Skip to main content

Budget and Spending

Jump To:

Recent Reports

View More Reports

Open Recommendations

Federal Spending Transparency: Opportunities to Improve USAspending.gov Data
GAO-24-106214
Nov 07, 2023
Show
3 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Congress Congress should consider amending the DATA Act to assign Treasury, in coordination with OMB, the responsibilities to periodically assess and determine which agencies must report data to USAspending.gov and to oversee the completeness of reporting by all required agencies. (Matter for Congressional 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 DATA Act to include OTAs in the list of federal awards that agencies must report to USAspending.gov. (Matter for Congressional Consideration 2)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Office of Management and Budget The Director of OMB, in collaboration with the Secretary of the Treasury, should provide guidance for agencies to ensure that the disaster and emergency budgetary data agencies report to USAspending.gov are consistent and comparable across other public sources, such as agency budget and annual financial reports. (Recommendation 1)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

DOD Service Contracts: Actions Needed to Identify Efficiencies and Forecast Budget Needs
GAO-23-106123
Sep 07, 2023
Show
4 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Air Force The Secretary of the Air Force should revise its service acquisition policy to ensure major commands collectively prioritize service requirements valued between $10 million and under $100 million. (Recommendation 1)
Open
DOD concurred with this recommendation. We will provide an update on the agency's progress once one is available.
Department of the Air Force The Secretary of the Air Force should revise its service acquisition policy to require an official who is responsible for the oversight of services, such as the Air Force's Senior Services Manager, to aggregate and review data on service requirements valued between $10 million and under $100 million to identify efficiencies. (Recommendation 2)
Open
DOD concurred with this recommendation. We will provide an update on the agency's progress once one is available.
Department of the Army The Secretary of the Army should revise its service acquisition policy to require an official who is responsible for the oversight of services, such as the Army's Senior Services Manager, to aggregate and review data on service requirements valued at $10 million or more to identify efficiencies. (Recommendation 3)
Open
DOD partially concurred with this recommendation. We will provide an update on the agency's progress once one is available.
Department of Defense The Secretary of Defense should ensure that the Under Secretary of Defense, Comptroller, in coordination with other relevant offices involved in the recently established services working group, specifies the data sources and methodology for forecasting budget needs for service contracts across the Future-Years Defense Program to inform its fiscal year 2026 and future budget submission. (Recommendation 5)
Open
DOD partially concurred with this recommendation. We will provide an update on the agency's progress once one is available.

Tactical Aircraft Investments: DOD Needs Additional Portfolio Analysis to Inform Future Budget Decisions
GAO-23-106375
Dec 20, 2022
Show
2 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense The Secretary of Defense should conduct an integrated acquisition portfolio review of all piloted fixed-wing tactical aircraft platforms. This review should analyze key elements including, but not limited to, portfolio goals; potential overlap; potential tradeoffs; capability gaps; risk; and cost, schedule, and performance information on each platform within the portfolio. (Recommendation 1)
Open
DOD concurred with our recommendation. In response to this report, DOD stated that it intends to conduct an integrated acquisition portfolio review of piloted fixed-wing tactical aircraft programs, to be completed by the end of fiscal year 2024. In July 2023, a Senate Report Accompanying the Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act directed the Secretary of Defense to provide quarterly briefings to the congressional defense committees on the status of this review, beginning no later than January 31, 2024, until the review is completed and briefed to the committees. We will continue to monitor DOD's actions related to its integrated acquisition portfolio review for piloted fixed-wing tactical aircraft.
Department of Defense The Secretary of Defense should establish a requirement that ensures the congressional defense committees receive information underpinning DOD's integrated acquisition portfolio review of all piloted fixed-wing tactical aircraft platforms. (Recommendation 2)
Open
DOD partially concurred with our recommendation. In response to this report, DOD stated that the Department intends to conduct an integrated acquisition portfolio review of piloted fixed-wing tactical aircraft programs, but does not intend to establish a requirement to provide information from integrated acquisition portfolio reviews to Congress. DOD noted that the information derived from integrated acquisition portfolio reviews is used for internal, deliberative purposes, and that there are other existing methods by which the Department can provide congressional defense committees with information related to budget decisions for its piloted fixed-wing tactical aircraft platforms. In July 2023, a Senate Report Accompanying the Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act directed the Secretary of Defense to provide quarterly briefings to the congressional defense committees on the status of this review, beginning no later than January 31, 2024, until the review is completed and briefed to the committees. We will continue to monitor DOD's actions related to its integrated acquisition portfolio review for piloted fixed-wing tactical aircraft.

Federal Spending Transparency: Opportunities Exist for Treasury to Further Improve USAspending.gov's Use and Usefulness
GAO-22-104127
Dec 16, 2021
Show
1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Treasury The Secretary of the Treasury should develop and implement website promotion efforts that are clearly targeted toward the USAspending.gov user personas that it has previously identified. (Recommendation 1)
Open – Partially Addressed
Treasury officials stated that they have tied their USAspending.gov promotion efforts to specific features and initiatives that they have launched for the website. Treasury has taken some steps such as conducting outreach with collaborative partners to help inform its "Data Dives" feature and producing YouTube tutorials on topics of specific interest. However, as of April 2023, we have not received documentation supporting specific promotion and outreach efforts that clearly target the various USAspending.gov user personas previously identified by Treasury.
Department of the Treasury The Secretary of the Treasury should add a broad website search function to USAspending.gov to help users find content on the website. (Recommendation 3)
Open
Treasury officials told us that they are in the process of laying the foundation for a broad ("global") search function across all USAspending.gov content. However, they expect the design work for a global search function will not begin until FY2024 at the earliest. As of April 2023, this status is unchanged.
View More Recommendations

Related Pages