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As of September 24, 2023, there are 5001 open recommendations that still need to be addressed. 524 of these are priority recommendations, those that we believe warrant priority attention. Learn more about our priority designation on our Recommendations page.

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1 - 20 of 87 Recommendations, including 9 Priority Recommendations
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Alaska Land Management: Resolving Ownership of Submerged Lands

GAO-23-106235
Cardell Johnson
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that the Chief of the Forest Service coordinates with the Directors of BLM, FWS, and NPS to secure an independent third-party facilitator to help agencies within the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture and the State of Alaska work toward agreement on a collaborative approach for the management of submerged lands in Alaska while ownership is being resolved. (Recommendation 2)
Open

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

Meat and Poultry Worker Safety: OSHA Should Determine How to Address Persistent Hazards Exacerbated by COVID-19

GAO-23-105104
Thomas Costa
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of the Department of Agriculture should ensure that the Food Safety and Inspection Service meets regularly with DOL's OSHA through their interagency workgroup to resolve longstanding collaboration challenges and incorporate leading collaboration practices. In incorporating these practices, the agencies should clearly define short and long-term outcomes, track and monitor progress towards these outcomes, and publicly report collaborative outcomes. (Recommendation 2)
Open

USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) agreed with this recommendation and noted its commitment to partnering with OSHA and to doing a better job collaborating to resolve challenges. Specifically, FSIS stated that it is committed to clearly defining short- and long-term outcomes, tracking and monitoring progress, and publicly reporting collaborative outcomes related to meat and poultry worker safety. We laud these plans and, as FSIS and OSHA develop additional outcomes through their workgroup, we encourage them to clearly link these outcomes to the leading collaboration practices and

School Meals: USDA Should Address Challenges in Its “Foods in Schools” Program

GAO-23-105697
Kathy Larin
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3 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should develop a mechanism to routinely and systematically identify and address challenges to operating the USDA Foods in Schools program. For example, the agency could add relevant questions to the annual School Meals Operations Study, and create and implement a plan to address findings. (Recommendation 1)
Open

USDA agreed with this recommendation and said it has made significant efforts to identify and address challenges in the USDA Foods in Schools program. For example, the agency said it has conducted listening sessions with stakeholders and initiated actions based on the feedback. USDA also said it has used surveys of SFAs and other formal research to inform the agency's priorities regarding the USDA Foods in Schools program. USDA said it will continue to engage with partner organizations to identify areas of concern and solutions, and will continue to establish ways to more routinely and
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that the Administrator of FNS establishes guidelines for timely communication with states on the USDA Foods in Schools program. For example, the guidelines could distinguish response times regarding specific orders and general policy questions. (Recommendation 2)
Open

USDA agreed with this recommendation. The agency said it would seek input from state agencies during upcoming meetings and conferences about the best way that USDA can meet states' needs and ensure timely communication. We will monitor the progress of these efforts and await the establishment of guidelines.
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that the Administrator of FNS systematically identifies and shares promising practices and lessons learned with states related to the USDA Foods in Schools program, for example, by creating a repository or toolkit on the agency's public website that is accessible to all states. (Recommendation 3)
Open

USDA agreed with this recommendation. The agency said it supports a variety of efforts to facilitate the sharing of promising practices through promoting state interaction and communication. USDA said it would work to develop a repository of USDA Foods in Schools resources for states on the public website to supplement resources already available to states. We will monitor the progress of these efforts.

Cloud Security: Selected Agencies Need to Fully Implement Key Practices

GAO-23-105482
David (Dave) Hinchman, Brian Bothwell
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7 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that the agency fully documents the access authorizations for its selected PaaS system. (Recommendation 1)
Open

As of September 2023, Agriculture has not provided an update on its efforts to address our recommendation.
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that the agency fully implements continuous monitoring for its selected PaaS system, to include reviewing the continuous monitoring deliverables from the CSP and committing to a time frame to review audit logs. (Recommendation 2)
Open

As of September 2023, Agriculture has not provided an update on its efforts to address our recommendation.
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that the agency fully implements continuous monitoring for its selected SaaS system 1, to include reviewing the continuous monitoring deliverables from the CSP and committing to a time frame to review audit logs. (Recommendation 3)
Open

As of September 2023, Agriculture has not provided an update on its efforts to address our recommendation.
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that the agency fully implements continuous monitoring for its selected SaaS system 2, to include reviewing the continuous monitoring deliverables from the CSP. (Recommendation 4)
Open

As of September 2023, Agriculture has not provided an update on its efforts to address our recommendation.
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that the agency's service level agreements with CSPs define performance metrics, including how they are measured and the enforcement mechanisms. (Recommendation 5)
Open

As of September 2023, Agriculture has not provided an update on its efforts to address our recommendation.
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that the agency provides the authorization letter to the FedRAMP PMO for its selected SaaS system 2. (Recommendation 6)
Open

As of September 2023, Agriculture has not provided an update on its efforts to address our recommendation.
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that the agency's contracts with CSPs include requirements for the service providers to comply with FedRAMP security authorization requirements. (Recommendation 7)
Open

As of September 2023, Agriculture has not provided an update on its efforts to address our recommendation.

Disaster Contracting: Action Needed to Improve Agencies' Use of Contracts for Wildfire Response and Recovery

GAO-23-105292
Marie A. Mak
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2 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that the Forest Service conducts technical supervision and annual reviews of orders placed by ordering officials as outlined in policy. (Recommendation 5)
Open

The department generally agreed with our recommendation. In January 2023, the Forest Service revised its policies to clarify supervision and review requirements related to orders placed by ordering officials. However, the Forest Service has not yet provided information that shows how it is ensuring the new requirements are being followed. We will continue to follow up on the status of this recommendation.
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure the Forest Service develops a mechanism to implement, track, and archive the lessons learned developed through its large fire reviews. (Recommendation 6)
Open

The department concurred with our recommendation but, as of summer 2023, has not yet reported actions to implement it.

School Meal Programs: USDA Could Enhance Implementation of the Buy American Provision

GAO-23-105884
Kathy Larin
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that the Administrator of FNS develops a standard form that school food authorities can use to document their reasons for using exceptions from the Buy American provision, and disseminates that form through state agencies. (Recommendation 1)
Open

FNS concurred with this recommendation and stated that it will develop a standard template that school food authorities can use to document information related to the Buy American provision when utilizing exceptions. Further, FNS noted that in developing the template, it will consider topical comments on the Buy American provision included in the proposed rule, Child Nutrition Programs: Revisions to Meal Patterns Consistent with the 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, published February 7, 2023. We will monitor the progress of these efforts.

Sustainable Aviation Fuel: Agencies Should Track Progress Toward Ambitious Federal Goals [Reissued with Revisions May 17, 2023]

GAO-23-105300
Heather Krause
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should coordinate with DOT and DOE to develop and incorporate into the Grand Challenge Roadmap performance measures that enable the agencies to evaluate their actions and the effect of policy on SAF production and communicate the extent to which SAF is poised to contribute to larger aviation greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals. (Recommendation 3)
Open

The Department of Agriculture concurred with this recommendation. When we confirm what actions the Department of Agriculture has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Wildfire Smoke: Opportunities to Strengthen Federal Efforts to Manage Growing Risks

GAO-23-104723
J. Alfredo Gómez
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should work with the Administrator of EPA and Secretary of the Interior to better align air quality and land management goals for wildfire risk mitigation and establish joint strategies for achieving those goals. (Recommendation 3)
Open

The Department of Agriculture agreed with this recommendation. When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to the recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Climate Change: Options to Enhance the Resilience of Agricultural Producers and Reduce Federal Fiscal Exposure

GAO-23-104557
Steve Morris
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1 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture
Priority Rec.
This is a priority recommendation.
The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure that the Climate Change Program Office, located within the Office of the Chief Economist, analyzes the options to enhance the climate resilience of agricultural producers that were identified in this report and integrates them, as appropriate, into USDA's future climate resilience prioritization and planning efforts. Such analysis should include an explanation of USDA's decision to prioritize or not prioritize the options identified in this report and the identification of any additional authority and resources that USDA would need to implement the options. (Recommendation 1)
Open

USDA agreed with the recommendation. According to the Statement of Action included in the Department's response letter sent on June 6th, 2023, USDA will integrate the evaluation of GAO's 13 options into its ongoing climate adaptation efforts. Specifically, USDA''s Statement of Action said that, beginning in calendar year 2023, the Department will include an analysis of the 13 policy options GAO identified to help enhance the resilience of agricultural producers in its revised Departmental-level Action Plan for Climate Adaptation and Resilience. We will continue to assess USDA's progress

Abandoned Hardrock Mines: Land Management Agencies Should Improve Reporting of Total Cleanup Costs

GAO-23-105408
Cardell Johnson, Nathan Anderson
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should require the inclusion of available cleanup cost estimates from documents, such as records of decision and site investigation studies, in NEAT, so that more precise information can be considered for program management and decision-making. (Recommendation 3)
Open

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

Thrifty Food Plan: Better Planning and Accountability Could Help Ensure Quality of Future Reevaluations

GAO-23-105450
Kathy Larin
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1 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture
Priority Rec.
This is a priority recommendation.
The Secretary of Agriculture should develop and document a process to ensure that TFP reevaluations follow the project management practice of establishing a key document at the start of a project, such as a project charter, that includes an overall assessment of risk and measurable objectives and metrics for success related to project requirements and other expectations for the project. (Recommendation 1)
Open

USDA did not explicitly agree or disagree with this recommendation. USDA did not describe any actions it planned to take to address this recommendation and noted that it plans to respond to each recommendation in detail as part of its required Statement of Action by June 2023.
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