Government Accountability Office

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GAO: So About That $114B Due In From Student Loans...

Watchdog report: Education Dept. is instead set to lose about $197B, partly due to COVID relief

(Newser) - The Department of Education had been banking on getting its hands on $114 billion or so in income due from federal student loans issued over the past quarter-century. Instead, a watchdog has delivered some bad news: It's actually set to lose $197 billion, in part due to the suspension...

Feds: Trade Aid From Trump Overpaid Corn Farmers by $3B

Farmers in the South were paid more per acre than those in the West, Northeast

(Newser) - The Trump administration overpaid corn farmers by about $3 billion in federal aid in 2019 and farmers in the South were paid more for the same crops than those elsewhere in the country, a federal watchdog agency has found. The Government Accountability Office said in a report released Monday that...

GAO: Weekly Unemployment Numbers Flawed

Government watchdog finds Labor Department has been providing an inaccurate reading

(Newser) - A government watchdog has found that the Labor Department’s widely watched weekly unemployment benefits data are providing an inaccurate reading on the number of newly laid off workers because of flaws in the government’s data collection. The Government Accountability Office said in a report Monday that the Labor...

$1.4B in Stimulus Money Went to Dead People

Government watchdog finds that death records weren't reviewed

(Newser) - The Trump administration has some lessons to learn before sending out any new coronavirus stimulus checks . More than 1 million checks for a combined $1.4 billion were distributed to dead people, according to a government watchdog report covering coronavirus relief spending approved by Congress as of April 30. In...

Government Watchdog: Yes, Trump Violated the Law

As the impeachment trial starts, another big piece of information

(Newser) - The Senate may not yet have decided whether to convict President Trump, but as the POTUS' impeachment trial begins , a congressional watchdog has determined his administration did indeed break the law. The Government Accountability Office, which is nonpartisan and reports to Congress, says the White House's freeze on military...

Audit: 'Nearly All' of DOD's New Weapons Systems Are Vulnerable

GAO analysis finds rampant cybersecurity issues at the Pentagon

(Newser) - A new report out of the Government Accountability Office says the Department of Defense is "just beginning to grapple" with vulnerabilities in most of its new weapons systems. The upshot of the 50-page GAO analysis , per NPR : that, based on five years' worth of tests, "nearly all" of...

Scott Pruitt's $43K Phone Booth Broke the Law

Because the EPA didn't notify Congress, a government watchdog finds

(Newser) - It may be a fresh week for Scott Pruitt , but it's not one void of uncomfortable headlines. ABC News reports a government watchdog has determined the EPA "violated section 710” of the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act when it spent $43,000 on a "secure"...

US Hasn't Shown Military Bands Are Worth the Bill
US Hasn't Shown
Military Bands Are
Worth the Bill
GAO REPORT
Aug 17, 2017 1:14 PM CDT

US Hasn't Shown Military Bands Are Worth the Bill

GAO demands performance measures, Pentagon to oblige

(Newser) - A $437 million annual budget is allotted for US military bands. While that's less than 0.1% of the Department of Defense's total budget, it's also about as much as Latvia's entire defense budget, reports Fox News . The funds pay for instruments—the Air Force requested...

Trump's Trips to Mar-A-Lago Under Review

GAO to investigate security, costs to taxpayers

(Newser) - A government watchdog will investigate the costs of President Trump’s trips to Mar-a-Lago, as well as security at the Palm Beach club after a request by Democrats. In a letter to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, one of four Democratic members of Congress to request an investigation, the Government Accountability Office...

America's Nuke Program Runs on Floppy Disks

And not even the tiny ones

(Newser) - To anyone born after 1995, the floppy disk is better known as that thing that resembles the "save" icon. To the Pentagon, it's the gizmo that controls America's nukes. A report from the Government Accountability Office finds US government agencies spend $60 billion a year operating and...

Report: Hackers Could Use Plane WiFi to Hijack Controls

FAA says it is working with experts on necessary changes

(Newser) - That in-flight WiFi we've all become so fond of could be breached by hackers to take control of the plane, according to a worrying GAO report out yesterday. Passengers, or even people on the ground, could break down firewalls guarding communications and navigation systems, Reuters reports, meaning a hacker...

US Blew Millions Shipping Military Trucks: Report

GAO report suggests it would have been cheaper to just blow them up

(Newser) - It would've been more financially prudent to blow up now-useless US military vehicles used in Afghanistan instead of what the Pentagon actually did: ship them back home. A GAO report released yesterday and cited in USA Today says that from October 2012 to October 2013, the Army and Marines...

Student Debt Driving Elderly Into Poverty

Number with benefits cut to repay loans soars

(Newser) - A soaring number of Americans are facing an old age of poverty because they are still saddled with student debt, according to a Government Accountability Office report released yesterday. The government has the power to slash Social Security or disability benefits to pay off federal student loans, and the number...

Watchdog: Bergdahl Prisoner Swap Was Illegal

Congress should have been told, GAO says

(Newser) - The Obama administration's release of five Taliban prisoners in exchange for captive soldier Bowe Bergdahl was illegal in more ways than one, according to the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office. The government watchdog says the decision violated federal law because Congress wasn't given 30 days' notice of the transfer...

Pentagon to Destroy $1.2B in Ammunition

Outdated systems causing huge amounts of waste

(Newser) - Ammunition worth $1.2 billion, much of it still usable, is going to go up in smoke because the Pentagon is using antiquated inventory systems and different service branches can't share data effectively, a Government Accountability Office report says. Despite decades of trying to develop a single database, only...

TSA's $1B SPOT Program as Effective as Flipping a Coin

Screening 'the same as or slightly better than chance'

(Newser) - Nearly $1 billion spent on a TSA behavioral screening program may have been better spent in Vegas. Started in 2007 at a cost of $200 million a year, the Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT) program trains officers to scan crowded airports for suspicious-looking people. There's just one...

US Prisons Able to Absorb All Gitmo Detainees
Our Prisons Could Safely Hold Every Gitmo Detainee
new report
Nov 29, 2012 6:40 AM CST

Our Prisons Could Safely Hold Every Gitmo Detainee

Facilities have room, necessary security: report

(Newser) - US prisons are capable of taking on all 166 Guantanamo Bay detainees, thereby allowing the US to close the facility, a report finds. "This report demonstrates that if the political will exists, we could finally close Guantanamo without imperiling our national security," says Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who commissioned...

Debt Limit Debacle's Tab: $1.3B
 Debt Limit Debacle's Tab: $1.3B 
GAO report
Jul 24, 2012 9:11 AM CDT

Debt Limit Debacle's Tab: $1.3B

Treasury maneuvering cost taxpayers dearly

(Newser) - Last summer's debt ceiling showdown cost taxpayers at least $1.3 billion in increased borrowing costs, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released yesterday. Legislators' game of brinkmanship spooked investors, driving up the cost of government borrowing. It also forced the Treasury to perform some financial gymnastics,...

RNC: Obama Fraudulently Using Air Force One

It claims his recent travel has been for campaign purposes

(Newser) - Republicans think Barack Obama's trips on Air Force One amount to nothing less than fraud. RNC Chair Reince Priebus has sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office asking it to investigate Obama's recent travel, alleging that the events he's traveling to have been "widely reported...

Watchdog: Airport Errors Soaring

Runway 'incursions,' planes flying too close on the rise

(Newser) - The number of reported air traffic controller errors has jumped, along with the number of unauthorized planes, people, or vehicles on runways, according to a government report released yesterday. Incidents of planes flying too close to one another have nearly doubled in the last three years due to controller mistakes...

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