Decisions & FAQs

Comptroller General decisions and opinions are identified by a B-number and date. Some decisions predating 1995 were published in Decisions of the Comptroller General of the United States. Those decisions have B-numbers but are generally identified by volume, page number, and the year the decision was issued (e.g., 73 Comp. Gen. 77 (1994)). At the beginning of each volume is a "Table of Decision Numbers" cross-referencing B-numbers to the pages in that volume. See Bid Protest FAQs and Appropriation Law FAQs for more details.

Generally, our decisions and opinions are publicly released but not always on the same day they are decided. If decisions and opinions contain protected information, we must create redacted versions for the public that omit protected information. See 4 C.F.R. § 21.12 (Distribution of decisions). We typically publicly release versions 2 to 3 weeks after the decision date. See How can I keep up-to-date on new Comptroller General decisions? for ways to get notified whenever we make a decision publicly available.

For more details on the timing of our decisions and opinions, see GAO’s Protocols for Legal Decisions and Opinions, GAO-24-107329, Feb. 21, 2024

Three ways: Subscribe to daily e-mail updates. You’ll get an e-mail every day announcing decisions released publicly that day. Subscribe to any of our Legal Products feeds. These feeds contain summaries of decisions as and opinions when they are made public and include links to the complete content. Follow us on Twitter. We tweet every decision when it is made public.

GAO no longer adjudicates these claims. In the mid-1990s, Congress enacted two laws that transferred several functions from GAO to other government agencies. You can learn more about these functions at Functions Transferred to the Executive Branch.

No. They can be found on the Government Printing Office’s website, pertinent agency websites, and legal databases such as Lexis and Westlaw.

No, but databases such as Lexis and Westlaw have this capability.