Tag: gao

Most Federal Agencies Use Less Than 25 Percent of Office Space: GAO

Most federal agencies are using less than 25 percent of their headquarters space, according to a new U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. Testifying before members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on July 13, GAO Acting Director of Physical Infrastructure David Marroni said an assessment was conducted earlier this year to determine how…


Most Federal Agencies Using Less Than 25 Percent of Office Space: GAO

Most federal agencies are using less than 25 percent of their headquarters space, according to a new U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. Testifying before members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on July 13, GAO Acting Director of Physical Infrastructure David Marroni said an assessment was conducted earlier this year to determine how…


State Department Not Measuring Its Greenhouse Gases Despite Biden Executive Order: GAO Report

Four hundred and fifty U.S. diplomatic officials and employees attended two U.N. climate conferences but nobody in the State Department knows how much greenhouse gases were emitted as a result despite President Joe Biden’s 2021 Executive Order directing the federal government to measure its emissions, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office…


Tennessee Valley Authority: Additional Steps Needed to Prevent Weather-Related Outages

The nation’s largest public utility might not be up to the task of avoiding power failures in extreme weather conditions, a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) claims. “The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) faces several climate-related risks … expected to affect TVA’s ability to generate and transmit electricity … that could affect TVA’s…


Trump Tax Cuts Reduced Corporate Effective Rates, but Boosted Revenue: GAO Report

The average effective tax rate, or the proportion of income paid after tax breaks, among profitable major firms dropped from 15.7 percent in 2014 to 8.9 percent in 2018, according to a new study (pdf) by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Despite lower rates, tax contributions from large profitable companies increased from 2016 to 2018, due…


Armed and Beltway-ish: More Federal Bureaucrats Than US Marines Authorized to Pack Heat

When Congress authorized $80 billion this year to beef up Internal Revenue Service enforcement and staffing, Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy invoked the language of war to warn that “Democrats’ new army of 87,000 IRS agents will be coming for you.” A video quickly went viral racking up millions of views, purporting to show…


Whoops! Department of Education Makes $300 Billion Accounting Mistake on Student Loans

Commentary What’s $300 billion between friends? A new report from the Government Accountability Office details a breathtaking discrepancy between what the federal government claimed the student loan program would generate, and what it actually costs taxpayers. As GAO explains: “Although the Department of Education originally estimated federal Direct Loans made in the last 25 years…


CDC, FDA Workers Observed Incidents of Political Interference: Report

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) employees say they observed incidents perceived as political interference within the federal agencies that may have altered or suppressed scientific findings,  a new federal report has found. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) interviewed 16 employees at the CDC, FDA and the…


Republicans Press GAO for Report on Biden’s Halt on Border Wall Construction

House Republicans are urging the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to issue their assessment of President Joe Biden’s decision to halt funds appropriated by the 116th Congress for the construction of the southern border barrier, as being either legal or illegal under current laws. In their most recent attempt to get answers about the legality of Biden’s border wall funding…


Federal Agency Investigating Biden’s Order to Stop Border Wall Construction

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) confirmed reports it is investigating President Joe Biden’s move in January to freeze construction of the border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Former President Donald Trump, who made border wall construction a key 2016 campaign promise, started building the wall amid legal battles and fights with Congress. On his first…