	High-Risk Areas Making Progress

Since our last high-risk update, while progress has varied, many of the 32  high-risk areas on our 2015 list have shown solid progress. As shown in table 1, 23 high-risk areas, or  two-thirds of all the areas, have met or partially met all five criteria for  removal from our High-Risk List; 15 of these areas fully met at least one  criterion. In two other areas,  enough progress was made that we removed a segment of the high-risk  area—Mitigating Gaps in Weather Satellite Data and Department of  Defense (DOD) Supply Chain Management. The other eight areas  improved in at least one criterion rating by either moving from “not met” to  “partially met” or from “partially met” to “met.”

			One High-Risk Designation Removed

We removed the area of Establishing Effective Mechanisms for Sharing  and Managing Terrorism-Related Information to Protect the Homeland  from the High-Risk List because the Program Manager for the Information  Sharing Environment (ISE) and key departments and agencies have  made significant progress to strengthen how intelligence on terrorism,  homeland security, and law enforcement, as well as other information  (collectively referred to in this section as terrorism-related information), is  shared among federal, state, local, tribal, international, and private-sector  partners. High-Risk Areas Highlighted for Significant Attention

In the 2 years since the last high-risk update, two areas—Mitigating Gaps  in Weather Satellite Data and Management of Federal Oil and Gas  Resources—have expanded in scope because of emerging challenges  related to these overall high-risk areas. Ensuring the Security of Federal Information Systems and Cyber  Critical Infrastructure and Protecting the Privacy of Personally  Identifiable Information. Agencies spend billions each year on environmental cleanup efforts but  the estimated environmental liability continues to rise. The 2010 Census  was the costliest U.S. Census in history at about $12.3 billion, and was  about 31 percent more costly than the $9.4 billion cost of the 2000  Census (in 2020 dollars). Monitoring. Demonstrated Progress. GAO-15-41. Modernizing the U.S. Financial Regulatory System and the Federal Role in Housing Finance

	Why Area Is High Risk

Congress and financial regulators have made progress in meeting criteria  for removing the issue area of reforming the U.S. financial regulatory  system from our High-Risk List. In July 2009, we added USPS’s financial condition to the  list of high-risk areas needing attention by Congress and the executive  branch to achieve broad-based restructuring. U.S. Restructuring of Offshore Oil and Gas Oversight

capabilities. GAO-17-3. Improving Federal Management of Programs that Serve Tribes and Their Members

	Why Area Is High Risk

For nearly a decade, we, along with inspectors general, special  commissions, and others, have reported that federal agencies have  ineffectively administered Indian education and health care programs and  inefficiently fulfilled their responsibilities for managing the development of  Indian energy resources. In particular, we have found numerous  challenges facing the Department of the Interior’s (Interior) Bureau of  Indian Education (BIE) and Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)—both under the  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs (Indian Affairs)—and  the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Indian Health  Service (IHS), in administering education and health care services, which  put the health and safety of American Indians served by these programs  at risk. The cost of the census, in terms of cost for counting each housing unit,  has been escalating over the last several decennials. What Remains to Be Done

The Bureau plans to implement several new innovations in its design of  the 2020 Census. GAO-14-59. Decennial Census: Additional Actions Could Improve the Census  Bureau’s Ability to Control Costs for the 2020 Census. For fiscal year 2016,  the federal government’s estimated environmental liability was $447  billion—up from $212 billion for fiscal year 1997. Since 1994, we  have made at least 28 recommendations related to addressing the federal  government’s environmental liability. Of these, 13 recommendations remain unimplemented. This recommendation has not been  implemented. GAO-16-5. What GAO Found

Since 2015, DOD’s progress in improving its financial management  processes and operations has been mixed. DOD has made partial  progress toward demonstrating leadership commitment and developing  capacity and action plans. February 26, 2015. As a result, we are expanding this high-risk area to include DOD’s  polar-orbiting weather satellites. Department of Energy: Whistleblower Protections Need Strengthening. Further, there are several areas where CMS needs to take action to  address issues and recommendations that have not been fully  implemented, including:  considering which additional databases that states and Medicaid  managed care plans use to screen providers, which could be helpful  in improving the effectiveness of these efforts, and determining  whether any of these databases should be added to the list of  databases identified by CMS for screening purposes; developing a plan to regularly assess the effectiveness of checks for  duplicate coverage between Medicaid and federally facilitated  exchanges, including thresholds for the level of duplicate coverage it  deems acceptable;  continuing its efforts to work with Social Security Administration to  share its Death Master File with states and providing additional  guidance to states to better identify beneficiaries who are deceased;  and  conducting systematic assessments of federal determinations of  Medicaid eligibility in states that delegated this authority to the federal  marketplace until it is part of the regular review processes that are  expected to resume in 2018. All recommendations from this report  have been closed as implemented. GAO-17-30. GAO-16-83.
Why GAO Did This Study

The federal government is one of the world's largest and most complex entities: about $3.9 trillion in outlays in fiscal year 2016 funded a broad array of programs and operations. GAO's high-risk program identifies government operations with greater vulnerabilities to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement or the need for transformation to address economy, efficiency, or effectiveness challenges.
This biennial update describes the status of high-risk areas listed in 2015 and actions that are still needed to assure further progress, and identifies new high-risk areas needing attention by Congress and the executive branch. Solutions to high-risk problems potentially save billions of dollars, improve service to the public, and strengthen government performance and accountability.
GAO uses five criteria to assess progress in addressing high-risk areas: (1) leadership commitment, (2) agency capacity, (3) an action plan, (4) monitoring efforts, and (5) demonstrated progress.

What GAO Found

Since GAO's last high-risk update, many of the 32 high-risk areas on the 2015 list have shown solid progress. Twenty-three high-risk areas, or two-thirds of all the areas, have met or partially met all five criteria for removal from the High-Risk List; 15 of these areas fully met at least one criterion. Progress has been possible through the concerted efforts of Congress and leadership and staff in agencies. For example, Congress enacted over a dozen laws since GAO's last report in February 2015 to help address high-risk issues.
GAO removed 1 high-risk area on managing terrorism-related information, because significant progress had been made to strengthen how intelligence on terrorism, homeland security, and law enforcement is shared among federal, state, local, tribal, international, and private sector partners. Sufficient progress was made to remove segments of 2 areas related to supply chain management at the Department of Defense (DOD) and gaps in geostationary weather satellite data.
Two high-risk areas expanded—DOD's polar-orbiting weather satellites and the Department of the Interior's restructuring of offshore oil and gas oversight. Several other areas need substantive attention including VA health care, DOD financial management, ensuring the security of federal information systems and cyber critical infrastructure, resolving the federal role in housing finance, and improving the management of IT acquisitions and operations.
GAO is adding 3 areas to the High-Risk List, bringing the total to 34:
Management of Federal Programs That Serve Tribes and Their Members. GAO has reported that federal agencies, including the Department of the Interior's Bureaus of Indian Education and Indian Affairs and the Department of Health and Human Services' Indian Health Service, have ineffectively administered Indian education and health care programs and inefficiently developed Indian energy resources. Thirty-nine of 41 GAO recommendations on this issue remain unimplemented.
U.S. Government's Environmental Liabilities. In fiscal year 2016 this liability was estimated at $447 billion (up from $212 billion in 1997). The Department of Energy is responsible for 83 percent of these liabilities and DOD for 14 percent. Agencies spend billions each year on environmental cleanup efforts but the estimated environmental liability continues to rise. Since 1994, GAO has made at least 28 recommendations related to this area; 13 are unimplemented.
The 2020 Decennial Census. The cost of the census has been escalating over the last several decennials; the 2010 Census was the costliest U.S. Census in history at about $12.3 billion, about 31 percent more than the 2000 Census (in 2020 dollars). The U.S. Census Bureau (Bureau) plans to implement several innovations—including IT systems—for the 2020 Census. Successfully implementing these innovations, along with other challenges, risk the Bureau's ability to conduct a cost-effective census. Since 2014, GAO has made 30 recommendations related to this area; however, only 6 have been fully implemented.
GAO's 2017 High-Risk List

What GAO Recommends

This report contains GAO's views on progress made and what remains to be done to bring about lasting solutions for each high-risk area. Perseverance by the executive branch in implementing GAO's recommended solutions and continued oversight and action by Congress are essential to achieving greater progress.