In fiscal year 2019, debt held by the public reached 79 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). The government's fiscal response to COVID-19 combined with the severe economic contraction from the pandemic will substantially increase federal debt. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected that debt held by the public will reach 98 percent of GDP by the end of fiscal year 2020. The nation's

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) disclosure rule broadly requires that certain companies submit a filing that describes their efforts to conduct a reasonable country-of-origin inquiry (RCOI), and depending on the preliminary determination, perform due diligence to determine the source and chain of custody of their conflict minerals—gold and specific ores for tantalum, tin, and tungs

Consumer electronics contain critical materials whose supplies are limited, including gold, platinum, and rare earth metals. Domestic recycling of consumer electronics could extend the supply and reduce the current U.S. reliance on imports. New technologies are becoming available, but electronics recycling is complex and faces challenges, such as narrow profit margins.

Since 2008, when the United States and Saudi Arabia signed a memorandum of understanding on nuclear energy cooperation, the current and prior U.S. administrations have engaged in discussions and negotiations about nuclear cooperation with the Saudi government. However, these negotiations are stalled; the two countries have not been able to resolve disagreements on several nonproliferation conditi

The precise magnitude of the problem of antibiotic resistance is unknown. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has made progress in expanding surveillance of infections from certain antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the United States and abroad but faces several challenges. CDC faces challenges in conducting surveillance for antibiotic resistance due to the limited data it is able

In April 2019, GAO identified 21 priority recommendations for the Department of Commerce (Commerce). Since then, Commerce has implemented 8 of those recommendations by, among other things, taking actions to improve its management of the 2020 Decennial Census by improving training of field staff, integrating changes in hard-to-count decisions with other hard-to-count related efforts, and finalizin

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data show that certain vehicle characteristics related to age, body type, and the speed of the vehicle at the time of the crash are associated with increases in pedestrian fatalities from 2008 to 2018. Specifically, the number of pedestrian fatalities during this time period increased more for crashes involving vehicles that were: (1) 11 year

GAO's analyses of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data on pregnant women found: (1) ICE detained pregnant women over 4,600 times from calendar year 2016 through 2018, with more than 90 percent resulting from CBP arrests. (2) Sixty-eight percent of these detentions were for 1 week or less, while 10 percent were for more than 30 days. (3)

What GAO Found The Coast Guard verifies that domestic commercial vessels comply with safety management system (SMS) requirements through activities that include conducting annual inspections of applicable U.S.-flagged vessels. In practice, the Coast Guard delegates primary vessel SMS compliance activities to third party entities, called Recognized Organizations (ROs). Among their responsibilities

The Technology What is it? 5G is a suite of fifth-generation wireless technologies that has the potential to greatly improve mobile communication in several ways. It may lead to faster and more responsive signals from cell phones and other devices. Moreover, it could deliver more reliable connections, higher energy efficiency, the ability to accommodate more devices, and faster network response t