The first recommendation suggests targets  for near-term oversight; the second proposes policies and programs in  need of fundamental reform and re-engineering; the third lists governing  issues. We plan to  establish a presence in Iraq beginning later this fiscal year to provide  additional oversight of issues deemed important to the Congress; subject  to approval by the U.S. Department of State and adequate funding. In January of this year, we also issued our High-Risk Series: An Update,  which identifies federal areas and programs at risk of fraud, waste, abuse,  and mismanagement and those in need of broad-based transformations. Indeed, as the Congress considers those fiscal pressures,  it will be grappling with tough choices about what government does, how  it does business, and who will do the government’s business. Performance, Results, and Plans

We anticipate that the funds requested for fiscal year 2008 will support  efforts similar to those just completed in fiscal year 2006. Outcomes of Our Work and the Road Ahead

During fiscal year 2006, we used 16 annual performance measures that  capture the results of our work; the assistance we provided to the  Congress; our ability to attract, retain, develop, and lead a highly  professional workforce; and how well our internal administrative services  help employees get their jobs done and improve their work life (see table  3). Of this amount, about $27 billion resulted from changes  to laws or regulations, $10 billion resulted from agency actions based on  our recommendations to improve services to the public, and $14 billion  resulted from improvements to core business processes. Helped to ensure that certain U.S. During fiscal year 2006, we recorded a total of 1,342  nonfinancial benefits. During fiscal year 2006, experts from our staff testified at 240  congressional hearings covering a wide range of complex issues (seetable  4). GAO’s Fiscal Year 2008 Request to Support the Congress

Our fiscal year 2008 budget request seeks the resources necessary to allow  GAO to rebuild and enhance its workforce, knowledge capacity, employee  programs, and infrastructure. In the  years ahead, our support to the Congress will likely prove even more  critical because of the pressures created by our nation’s current and  projected budget deficit and growing long-term fiscal imbalance. Our  fiscal year 2008 budget request includes funds to regain the momentum  needed to achieve these goals. Our fiscal year 2008 budget request will  allow GAO to    address supply and demand imbalances in responding to congressional  requests for studies in areas such as health care, disaster assistance,  homeland security, the global “war on terrorism,” energy and natural  resources, and forensic auditing;   address our increasing bid protest workload;    be more competitive in the labor markets where GAO competes for talent;    address critical human capital components, such as knowledge capacity  building, succession planning, and staff skills and competencies;   enhance employee recruitment, retention, and development programs;  restore program funding levels and regain our purchasing power;    undertake critical initiatives necessary to continuously re-engineer  processes geared to increasing our productivity and effectiveness and  addressing identified management challenges; and   pursue critical structural and infrastructure maintenance and  improvements. Our fiscal year 2008 budget request represents an increase of $41.7 million  (or 8.5 percent) over our fiscal year 2007 funding level and includes about  $523 million in direct appropriations and authority to use about $7.5  million in offsetting collections as illustrated in table 5. However, in  order to manage within expected funding levels in fiscal year 2007, we will  significantly curtail hiring by about 50 percent below the previous year,  resulting in a projected FTE utilization of 3,159—well below our planned  level. We have also seen an increase in the  number of bid protest filings. GAO, however, is unable to extend this increased  benefit to staff. In fiscal year 2008, we would like to  have sufficient funding to take action to protect our current investments  and continue to be a model agency and lead by example. We also plan to request legislation that will assist GAO in performing its  mission work and enhance our human capital policies, including  addressing certain compensation and benefits issues of interest to our  employees. We are grateful  for the Congress’s continued support of our mutual effort to improve  government and for providing the resources that allow us to be a world- class professional services organization. We are proud of our record  performance and the positive impact we have been able to effect in  government over the past year and believe an investment in GAO will  continue to yield substantial returns for the Congress and the American  people. GAO’s expertise and involvement in virtually every facet of  government positions us to provide the Congress with the timely,  objective, and reliable information it needs to discharge its constitutional  responsibilities. Appendix I: Serving the Congress—GAO’s Strategic Plan Framework

GAO exists to support the Congress in meeting its constitutional responsibilities and to help improve the performance and ensure the accountability of the federal government for the benefit of the American people.
Why GAO Did This Study

We would like to thank Congress for its past support of GAO. We are especially appreciative of Congressional efforts to help us avoid a furlough of our staff during fiscal year 2007. Had we not received additional funds this year and not taken other cost minimization actions, GAO would have likely been forced to furlough most staff for up to 5 days without pay. At the same time, due to funding shortfalls, we were not able to make pay adjustments retroactive to January 7, 2007. It is through the efforts of our dedicated and capable staff that we were able to provide the Congress with the professional, objective, fact-based, nonpartisan, non-ideological, fair, and balanced information it needs to meet the full range of its constitutional responsibilities. We are extremely pleased and proud to say that we helped the federal government achieve a total of $51 billion in financial benefits in fiscal year 2006--a record high that represents a return on investment of $105 for every dollar the Congress invested in us. As a result of our work, we also documented 1,342 nonfinancial benefits that helped to improve service to the public, change laws, and transform government operations. The funding we received in fiscal year 2006 allowed us to conduct work that addressed many difficult issues confronting the nation, including U.S. border security, Iraq and Hurricane Katrina activities, the tax gap and tax reform, and issues affecting the health and pay of military service members. Our client-focused performance measures indicate that the Congress valued and was very pleased with our work overall.

What GAO Found

There is a need for fundamental and dramatic reform to address what the government does, how it does business, and who will do the government's business. Our support to the Congress will likely prove even more critical because of the pressures created by our nation's current and projected budget deficit and growing long-term fiscal imbalance. Also, as we face current and projected supply and demand imbalance issues and a growing workload over the coming years across a wide spectrum of issues, GAO will be unable to respond to congressional demands without a significant investment in our future. We have exhausted the results that we can achieve based on prior investments. Our ability to continue to produce record results and assist the Congress in discharging its Constitutional responsibilities relating to authorization, appropriations, oversight, and other matters will be adversely impacted unless we take action now. Therefore, our fiscal year 2008 budget request is designed to restore GAO's funding to more reasonable operating levels. Specifically, we are requesting fiscal year 2008 budget authority of $530 million, an 8.5 percent increase over our fiscal year 2007 funding level. The additional funds provided in fiscal year 2007 have helped reduce our requested increase for fiscal year 2008 from 9.4 percent to 8.5 percent. This funding level also represents a reduction below the request we submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in January as a result of targeted adjustments to our planned fiscal year 2008 hiring plan. Our fiscal year 2008 budget request will allow us to achieve our performance goals to support the Congress as outlined in our strategic plan1 and rebuild our workforce capacity to allow us to better respond to supply and demand imbalances in responding to congressional requests. This funding will also help us address our caseload for bid protest filings, which have increased by more than 10 percent from fiscal years 2002 through 2006. Our workload for the first quarter of fiscal year 2007 suggests a continuation of this upward trend in bid protest fillings. We will be seeking Congressional commitment and support to provide the funding needed to increase GAO's staffing level to 3,750 over the next 6 years in order to address critical needs including supply and demand imbalances, high-risk areas, 21st Century Challenges questions, technology assessments, and other areas in need of fundamental reform. In addition, as we get closer to when GAO may be able to render our opinion on the consolidated financial statements of the U. S. government and the Department of Defense's financial and related systems, we will need to increase our workforce capacity. We will be providing the Congress additional information on the basis for and nature of this target later this year. Importantly, as noted last year, we also plan to request legislation that will assist GAO in performing its mission work, and enhance our human capital policies, including addressing certain compensation and benefits issues of interest to our employees. We plan to submit our proposal to our Senate and House authorization and oversight committees in the near future.