Generally, federal agencies are only allowed to spend the money that Congress has given them. During a government shutdown, agencies may not have funds—raising questions about whether work may continue. How do agencies plan for this? We reviewed 4 agencies’ contingency plans and operations during FY 2019’s partial shutdown. The plans generally followed federal guidance, but didn’t cover p...

A 2009 law created a tax disparity among different types of tobacco products, with cigarettes, roll-your-own tobacco, and small cigars taxed at one rate and pipe tobacco and some large cigars taxed at lower rates. In a 2012 report, we found that tax revenue decreased after the law because manufacturers made and consumers bought more of the lower-taxed products. We previously recommended that Cong...

This speech was given by the Comptroller General before the National Academy of Public Administration in Washington, D.C. on November 17, 2011. Central among the difficult and pressing challenges facing our nation is the struggle to place our national government on a more sustainable long term fiscal path. The financial market crisis and the resulting economic downturn occurred against a backdrop...

Federal and state governments have raised excise taxes on tobacco products to discourage tobacco use and increase revenues. Cross-border and illicit trade in tobacco products can undermine these policy objectives by avoiding excise taxes and increasing the availability of these products to consumers at lower cost. On June 22, 2009, Congress passed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control...

In 2005, Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma devastated the Gulf Coast, destroying wide swaths of housing, key infrastructure, and numerous private businesses. In response, Congress granted the states a wide range of disaster relief, including billions of dollars of grants and tax incentives to revitalize the Gulf Coast. Specifically, the Gulf Opportunity (GO) Zone Act of 2005 (Pub. L. No. 109-135...

Since February 2004, we have issued a series of reports detailing how some organizations and individuals, including defense, civilian agency, and General Services Administration (GSA) contractors; tax-exempt (not-for-profit) organizations; and Medicare physicians, abused the federal tax system at the same time they were doing business with or receiving benefits from the federal government. While w...

For over 125 years, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP), within the Department of the Treasury, has relied on a single contractor to supply the paper for U.S. currency. Such a long-term contracting relationship could contribute to higher costs and other risks. Another federal agency that relied on a single contractor, the U.S. Mint, decided to obtain a second supplier for coin metal. In sol...

Illegal trafficking in cigarettes can generate enormous profits and is purportedly a multibillion dollar a year enterprise. As cigarette taxes increase, so do the incentives for criminal organizations to smuggle cigarettes into the United States. Cigarette smuggling results in lost tax revenues, undermines government health policy objectives, can attract sophisticated and organized criminal groups...

In its 2001 performance and accountability report on the Department of the Treasury, GAO identified important tax systems modernization, border security, trade regulation, financial management, and other issues facing the department. The information GAO presents in this report is intended to help to sustain congressional attention and a departmental focus on continuing to make progress in addressi...

Effective coordination of the many agencies that participate in a criminal justice system is key to overall success. Although any criminal justice system faces coordination challenges, the unique structure and funding of the District of Columbia (D.C.) criminal justice system, in which federal and D.C. jurisdictional boundaries and dollars are blended, creates additional challenges. Almost every s...