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Open Recommendations

Animal Transport: Congress Should Consider Modernizing the Law to Better Protect Livestock
GAO-26-108123
Jun 04, 2026
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3 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Congress Congress should consider amending the Twenty-Eight Hour law or passing new legislation to address factors that could help prevent cruelty to livestock animals during interstate transport, such as those we identified. (Matter for Consideration 1)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Congress Congress should consider amending the Twenty-Eight Hour law to authorize federal agencies to monitor interstate transport of livestock animals and specify their roles and responsibilities. (Matter for Consideration 2)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Congress Congress should consider amending the Twenty-Eight Hour law to enhance the penalties and specifically authorize federal agencies to take administrative enforcement actions. (Matter for Consideration 3)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Food Safety: Further Action Needed to Implement Foodborne Illness Prevention Law and Assess Its Results
GAO-26-107394
Jan 07, 2026
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7 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Food and Drug Administration The Commissioner of FDA should ensure that the Human Foods Program establishes a time frame for finalizing the agency's guidance for hazard analysis and preventive controls for human food and issues the guidance as required by FSMA's section 103. (Recommendation 1)
Open
FDA concurred with this recommendation and stated it would take steps to address it. In July 2026, FDA officials reported they were working toward finalizing a time frame for issuing the agency's guidance for hazard analysis and preventive controls for human food. We will continue to monitor the implementation of this recommendation.
Food and Drug Administration The Commissioner of FDA should ensure that the Human Foods Program establishes a time frame for finalizing the agency's guidance to protect against the intentional adulteration of food and issues the guidance as required by FSMA's section 106. (Recommendation 2)
Open
FDA concurred with this recommendation and stated it would take steps to address it. In July 2026, FDA officials reported they were working toward finalizing the agency's guidance to protect against the intentional adulteration of food, including time frames for doing so. We will continue to monitor the implementation of this recommendation.
Food and Drug Administration The Commissioner of FDA should ensure that the Human Foods Program publishes a report in 2025 on the progress in implementing a national food emergency response laboratory network, as required by FSMA's section 202. If FDA does not expect to publish a report in 2025, it should inform Congress and stakeholders, in a timely manner, of when it expects to publish the report. (Recommendation 3)
Open
FDA concurred with this recommendation and stated it would take steps to address it. In July 2026, FDA officials reported that they had drafted a report on the progress in implementing a national food emergency response laboratory network and were following steps for issuance of reports to Congress. However, they did not provide a time frame for its publication. We will continue to monitor the implementation of this recommendation.
Food and Drug Administration The Commissioner of FDA should ensure that the Human Foods Program establishes milestones and timelines for publishing future reports on the progress in implementing a national food emergency response laboratory network and publishes the reports as required by FSMA's section 202. (Recommendation 4)
Open
FDA concurred with this recommendation and stated it would take steps to address it. In July 2026, FDA officials reported they had established a process with milestones and a timeline for developing a report on the progress in implementing a national food emergency response laboratory network and publishing the report biennially, beginning in 2027. We will continue to monitor FDA's efforts to address this recommendation and update the status when FDA provides additional information on the actions taken.
Food and Drug Administration The Commissioner of FDA should ensure that the Human Foods Program establishes milestones and timelines for updating the agency's good agricultural practices for fruits and vegetables and publishes them as required by FSMA's section 105. (Recommendation 5)
Open
FDA concurred with this recommendation and stated it would take steps to address it. In July 2026, FDA officials reported they were working toward establishing milestones and timelines for updating the agency's good agricultural practices for fruits and vegetables. We will continue to monitor the implementation of this recommendation.
Food and Drug Administration The Commissioner of FDA should ensure that the Human Foods Program develops a plan with milestones and timelines for establishing a product tracing system to enhance FDA's existing foodborne outbreak response processes, and establishes the system as required by FSMA's section 204. (Recommendation 6)
Open
FDA concurred with this recommendation and stated it would take steps to address it. In July 2026, FDA officials reported they documented the agency's implementation plan and timeline to support industry compliance in a March 2026 report to Congress and established a product tracing system as required by FSMA's section 204. We will continue to monitor FDA's efforts to address this recommendation and update the status when FDA provides additional information on the actions taken.

Nutrition Assistance: USDA Should Comprehensively Assess Benefit Theft Prevention Measures States Are Implementing
GAO-25-107964
Sep 25, 2025
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should continually ensure that FNS comprehensively assesses the extent to which state SNAP agencies are implementing benefit theft prevention measures, including those it recommended, and use that assessment to consider how it can identify areas for improvement or additional assistance. Such an assessment could be carried out through existing mechanisms, such as through continued coordination with EBT processors or FNS's management evaluations that review states' EBT systems. (Recommendation 1)
Open
USDA did not comment on this recommendation. We will monitor the agency's progress to implement it.

Dairy Farmers: USDA Should Assess the Effectiveness of Its Communications Regarding Key Program Benefits
GAO-25-106595
Jul 31, 2025
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should direct FSA to assess the effectiveness of its methods for communicating with dairy farmers about the DMC program. This effort should include developing performance metrics, such as changes in participation rates by veteran and beginning farmers, that could be used to measure progress toward agency objectives. (Recommendation 1)
Open
As of March 2026, USDA has not provided any plans to address our recommendation. We maintain that USDA should implement our recommendation and we will continue to monitor steps the agency takes to do so.
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