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In a Priority Open Recommendations document released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on May 28, 2024, the federal watchdog detailed 12 open high-priority recommendations the EPA has yet to address: For more information about EPA progress and plans to address these items, see the Priority Open Recommendations document. “Priority open recommendations are the GAO […]
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) needs to closely monitor members’ timely access to health services under its World Trade Center Health Program, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded in a new report (GAO-22-105303) released July 29. Eligible responders and survivors of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks receive health services through […]
Challenges to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) COVID-19 emergency temporary standards (ETS) and employer noncompliance with reporting requirements hampered the agency’s pandemic response, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported in a May 25 Congressional testimony. In a written testimony submitted to the House Committee on Education and Labor’s Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports that almost 11,000 facilities exceeded their National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitted wastewater discharge limits and illegally discharged wastewater pollutants in 2018. “EPA has a goal to reduce by half significant noncompliance with individual NPDES permits by the end of FY 2022,” according to the GAO. “But the […]
The growing severity of flooding, storm surge, and wildfires brought on by climate change increases the risk that these events will spread contamination from Superfund sites and damage remedies put in place to control those risks. In a new report, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) says that 60% (945 of 1,571) of all nonfederal […]
The role of Federal Advisory Committees (FACs) that advise the EPA on the environment and human health is in a state of transition that is being viewed differently by the Trump administration on one side and congressional Democrats and many scientists on the other.
For the second time in 3 years, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has cast doubt on whether the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) is having any more than a negligible effect on U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs).
Chemical assessments, a core activity at the EPA, are conducted under two separate but closely related programs—the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) and implementation of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and its 2016 amendments. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently released a report on how these two programs are completing their mission to evaluate […]
Department of Defense (DOD) contracting officials need to more closely focus on contractor safety performance when awarding defense contracts, the Government Accountability Office said in a new report.
In November 2017, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that injury and illness rates among workers at meat and poultry slaughter and processing plants declined from 2004 through 2015 but that in 2015, the industry still had the 8th-highest number of severe injury reports of all industries. The GAO reported on several areas where […]