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...

Over the past few decades, the United States has become less competitive in manufacturing. In response, the Manufacturing USA program supports public-private manufacturing innovation institutes. The institutes are intended to develop and promote advanced manufacturing technologies, such as 3D printing. An interagency team was responsible for outlining agencies' roles and responsibilities in the p...

The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, which was enacted in December 2015, made a number of significant changes to the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) program, but the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the modal administration that is responsible for the program, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), are still in the early stages of implementin...

As of March 8, 2016, the Small Business Administration (SBA) had taken some actions to address but had not fully implemented the two recommendations GAO made in February 2015 to address weaknesses in SBA’s oversight of the Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) program. The program provides federal contracting preferences to small businesses located in HUBZone areas that also employ...

The Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration (EDA) has taken a number of steps to implement the Federal Loan Guarantees for Innovative Technologies in Manufacturing (ITM) program, but several key tasks remain before EDA can issue loan guarantees. EDA hired a contractor to assist with developing the program, drafted program documents and published them in the Federal Register fo...

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) obligated $12.7 billion from the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF) for its administrative costs from fiscal years 2004 through 2013 and has taken some steps to reduce and better control these costs. This $12.7 billion represents 13 percent of the $95.2 billion obligated from the DRF for the 650 major disasters declared during this time frame. FEMA's average...

Of the approximately $608 million spent by the Department of Commerce's (Commerce) National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in fiscal years 2009 through 2013 on the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program, NIST used most of the funds to directly support MEP centers. Specifically, NIST spent about $495 million on awards to centers and spent the rest on contracts, staff, agenc...

The Department of Labor (Labor) was challenged to process the substantial increase in petitions filed for the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) for Workers program after related legislation was enacted in 2009. Labor initially had insufficient capacity to handle this increased workload, leading to processing delays and data recording errors. For example, in the quarter after the 2009 legislation t...

The Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration (EDA) used its standard grant award process to announce, receive, and review applications for the Community Trade Adjustment Assistance (CTAA) program, with modifications related to program eligibility. To comply with legislative requirements, EDA reached out to eligible communities by identifying those with workers or firms already...

After the Small Business Administration (SBA) was widely criticized for its performance following the 2005 Gulf Coast hurricanes, the agency took steps to reform its Disaster Loan Program. Congress also enacted the Small Business Disaster Response and Loan Improvements Act of 2008 (Act), which places new requirements on SBA to better ensure it is prepared to respond to catastrophic disasters. This...