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

Most institutional investors GAO interviewed (12 of 14) said they seek information on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues to better understand risks that could affect company financial performance over time. These investors added that they use ESG disclosures to monitor companies' management of ESG risks, inform their vote at shareholder meetings, or make stock purchasing decisions

The public comment process: Agencies engage in three basic phases during the rulemaking process under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA): 1) they process comments submitted by the public, which may include identifying duplicate comments, 2) analyze and consider all relevant and substantive comments, and 3) identify, as appropriate, rule revisions that may be made in response to the comments s

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

In April 2019, GAO identified six priority recommendations for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Since then, SEC has implemented five of those recommendations by, among other things, implementing a more comprehensive workforce and succession planning process, which includes guidance from the Office of Personnel Management. In December 2019, GAO identified one additional priority recom

Executive retirement plans allow select managers or highly compensated employees to save for retirement by deferring compensation and taxes. As of 2017, more than 400 of the large public companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 stock market index offered such plans to almost 2,300 of their top executives, totaling about $13 billion in accumulated benefit promises. Top executives at large public com

The Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) Publications 590-A and 590-B serve as a general handbook for millions of taxpayers with individual retirement accounts (IRA). However, the two-part publication provides limited information for IRA owners with unconventional assets surrounding complex tax rules in four compliance areas: (1) barred investments, (2) prohibited transactions, (3) unrelated business

The Administrative Procedure Act (APA) governs the process by which many federal agencies develop and issue regulations, which includes the public comment process. In June 2019, GAO found that Regulations.gov and agency-specific comment websites collect some identity information—such as name, email, or address—from commenters who choose to provide it during the public comment process. The APA

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) awards priority review vouchers (PRV) to drug sponsors that develop drugs for tropical diseases or rare pediatric diseases or to use as medical countermeasures. The PRV—which can be sold to another drug sponsor—may be redeemed later to receive priority review from FDA with a targeted review time of 6 months, rather than the 10-month standard review, for

The U.S. financial and trade systems have vulnerabilities that criminal organizations seek to exploit. Financial institutions have responsibilities based on Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering requirements to, among other things, report suspicious financial transactions to the Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). However, financial institutions have l