Updated Apr 7, 2026
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Retirement Security: Most Defined Contribution Plans Do Not Require Spousal Consent to Remove Funds and Doing So Would Involve Trade-offs
What GAO Found Millions of married Americans save for retirement by participating in a defined contribution plan, such as a 401(k). While most plans require spousal consent for beneficiary changes, few require it to remove funds (e.g., take a loan, withdrawal, or distribution). For example, money p
Federal Debt Management: Treasury Is Meeting Borrowing Needs but the Deteriorating Fiscal Outlook Poses Risks
What GAO Found Since fiscal year 2014, the Department of the Treasury has increased the size and frequency of its debt auctions to finance persistent government deficits and refinance existing debt. In fiscal year 2025, Treasury held 444 auctions of bills, notes, and bonds to borrow $1.9 trillion f
On the Horizon: Three Science and Technology Trends That Could Affect Society
What GAO Found GAO identified three potentially transformative technologies that are trending toward maturity and may need congressional attention over the next 10 years. These technologies are: Neural implants for human augmentation. Currently, neural implants are only available to people with
Health Care Funding: Information on Crisis Pregnancy Centers, Fiscal Years 2018 Through 2024
What GAO Found The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) provides grant awards to organizations that support its mission to enhance the health and well-being of all Americans. This includes funding to engage in reproductive health-related activities, such as pregnancy testing and education
Senate Gift Shop Revolving Fund: Procedures Related to FY 2024 Receipts and Disbursements
What GAO Found GAO performed agreed-upon procedures solely to assist the Secretary of the Senate in ascertaining whether information from the Senate Gift Shop and the Senate Disbursing Office supported the Senate Gift Shop Revolving Fund’s (Fund) fiscal year 2024 receipts and disbursements. T
Retirement Plans: Department of Labor Guidance Could Mitigate Privacy Risks for Participants
What GAO Found Retirement plan sponsors, typically a person’s employer, share participant information, including personally identifiable information (PII), with service providers, such as asset managers and record keepers, who help administer the plan. However, these providers may also use PII and
Homeowners Insurance: Premiums Generally Tracked Inflation but Rose More in Disaster-Prone Areas
What GAO Found In recent years, while homeowners insurance premiums increased slightly nationwide, premiums grew more rapidly in certain areas of the country. Premiums as a percentage of 2023 median household income were highest in Florida, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. The average U.S. homeowners insur
Minority Business Development Agency: Information on Performance Assessment and Compliance Monitoring
What GAO Found The Minority Business Development Agency’s (MBDA) mission is to promote the growth and competitiveness of minority business enterprises. These enterprises are statutorily defined as being at least 51 percent owned, operated, and controlled by one or more socially or economically disa
Securities And Exchange Commission: Recent Workforce Reductions and Other Personnel Management Changes
What GAO Found Since January 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has implemented significant personnel management changes in response to executive orders and other direction from the administration. Key changes include offering voluntary departure incentives, requiring employees to w
Department of Education: Opportunities Exist to Strengthen Accountability in Higher Education
What GAO Found In March 2026, GAO reported on the impact of recent staffing reductions on the Department of Education’s oversight of its student loan servicers. In February 2025, Education stopped assessing student loan servicers on accuracy and call quality due to lack of staff capacity, according
Artificial Intelligence: OMB Action Needed to Address Privacy-Related Gaps in Federal Guidance
What GAO Found GAO convened a panel of experts who identified privacy risks and challenges associated with the use of artificial intelligence (AI), which align with GAO’s prior reporting on AI use. For example, the experts noted that using AI may reveal sensitive information in raw data sets, poten
Flood Risk Mitigation: Reducing Fiscal Exposure and Improving Affordability
What GAO Found The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) administers three primary programs that mitigate flood risk for properties insured by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). A small number of these properties—known as repetitive loss properties, which have flooded and received cl
Consumer Protection: Government-wide Strategy Expeditiously Needed to Counter Scams
What GAO Found Scams occur in a variety of forms and are a growing risk to consumers. Examples of a Scam Execution Process Note: Other types of contact methods, scams, and payment methods exist. At least 13 federal agencies engage in a range of activities related to countering scams. The agenc
FDA Advisory Committees: More Transparency Needed on Policies for Making Conflict of Interest Determinations
What GAO Found The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) relies on more than 30 advisory committees to provide expert advice on numerous scientific topics, including opioid drugs for pain. Government-wide requirements prohibit committee members from taking part in meetings that could affect their fina
Supplemental Material for GAO-26-107522: IRS Artificial Intelligence Use Case Inventory as of June 2025
This supplement is a companion to GAO's report titled Artificial Intelligence: IRS Actions Needed to Address Skills Gaps, Information Quality, and Strategic Management, GAO-26-107522. The purpose of this supplement is to provide key information about active, non-sensitive AI use cases in IRS's AI in
Veterans Affairs: Further Actions Needed to Address Software License Management Challenges
What GAO Found The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) spends billions of dollars annually for IT and cyber-related investments, including commercial software licenses. In a January 2024 government-wide report, GAO noted that while VA identified its five most widely used software vendors with the h
Aircraft Noise: Military Helicopter Operators Should Improve Outreach to Affected Communities in the D.C. Area
What GAO Found According to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) data for 2020 through 2024, helicopter operators cumulatively averaged over 32,000 flights and 20,000 flight hours annually in the Washington, D.C. area (D.C. area). During this 5-year period, operators conducted an average of 91 fli
Financial Audit: FY 2025 and FY 2024 Consolidated Financial Statements of the U.S. Government
What GAO Found To operate as effectively and efficiently as possible, Congress, the administration, and federal managers must have ready access to reliable and complete financial and performance information—both for individual federal entities and for the federal government as a whole. GAO’s report
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: Continued Use of Other Transaction Agreements for Civil Works Research and Prototypes
What GAO Found The Water Resources Development Act of 2018, as amended in 2022 (the 2022 act), authorized the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to use other transaction (OT) agreements to carry out certain projects to support research activities for its Civil Works program. OT agreements are generally n
Quantum Computing: Updating the National Strategy Could Promote U.S. Leadership
What GAO Found The National Quantum Initiative Act requires a strategic plan to help direct federal efforts in quantum information science, including quantum computing. An entity known as the Subcommittee on Quantum Information Science (SCQIS), co-chaired by four federal organizations, is responsib
Foreign Assistance: Opportunities Exist for Agencies to Improve Their Management of Fraud, Waste, and Abuse Risks
What GAO Found No area of the federal government is immune to fraud, waste, or abuse. GAO estimates that the federal government loses between $233 billion and $521 billion annually to fraud, based on 2018-2022 data. Delivering foreign assistance can involve specific challenges that increase fraud,
U.S. Postal Service: Urgent Action Needed to Fix Unsustainable Business Model and Improve Service Performance
What GAO Found The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) continues to be in poor financial condition. It has lost money every fiscal year but one since 2007 (see figure). While accumulating $118 billion in net losses over that time, USPS has maintained enough cash reserves to continue operations. It has done
Ukraine Funding: HHS Allocation and Oversight of Refugee Assistance
What GAO Found From fiscal years 2022 through 2024, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) granted humanitarian parole—temporary permission to stay in the United States—to approximately 259,000 Ukrainians and their eligible family members. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) receiv
Science & Tech Spotlight: Engineered Biofertilizers
Why This Matters Chemical fertilizers account for up to 45 percent of input costs for some crops. Engineered biofertilizers may reduce these costs and increase crop yields. Key Takeaways Engineered biofertilizers are made of microbes and other organic materials that improve nutrient supply in s
Senate Office of Public Records Revolving Fund: Procedures Related to FY 2024 Receipts
What GAO Found GAO performed agreed-upon procedures solely to assist the Secretary of the Senate in ascertaining whether the Senate Office of Public Records Revolving Fund’s (Fund) fiscal year 2024 receipts were supported by information from the Senate Office of Public Records and the Senate Disbur
K-12 Education: Characteristics and Turnaround Strategies of Schools Identified for Comprehensive Support and Improvement
What GAO Found Under Title I, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended (ESEA), states are required to measure the performance of their public schools. They must also identify three categories of low-performing schools for support and improvement, including those that
Federal Student Loans: Education Needs to Address Gaps in Servicer Oversight
What GAO Found In February 2025, the Department of Education’s Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) stopped assessing student loan servicers on accuracy and call quality due to lack of staff capacity, according to agency officials. Prior to discontinuing these quarterly assessments, FSA assessed ser
Museum Facilities: Deferred Maintenance Persists and Costs to Repair Are Unknown
What GAO Found For an estimated 77 percent (about 12,300) of the nation’s museums, the condition of at least one building system (e.g., heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) or building issue puts their collections at risk of damage or loss, according to GAO’s survey of museums. An estimated
Private Dental and Vision Insurance: Market Concentration Varied Among States
What GAO Found The concentration of private, stand-alone dental and vision insurance markets varied among states across both the group and individual insurance markets, according to 2024 enrollment data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), the most recent available at th
Democracy Assistance: State Should Require Plans to Mitigate Effects of Reported Antidemocratic Actions Overseas
What GAO Found In fiscal years 2018 through 2023, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) allocated about $9 billion and the State Department allocated about $5 billion for democracy assistance overseas. As the figure shows, allocations for the six categories of democracy assistance f
Federal Programs: OMB Needs to Continue Developing a Complete and Useful Inventory
What GAO Found Each year, the federal government spends trillions of dollars on federal programs that support the American people and address policy goals. Statutory provisions first enacted in 2011 require the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to develop and annually update an inventory of all
Cybersecurity Regulations: Additional Industry Perspectives on the Impact, Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities of Harmonization
What GAO Found Our nation depends on computer-based information systems and electronic data to execute fundamental operations and to process, maintain, and report crucial information. Nearly all federal and nonfederal operations, including the nation’s critical infrastructures, are supported by the
Military Readiness: DOD Should Take Further Actions to Address Challenges Across the Air, Sea, Ground, and Space Domains
What GAO Found To maintain its reputation as the dominant military force worldwide, the Department of Defense (DOD) must balance efforts to improve the readiness of its forces with meeting ongoing demands, modernizing its capabilities, and addressing priorities identified in the 2026 National Defen
Protections For Whistleblowers and Others: Selected Agency Actions Regarding Reports of Potential Wrongdoing
What GAO Found Tips and disclosures from the public, including workers, are an important source of information for agencies that enforce the law or issue regulations. However, workers who wish to notify agencies of potential wrongdoing risk reprisals from their employers and may have concerns about
Animal Drugs: Strengthening Federal Incentives Could Help Address Unmet Animal Health Needs
What GAO Found High development costs and limited markets have led to a lack of U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved animal drugs for minor animal species. These are all animals other than the most common pets, livestock, and poultry (major species). There are also few approved drugs fo
Disaster Assistance: SBA Should Take Steps to Make Data Sharing with IRS More Efficient
What GAO Found During the first year of the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (COVID-19 EIDL) program, the Small Business Administration (SBA) was statutorily prohibited from requiring taxpayer information to verify applicant eligibility and application details. In April 2021, after receiving
Sexual Health Education: HHS Could Improve Efforts to Assess Grantee Performance
What GAO Found The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) administers sexual risk avoidance education (SRAE) grants to states and other entities, such as community organizations. SRAE is a type of sexual health education that focuses on abstaining from non-marital sexual activity and other r
Nuclear Waste Cleanup: DOE Needs to Improve the Accuracy of Cost and Schedule Information for Major Projects and Activities
What GAO Found The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) manages cleanup of hazardous and radioactive waste through capital asset projects and operations activities. Capital asset projects have defined start and end points, whereas operations activities are typically
K-12 Education: Lessons Learned from Implementing COVID-19 Relief Funding Provisions Could Improve Future Grant Monitoring
What GAO Found Statutory Maintenance of Equity (MOEquity) requirements generally prohibited states and districts from disproportionately cutting funds from districts or schools serving high percentages of low-income students. Beginning in July 2021, the Department of Education provided guidance and
Medicare Part D: Implementation of Beneficiary Premium Stabilization Demonstration
What GAO Found The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented the voluntary Medicare Part D Premium Stabilization Demonstration (Demonstration) in 2025 to stabilize beneficiary monthly premiums and enrollment in Part D standalone prescription drug plans. Nearly all plan sponsors
Federal Workforce Data: Improvements Needed to Increase Transparency of Information on Senior Policy and Supporting Positions
What GAO Found The Periodically Listing Updates to Management (PLUM) Reporting website, maintained by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), publishes data on politically appointed and career senior positions for all executive branch agencies and certain legislative branch agencies. As of July 2
Behavioral Health: Reported Funding for COVID-19 and 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, 2020-2025
What GAO Found Behavioral health issues, including substance misuse, mental health, and suicide affect millions of people in the U.S., representing a serious risk to public health. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), within the Department of Health and Human Ser
COVID-19: Federal Efforts to Support Behavioral Health Programs During the Pandemic
What GAO Found The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) leads federal efforts to advance behavioral health. This includes providing grant funding and technical assistance to states and behavioral health providers to implement behavioral health prevention and treatment
National Science Foundation: Schedule Delays Continue for Some Major and Midscale Research Infrastructure Projects
What GAO Found The National Science Foundation (NSF) has 21 research infrastructure projects funded through its Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC) and Research and Related Activities accounts, as of July 2025. This includes 13 major projects ($100 million or more) and eigh
Personnel Vetting: Leadership Attention Needed to Prioritize System Development and Achieve Reforms
What GAO Found Since 2016, the Department of Defense (DOD) has been developing the National Background Investigation Services (NBIS)—an IT system for conducting background investigations for most federal agencies and over 13,000 industry organizations that work with the government. DOD originally e
Public Health Preparedness: Improved Coordination Needed for HHS’s Emergency Preparedness Programs
What GAO Found The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) leads the federal public health and medical preparedness for, response to, and recovery from public health emergencies. HHS awarded almost $900 million in fiscal year 2024 to states and other jurisdictions to help them prepare fo
Consumer Product Safety Commission: Opportunities to Strengthen Oversight of Toxic Substances in Children’s Products
What GAO Found The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) uses risk-based approaches to target children’s products that may contain toxic substances for examination at U.S. ports. For example, it uses U.S. Customs and Border Protection systems that analyze national shipment and law enforcement d
Workforce Innovation And Opportunity Act: Actions Needed to Ensure People with Disabilities Can Access DOL Job Programs
What GAO Found Seven percent of participants in the Department of Labor (DOL) workforce programs GAO reviewed reported having disabilities, according to DOL data from July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024. Participants with disabilities had worse employment outcomes. Of those reporting a disability, 4
Oil and Gas: Actions Needed to Improve Data Sharing at Interior
What GAO Found The Department of the Interior has a goal to improve data sharing, which is vital to its oversight of oil and gas development on federal and Tribal lands. Three bureaus within Interior share oversight responsibilities—the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), Bureau of Land Management (BLM
Chief Information Officer Open Recommendations: National Science Foundation
What GAO Found In February 2026, GAO identified five open recommendations under the purview of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Chief Information Officer (CIO), from previously issued work. Each of these recommendations relate to the Improving IT Acquisitions and Management GAO High-Risk area.
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