Skip to main content

Department of Agriculture

Jump To:

Recent Reports

View More Reports

Open Recommendations (90 total)

Biodefense: After-Action Findings and COVID-19 Response Revealed Opportunities to Strengthen Preparedness

GAO-21-513
Show
1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should work through the Biodefense Steering Committee to ensure that the Biodefense Coordination Team provides guidance for federal and nonfederal partners for how to report on capabilities in after-action reports for exercises and real-world incidents in a consistent manner. (Recommendation 12)
Open
USDA concurred with our recommendation. In March 2022, officials from USDA reported that a prior presidential memorandum, which established processes and leadership for the biodefense enterprise, including the coordination team, was undergoing revision. In August 2022, USDA officials reported that they are working with other interagency partners to address our recommendation. In October 2022, the White House released an updated National Biodefense Strategy and associated implementation plan. As of January 2024, we have started new work to assess the updated National Biodefense Strategy and its associated implementation plan. As part of this work, we will determine if the changes meet the intent of our recommendation, or if agencies need to take action to meet that intent.

Agency Relocations: Following Leading Practices Will Better Position USDA to Mitigate the Ongoing Impacts on Its Workforce

GAO-23-104709
Show
1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Research, Education, and Economics Under Secretary should require ERS to more fully follow leading practices for diversity management, such as developing a strategy for sustaining diversity and inclusion and documenting ongoing succession and recruiting planning processes. (Recommendation 7)
Open
As of February 2024, GAO is assessing the actions reported by the agency.

Oil and Gas Pipelines: Agencies Should Improve Oversight of Decommissioning

GAO-24-106444
Show
1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Chief of the Forest Service should further specify when gathering lines should be decommissioned following the termination or revocation of rights-of-way. (Recommendation 8)
Open
The Forest Service agreed with this recommendation. We will update the status of the recommendation when we have more information.

IT Modernization: USDA Needs to Improve Oversight of Farm Production and Conservation Mission Area

GAO-21-512
Show
1 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture
Priority Rec.
The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that the Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation (FPAC) directs the Assistant Chief Information Officer to have the FPAC mission area monitor IT program performance against efficiency goals and measures documented in its plan for maximizing efficiencies and reducing IT duplication and overlap. (Recommendation 13)
Open
In August 2023, agency officials noted that they were developing metrics dependent on the FPAC IT strategic plan. However, as of February 2024, the IT strategic plan was still in the review approval process. We will continue to monitor the status of this recommendation.

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

GAO-23-105697
Show
1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that the Administrator of FNS establishes guidelines for timely communication with states on the USDA Foods in Schools program. For example, the guidelines could distinguish response times regarding specific orders and general policy questions. (Recommendation 2)
Open
USDA agreed with this recommendation. The agency said it would seek input from state agencies about the best way to meet their needs regarding communication for USDA Foods in Schools. USDA also said its Food and Nutrition Service and Agricultural Marketing Service would work jointly to ensure communication is as timely as possible and develop guidelines for response times by September 30, 2024. We will monitor the progress of these efforts and await the establishment of guidelines.

Genetically Engineered Crops: USDA Needs to Enhance Oversight and Better Understand Impacts of Unintended Mixing with Other Crops

GAO-16-241
Show
1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture To improve USDA's ability to better understand the economic impacts of unintended mixing of GE and other crops, the Secretary of Agriculture should direct the Administrator of the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) to work with all relevant USDA stakeholders, including APHIS and the Organic Working Group, to determine what additional information should be sought in future organic surveys, such as the costs of reshipping and re-storing shipments rejected because of unintended GE presence, as well as the costs associated with finding new buyers for such shipments.
Open
In its August 2016 Statement of Action on our report, USDA did not provide any new information on actions it has taken, if any, to implement this recommendation. For example, there was no indication whether stakeholders internal to the department had continued to meet to discuss the 2014 Organic Survey results and how to move forward with future survey questions to obtain additional data, such as data needed to better understand the economic impacts of unintended mixing with GE crops. As of February 2022, USDA did not have an update regarding the implementation of this recommendation. We will continue to follow up on USDA's efforts. As of December 2023, we are following up with USDA and will update this recommendation when we have additional information.

Thrifty Food Plan: Better Planning and Accountability Could Help Ensure Quality of Future Reevaluations

GAO-23-105450
Show
1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should develop and document a process to ensure that TFP reevaluations follow the project management practice of creating a comprehensive project management plan that describes how the project will be executed, monitored, controlled, and closed and, in addition to a project schedule, includes:

  • a risk management plan that manages operational risk and applies controls to ensure the project meets its objectives.
  • a quality management plan that describes how the project will be monitored and controlled based on applicable USDA and other federal quality standards.
  • a stakeholder engagement plan outlining all of the relevant stakeholders that must be included in the reevaluation and their respective roles for achieving quality
  • a requirements management plan that establishes how the project requirements will be analyzed, documented, and managed.
    • (Recommendation 2)
Open
USDA did not explicitly agree or disagree with this recommendation. As of December 2023, the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) developed and documented a more formal project management guidance for use by agency staff, including a project management plan template. The project management plan template includes sections prompting the project team to describe and reference the project schedule, a strategy for risk management (or a full risk management plan for complex projects), and the general approach to managing project quality. The template also includes a section prompting the team to list all internal and external stakeholders, and a section to describe the project's approach to conveying clear, consistent, and timely information to stakeholders. FNS officials stated that the section in the template addressing the project's scope outlines the project requirements, and a supplemental "requirements" template focuses on the analysis, documentation, and management of those requirements. However, as of February 2024, FNS officials have not provided that supplemental template. In addition, the section of the template on quality does not prompt the project team to describe how the project will be monitored and controlled based on applicable USDA and other federal quality standards, as we recommended. Beyond the templates, FNS stated that its Office of the Administrator provided a brown bag training to staff on the templates and tools and created a project management matrix to help project managers determine when to use the templates. Projects concluding with a product including extensive research, service, or results--such as the Thrifty Food Plan reevaluation--are required to have project documentation, including a project management plan. Finally, the agency re-initiated its Project Management Community of Practice to further equip project managers with tools and best practices to manage projects agency-wide. We will continue to review FNS's actions with respect to this recommendation and will consider it addressed when we receive documentation of the supplemental requirements template, which we have requested, and additional guidance to project teams to describe how the project will be monitored and controlled based on applicable USDA and other federal quality standards.

Artificial Intelligence: Agencies Have Begun Implementation but Need to Complete Key Requirements

GAO-24-105980
Show
1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that the department updates its AI use case inventory to include all the required information, at minimum, and takes steps to ensure that the data in the inventory aligns with provided instructions. (Recommendation 9)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Biodefense: After-Action Findings and COVID-19 Response Revealed Opportunities to Strengthen Preparedness

GAO-21-513
Show
1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should work through the Biodefense Steering Committee to ensure that the Biodefense Coordination Team routinely monitors the results of interagency biological exercises and real-world incidents to identify patterns of challenges and potential root causes of identified challenges, and reports these to the Biodefense Steering Committee along with recommendations for addressing the root causes that also identify the responsible agencies. (Recommendation 16)
Open
USDA concurred with our recommendation. In March 2022, officials from USDA reported that a prior presidential memorandum, which established processes and leadership for the biodefense enterprise, including the coordination team, was undergoing revision. In August 2022, USDA officials reported that they are working with other interagency partners to address our recommendation. In October 2022, the White House released an updated National Biodefense Strategy and associated implementation plan. As of January 2024, we have started new work to assess the updated National Biodefense Strategy and its associated implementation plan. As part of this work, we will determine if the changes meet the intent of our recommendation, or if agencies need to take action to meet that intent.

Agency Relocations: Following Leading Practices Will Better Position USDA to Mitigate the Ongoing Impacts on Its Workforce

GAO-23-104709
Show
1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Research, Education, and Economics Under Secretary should require NIFA to more fully follow leading practices for diversity management, such as developing a strategy for sustaining diversity and inclusion and documenting ongoing succession and recruiting planning processes. (Recommendation 8)
Open
As of February 2024, GAO is assessing the actions reported by the agency.
View More Recommendations

Related Pages