Recommendation: The Director of OMB should comply with its statutory requirement to issue implementation guidance to agencies to develop and maintain comprehensive data inventories. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Executive Office of the President: Office of Management and Budget
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Director of OMB should comply with the statutory requirement to electronically publish a report on agencies' performance and compliance with the OPEN Government Data Act. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Executive Office of the President: Office of Management and Budget
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Director of OMB, in collaboration with the Administrator of GSA, should establish policy to ensure the routine identification and correction of errors in electronically published performance information. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Executive Office of the President: Office of Management and Budget
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Secretary of the American Battle Monuments Commission should designate a chief FOIA officer at the assistant secretary level or equivalent. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: American Battle Monuments Commission
Status: Open

Comments: American Battle Monument Commission (ABMC) officials stated they are working to implement GAO's recommendations by the end of fiscal year 2020.

Recommendation: The Secretary of the American Battle Monuments Commission should update and publish comprehensive FOIA regulations that include requirements established by law and Justice guidance. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: American Battle Monuments Commission
Status: Open

Comments: American Battle Monument Commission (ABMC) officials stated they are working to implement GAO's recommendations. On February 18, 2020, ABMC published proposed revised FOIA regulations which are pending final rule in the Federal Register.

Recommendation: The Chief Executive Officer and Director of the Broadcasting Board of Governors should update and publish comprehensive FOIA regulations that include requirements established by law and Justice guidance. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: U.S. Agency for Global Media
Status: Open

Comments: The U.S. Agency for Global Media (formally known as the Broadcasting Board of Governors) performed a comprehensive review of its FOIA regulations and updated its regulations in accordance with GAO's recommendation. The agency anticipates publishing proposed updates for notice and comment in spring 2020, followed by a final rule.

Recommendation: The Secretary of DHS should take steps to develop and document a plan that fully addresses best practices with regards to reduction of backlogged FOIA requests. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security
Status: Open

Comments: In April 2018, the Department of Homeland Security initiated a department-wide compliance assessment and stated that it plans to use the results of the assessment to help guide the department in identifying best practices and areas of improvement. The department does not have an estimate for when the plan will be complete.

Recommendation: The Secretary of DOI should take steps to develop and document a plan that fully addresses best practices with regards to reduction of backlogged FOIA requests. (Recommendation 7)

Agency: Department of the Interior
Status: Open

Comments: In August 2018, the Department of Interior informed GAO that the department has created a preliminary backlog reduction plan that includes expanding the use of automation tools, expanding the use of interim responses, and closing the Department's 10 oldest requests. Currently, GAO is awaiting a copy of the Department's backlog reduction plan.

Recommendation: The Chair of EEOC should designate a chief FOIA officer at the assistant secretary level or equivalent. (Recommendation 8)

Agency: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Status: Open

Comments: GAO is currently awaiting the agency's response to GAO recommendations..

Recommendation: The Chair of EEOC should take steps to develop and document a plan that fully addresses best practices with regards to reduction of backlogged FOIA requests. (Recommendation 9)

Agency: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Status: Open

Comments: GAO is currently awaiting the agency's response to GAO recommendations.

Recommendation: The Attorney General of the United States should take steps to develop and document a plan that fully addresses best practices with regards to reduction of backlogged FOIA requests. (Recommendation 11)

Agency: Department of Justice
Status: Open

Comments: In August 2018, the Department of Justice acknowledged that it plans to reexamine its progress and take steps for continued improvement in reducing its backlog. Currently, GAO is awaiting a response from the Department on a publication date.

Recommendation: The Administrator of NASA should provide agency records of final opinions online. (Recommendation 14)

Agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Status: Open

Comments: In August 2018, NASA agreed to provide agency records of final opinions online. NASA noted that final opinions will be provided online as they are issued and released for public posting. To date, the Department has not posted any final opinions.

Recommendation: The Chairman of NTSB should take steps to develop and document a plan that fully addresses best practices with regards to reduction of backlogged FOIA requests. (Recommendation 16)

Agency: National Transportation Safety Board
Status: Open

Comments: In August 2018, NTSB provided a plan that laid out tasks for reducing its backlog. The plan did not, however provide milestones or dates for when these tasks would be completed. GAO is currently waiting for the finalized backlog FOIA plan.

Recommendation: The Director of OMB should designate a chief FOIA officer at the assistant secretary level or equivalent. (Recommendation 18)

Agency: Executive Office of the President: Office of Management and Budget
Status: Open

Comments: GAO is currently awaiting the agency's response to GAO recommendations.

Recommendation: The Director of Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation should designate a chief FOIA officer at the assistant secretary level or equivalent. (Recommendation 19)

Agency: Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation
Status: Open

Comments: The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation stated that it has designated the deputy director as the chief FOIA officer. It also noted that the director is at the Senior Level. However, this position is not equivalent to the assistant secretary level identified by GAO.

Recommendation: The President of TVA should ensure its FOIA tracking system is compliant with section 508 requirements. (Recommendation 22)

Agency: Tennessee Valley Authority
Status: Open

Comments: In August 2018, TVA provided a response to GAO's recommendation to ensure their FOIA tracking systems is compliant with section 508 requirements. TVA is currently performing an in-depth assessment of their tracking system to identify where updates can be made to ensure 508 compliance. TVA expects the assessment to be completed by the end of January 2020.

Recommendation: The President of the U.S. African Development Foundation should update and publish comprehensive FOIA regulations that inform a requester of limited unusual circumstances fees. (Recommendation 24)

Agency: African Development Foundation
Status: Open

Comments: U.S. African Development Foundation officials have stated that their FOIA regulations are currently under review and expect them to be published in the first half of calendar year 2020.

Recommendation: The Director of OMB should continue to provide ongoing technical assistance that significantly contributes to agencies making their own determinations about their DATA Act reporting requirements and monitor agency submissions. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Executive Office of the President: Office of Management and Budget
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: OMB stated in January 2020 that it believes that the assistance it has previously provided to help agencies make their own reporting determinations fulfills the recommendation's intent. However, because we continue to identify instances where agencies had not submitted these data, we continue to believe that OMB needs to follow up with agencies that are not submitting quarterly data to find out why they are not reporting. It also needs to update its list of agencies required to report.

Recommendation: The Director of OMB should clarify and align existing guidance regarding the appropriate definitions agencies should use to collect and report on Primary Place of Performance and establish monitoring mechanisms to foster consistent application and compliance. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Executive Office of the President: Office of Management and Budget
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: OMB has issued or contributed to guidance documents that are intended to help agencies collect and report on "Primary Place of Performance." We believe that providing specific examples of how agencies should approach challenging situations when reporting on this data element for grants would provide further clarity.

Recommendation: The Secretary of the Treasury should reasonably assure that ongoing monitoring controls to help ensure the completeness and accuracy of agency submissions are designed, implemented, and operating as designed. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Department of the Treasury
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: In September 2019, Treasury officials stated that they are working to formalize a process for monitoring agency submissions. This process will include (1) emailing agencies prior to submission deadlines to remind them of the approaching submission deadlines; (2) following up with agencies that do not submit required data by the submission deadline and offering technical assistance as needed; and (3) forwarding a list of non-compliant agencies to OMB. GAO will continue to monitor Treasury's efforts to establish monitoring controls to help ensure the completeness and accuracy of the data.

Recommendation: The Secretary of the Treasury should disclose known data quality issues and limitations on the new USAspending.gov. (Recommendation 5)

Agency: Department of the Treasury
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: As of January 2020, Treasury has made progress by disclosing limitations related to unreported spending, among other things. Treasury is planning a major update to the USAspending.gov website to include more information about known data quality issues. Treasury plans to make this update to the website in the coming months and has an internal target date of June 2020 for completion. When completed, this action will help users make more informed decisions about how to interpret and use the data provided on the website.

Recommendation: The Commandant of the Coast Guard should either develop new performance goals to address mission activity gaps, or explain in the Coast Guard's Annual Performance Report (APR) why certain aspects of mission performance are measured while others are not. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: United States Coast Guard
Status: Open

Comments: In October 2017, the Coast Guard concurred with our recommendation and stated that it would add new measures in future Annual Performance Reports (APRs) and explain what is measured and what is not, as appropriate. In May 2020, the Coast Guard provided GAO with its updated fiscal year 2019 APR. After reviewing the fiscal year 2019 APR, we found that the Coast Guard made revisions to the goals for the Ports, Waterways, and Coastal Security (PWCS) and Marine Environmental Protection-prevention activities (MEP) missions and added a goal for the Search and Rescue mission. However, the APR did not include additional goals or an explanation why certain aspects of mission performance are measured while others are not for the other performance goals we previously identified as not fully addressing all related mission activities. In its July 2020 update to this recommendation, the Coast Guard reported that the metrics published in the APR are measures of Coast Guard performance and not performance goals. The Coast Guard also noted that it continually evaluates the utility of its performance measures, and makes changes to individual measures, as well as its suite of measures, when doing so provides meaningful improvement. In its July 2020 update, the Coast Guard added that targets established for performance measures are intended to be realistic expectations of future performance and targets are continually evaluated and changed when current performance modify expectations. However, we continue to believe that in the absence of documentation explaining how existing performance goals address each mission, the extent to which the Coast Guard's performance goals encompass all of its mission activities is unclear. Either developing new goals to address mission activity gaps, or describing in the APR how existing goals sufficiently assess the performance of each mission could provide more meaningful information on progress in achieving Coast Guard's missions to executive branch decision makers, Congress, and the public. In order to fully implement the recommendation as intended, in instances in which performance goals do not fully address all of the respective mission activities, the Coast Guard's APR should include an explanation of the Coast Guard's rationale for why certain aspects of mission performance are measured while others are not. We will continue to follow-up on the Coast Guard's efforts to address this recommendation.

Recommendation: The Undersecretary for Health should take additional steps to ensure that VA's website reports health care quality measures that cover a broad range of health care services, highlights key differences in the clinical quality of care, and presents this information in an easily accessible and understandable way (Recommendation 1).

Agency: Department of Veterans Affairs
Status: Open

Comments: As of January 2020, VA provided information that they had updated information on its website to include more quality measures, particularly as they relate to outpatient care. While VA has made progress in reporting on additional measures, we reviewed VA's website-specifically, their Access and Quality webpage which is the primary webpage for veterans to access information on quality-as of February 2020 and found that VA has still yet to report on a broad range of quality measures that would assist veterans in making health care decisions for inpatient care. For example, VA does not report any quality measures related to readmissions and mortality; length-of-stay; or efficiency. VA also continues to report only one timely and effective care measure for inpatient care. With regards to presentation of its quality measures, VA no longer links its Access and Quality webpage to the homepage of VA's website, making it more difficult to find. Additionally, for the new outpatient measures that VA has added to its website, VA has not presented these measures in an easily understandable way as there is little explanation of what they are measuring and how veterans can use these measures to make healthcare decisions. We will keep this recommendation open until VA has made further updates to its website.

Recommendation: The Undersecretary for Health should direct VA Central Office to conduct a systematic assessment of the completeness and accuracy of patient clinical information across VAMCs that is used to calculate the health care quality measures VA reports and address any deficiencies that affect the accuracy of these measures (Recommendation 2).

Agency: Department of Veterans Affairs
Status: Open

Comments: As of January 2020, VA has said they have focused on three main efforts as it relates to documenting information on VA quality of care, including: timeliness of access information (e.g., wait times) to health care within VA facilities; timeliness and accuracy of payments to community care providers; and accuracy of coding and documentation within VA and from community providers. In particular, VA has conducted several efforts to improve education and training on clinical documentation and coding, particularly for providers. VA has also said it has made efforts in requiring programs across regional networks aimed at improving clinical documentation and coding. While these efforts can help with improving documentation of care to veterans, it is unclear how VA Central Office has assessed whether these efforts have actually achieved its goals and improved the accuracy of its quality measures. As we stated in our report, VA Central Office has not conducted a systematic assessment of the completeness and accuracy of the clinical data recorded in VA patient medical records across all VAMCs. The results of such a systematic analysis could help identify the deficiencies, if any, in the recording of patient clinical information and what steps, if any, VA Central Office may need to take to address them. We will keep this recommendation open until VA provides information on a systematic assessment of clinical documentation.

Recommendation: To further improve security over personnel and other sensitive information at the agency, the Acting Director of OPM should improve the timeliness of validating evidence associated with actions taken to address the US-CERT recommendations.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: OPM partially concurred with the recommendation. OPM has improved its POA&M management system. Using this system, the agency provided, on 08-27-19, milestones showing timely validation of evidence for closing one US-CERT recommendation. However, OPM has not provided support showing timely validation of 16 other US-CERT recommendations that it has closed. OPM needs to provide evidence of timely validation of these 16 completed recommendations, or evidence for the two US-CERT recommendations that remain open, once these two have been closed and validated. As of March 2020, OPM has not yet provided evidence of taking such actions.

Recommendation: To further improve security over personnel and other sensitive information at the agency, the Acting Director of OPM should develop and implement role-based training requirements for staff using Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation tools.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: OPM concurred with the recommendation. In December 2018, OPM stated that it is working with its learning management system vendor to develop role-based training requirements for its continuous monitoring program, but had not yet targeted an expected completion date. To fully implement the recommendation, OPM needs to issue role-based training requirements for individuals who configure and maintain the deployed continuous diagnostics and mitigation tools. As of March 2020, OPM has not yet provided evidence of taking such actions.

Recommendation: To better ensure agencies fulfill their requirements, including implementing IQA guidelines and helping to promote easier public access to IQA information on agency websites, the Director of OMB should consolidate and centralize on OMB's IQA guidance website a government-wide summary of requests for correction submitted under the IQA.

Agency: Executive Office of the President: Office of Management and Budget
Status: Open

Comments: According to OMB, during the last two years OIRA has significantly improved the ease of access to and findability of documents on OMB's information quality website. OMB says it has a number of additional improvements in progress. We have requested information on those additional improvements. We will continue to monitor OMB's efforts related to this recommendation.

Recommendation: To better ensure agencies fulfill their requirements, including implementing IQA guidelines and helping to promote easier public access to IQA information on agency websites, the Director of OMB should work with the Department of Defense and the Federal Housing Finance Agency to help ensure that they post their IQA administrative mechanisms and IQA guidance online.

Agency: Executive Office of the President: Office of Management and Budget
Status: Open

Comments: According to OMB, it worked with the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to improve the accessibility of their Information Quality Act guidance. In addition, OMB stated that FHFA took it upon themselves to update their guidelines. OMB has not provided any information regarding its work with DOD in this area. We will continue to monitor OMB's efforts related to this recommendation.

Recommendation: To better ensure agencies fulfill their requirements, including implementing IQA guidelines and helping to promote easier public access to IQA information on agency websites, the Director of OMB should provide additional guidance for agencies to help improve the transparency and usability of their IQA websites to help ensure the public can easily find and access online information about agency IQA implementation. Such guidance should include (1) specific time frames for agencies to post information on the IQA correction requests they have received, including making it clear when agencies have not received IQA requests; (2) instructions for agencies to include a statement on their IQA websites that the agencies may address correction requests through other administrative processes; (3) instructions for agencies to include, when responding to correction requests, whether those agencies plan to address the request through another administrative processes, and if so, which process they will use; and (4) suggestions for improving usability of agencies' websites including fixing broken links.

Agency: Executive Office of the President: Office of Management and Budget
Status: Open

Comments: According to OMB, in conjunction with its annual data call, the agency has and will continue to provide guidance to agencies about improving the transparency and usability of their websites, including the need to update broken links. In addition OMB issued M-19-15, designed to address a number of related and additional implementation concerns, including transparency and procedural improvements. OMB's guidance to date has not included specific items as specified in the recommendation. We will continue to monitor OMB's efforts related to this recommendation.

Recommendation: To help federal, state, local, and private sector decision makers access and use the best available climate information, the Executive Office of the President should designate a federal entity to develop and periodically update a set of authoritative climate change observations and projections for use in federal decision making, which state, local, and private sector decision makers could also access to obtain the best available climate information.

Agency: Executive Office of the President
Status: Open

Comments: As of January 2020, the Executive Office of the President has yet to take action in response to this recommendation.

Recommendation: To help federal, state, local, and private sector decision makers access and use the best available climate information, the Executive Office of the President should designate a federal entity to create a national climate information system with defined roles for federal agencies and nonfederal entities with existing statutory authority.

Agency: Executive Office of the President
Status: Open

Comments: As of January 2020, the Executive Office of the President has yet to take action in response to this recommendation.

Recommendation: To improve the management of DHS FOIA requests, the Secretary of DHS should direct the Chief FOIA Officer to improve reporting of FOIA costs by including salaries, employee benefits, non-personnel direct costs, indirect costs, and costs for other offices.

Agency: Department of Homeland Security
Status: Open

Comments: As of August 2020, we have followed up with the department to request documentation but have not yet received evidence of DHS's planned actions to address this recommendation.

Recommendation: To improve the management of DHS FOIA requests, the Secretary of DHS should direct the Chief FOIA Officer to direct USCIS and Coast Guard to fully implement the recommended FOIA processing system capabilities and the section 508 requirement.

Agency: Department of Homeland Security
Status: Open

Comments: As of August 2020, we have followed up with the department to request documentation but have not yet received evidence of DHS's planned actions to address this recommendation.

Recommendation: To improve the management of DHS FOIA requests, the Secretary of DHS should direct the Chief FOIA Officer to determine the viability of re-establishing the service-level agreement between the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to eliminate duplication in the processing of immigration files. If the benefits of doing so would exceed the costs, re-establish the agreement.

Agency: Department of Homeland Security
Status: Open

Comments: As of August 2020, we have followed up with the department to request documentation but have not yet received evidence of DHS's planned actions to address this recommendation.

Recommendation: To help maintain a more thorough and insightful 2020 Census development schedule in order to better manage risks to a successful 2020 Census, the Secretary of Commerce and Undersecretary of Economic Affairs should direct the U.S. Census Bureau to improve the credibility of schedules, including conducting a quantitative risk assessment.

Agency: Department of Commerce
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: The Bureau agreed with this recommendation and stated that it had already begun maturing project schedules to ensure that the logical relationships between discrete schedules were put into place. Schedule integration sessions across projects and programs were held in late January 2014 and into February 2014 and periodically since then, where work was deconstructed into detailed schedules. The Bureau released its operational plan and other documentation in November 2015 and announced in June 2016 that it would finalize and release its 2020 Census schedule in July 2016. In 2015, the Bureau provided us with a preliminary output from its risk analysis software as a demonstration of the type of analysis it had committed to, but since then its officials have said that they will not be able to take all the steps needed to satisfy this recommendation for the 2020 Census. The Bureau took steps toward conducting quantitative schedule risk analyses with its master activity schedule for the 2020 Census, but effectively ran out of time to do so. Assigning resources to large complex schedules in order to conduct such analyses is easier to do early in schedule development process, as we recommended the Bureau do in 2009 for its 2020 Census schedule. This recommendation will remain open pending the Bureau taking steps to carry out quantitative risk assessments of its 2030 schedule with appropriate resources linked to it.