Recommendation: To strengthen CBP's trade enforcement efforts, the Commissioner of CBP should direct the Office of Trade to include performance targets, when applicable, in addition to performance measures in its Priority Trade Issue strategic and annual plans.

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: United States Customs and Border Protection
Status: Open

Comments: As of August 2019, the seven FY 2019 Priority Trade Issue (PTI) annual plans prepared by CBP's Office of Trade all included performance measures with performance targets, but some plans did not include baselines to measure it's trade enforcement efforts against. The Office of Trade reported that it was in the process of finalizing its FY2020 annual plans, which should be available in December 2019. In addition, the Office of Trade reported that it no longer develops a single strategic plan covering all of its PTIs and only prepares the PTI annual plans.

Recommendation: To strengthen CBP's trade enforcement efforts, the Commissioner of CBP should direct the Office of Trade and the Office of Field Operations to develop a long-term hiring plan that articulates how CBP will reach its staffing targets for trade positions set in the Homeland Security Act and the agency's resource optimization model.

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: United States Customs and Border Protection
Status: Open

Comments: As of June 2019, CBP stated that both the Office of Trade (OT) and Office of Field Operations (OFO) continue to take steps to address hiring gaps which include evaluating approaches to hiring and evaluating and selecting candidates for its various trade positions. For example, OT had developed a recruitment strategy for hiring regulatory auditors. OT reported that it has brought regulatory auditors onboard as a result of its strategy but experienced attrition and challenges in attaining its staffing target for this position. OT and OFO did not provide recruitment strategies for the other trade positions. OFO's Human Capital Division, along with assistance from OT and other CBP components, reported finalizing a long-term hiring plan to meet and maintain the congressional floor for certain trade and revenue positions, including those for import specialists, by the end of fiscal year 2020.

Recommendation: To ensure that the performance measures used to evaluate the TAA for Firms program demonstrate program results and to help ensure that EDA can comprehensively evaluate the effectiveness of the program, the Secretary of Commerce should broaden the program's evaluation approach, for instance, by developing additional quantifiable outcome-oriented performance goals and measures for key program areas and conducting further analysis of the data to isolate the impact of the TAA for Firms program from other influences, such as economic trends.

Agency: Department of Commerce
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: Commerce concurred with our findings and recommendations. As of August 2020, EDA is taking actions to implement our recommendation. In 2012, EDA commissioned a study to inform the development of performance metrics and evaluation methods for the TAA for Firms program. Issued in October 2014, the study provided recommendations to EDA on potential performance metrics, tested the metrics by conducting a statistical analysis of TAA for Firms clients against a control group as well as a survey, and suggested data sources for conducting future evaluations of the TAA for Firms program. According to EDA officials, the study would help provide a foundation for more robust longitudinal performance measurement and enhanced policy analysis, thereby enabling EDA to more comprehensively evaluate the program. These officials noted that, in April 2017, the authors of the study finalized an operational toolkit containing recommended metrics and protocols for data collection and impact evaluation methods. In June 2017, EDA began to pilot test these recommended metrics and evaluation methods to improve program evaluation. EDA formed a working group in December 2017 to further refine the new evaluation system and metrics based on the results of the pilot tests. In May 2018, EDA's working group concluded the refinement of the metrics. In August 2018, EDA continued to collect data on these metrics from its grantees using a pilot survey and refined the metrics as EDA received additional responses and feedback about the pilot survey from grantees. As of August 2020, EDA had developed new data collection instruments that will gather data and information on the TAA for Firms program's outputs and outcomes. EDA intends to use the information collected from the new instruments to conduct program evaluations to better understand how program performance compares with performance goals and the impact of the TAA for Firms program, according to EDA officials. EDA is in the process of developing software to administer the instruments and an internal working group is guiding the implementation of the new data collection system. EDA expects to implement the new system in fiscal year 2020, according to EDA officials. We will continue to monitor Commerce's efforts to implement our recommendation.

Recommendation: To improve the data available to manage and evaluate the TAA for Firms program, the Secretary of Commerce should develop a data system to consistently collect, maintain, and analyze sufficiently reliable and up-to-date data on program operations and participant firms.

Agency: Department of Commerce
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: Commerce concurred with our findings and recommendations. As of August 2020, EDA is taking actions to implement our recommendation. According to EDA officials, in fiscal year 2017, EDA had developed an improvement plan for its agency-wide data system for collecting data on program operations. As of August 2020, EDA is working with a contractor to implement a new data system to assist in administering and managing the TAA for Firms program. For example, EDA officials expect the new data system to allow TAA Centers to submit participant firms' petitions for certification and adjustment proposals to EDA electronically for review and approval. In addition, these officials noted that the new data system will facilitate EDA's analysis of program performance. EDA anticipates that the new data system for the TAA for Firms program will be operational in fiscal year 2021. We will continue to monitor Commerce's efforts to implement our recommendation.

Recommendation: To address the current information gap in Regulation SHO for prime brokerage arrangements and mitigate the impact of any unintended consequences caused by SEC rules, as well as ensure consistent implementation of SEC rules by the industry, the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission should finalize, in an expedited manner upon finalization of the temporary rule, the revised 1994 Prime Broker Letter.

Agency: United States Securities and Exchange Commission
Status: Open

Comments: As of June 4, 2019, the revised Prime Broker letter has not been finalized. Staff from the Reg SHO team in SEC's Trading and Markets division stated that they have regularly and continuously asked the industry for comments on the Prime Broker Letter without receiving any real progress. Their most recent request for comments was emailed to industry counsel on May 22, 2019. Industry counsel acknowledged the request but have yet to provide comments.