Skip to main content

Recommendations Database

Jump To:

As of April 30, 2024, there are 5098 open recommendations that still need to be addressed. 416 of these are priority recommendations, those that we believe warrant priority attention. Learn more about our priority designation on our Recommendations page.

Search for open recommendations by agency, topic, subject, or keyword/phrase below, or view all open recommendations by agency.

Clear All Filters
5081 - 5098 of 5098 Recommendations, including 416 Priority Recommendations

Tax Policy: Tax-Exempt Status of Certain Bonds Merits Reconsideration, and Apparent Noncompliance with Issuance Cost Limitations Should Be Addressed

GAO-08-364
James R. White
Show
1 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Congress As Congress considers whether tax-exempt governmental bonds should be used for professional sports stadiums that are generally privately used, it may also wish to consider whether other facilities, including hotels and golf courses, that are privately used should continue to be financed with tax-exempt governmental bonds.
Open

No legislative action as of March 2024. GAO suggested in February 2008 that as Congress considers whether tax-exempt governmental bonds should be used for professional sports stadiums that are generally privately used, it also should consider whether other privately used facilities, including hotels and golf courses, should continue to be financed with such bonds. Reconsidering the tax-exempt status of certain bonds could generate billions of dollars in additional federal revenue over a ten year period.

Medicaid Demonstration Waivers: Recent HHS Approvals Continue to Raise Cost and Oversight Concerns

GAO-08-87
Katherine Iritani
Show
2 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Congress Congress may wish to consider requiring increased attention to fiscal responsibility in the approval of section 1115 Medicaid demonstrations by requiring the Secretary of HHS to improve the demonstration review process through steps such as (1) clarifying criteria for reviewing and approving states' proposed spending limits, (2) better ensuring that valid methods are used to demonstrate budget neutrality, and (3) documenting and making public material explaining the basis for any approvals.
Open – Partially Addressed

As of March 2024, Congress has not passed legislation requiring HHS to improve the Medicaid demonstration review process. However, HHS has taken some action to address some of GAO's concerns. CMS established new policies that addressed certain problems GAO had identified, resulting in estimate benefits to the federal government in the tens of billions of dollars. CMS also issued written guidance on the process and criteria used to approved states' proposed spending limits. Not all problems identified by GAO were addressed by CMS's new policies, thus legislation to require HHS to improve the
Congress Congress may wish to consider addressing whether demonstrations that allow states to operate public managed care organizations and retain excess revenue to support programs previously funded by the state--including the Vermont demonstration--are within the scope of the Secretary of HHS's authority under section 1115 of the Social Security Act.
Open

As of March 2024, Congress had not passed legislation in response to our matter for congressional consideration.

Tax Gap: A Strategy for Reducing the Gap Should Include Options for Addressing Sole Proprietor Noncompliance

GAO-07-1014
Show
1 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Department of the Treasury The Secretary of the Treasury should ensure that the tax gap strategy includes (1) a segment on improving sole proprietor compliance that is coordinated with broader tax gap reduction efforts and (2) specific proposals, such as the options we identified, that constitute an integrated package.
Open

As of February 2024, Treasury had taken no action to address this recommendation and had not provided GAO with plans to do so. To spur IRS action, we raised a matter in our October 2023 report (GAO-24-105281) for Congress to direct Treasury to implement this recommendation. In May 2021, Treasury officials said that the Administration's May 2021 plan to improve tax compliance and its budget proposal references compliance options that could affect sole proprietors. However, the May 2021 plan did not reference a strategy that includes a segment on improving sole proprietor compliance. Treasury

Medicaid Financing: Federal Oversight Initiative Is Consistent with Medicaid Payment Principles but Needs Greater Transparency

GAO-07-214
Show
1 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services To enhance the transparency of CMS oversight and clarify and communicate the types of allowable state financing arrangements, the Administrator of CMS should provide each state CMS reviews under its initiative with specific and written explanations regarding agency determinations on the allowability of various arrangements for financing the nonfederal share of Medicaid payments and make these determinations available to all states and interested parties.
Open

CMS has taken steps to provide states with specific and written explanations regarding agency determinations on whether various arrangements for financing the nonfederal share of Medicaid payments are allowable and making those determinations available to states and interested parties. In December 2020, Congress passed and the President signed into law legislation requiring additional state reporting on Medicaid supplemental payments, including requiring states to describe how these payments are consistent with economy and efficiency. The effectiveness of these new reporting requirements will

Highway Emergency Relief: Reexamination Needed to Address Fiscal Imbalance and Long-term Sustainability

GAO-07-245
Katherine (Kate) Siggerud
Show
1 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Congress In order to put the Emergency Relief program on a sound financial footing, Congress may wish to consider the expected future demands on the program and reexamine the appropriate level and sources of funding--including whether to increase the $100 million annual authorized funding and whether the Highway Trust Fund, the General Fund, or some combination would allow the program to accomplish its purpose in a fiscally sustainable manner.
Open – Partially Addressed

Several recent appropriations acts - passed in September 2021 and December 2022 - demonstrate that Congress reexamined the appropriate level and sources of funding by continuing to provide supplemental, one-time funding for the Emergency Relief program. However, as of March 2024, Congress has not considered a more fiscally sustainable solution for the Emergency Relief program, such as increasing the annual authorization of $100 million for this program. As a result, concerns remain about shortfalls between the annual authorization and the actual amounts needed for the Emergency Relief program

Drinking Water: EPA Should Strengthen Ongoing Efforts to Ensure That Consumers Are Protected from Lead Contamination

GAO-06-148
Show
1 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Environmental Protection Agency The Administrator, EPA, should take a number of steps to further protect the American public from elevated lead levels in drinking water. Specifically, to improve EPA's ability to oversee implementation of the lead rule and assess compliance and enforcement activities, EPA should ensure that data on water systems' test results, corrective action milestones, and violations are current, accurate, and complete.
Open

As of May 2023, we are keeping this recommendation open awaiting progress with the Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) modernization and the extent to which EPA can assess whether SDWIS data are current, accurate and complete. In December 2022, EPA indicated that it expects states to begin transitioning to SDWIS by the end of 2024 and to involve the primacy agencies in establishing data quality goals for monitoring violations and other information.

Government Performance and Accountability: Tax Expenditures Represent a Substantial Federal Commitment and Need to Be Reexamined

GAO-05-690
James (Jay) R. McTigue, Jr
Show
5 Open Recommendations
2 Priority
Agency Recommendation Status
Office of Management and Budget To ensure that policymakers and the public have the necessary information to make informed decisions and to improve the progress toward exercising greater scrutiny of tax expenditures, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, should resume presenting tax expenditures in the budget together with related outlay programs to show a truer picture of the federal support within a mission area.
Open

As of March 2024, OMB does not plan to implement this recommendation. OMB did not present tax expenditures in the fiscal year 2025 budget with the related outlay programs, as GAO recommended in September 2005. OMB did not agree that GAO's recommendation was necessary and stated that presenting information on tax expenditures together with related outlay programs was not useful for budgeting, and that such a presentation is not part of the congressional budget process. However, the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 requires a list of tax expenditures, including special tax credits, deductions
Office of Management and Budget To ensure that policymakers and the public have the necessary information to make informed decisions and to improve the progress toward exercising greater scrutiny of tax expenditures, the Director of OMB, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, should require that tax expenditures be included in the PART process and any future such budget and performance review processes so that tax expenditures are considered along with related outlay programs in determining the adequacy of federal efforts to achieve national objectives.
Open – Partially Addressed

OMB made some progress in including tax expenditures along with related outlay programs in the executive branch's budget and performance review processes, as GAO recommended in September 2005. However, as of March 2024, OMB had not developed a systematic approach for conducting such reviews. The GPRA Modernization Act of 2010 (GPRAMA) requires OMB and the agencies to identify the relevant tax expenditures that contribute to each crosscutting priority goal (31 U.S.C. Sec. 1115(a)(2)). Beginning with its August 2012 update to Circular No. A-11 with guidance for implementing GPRAMA and continuing
Department of the Treasury
Priority Rec.
To ensure that policymakers and the public have the necessary information to make informed decisions and to improve the progress toward exercising greater scrutiny of tax expenditures, the Director of OMB, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, should develop and implement a framework for conducting performance reviews of tax expenditures. In developing the framework, the Director should (1) determine which agencies will have leadership responsibilities to review tax expenditures, how reviews will be coordinated among agencies with related responsibilities, and how to address the lack of credible performance information on tax expenditures; (2) set a schedule for conducting tax expenditure evaluations; (3) re-establish appropriate methods to test the overall evaluation framework and make improvements as experience is gained; and (4) to identify any additional resources that may be needed for tax expenditure reviews.
Open

Treasury did not submit comments on this report and deferred to OMB. OMB agreed that this recommendation had promise and also said that tax expenditure evaluations were the responsibility of Treasury, which had access to the necessary data. As of March 2024, the Director of OMB had not taken action to develop a framework for reviewing tax expenditure performance, as GAO recommended in June 1994 and again in September 2005. Since their initial efforts in 1997 and 1999 to outline a framework for evaluating tax expenditures and preliminary performance measures, OMB and the Department of the
Office of Management and Budget
Priority Rec.
To ensure that policymakers and the public have the necessary information to make informed decisions and to improve the progress toward exercising greater scrutiny of tax expenditures, the Director of OMB, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, should develop and implement a framework for conducting performance reviews of tax expenditures. In developing the framework, the Director should (1) determine which agencies will have leadership responsibilities to review tax expenditures, how reviews will be coordinated among agencies with related responsibilities, and how to address the lack of credible performance information on tax expenditures; (2) set a schedule for conducting tax expenditure evaluations; (3) re-establish appropriate methods to test the overall evaluation framework and make improvements as experience is gained; and (4) to identify any additional resources that may be needed for tax expenditure reviews.
Open

As of March 2024, the Director of OMB had not taken action to develop a framework for reviewing tax expenditure performance, as GAO recommended in June 1994 and again in September 2005. Since their initial efforts in 1997 and 1999 to outline a framework for evaluating tax expenditures and preliminary performance measures, OMB and the Department of the Treasury have ceased to make progress and retreated from setting a schedule for evaluating tax expenditures. The President's fiscal year 2012 budget stated that developing an evaluation framework is a significant challenge due to limited data
Department of the Treasury To ensure that policymakers and the public have the necessary information to make informed decisions and to improve the progress toward exercising greater scrutiny of tax expenditures, the Director of OMB, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, should require that tax expenditures be included in the PART process and any future such budget and performance review processes so that tax expenditures are considered along with related outlay programs in determining the adequacy of federal efforts to achieve national objectives.
Open – Partially Addressed

In October 2005, the Department of the Treasury responded that this recommendation did not relate to Treasury. OMB made some progress in including tax expenditures along with related outlay programs in the executive branch's budget and performance review processes, as GAO recommended in September 2005. However, as of March 2024, OMB had not developed a systematic approach for conducting such reviews. The GPRA Modernization Act of 2010 (GPRAMA) requires OMB and the agencies to identify the relevant tax expenditures that contribute to each crosscutting priority goal (31 U.S.C. Sec. 1115(a)(2))

Community Development: Federal Revitalization Programs Are Being Implemented, but Data on the Use of Tax Benefits Are Limited

GAO-04-306
William B. Shear
Show
3 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Internal Revenue Service To facilitate the administration, audit, and evaluation of the EZ/EC and RC programs, HUD, USDA, and IRS should collaborate to (1) identify the data needed to assess the use of the tax benefits and the various means of collecting such data; (2) determine the cost-effectiveness of collecting these data, including the potential impact on taxpayers and other program participants; (3) document the findings of their analysis; and, if necessary, (4) seek the authority to collect the data, if a cost- effective means is available.
Open – Partially Addressed

In response to GAO's recommendation, officials from HUD, USDA, and IRS met to identify data needed to assess the use of the tax benefits and identified three means of collecting such data. These methods include (1) using existing data to extrapolate an estimate of the use of some tax benefits; however, such data would be limited to the national level; (2) changing tax return forms to indicate the Empowerment Zone or Renewal Community in which each benefit is claimed; and (3) surveying businesses located in Empowerment Zones and Renewal Communities about tax benefit use. They also discussed the
Department of Agriculture To facilitate the administration, audit, and evaluation of the EZ/EC and RC programs, HUD, USDA, and IRS should collaborate to (1) identify the data needed to assess the use of the tax benefits and the various means of collecting such data; (2) determine the cost-effectiveness of collecting these data, including the potential impact on taxpayers and other program participants; (3) document the findings of their analysis; and, if necessary, (4) seek the authority to collect the data, if a cost- effective means is available.
Open – Partially Addressed

In response to GAO's recommendation, officials from HUD, USDA, and IRS met to identify data needed to assess the use of the tax benefits and identified three means of collecting such data. These methods include (1) using existing data to extrapolate an estimate of the use of some tax benefits; however, such data would be limited to the national level; (2) changing tax return forms to indicate the Empowerment Zone or Renewal Community in which each benefit is claimed; and (3) surveying businesses located in Empowerment Zones and Renewal Communities about tax benefit use. They also discussed the
Department of Housing and Urban Development To facilitate the administration, audit, and evaluation of the EZ/EC and RC programs, HUD, USDA, and IRS should collaborate to (1) identify the data needed to assess the use of the tax benefits and the various means of collecting such data; (2) determine the cost-effectiveness of collecting these data, including the potential impact on taxpayers and other program participants; (3) document the findings of their analysis; and, if necessary, (4) seek the authority to collect the data, if a cost- effective means is available.
Open – Partially Addressed

In response to GAO's recommendation, officials from HUD, USDA, and IRS met to identify data needed to assess the use of the tax benefits and identified three means of collecting such data. These methods include (1) using existing data to extrapolate an estimate of the use of some tax benefits; however, such data would be limited to the national level; (2) changing tax return forms to indicate the Empowerment Zone or Renewal Community in which each benefit is claimed; and (3) surveying businesses located in Empowerment Zones and Renewal Communities about tax benefit use. They also discussed the

Medicaid and SCHIP: Recent HHS Approvals of Demonstration Waiver Projects Raise Concerns

GAO-02-817
Show
1 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Recommendation Status
Department of Health and Human Services
Priority Rec.
To meet its fiduciary responsibility of ensuring that section 1115 waivers are budget neutral, the Secretary of Health and Human services should better ensure that valid methods are used to demonstrate budget neutrality, by developing and implementing consistent criteria for consideration of section 1115 demonstration waiver proposals.
Open – Partially Addressed

As of February 2024, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had taken some action to address GAO's 2002 recommendation. In August 2018, HHS issued written guidance through a State Medicaid Directors Letter documenting four key changes it made in 2016 to its budget neutrality policy. These changes addressed some, but not all of the questionable methods GAO identified in its reports. To fully address this recommendation, HHS should also address these other questionable methods, such as setting demonstration spending limits based on hypothetical costs--what the state could have paid-

Food Safety and Security: Fundamental Changes Needed to Ensure Safe Food

GAO-02-47T
Show
1 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Congress To provide more efficient, consistent, and effective federal oversight of the nation's food supply, Congress should consider commissioning the National Academy of Sciences or a blue ribbon panel to conduct a detailed analysis of alternative organizational food safety structures and report the results of such an analysis to Congress.
Open

The 2002 Farm Security and Rural Investment Act (2002 Farm Bill) established a national Food Safety Commission charged with making specific recommendations for drafting legislative language. Among other things, the Commission was to make recommendations on how to improve the food safety system, create a harmonized, central framework for managing federal food safety programs, and enhance the effectiveness of federal food safety resources. However, as of December 2021, as far as staff can ascertain, the Commission has not been formed, and no recommendations were ever produced. Thus, although

Financial Management: Improvements Needed in the Navy's Reporting of General Fund Inventory

GAO-01-37R
Show
1 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Senior Civilian Official The Senior Civilian Official for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy should revise the Navy's policies for compiling its financial statements so that they are in accordance with federal accounting standards and the DOD Financial Management Regulation. Specifically: (1) ammunition items needing repair and those categorized as excess, obsolete, and unserviceable should be revalued appropriately to comply with SFFAS No. 3 and the DOD Financial Management Regulation; and (2) shipboard inventories aboard smaller combatant ships should be reported as operating materials and supplies in accordance with federal accounting standards.
Open

Regarding the first part of this recommendation, the Statement of Federal Financial Accounting Standards 3: Accounting for Inventory and Related Property (SFFAS No. 3) requires items held for repair, including ordnance material, to be valued at either historical cost or latest acquisition cost less an allowance for estimated repair costs. Additionally, SFFAS No. 3 also requires that items deemed excess, obsolete, or unserviceable (EOU) be valued at expected net realizable value, which would allow the Navy to report the potential gain or loss once items deemed EOU are disposed. However, Navy's
Note: the list of open recommendations for the last report may continue on the next page.

Have a Question about a Recommendation?

For questions about a specific recommendation, contact the person or office listed with the recommendation. For general information about recommendations, contact GAO's Audit Policy and Quality Assurance office at (202) 512-6100 or apqa@gao.gov.