GAO’s High Risk List Highlights Ways to Save Billions and Help Agencies Work Better
At the start of each new Congress, we issue an update to our High Risk List. This list highlights areas across the federal government with serious vulnerabilities to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement, or in need of transformation. Our list has led to significant financial benefits for the country and taxpayers—totaling nearly $759 billion over the past 19 years.
Today’s WatchBlog post looks at our 2025 update to GAO’s High Risk List, including what was added and what areas need immediate attention.
U.S. Comptroller General and Head of GAO Gene L. Dodaro testified before Congress yesterday about our High Risk Update. Watch his opening statement to Congress below.
High Risk = High Reward
The High Risk List identifies billions of dollars in potential savings among federal government programs.
For example, payment errors are a long-standing issue for the federal government. Also known as “improper payments,” these payment errors include overpayments, inaccurate recordkeeping, and even fraud. Since 2003, federal agencies have reported about $2.8 trillion in estimated improper payments. A large majority of these payment errors are under program areas we’ve labeled as High Risk, including Medicaid and Medicare, and Unemployment Insurance.
Another area where we’ve found a lot of potential savings is in closing the tax gap. IRS has projected that the net tax gap—or the difference between taxes owed and taxes paid on time—was $606 billion for 2022. The tax gap has been a persistent problem for decades and closing it could result in significant financial benefits for the government.
What’s new to this year’s list?
This year, we added Federal Disaster Assistance to the list. In 2024 alone, there were 27 disasters with at least $1 billion in economic damages. Recent wildfires in Southern California have caused billions of dollars in damage in 2025.
As the frequency, severity, and economic impact of such disasters grow, it becomes increasingly important that federal agencies deliver assistance as efficiently and effectively as possible. Yet survivors and communities struggle to navigate federal programs and get the help they need.
The current approach to disaster recovery is fragmented across more than 30 federal entities through multiple programs and authorities with differing requirements and timeframes. And these entities don’t always share data with each other.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) leads response and recovery efforts. But because of the increasing frequency of events, FEMA has seen a huge strain on its workforce and resources. FEMA, Congress, and other federal entities need to work together to eliminate the fragmented approach that can hinder the delivery of disaster assistance. Doing so could improve processes for assisting survivors, strengthen FEMA’s disaster workforce and capacity, and improve resilience.
Critical Challenges
Action to address several high risk areas can better manage the cost of government.
Federal IT modernization. Each year, the government spends over $100 billion on IT—mostly to operate and maintain existing systems rather than for new technology. Attempts to implement new systems have too often run far over budget, experienced significant delays, and delivered far fewer improvements than promised.
Cybersecurity. Government and private sector systems are under attack thousands of times each day. These attacks put systems supporting Americans’ daily lives at risk, including safe water, energy supplies, reliable and secure telecommunications, and financial networks. And federal efforts to better understand artificial intelligence are needed.
Public health. We’ve highlighted several critical weaknesses in public health efforts. Our recommendations focus on better coordinating public health emergencies, addressing drug shortages, and improving federal oversight of medical products and food safety.
Human capital. Skills gaps across the government contribute to 20 high risk areas. And the government-wide personnel security clearance process, which ensures adequate screening for people handling sensitive information, is not managed in the best manner.
Some progress made but more must be done
Since our last report, some areas have seen improvements. In fact, we saw progress in ten areas and approximately $84 billion in financial benefits in the last 2 years.
Three areas got worse, however. These include federal efforts to purchase weapon systems, manage and improve IT purchases, and manage federal property. Overall, agencies need to address the thousands of open GAO recommendations to bring about lasting solutions to the 38 high risk areas. In some cases, legislation is needed. As such, continued congressional oversight is essential to save money and better manage programs.
Our entire 2025 High Risk List is available on GAO’s High Risk web page.
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