What GAO Found Most colleges are not following best practices for providing clear and standard information in their financial aid offers. According to GAO's review of financial aid offers from a nationally representative sample of colleges, nearly two-thirds of colleges follow half or fewer of the 10...
What GAO Found In its third filing season since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) prioritized processing its backlog of tax returns but its current inventory of unprocessed returns remains high. At the end of 2021, IRS had a backlog of about 10.5 million paper returns and...
What GAO Found The nation's critical infrastructure sectors rely on electronic systems, including Internet of Things (IoT) and operational technology (OT) devices and systems. IoT generally refers to the technologies and devices that allow for the network connection and interaction of a wide array of...
What GAO Found Based on the information collected by GAO on contracts for the purchase and use of commercial satellite imagery by ten federal civilian departments and agencies, GAO observed: Five of 10 federal civilian departments and agencies—Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Interior, and the National...
What GAO Found The Thrifty Food Plan (TFP) describes how much it costs to eat a healthy diet on a limited budget, and is the basis for maximum Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. In 2021, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reevaluated the Thrifty Food Plan and made decisions...
Why This Matters Batteries are critical for powering many of our everyday technologies. Increased demand in areas such as transportation and electric grid storage will require longer-lasting batteries with more capacity. Scientific advances in batteries could meet the demand for more energy storage while...
What GAO Found The Department of Defense (DOD) issued an interim predictive maintenance policy in 2002, but the military services made limited progress implementing it until recently. In 2007, DOD instructed the military services to designate a single focal point for predictive maintenance, provide funding,...
What GAO Found Reports of suspected child sexual exploitation increased 35 percent from 2020 to 2021, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. To address this alarming trend, federal agencies have efforts underway to combat online exploitation of children. These efforts include...
What GAO Found Six of the seven largest U.S. freight railroads have reported implementing precision-scheduled railroading (PSR), a strategy intended to increase efficiency and reduce costs. PSR is not defined by a prescribed set of operational changes. However, stakeholders GAO interviewed—including...
What GAO Found To improve the Transition Assistance Program (TAP), the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (FY 2019 NDAA) includes provisions requiring the service branches to establish counseling pathways, among other actions. GAO found that DOD service branches had fully implemented...