Recommendation: The Secretary of Energy should direct the Director of LM and the Assistant Secretary of the Office of Environmental Management to develop agreements and procedures for identifying and addressing circumstances at LM sites that require new cleanup work beyond the scope of LM's mission, capabilities, and resources. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Energy
Status: Open

Comments: In providing comments on this report, DOE concurred with this recommendation but has not yet taken actions necessary to implement it. In July 2020, DOE officials told us that the Office of Legacy Management (LM) and the Office of Environmental Management will work together to expand on agreements and procedures for identifying and addressing new cleanup work beyond LM's mission scope of providing long-term stewardship. DOE officials estimated that this effort would be completed by September 30, 2021.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Energy should direct the Director of LM to work with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to develop agreements and procedures for identifying and addressing circumstances at LM sites that require new cleanup work beyond the scope of LM's mission, capabilities, and resources. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Energy
Status: Open

Comments: In providing comments on this report, DOE concurred with this recommendation but has not yet taken actions necessary to implement it. In July 2020, DOE officials told us that the Office of Legacy Management (LM) will work with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to develop agreements and procedures for identifying and addressing new cleanup work beyond LM's mission scope of providing long-term stewardship. DOE officials estimated that this effort would be completed by September 30, 2021.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Energy should direct the Director of LM to, as called for in LM's strategic plan, develop plans to assess the effect of climate change on LM's sites and to mitigate any significant impacts. These plans should incorporate principles from GAO's Disaster Resilience Framework, as appropriate. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Energy
Status: Open

Comments: In providing comments on this report, DOE concurred with this recommendation but has not yet taken actions necessary to implement it. In July 2020, DOE officials told us that the Office of Legacy Management (LM) uses models to evaluate sites' vulnerability and resilience to environmental trends over time. DOE officials said that LM will build upon its current operations to develop assessment and mitigation plans that take into account any significant effects of climate change and that incorporate principles from GAO's Disaster Resilience Framework, as appropriate. DOE officials estimated that this effort would be completed by September 2022.

Recommendation: The Secretary of the Army should ensure that the Assistant Chief of Staff for Installation Management, in conjunction with the Centers of Standardization and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, establish and implement performance measures to assess the progress the Centers are making in ensuring that standard designs are used consistently. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Defense: Department of the Army
Status: Open

Comments: DOD concurred with this April 2020 recommendation. In June 2020, DOD provided information that it had developed a corrective action plan and identified an action officer to lead implementation of this recommendation. DOD stated that it is developing a sampling plan with criteria to consider for assessing the consistent use of standard designs. DOD stated that it would identify projects that were completed during the year that used standard designs and that it would then assess the progress that the Centers are making in ensuring that standard designs are used consistently by sampling from the completed projects. DOD stated that, based on the results of this analysis, it would adjust the metrics and frequency of future analyses, as appropriate. DOD stated that it expects this effort to be completed in Spring 2021.

Recommendation: The Secretary of the Army should ensure that the Assistant Chief of Staff for Installation Management, in conjunction with the Centers of Standardization and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, establish and implement performance measures to assess the effects of the use of standard designs, specifically the progress the Centers are making in reducing design costs and time, construction costs and time, and change orders. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Defense: Department of the Army
Status: Open

Comments: DOD concurred with this April 2020 recommendation. In June 2020, DOD provided information that it had developed a corrective action plan and stated that it planned to establish relevant performance measures to analyze efforts to reduce design costs and time, construction costs and time, and the number of change orders. DOD stated that it expects to develop standards containing the metrics, frequency of analysis, and means of reporting. DOD stated that it expects to present the results of its analysis at the FY2020 Military Programs After Action Review in January 2021.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Defense should ensure that the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment, in collaboration with the military departments, provide updated guidance for the oversight of privatized military housing, to include oversight objectives for each service to monitor the physical condition of privatized homes over the remaining duration of the ground leases. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open

Comments: The Department of Defense (DOD) concurred with this recommendation. In its August 2020 response, DOD noted that the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment (ASD (S)), as the Chief Housing Officer, issued guidance requiring the military departments to monitor work order completion for housing privatized under the Military Housing Privatization Initiative based on a combination of resident input, timeliness of work order completion, and number of repeat work orders for the same repair. The guidance also required increased tracking of MHPI project work orders by installation staff. Moving forward, the ASD(S) plans to issue quarterly program review guidance that establishes oversight objectives for the military departments to monitor the physical condition of MHPI housing over the duration of their project ground leases, formalizing the requirement that the data be monitored by the Chief Housing Officer. DOD expects this to be completed by December 2020. We will continue to monitor the status of this recommendation.

Recommendation: The Secretary of the Army should take steps, in collaboration with the Army's private housing partners, to review the indicators underlying the privatized housing project performance metrics to ensure they provide an accurate reflection of the condition and quality of the homes. (Recommendation 2

Agency: Department of Defense: Department of the Army: Office of the Secretary
Status: Open

Comments: The Department of Defense (DOD) concurred with this recommendation. In its August 2020 response, DOD noted that the Secretary of the Army has taken several steps toward addressing this recommendation. For example, the Army published the Portfolio and Asset Management Handbook creating a multi-tiered assessment approach of performance metrics to measure the health of each privatized home through inspection, assessment, satisfaction, and feedback. The Army and the private housing partners revised the Incentive Fee Performance Management Plan, placing increased emphasis on resident satisfaction and work order/maintenance management. The Army also put Commanders in charge, ensuring Army leadership at every Army installation is tracking housing quality and safety. In late 2020, the Army plans to review and evaluate these actions and make a determination by 31 Jan 2021 if any changes or revisions are needed to best implement the recommendation. As such, we will continue to monitor the status of this recommendation.

Recommendation: The Secretary of the Air Force should take steps, in collaboration with the Air Force's private housing partners, to review the indicators underlying the privatized housing project performance metrics to ensure they provide an accurate reflection of the condition and quality of the homes. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Defense: Department of the Air Force: Office of the Secretary of the Air Force
Status: Open

Comments: The Department of Defense (DOD) concurred with this recommendation. In its August 2020 response, DOD noted that the Air Force is engaging in several steps to address this recommendation. Specifically, in March 2020, the Air Force tasked each of the Military Housing Offices to inspect all move-in, move-out, and change of occupancy maintenance events and all emergency, urgent, and life, health, and safety work orders, which is outlined in Air Force guidance. The Air Force is also engaging in several ongoing actions. In response to a memo to the military departments to provide consistency of performance incentive fees, the Air Force was negotiating with the privatized housing project owners to update performance incentive fee metrics in accordance with ASD directed categories and weightings. As of August 2020, agreements had been finalized with 2 partners and work was ongoing with the remaining partners. In addition, the Air Force was working with the project owners to deploy Satisfacts, a survey tool to independently measure resident satisfaction with projects' work order performance, across all Air Force projects with an expected completion by December 2020. We will continue to monitor the status of these recommendations.

Recommendation: The Secretary of the Navy should take steps, in collaboration with the Navy and Marine Corps' private housing partners, to review the indicators underlying the privatized housing project performance metrics to ensure they provide an accurate reflection of the condition and quality of the homes. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Department of Defense: Department of the Navy: Office of the Secretary
Status: Open

Comments: The Department of Defense (DOD) concurred with this recommendation. In its August 2020 response, DOD noted that the Navy and Marine Corps are engaging in several steps to address this recommendation. Specifically, the Navy and Marine Corps have developed a centralized electronic data warehouse, which receives data from privatized housing partner maintenance systems to display work order and survey performance dashboards. By February 2021, the Navy expects to complete the development of metrics displayed by the data warehouse to include key service call performance metrics and resident feedback data. The Navy and Marine Corps are also developing a web-based monitoring matrix tool housing officials can use to evaluate the performance of privatized housing partners. The tool is intended to provide improved tracking capabilities and improved accessibility to information, thus providing more consistent oversight and improved advocacy service members and their families. The Navy is also working to hire 247 additional Navy and Marine Corps housing staff to review and analyze private partner provided recurring maintenance and customer satisfaction reports in an effort to strengthen oversight and monitoring, with an estimated completion of September 2020. Moving forward, we will continue to monitor the status of these and other efforts.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Defense should ensure that the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment, in collaboration with the military departments and private housing partners, establish minimum data requirements and consistent terminology and practices for work order data collection for comparability across installations and projects and to track trends over time. (Recommendation 5)

Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open

Comments: e Department of Defense (DOD) partially concurred with this recommendation. In its August 2020 response, DOD stated that the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment (ASD(S)), as the Chief Housing Officer, plans to issue a policy directing the military departments to establish, to the maximum extent practical, minimum data requirements and consistent terminology and practices for MHPI housing unit work order collection to aid in comparability across installations and projects, and for tracking trends over time. However, DOD noted that the department cannot mandate changes to existing MHPI project legal documents. DOD estimates that this effort will be completed by December 2021. We will continue to monitor the status of this recommendation.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Defense should ensure that the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment require the military departments to establish a process to validate data collected by the private housing partners to better ensure the reliability and validity of work order data and to allow for more effective use of these data for monitoring and tracking purposes. (Recommendation 6)

Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open

Comments: The Department of Defense (DOD) concurred with this recommendation. In its August 2020 response, DOD noted that the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment (ASD(S)), as the Chief Housing Officer, issued guidance directing the military departments to exercise proper oversight to ensure Military Housing Privatization Initiative (MHPI) projects perform in accordance with legal agreements, to include due diligence in monitoring and auditing project maintenance records and other project performance data. The guidance also required military departments to review their entire portfolios of MHPI projects to ensure accurate and appropriate work order management processes. In response to the new guidance, DOD noted that the military departments put in place appropriate oversight measures and undertook the required reviews, though the investigations of project business practices were ongoing in some cases. As another step, the ASD(S) plans to issue guidance directing the military departments to establish a process to validate data collected by their respective MHPI Project Owners to better ensure the reliability and validity of work order data and to allow for more effective use of these data for monitoring and tracking purposes. DOD expects this to be completed by the end of September 2020. We will continue to monitor the status of this recommendation.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Defense should ensure the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment, in collaboration with the military departments, develop a process for collecting and calculating resident satisfaction data from the military departments to ensure that the data are compiled and calculated in a standardized and accurate way. (Recommendation 7)

Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open

Comments: The Department of Defense (DOD) partially concurred with this recommendation based on the fact that the draft report listed the incorrect office as the source for addressing the deficiency, but subsequently changed its response to concur after the recommendation was directed to the appropriate office in the final report. In its August 2020 response, DOD noted that the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment (ASD(S)) plans to issue guidance establishing a department-wide process for collecting and calculating resident satisfaction data to ensure that the data are compiled and calculated in a standardized and accurate way effective with the survey collection effort in Fiscal Year 2021. The department expects this effort to be completed by October 2020. We will continue to monitor the status of this recommendation.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Defense should ensure the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment provides additional explanation of the data collected and reported in future reports to Congress, such as explaining the limitations of available survey data, how resident satisfaction was calculated, and reasons for any missing data, among other things. (Recommendation 8)

Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open

Comments: The Department of Defense (DOD) partially concurred with this recommendation. In its August 2020 response, DOD noted that the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment (ASD(S)) would provide additional explanation of the MHPI resident satisfaction data collected and reported in future annual Military Housing Privatization Initiative (MHPI) reports to Congress, effective with the annual report covering fiscal year 2019. DOD noted that the additional information will include, among other things, an explanation of the limitations of available survey data, how resident satisfaction was calculated, and reasons for any missing data. As of August 2020, the annual MHPI report covering fiscal year 2018 was in final coordination and the department noted that the report would addresses a vast majority, but not all, of the requirements identified in our recommendation. DOD noted that the additional information would be provided in the next annual MHPI report. We will continue to monitor the status of this recommendation.

Recommendation: The Secretary of the Army should develop and implement a plan to clearly and systematically communicate to residents the difference between the military housing office and the private partner. At a minimum, these plans should include the Army housing office's roles, responsibilities, locations, and contact information and should ensure that all residents are aware that they can directly contact Army housing office officials. (Recommendation 9)

Agency: Department of Defense: Department of the Army: Office of the Secretary
Status: Open

Comments: The Department of Defense (DOD) concurred with this recommendation. In its response, DOD noted that the Army developed a "Plain Language" briefing as required by the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act that included the Army Housing Office's roles, responsibilities, location, and contact information at each privatized housing project site. DOD noted that the intent of the briefing was to ensure that all residents were aware of their ability to directly contact Army Housing Office and/or the Garrison Commanders. DOD stated that the briefing was disseminated to all of the Military Housing Offices, who are using it in newcomer briefings, and stated that the briefing would be provided to all current residents of privatized military housing, but that measure would not be tracked due to attrition. In addition, DOD noted that Headquarters, Department of the Army was tasking Army Materiel Command to develop a more detailed plan to communicate to residents the difference between the Army Housing Office and the private housing partner. The Army's intent is to not only capture residents upon their arrival at an installation, but making the services of the MHO known over the duration of a resident's time on at installation. We will continue to monitor the status of this recommendation.

Recommendation: The Secretary of the Navy should develop and implement a plan to clearly and systematically communicate to residents the difference between the military housing office and the private partner. At a minimum, these plans should include the Navy housing office's roles, responsibilities, locations, and contact information and should ensure that all residents are aware that they can directly contact Navy housing office officials. (Recommendation 11)

Agency: Department of Defense: Department of the Navy: Office of the Secretary
Status: Open

Comments: The Department of Defense (DOD) concurred with this recommendation. In its August 2020 response, DOD noted that the Navy has taken various steps to address this recommendation, with additional steps planned. For example, the Navy has ensured that each installation has a specific issue resolution process description marketing flyer available, both in hard copy and on the public housing websites, with a reminder that residents can contact both the privatized housing property manager and the Navy housing office with any issues. Moreover, every housing unit has been provided with a refrigerator magnet reminding residents that they can and should contact the Navy housing office if they have any issues with their home. In addition, the Navy and Marine Corps have established a requirement to contact each privatized housing resident not later than 15 days after move-in and again 60 days after move-in to provide an opportunity to request assistance and remind them of available support. Moving forward, the Navy has an ongoing effort to require private housing companies to market the same messaging as the service issue resolution processes for the MHOs that they support, for consistent advocacy messaging to the tenants. The information will be added to PPV partner websites, printed material and resident handbooks. The Navy also plans to use its annual survey to tracks resident satisfaction and awareness of the Navy's issue resolution process, with expected completion by October 2020. In addition, the Marine Corps has identified a near-term initiative to procure name tags for all MHO employees to wear, identifying themselves as distinct and separate from privatized housing property management company, which will be standardized across all USMC installations. The Marine Corps also plans to develop a standard welcome aboard package to include magnets and other items with key point of contact information. The Marine Corps expects these efforts to be completed by the end of September 2020.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Defense should ensure that the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment, in collaboration with the military departments, assess the risks of proposed initiatives aimed at improving the privatized military housing program on the financial viability of the projects. (Recommendation 12)

Agency: Department of Defense: Office of the Secretary of Defense
Status: Open

Comments: The Department of Defense (DOD) concurred with this recommendation. In its August 2020 response, DOD noted that the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment, as the Chief Housing Officer, planned to issue a policy establishing the assessment of Military Housing Privatization Initiative (MHPI) project financial viability as part of quarterly program reviews as a long-term requirement. The department noted that the program review data would be augmented by input from the MHPI companies, who are assessing the likely impact of proposed initiatives in conjunction with their third party lenders. The department expected this effort to be completed by December 2020. We will continue to monitor the status of this recommendation.

Recommendation: The Director of the Office of Workers' Compensation Programs should develop and implement procedures for coal mine operator self-insurance renewal that clarifies how long an operator is authorized to self-insure; when an operator must submit its renewal application and supporting documentation; and the conditions under which an operator's self-insurance authority would not be renewed. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Labor: Office of Workers' Compensation Programs
Status: Open

Comments: DOL agreed with this recommendation and said it is acting to implement it to achieve further improvements in ensuring the effective oversight of coal mine operator insurance. DOL reported that it would ensure letters granting or renewing self-insurance authority will inform operators that their authorization expires in one year and that they must submit renewal information three months in advance of the expiration date.

Recommendation: The Director of the Office of Workers' Compensation Programs should develop and implement procedures for self-insured coal mine operator appeals that identify time lines for self-insured operators to submit documentation supporting their appeals and that identify a goal for how much time DOL should take to make appeals decisions. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Labor: Office of Workers' Compensation Programs
Status: Open

Comments: DOL agreed with this recommendation and said it is acting to implement it to achieve further improvements in ensuring the effective oversight of coal mine operator insurance. DOL reported that it will ensure letters denying self-insurance will inform operators that they have a 30-day appeal period (limited to one extension) and that DOL has set a goal of resolving all appeals within 90 days of the denial letter.

Recommendation: The Director of the Office of Workers' Compensation Programs should develop and implement a process to monitor operator compliance with commercial insurance requirements and periodically evaluate the effectiveness of this process. This process should be designed to detect errors and omissions in reporting insurance coverage using complete, accurate, and consistently recorded data. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Labor: Office of Workers' Compensation Programs
Status: Open

Comments: DOL agreed with this recommendation and said it is acting to implement it to achieve further improvements in ensuring the effective oversight of coal mine operator insurance. DOL reported that it will modify existing computer systems to identify lapses or cancellations of commercial insurance coverage, and require operators identified as having lapsed or cancelled coverage to obtain or provide proof of coverage within 30 days.

Recommendation: The Commissioner of Internal Revenue should assess options for updating Publications 590-A and 590-B to either include more information or direct taxpayers to other resources for IRA owners with investments in unconventional assets. Such information could include: storage requirements for IRA investments in certain precious metals; valuation methods for hard-to-value IRA assets; the Department of Labor's process for granting exemptions to IRA prohibited transactions rules; and IRA investments with the potential to create unrelated business income tax liabilities. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of the Treasury: Internal Revenue Service
Status: Open

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

Recommendation: The Commissioner of Internal Revenue, building on forthcoming compliance research using new IRA asset data, should evaluate the feasibility of requiring disclosure for high-risk IRA asset types associated with abusive schemes as transactions of interest. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of the Treasury: Internal Revenue Service
Status: Open

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

Recommendation: The Commissioner of Internal Revenue should develop resources (such as training materials or job aids) for Small Business/Self-Employed examiners conducting IRA owner audits that explain how IRAs with unconventional assets can generate unrelated business income tax liability, and how examiners can refer cases to unrelated business income experts in IRS for assistance. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of the Treasury: Internal Revenue Service
Status: Open

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

Recommendation: The Administrator of CMS should ensure the agency's Medicaid third-party liability guidance is consistent with federal law related to

• the requirement for states to apply cost avoidance procedures to claims for labor, delivery, and postpartum care services,
• the requirement for states to make payments without regard to potential third-party liability for pediatric preventive services unless the state has made a determination related to cost-effectiveness and access to care that warrants cost avoidance for 90 days, and
• state flexibility to make payments without regard to potential third-party liability for pediatric services provided to child support enforcement beneficiaries. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Health and Human Services: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Status: Open

Comments: On November 14, 2019, CMS issued an Informational Bulletin providing further guidance to Medicaid Bipartisan Budget Act (BBA) of 2018 and changes to Medicaid Provisions Passed in April 2019-Third Party Liability in Medicaid and CHIP. The intent of the information Bulletin is to further clarify CMS guidance issued in the agency's June 2018 Bulletin on key provisions related to third party liability in Medicaid and CHIP. The Bulletin also addresses April 2019 changes to the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013. The bulletin clarifies CMS guidance on two of the three issues we identified in our 2019 report. The bulletin notes that (1) effective February 9, 2018 a state is required to use standard coordination of benefits cost avoidance when processing claims for prenatal services which now includes labor and delivery and postpartum care claims, and (2) effective October 1, 2019, a state is required to make payments without regard to third party liability for pediatric preventive services unless the state has made a determination related to cost-effectiveness and access to care that warrants cost avoidance for 90 days. However, with regard to the third issue, the bulletin notes that, effective April 18, 2019, a state is allowed 100 days to pay claims related to child support enforcement, but does not note that states may choose to make payment within 30 days, if the state determines doing so is cost-effective and necessary to ensure access to care. We will continue to monitor CMS guidance on payments related to child support enforcement to assess whether the recommendation is fully implemented.

Recommendation: The Administrator of CMS should determine the extent to which state Medicaid programs are meeting federal third-party liability requirements and take actions to ensure compliance as appropriate. Such actions can include ensuring that state plans reflect the law. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Health and Human Services: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Status: Open

Comments: As of February 2020, we are unaware of any actions taken by CMS to implement this recommendation.

Recommendation: The Senior Procurement Executive for the Department of the Army should review the contracts we identified as being awarded to contractors that reported qualifying federal tax debt under FAR § 52.209-11 and (1) determine whether the contracting officer was required to consider the contractor's reported tax debt; if so, (2) determine the reasons controls to identify and refer these contractors to the SDO before contract award did not operate effectively; and (3) design or modify controls to help ensure compliance with applicable regulations. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Defense: Department of the Army
Status: Open

Comments: Army provided us information on their review of the contracts that reported qualifying federal tax debt under FAR ? 52.209-11. We are assessing Army's review of these contracts and will provide updated information when we confirm whether the agency's review, and any subsequent actions stemming from its review, are consistent with our recommendation.

Recommendation: The Senior Procurement Executive for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) should review the contracts we identified as being awarded to contractors that reported qualifying federal tax debt under FAR § 52.209-11 and (1) determine whether the contracting officer was required to consider the contractor's reported tax debt; if so, (2) determine the reasons controls to identify and refer these contractors to the SDO before contract award did not operate effectively; and (3) design or modify controls to help ensure compliance with applicable regulations. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Health and Human Services
Status: Open

Comments: HHS provided us information on their review of the contracts that reported qualifying federal tax debt under FAR ? 52.209-11. We are assessing HHS's review of these contracts and will provide updated information when we confirm whether the agency's review, and any subsequent actions stemming from its review, are consistent with our recommendation.

Recommendation: The Senior Procurement Executive for the Department of the Army should review the contracts we identified as being awarded to contractors that reported qualifying federal tax debt under FAR § 52.209-5. Specifically, the Senior Procurement Executive should determine whether each contract value was expected to exceed the simplified acquisition threshold when the solicitation was issued and, if so, (1) determine the reasons controls to identify and notify the SDO of these contractors before contract award did not operate effectively and (2) design or modify controls to help ensure compliance with applicable regulations. (Recommendation 5)

Agency: Department of Defense: Department of the Army
Status: Open

Comments: Army provided us information on their review of the contracts that reported qualifying federal tax debt under FAR ? 52.209-5. We are assessing Army's review of these contracts and will provide updated information when we confirm whether the agency's review, and any subsequent actions stemming from its review, are consistent with our recommendation.

Recommendation: The Senior Procurement Executive for the Department of Energy should review the contracts we identified as being awarded to contractors that reported qualifying federal tax debt under FAR § 52.209-5. Specifically, the Senior Procurement Executive should determine whether each contract value was expected to exceed the simplified acquisition threshold when the solicitation was issued and, if so, (1) determine the reasons controls to identify and notify the SDO of these contractors before contract award did not operate effectively and (2) design or modify controls to help ensure compliance with applicable regulations. (Recommendation 6)

Agency: Department of Energy
Status: Open

Comments: The Department of Energy (DOE) provided us information on their review of the contracts that reported qualifying federal tax debt under FAR ? 52.209-5. We are assessing the DOE's review of these contracts and will provide updated information when we confirm whether the agency's review, and any subsequent actions stemming from its review, are consistent with our recommendation.

Recommendation: The Senior Procurement Executive for HHS should review the contracts we identified as being awarded to contractors that reported qualifying federal tax debt under FAR § 52.209-5. Specifically, the Senior Procurement Executive should determine whether each contract value was expected to exceed the simplified acquisition threshold when the solicitation was issued and, if so, (1) determine the reasons controls to identify and notify the SDO of these contractors before contract award did not operate effectively and (2) design or modify controls to help ensure compliance with applicable regulations. (Recommendation 7)

Agency: Department of Health and Human Services
Status: Open

Comments: HHS provided us information on their review of the contracts that reported qualifying federal tax debt under FAR ? 52.209-5. We are assessing HHS's review of these contracts and will provide updated information when we confirm whether the agency's review, and any subsequent actions stemming from its review, are consistent with our recommendation.

Recommendation: The Administrator of the General Services Administration should coordinate with the appropriate System for Award Management users, such as agency procurement officials, to identify potential updates to facilitate contracting officers' identification of contractors that report qualifying federal tax debt under the § 52.209-11 representation and § 52.209-5 certification. (Recommendation 10)

Agency: General Services Administration
Status: Open

Comments: GSA concurred with this recommendation and stated it would work with the procurement community to identify potential approaches to draw contracting officers' attention to qualifying federal tax debt information reported by contractors is the System for Award Management under the FAR ? 52.209-5 certification and ? 52.209-11 representation. We will assess these actions after they have been completed.

Recommendation: The Commissioner of the IRS should evaluate options to obtain comprehensive contract payment data above the existing Federal Procurement Data System–Next Generation (FPDS-NG) reporting threshold of $10,000, including assessing the costs and benefits of changing the current threshold for contracts that agencies are required to report to the IRS through Form 8596 information returns to be consistent with the existing reporting threshold for FPDS-NG, determine whether regulatory revisions are necessary, and change the reporting threshold, if appropriate. (Recommendation 12)

Agency: Department of the Treasury: Internal Revenue Service
Status: Open

Comments: IRS concurred with this recommendation and stated that it is reviewing the potential benefits and costs that would result from implementing this recommendation. We will assess these actions after they have been completed.

Recommendation: To better ensure spaceport operators' understanding of FAA's financial responsibility regulations for commercial space launches, the Secretary of Transportation should ensure that the FAA Administrator provides additional communication to clarify FAA's interpretation of the financial responsibility regulations for commercial space launches. The forms of communication could include, among other things, issuing additional guidance or using other forums to clarify when a spaceport operator is a third party to a launch and when it is not.

Agency: Department of Transportation
Status: Open

Comments: In May 2018, FAA officials said that they were working towards implementing the recommendation, but did not have documented efforts at this time and do not have an estimated completion date.