Reports & Testimonies

Disaster loans from the Small Business Administration can help survivors rebuild and recover from property and home damages. However, survivors sometimes receive assistance from other sources that can exceed their eligible losses, resulting in a duplication of benefits. SBA is required to resolve cases of duplication when it's in the government's best interest to recoup excess funds. When they find duplicative benefits, SBA staff are...

In this Q&A, we report on our recommendations to Congress—our "matters for congressional consideration" to save money and improve federal programs. Since 2000, Congress has acted on 573 matters, making improvements in energy, health, and income security. As of March 2025, 272 matters remained open, but recently proposed legislation would partially or fully address about one-third of those. Thirty-one open matters have estimated financial benefits...

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is responsible for managing federal use of the radio-frequency spectrum. The radio-frequency spectrum is a scarce resource used to support commercial and government activities such as wireless internet and air traffic control. NTIA is working to modernize its spectrum management IT systems but hasn't fully followed leading practices for doing so. For example, it hasn't completed an organization-wide risk...

Guam is home to more than 170,000 Americans and several military installations. Protecting this U.S. territory from missile attack is a Department of Defense priority. As of March 2025, the defense system in Guam included six missile launchers and one radar. DOD is planning to deploy additional systems. But it has yet to determine how many personnel are needed to operate the systems, when those...

Federal discretionary transportation grants help build our nation's infrastructure. The Department of Transportation combined some processes for 3 such grants into the Multimodal Project Discretionary Grant program. DOT announced $5.6 billion in grant awards for the FY 2023-2024 funding round. We found applicants generally liked the combined processes. But DOT didn't fully document its criteria or rationale for selecting certain projects. We have found this...

We examined "human organ-on-a-chip" technologies—laboratory tools that use human cells to mimic organs, model diseases, and more. This new technology can complement conventional lab methods, such as animal testing, which can be inefficient at predicting human responses to drugs and other therapies. While promising, this emerging technology faces challenges such as: Difficulty getting enough high-quality human cells Lack of benchmarks and validation studies Little data...

The Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement use various inspection programs to help ensure that detention facilities for noncitizens are safe, secure, and humane. We reviewed four of these programs and found issues in how they are evaluated. For example, clear performance goals and measures haven't been set. Without these, it's hard to assess how effective these inspection programs are at...

Congress approved $2.1 billion for the construction of 15 federal courthouse projects during FYs 2016-2024. Federal agencies and other stakeholders use the U.S. Courts' Design Guide to build these courthouses. In 2021, the U.S. Courts made changes to this guide, citing, among other things, the need to provide greater security for court personnel. We testified that these changes will significantly increase the size and cost...

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 included 21 energy tax expenditures that support reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other goals. The expenditures cover subjects like clean-energy vehicles and energy efficient buildings. According to estimates, they could result in at least $200 billion less in revenue collected. We have previously recommended better oversight of tax expenditures to make sure they are achieving their goals and to...

Businesses that provide financial services—such as banks and credit unions—are using AI for various purposes, including improving customer service. Financial regulators are increasingly using AI for tasks like identifying risks to financial institutions and detecting insider trading or other illegal activity. But AI technologies present both benefits and risks for businesses and consumers. For example, AI can improve customer service but could also lead to...

Before certain Department of Defense contracts can be closed, the Defense Contract Audit Agency must perform an audit to ensure all costs are allowed under federal regulations. We previously found that these audits were taking the agency a long time, causing a backlog. In 2018, the agency was directed to supplement its workforce with independent auditors to eliminate the backlog. We found that using the...

The Department of Veterans Affairs spends billions of dollars annually on IT products that help it provide benefits and care to veterans and their families. We testified about VA's software licensing practices. For its most widely-used software, VA didn't track the number of licenses in use to compare to the number purchased. As a result, VA could be buying too many or too few licenses...

Managers throughout the government use our Green Book — Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government—to help them achieve their entity's mission. The Green Book provides the framework for establishing and maintaining an effective internal control system that safeguards public resources. We maintain the Green Book to keep it relevant with changing times. This update provides new requirements and resources to help management address...