Coast Guard: Opportunities Exist to Strengthen Reform Efforts to Address Sexual Misconduct
Fast Facts
Sexual misconduct has been a challenge within the U.S. Coast Guard for decades. After an investigation found many cases were mishandled, the Coast Guard committed in 2023 to making reforms to address this issue.
We reviewed the Coast Guard's efforts to implement such reforms. We found that it has taken steps to make improvements, including establishing a policy to protect victims and others who report an incident.
But more can be done to maintain progress and achieve lasting results. For example, Coast Guard doesn't have a way to collect feedback from servicemembers on how the reforms are working.
Our recommendations address this and more.
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Highlights
What GAO Found
The Coast Guard identified 49 actions to implement as part of its reform effort to address sexual misconduct since July 2023. As of September 2025, the service reported implementing 32 of them. These actions include revising policy to improve accountability for sexual misconduct and developing new training. Coast Guard officials cited several reasons why the 17 remaining actions are incomplete, including their complexity and transitions in the service’s leaders.
The Coast Guard has taken steps to incorporate aspects of leading practices to support its reform efforts, but gaps in key areas may affect its ability to maintain progress and achieve lasting results to address sexual misconduct.
Extent to Which the Coast Guard’s Reform Effort to Address Sexual Misconduct Followed Selected Leading Practices for Agency Reforms
Specifically, GAO identified gaps in these areas:
- Involving employees and key stakeholders. The Coast Guard engaged employees and stakeholders (e.g., the Department of Defense) when developing its reforms but does not have a dedicated method for collecting feedback from its personnel. Establishing a two-way communication strategy would better ensure the Coast Guard has opportunities to collect and respond to employee feedback regarding the effects of the reforms.
- Leadership focus and attention. The service established a steering committee, but it has not met since November 2024. An active reform implementation team would help the Coast Guard maintain momentum.
- Managing and monitoring. The Coast Guard has not updated timelines or outlined clear next steps for incomplete reform actions. Developing a clear implementation plan with key milestones and updated time frames could help the Coast Guard pinpoint performance shortfalls and address challenges.
- Establishing goals and outcomes. The Coast Guard has not developed an evaluation plan to assess the effectiveness of its efforts, as GAO recommended in March 2024. Officials have begun to develop a service culture index to measure progress; however, it is incomplete.
- Strategic workforce planning. The service has added staff to support its reform efforts (e.g., 16 personnel at the Academy) but has not fully assessed workforce needs. Addressing GAO’s 2020 recommendation on workforce assessment planning would better ensure the Coast Guard has the right people in the units responsible for implementing the reform efforts.
Why GAO Did This Study
Sexual assault and sexual harassment (i.e., sexual misconduct) are serious offenses that can have lasting, harmful effects on victims. Incidents of sexual misconduct in the Coast Guard—a maritime military service within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—have generated congressional and media attention for nearly 2 decades. In July 2023, after media reporting on the mishandling of sexual assault cases, the Coast Guard directed a review to identify areas for organizational improvement and to counter sexual misconduct.
GAO was asked to review the Coast Guard’s effort to address sexual misconduct. This report examines (1) the reform actions the Coast Guard has taken since July 2023 to address sexual assault and harassment and (2) the extent to which the Coast Guard has followed selected leading agency reform practices to implement and sustain its reform efforts.
GAO reviewed Coast Guard documentation on its reform actions and assessed them against selected leading practices for agency reform. GAO also interviewed Coast Guard officials from headquarters and from five of nine districts (selected based on size and geography) and visited one of these districts (New England) as well as the Coast Guard Academy.
Recommendations
GAO recommends that the Coast Guard (1) establish a two-way communications strategy with employees regarding the status and effects of its reform efforts; (2) ensure there is an active reform implementation team in place to manage and sustain its reform efforts; and (3) develop an implementation plan for its reform effort. DHS agreed with the recommendations.
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| United States Coast Guard | The Commandant of the Coast Guard should establish a two-way communications strategy that involves sharing information about the reform efforts to address sexual misconduct and collecting and responding to feedback from employees regarding the effects of the reform efforts. (Recommendation 1) |
DHS agreed with this recommendation. In July 2026, Coast Guard said it (a) held an initial communications working group meeting on April 30, 2026; (b) created an internal SharePoint site and feedback tool to engage the workforce on reform efforts; and (c) on June 26, 2026, sent a form to the Sexual Assault Prevention, Response, and Recovery (SAPRR) workforce to gather targeted feedback. According to Coast Guard, the targeted feedback form aims to collect input on selected Accountability and Transparency Review Directed Actions and to inform the Accountability and Transparency Review Executive Steering Committee, the SAPPR Committee, and impacted programs. The Coast Guard said it plans to continue to collect workforce input on Accountability and Transparency Review directed actions through the feedback tool. Estimated completion of these efforts is August 31, 2026.
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| United States Coast Guard | The Commandant of the Coast Guard should ensure there is an active reform implementation team to manage and sustain its reform efforts to address sexual misconduct. (Recommendation 2) |
DHS agreed with this recommendation. In July 2026, Coast Guard said that it reconstituted the Accountability and Transparency Review Executive Steering Committee-which serves the implementation team to manage and sustain its reform efforts-in January 2026. Coast Guard said the Executive Steering Committee has met monthly from its reconstitution through March 2026 and has since transitioned to a bi-monthly cadence until completion of all Accountability and Transparency Review Directed Actions by the end of calendar year 2026. In addition, the Coast Guard said that it also re-chartered the Sexual Assault Prevention, Response, and Recovery (SAPPR) Committee as a stand-alone oversight body for all other sexual misconduct reform efforts that are aligned to the Coast Guard Strategic Plan's four lines of effort: Prevention, Response, Recovery, and Accountability. According to the Coast guard, The SAPRR Committee held its first meeting in March 2026 and plans to meet monthly to build out subcommittees and working groups. The SAPPR Committee plans to then shift to quarterly meetings once fully operational, according to Coast Guard officials. We will review supporting documentation to determine the extent the Executive Steering and SAPRR committees are operating as a reform implementation team to manage and sustain its reform efforts.
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| United States Coast Guard | The Commandant of the Coast Guard should develop an implementation plan that identifies key milestones, deliverables, and updated time frames for reform actions addressing sexual misconduct. (Recommendation 3) |
DHS agreed with this recommendation. As of July 2026, the Coast Guard said it plans to provide supporting documentation on the progress of the nine outstanding Accountability and Transparency Review Directed actions and an implementation plan for the outstanding program-initiated reform actions. Estimated completion of these efforts is July 31, 2026.
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