As Congress and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) continue to seek savings and greater efficiency, they should look closely at the recommendations of the Government Accountability Office (GAO). 

On February 25, 2025, the GAO released its “High-Risk List” report, which identified 38 programs and services that are seriously vulnerable to waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement.  To date, implementation of recommendations in the High-Risk List have saved taxpayers $759 billion.

The GAO report details the ongoing challenge to reduce improper payments, which have totaled $2.8 trillion since 2003, “including over $150 billion government-wide in each of the last 7 years.”  The payments continue to permeate federal programs, despite the enactment of four bills that attempted to address the problem since 2002, including the “Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019,” which was signed into law on March 2, 2020.  The GAO has found that more than $100 billion in improper payments were issued by Medicare and Medicaid, both of which have long-term fiscal stability challenges.

A new area on the High-Risk List is federal disaster assistance.  While President Trump has discussed eliminating or reforming the Federal Emergency Management Agency, it is only one of more than 30 federal entities offering disaster relief assistance.  Other agencies include the Department of Commerce’s fishery disaster assistance program, the Department of Agriculture’s assistance programs for agricultural operations, and the Small Business Administration’s low-interest loans for qualifying disaster-affected businesses, and many others.  With so many programs and authorities, GAO noted that, “differing requirements and timeframes, and limited data sharing across entities could make it harder for survivors and communities to navigate federal programs.”  GAO recommends restructuring and streamlining resources to improve the effectiveness and cost efficiency of disaster aid and recovery.

Managing federal real property has been on the High-Risk List since 2003 due to the large amount of underused property and laws that make it difficult to get rid of the unnecessary facilities and land.  The cost and underutilization of federal property “have been exacerbated by the recent use of telework and growing amounts of deferred maintenance, which rose from $170 billion in 2017 to $370 billion in 2024.”  

Legislative efforts to increase the efficient use of property include the Utilizing Space Efficiently and Improving Technologies (USE IT) Act and the FASTA Reform Act of 2023, which was signed into law as part of S. 4367 on January 6, 2025.  The USE IT Act requires the federal government to sell buildings that remain below 60 percent capacity for two consecutive years, and the FASTA Reform Act gives the Federal Buildings Reform Board more authority to raise the number of buildings that can be redeveloped.  Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has recommended several changes to the process by which federal property should be sold in its 2024 Prime Cuts report, which if implemented could save $15 billion over five years.  

The GAO report also cited inefficiencies in procurement.  The federal government spends more than $750 billion buying goods and services from the private sector each year.  The GAO recommended that agencies adopt generally accepted practices used in private sector procurement to help save billions of dollars and speed up the procurement process.

The GAO’s High-Risk Series report should be required reading for everyone who works for DOGE and members of Congress who care about resolving the ongoing challenges of fraud, overpayments, and glaring inefficiencies in the distribution of federal funds.  The commonsense recommendations in the GAO report would improve government performance and provide taxpayers with greater value for every hard-earned dollar they send to Washington, D.C.