Combating Autism Act: HHS Agencies Responded with New and Continuing Activities, Including Oversight

What GAO Found

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) agencies responded to the Combating Autism Act of 2006 (CAA) by establishing some new autism activities and continuing others. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) created a new initiative to address specific directives in the CAA. Through this initiative, HRSA expanded its existing training programs by requiring grantees to include training specific to autism. It also established new autism research grants and funded new state grants to improve services for children with autism. HRSA awards its autism grants under the authority of the CAA. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continued their autism activities--some of which were undertaken in response to the Children's Health Act of 2000--but did not create new programs as a direct result of the CAA. NIH continued to fund, expand, and coordinate autism research through its Autism Centers of Excellence and autism-specific grants and contracts. CDC continued to fund its regional centers of excellence for autism epidemiology and other activities, such as an awareness campaign. HHS's Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC)--reauthorized by the CAA--assumed additional responsibilities to coordinate autism efforts within HHS and restructured its membership to include more nonfederal members. NIH created the Office of Autism Research Coordination to coordinate and manage the IACC. The CAA did not appropriate funds to any HHS agency. Nevertheless, overall spending on HRSA, NIH, CDC, and IACC autism activities increased from approximately $143.6 million in fiscal year 2006 to approximately $240.4 million in fiscal year 2011.

HRSA, the only HHS agency that has awarded grants specifically as a result of the CAA, regularly collects and reviews information from grantees to oversee individual CAA grantees and programs. HRSA awarded approximately $164 million in grants to 110 CAA grantees from fiscal years 2008 to 2011; though, some of these grantees were already receiving funds prior to the CAA. To oversee these grantees, HRSA requires they regularly submit progress reports and financial reports. The agency also requires grantees to obtain prior approval before making certain changes to their projects. GAO reviewed documentation for an unbiased random sample of 22 grantees, which were representative of the 110 CAA grantees. GAO found that CAA grantees submitted all required reports. Many grantees submitted prior-approval requests for changes to their projects. Most frequently, grantees requested to carry over unobligated funds from the current year to the next budget period. GAO found that HRSA staff routinely collected and reviewed information submitted by the grantees and appropriately documented their review and approval of these submissions. HRSA also conducted site visits and provided technical assistance as a means of overseeing grantees. HRSA conducted site visits with 9 of the grantees in our sample during the period of our review, while only 2 of these were required sites visits. Besides overseeing grantees, HRSA monitors its overall CAA programs by regularly collecting performance reports from grantees. In addition, in December 2012, HRSA released a grant-management operations manual to outline its overall approach for monitoring its CAA programs.

GAO provided a draft of this report to HHS for comment. In response, HHS provided technical comments that were incorporated, as appropriate.

Why GAO Did This Study

CDC considers autism to be an important public health concern. In 2012, CDC reported that an estimated 1 in 88 children in the United States has been identified as having autism—a 23 percent increase from its estimate of 1 in 110 reported in 2009. Autism is a developmental disorder involving communication and social impairment. Symptoms usually become evident in early childhood. There are many suspected causes and no known cure.

HHS agencies fund educational and support services for individuals diagnosed with autism and fund research in a variety of areas, such as identifying the causes of autism and intervention options. The CAA amended sections of the Children’s Health Act of 2000 related to autism and established new requirements. The CAA, enacted in December 2006, authorized the expansion of HHS’s activities related to autism research, surveillance, prevention, intervention, and education through fiscal year 2011. The CAA authorized, but did not appropriate, federal funding to carry out these activities.

In this report, GAO (1) describes the actions that HHS agencies have taken as a result of the CAA, and (2) examines the oversight of CAA grantees. To address these objectives, GAO reviewed CAA and HHS documents and interviewed agency officials to identify the autism activities resulting from the CAA. GAO also determined the amount certain HHS agencies spent on autism activities from fiscal year 2006—prior to the CAA—through fiscal year 2011. In addition, GAO reviewed files for a random sample of CAA grantees to examine oversight from 2008 to 2011.

For more information, contact Marcia Crosse at (202) 512-7114 or crossem@gao.gov.