outcomes to the leading collaboration practices and to the challenges we identified in this report.

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