GAO has reported in the past that the Small Business Administration's (SBA) ability to enforce regulations prohibiting the award of follow-on, sole-source contracts to 8(a) subsidiary firms of the same Alaska Native Corporation (ANC) relies on contract information from other federal agencies that is sometimes incomplete. SBA's regulations prohibit program participants from receiving an 8(a) sole-

Options for targeting assistance to subsidized policyholders of primary residences who may experience difficulty paying full-risk rates for their National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) policies include means testing assistance based on the income level of policyholders or geographic areas, setting premium caps, and basing assistance on the cost of mitigating the risk of damage to their homes. Cu

The Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration (EDA) has taken a number of steps to implement the Federal Loan Guarantees for Innovative Technologies in Manufacturing (ITM) program, but several key tasks remain before EDA can issue loan guarantees. EDA hired a contractor to assist with developing the program, drafted program documents and published them in the Federal Register f

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has more than tripled the number of contracting officers it employs since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but it does not have a sufficient process in place to prioritize disaster workload and cohesively manage its workforce. Some of the workforce growth is attributed to the establishment of the Disaster Acquisition Response Team (DART) in 2010, which has

Key factors affecting the nature and extent of the American Red Cross's (Red Cross) disaster assistance include its standard set of services and the unique needs of affected communities. The Red Cross is involved in three phases of emergency assistance: immediate response, longer-term recovery, and preparedness. For response, it has a standardized set of services and procedures which may be adjus

During the Hurricane Sandy Recovery, five federal programs--the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Public Assistance (PA), Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP), the Federal Transit Administration's Public Transportation Emergency Relief Program, the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers'

The 10 selected states in GAO's review--Alaska, California, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Vermont, and West Virginia--had established budget mechanisms to ensure the availability of funding for the immediate costs of unforeseen disasters and the ongoing costs of past disasters. All 10 states provided disaster funds at the start of the fiscal year and then as needed

The Denali Commission has faced two key challenges in fulfilling its statutory purpose of providing, among other things, infrastructure and economic development services to rural communities; but options exist to address them. First, a 90 percent decrease in Commission funding from its peak in fiscal year 2007 has raised concerns about whether the Commission can sustain its current approach as pr

The five agencies GAO reviewed used a variety of approaches to estimate and report improper payments related to Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, 2013 (DRAA) funding, in accordance with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance. Specifically, these agencies, which received approximately 94 percent of the $50 billion provided by DRAA, used various approaches regarding the following: (1) Est

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has established some practices for managing its implementation of required changes under the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act (Biggert-Waters Act), as amended by the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act (HFIAA). Consistent with related federal internal control standards, FEMA has collaborated with stakeholders on prioritizing legislat