Each year, we make more than 1,000 recommendations to help improve the federal government. We alert department heads to the recommendations where they can save the most money, address issues on our High Risk List, or significantly improve government operations. This report outlines our eight priority open recommendations for the Small Business Administration as of April 2020. For example, we rec...

For the English version of this page, see GAO-20-168. Examinamos cómo la Agencia Federal para el Desarrollo de la Pequeña Empresa (SBA, por sus siglas en inglés) planeó y respondió a los huracanes Harvey, Irma, y María en 2017, entre otras cosas. Después de los huracanes, la SBA aceptó cerca de 340,000 solicitudes de préstamo para desastres y aprobó cerca de 141,000, prestando más de...

Para la versión de esta página en español, ver a GAO-20-369. We reviewed how the Small Business Administration planned for and responded to Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria in 2017, among other things. After the hurricanes, SBA accepted about 340,000 disaster loan applications and approved about 141,000, making more than $7 billion in loans to help business owners, homeowners, renters, and...

More than 80% of the land held in trust for Indian tribes and their members is used for farming, ranching, or other agricultural purposes. But the extent to which Indian tribes and their members receive agricultural credit, such as loans to buy farm equipment, is unclear. Tribal representatives and experts we interviewed cited barriers to obtaining credit such as Difficulty in using tribal land...

The Rural Utilities Service (RUS), an agency within the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), has procedures and activities that are consistent with four leading practices and partially consistent with six leading practices in managing two loan programs and one grant program aimed at funding broadband infrastructure projects in rural communities.Consistent with Leading Practices: With r...

The Rural Utilities Service (RUS) expects most Recovery Act-funded Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP) projects will be completed by the June 2015 deadline and as approved, but RUS faces challenges given the large scope of the program. As of March 2014, approximately 14 percent (42 of 297) of BIP infrastructure projects were terminated for a variety of reasons according to RUS officials, such as f...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Utilities Service (RUS) has approved 100 loans to geographically and demographically diverse areas through its Rural Broadband Access Loan and Loan Guarantee Program (“loan program”), though over 40 percent of these loans are no longer active. The geographic distribution of RUS loans is widespread, with broadband providers in 43 states having rec...

The federal government has opportunities to limit its exposure and increase the nation's resilience to extreme weather events. Since 1980, the U.S. has experienced 151 weather disasters with damages exceeding 1 billion dollars each. This testimony focuses on 4 areas where the government could limit its fiscal exposure.Property and crop insurance. The financial risks from two federal insurance prog...

As of August 2012, just 37 of 566 federally recognized tribes (7 percent) were participating in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), and 3 tribes accounted for more than 70 percent of policies. A number of factors have affected tribes' participation. First, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has not placed a high priority on mapping rural areas, including many Indian lands, for...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) and the Small Business Administration (SBA) have 10 disaster assistance programs that small agricultural producers and businesses that support agriculture can use to recover from natural disasters. These programs serve largely different populations but leave few gaps in the disaster assistance available to most small agricultura...