What GAO Found In response to recommendations GAO made in prior reports, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has taken steps to improve its management of disaster recovery programs in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI). For example, GAO found in February 2020 that Puerto Rico government...
Federal agencies implement a range of efforts to combat international human trafficking. GAO found gaps that could impede these efforts, such as unclear roles and weaknesses in monitoring. The Big Picture Human trafficking—also known as trafficking in persons —is a longstanding global problem. Though...
What GAO Found The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and its contractors have not fully implemented six foundational cybersecurity risk practices in its traditional IT environment. NNSA also has not fully implemented these practices in its operational technology and nuclear weapons IT environments....
What GAO Found The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is responsible for ensuring that nursing homes meet federal standards. CMS enters into agreements with state survey agencies to conduct surveys and investigations of the state's nursing homes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...
What GAO Found Given the ubiquitous nature of the information environment, both DOD and adversaries can conduct operations and activities in the information environment from anywhere in the world. Additionally, with DOD capabilities dependent on IT and the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS), its ability...
What GAO Found In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) temporarily waived certain Medicare restrictions on telehealth—the delivery of some services via audio-only or video technology. Use of telehealth services increased from about 5 million services...
GAO has a large body of work assessing the potential risks that climate change poses to national security. This report highlights some of these risks and actions taken by the Department of Defense and civilian federal agencies to increase resilience to the effects of climate change on Department of Defense...
What GAO Found The Department of Justice (DOJ) has taken some actions to address the data collection and reporting requirements in the Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2013 (DCRA). For example, DOJ has collected and published data on deaths in federal law enforcement custody and collected similar data...
Businesses collect, use, and sell consumer data for their commercial benefit, but consumers may be unaware of how their data are being collected and used. Consumers generally do not have the ability to stop the collection of their data, verify data accuracy, or maintain privacy. The Big Picture As technologies...
What GAO Found There are almost 5,500 active satellites in orbit as of spring 2022, and one estimate predicts the launch of an additional 58,000 by 2030. Large constellations of satellites in low Earth orbit are the primary drivers of the increase. Satellites provide important services, but there are...