Fiscal Year 2009 Budget Request: U.S. Government Accountability Office
Published: 2008-04-10T00:00:00

Fast Facts:

Highlights:
section_title: Why GAO Did This Study
paragraphs: The budget authority GAO is requesting for fiscal year 2009--$545.5 million--represents a prudent request of 7.5 percent to support the Congress as it confronts a growing array of difficult challenges. GAO will continue to reward the confidence you place in us by providing a strong return on this investment. In fiscal year 2007 for example, in addition to delivering hundreds of reports and briefings to aid congressional oversight and decisionmaking, our work yielded: financial benefits, such as increased collection of delinquent taxes and civil fines, totaling $45.9 billion--a return of $94 for every dollar invested in GAO; over 1,300 other improvements in government operations spanning the full spectrum of national issues, ranging from helping Congress create a center to better locate children after disasters to strengthening computer security over sensitive government records and assets to encouraging more transparency over nursing home fire safety to strengthening screening procedures for VA health care practitioners; and expert testimony at 276 congressional hearings to help Congress address a variety of issues of broad national concern, such as the conflict in Iraq and efforts to ensure drug and food safety.
section_title: What GAO Found
paragraphs: GAO's work in fiscal year 2007 generated $45.9 billion in financial benefits. These financial benefits, which resulted primarily from actions agencies and the Congress took in response to our recommendations, included about $21.1 billion resulting from changes to laws or regulations, $16.3 billion resulting from improvements to core business processes, and $8.5 billion resulting from agency actions based on our recommendations to improve public services.

section_title: Letter
paragraphs: I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to present GAO’s  budget request for fiscal year 2009. I am proud to say that we serve the  Congress and the American people well, and I want to publicly acknowledge  the professionalism, talents, and dedication of the GAO workforce in  supporting the Congress and improving government. We submit for your  consideration a funding proposal that would ensure the GAO can continue to  help Congress make informed oversight, policy, and funding decisions.
At the outset, I want to thank the subcommittee for its support of GAO last  year, especially in light of the overall budget pressures that the  subcommittee faced when considering priorities. We ask for your  continued support so that GAO can take on the issues of greatest interest  to the Congress and address an increased demand for our services.
The budget authority we are requesting for fiscal year 2009—$545.5  million—represents a prudent request of 7.5 percent to support the  Congress as it confronts a growing array of difficult challenges. We will  continue to reward the confidence you place in us by providing a strong  return on this investment. In fiscal year 2007 for example, in addition to  delivering hundreds of reports and briefings to aid congressional oversight  and decisionmaking, our work yielded:  financial benefits, such as increased collection of delinquent taxes and  civil fines, totaling $45.9 billion—a return of $94 for every dollar invested  in GAO;    over 1,300 other improvements in government operations spanning the full  spectrum of national issues, ranging from helping Congress create a center to  better locate children after disasters to strengthening computer security over  sensitive government records and assets to encouraging more transparency  over nursing home fire safety to strengthening screening procedures for VA  health care practitioners; and    expert testimony at 276 congressional hearings to help Congress address a  variety of issues of broad national concern, such as the conflict in Iraq and  efforts to ensure drug and food safety.
subsections: section_title: Demand for GAO Services Is High and Increasing
paragraphs: Demand for GAO’s analysis and advice remains strong across the  Congress. During the past 3 years, GAO has received requests or mandated  work from all of the standing committees of the House and the Senate and  over 90 percent of their subcommittees. In fiscal year 2007, GAO received  over 1,200 requests for studies. This is a direct result of the high quality of  GAO’s work that the Congress has come to expect as well as the difficult  challenges facing the Congress where it believes having objective  information and professional advice from GAO is instrumental.
Not only has demand for our work continued to be strong, but it is also  steadily increasing. The total number of requests in fiscal year 2007 was up  14 percent from the preceding year. This trend has accelerated in fiscal  year 2008 as requests rose 26 percent in the first quarter and are up 20  percent at the mid-point of this fiscal year from comparable periods in  2007. As a harbinger of future congressional demand, potential mandates  for GAO work being included in proposed legislation as of February 2008  totaled over 600, or an 86 percent increase from a similar period in the  109th Congress.
The following examples illustrate this demand:    Over 160 new mandates for GAO reviews were imbedded in law, including  the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008, the Defense Appropriations  Act of 2008, and 2008 legislation implementing the 9/11 Commission  recommendations;   New recurring responsibilities were given to GAO under the Honest  Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 to report annually on the  compliance by lobbyists of registration and reporting requirements; and   Expanded bid protest provisions applied to GAO that 1) allow federal  employees to file protests concerning competitive sourcing decisions (A- 76), 2) establish exclusive bid protest jurisdiction at GAO over issuance of  task and delivery orders valued at over $10 million, and 3) provide GAO  bid protest jurisdiction over contracts awarded by the Transportation  Security Administration.
Further evidence of GAO’s help in providing important advice to the  Congress is found in the increased numbers of GAO appearances at  hearings on topics of national significance and keen interest (see table 1).
In fiscal year 2007 GAO testified at 276 hearings, 36 more than fiscal year 2006.  The fiscal year 2007 figure was an all-time high for GAO on a per capita basis  and among the top requests for GAO input in the last 25 years. This up tempo of  GAO appearances at congressional hearings has continued, with GAO already  appearing at 140 hearings this fiscal year, as of April 4th.
section_title: Modest Increase in Staffing Would Help Meet Demand
paragraphs: Our FTE level in fiscal year 2008 is 3,100—the lowest level ever for GAO.  We are proud of the results we deliver to the Congress and our nation with  this level, but with a slightly less than 5 percent increase in our FTEs to  3,251 we can better meet increased congressional requests for GAO  assistance. While this increase would not bring GAO back to the 3,275 FTE  level of 10 years ago, it would allow us to respond to the increased  workload facing the Congress.
GAO staff are stretched in striving to meet Congress’s increasing needs.  People are operating at a pace that cannot be sustained over the long run. I  am greatly concerned that if we try to provide more services with the  existing level of resources, the high quality of our work could be  diminished in the future. But I will not allow this to occur. This is not in  the Congress’s nor GAO’s interest.
One consequence of our demand vs. supply situation is the growing list of  congressional requests that we are not able to promptly staff. While we  continue to work with congressional committees to identify their areas of  highest priority, we remain unable to staff important requests. This limits  our ability to provide timely advice to congressional committees dealing  with certain issues that they have slated for oversight, including   Safety concerns such as incorporating behavior-based security programs  into TSA’s aviation passenger screening process, updating our 2006 study  of FDA’s post-market drug safety system, and reviewing state  investigations of nursing home complaints.
Operational improvements such as the effectiveness of Border Security  checkpoints to identify illegal aliens, technical and programmatic  challenges in DOD’s space radar programs, oversight of federally-funded  highway and transit projects and the impact of the 2005 Bankruptcy Abuse  Prevention and Consumer Protection Act.
Opportunities to increase revenues or stop wasteful spending including  reducing potential overstatements of charitable deductions and curbing  potential overpayments and contractor abuses in food assistance  programs.
section_title: GAO’s Fiscal Year 2009 Budget Request
paragraphs: Our fiscal year 2009 budget request seeks to better position us to maintain  our high level of support for the Congress and better meet increasing  requests for help. This request would help replenish our staffing levels at a  time when almost 20 percent of all GAO staff will be eligible for  retirement. Accordingly, our fiscal year 2009 budget request seeks funds to  ensure that we have the increased staff capacity to effectively support the  Congress’s agenda, cover pay and uncontrollable inflationary cost  increases, and undertake critical investments, such as technology  improvement.
GAO is requesting budget authority of $545.5 million to support a staff  level of 3,251 FTEs needed to serve the Congress. This is a fiscally prudent  request of 7.5 percent over our fiscal year 2008 funding level, as illustrated  in table 2. Our request includes about $538.1 million in direct  appropriations and authority to use about $7.4 million in offsetting  collections. This request also reflects a reduction of about $6 million in  nonrecurring fiscal year 2008 costs.
Our request includes funds needed to  increase our staffing level by less than 5 percent to help us provide more  timely responses to congressional requests for studies;    enhance employee recruitment, retention, and development programs,  which increase our competitiveness for a talented workforce; recognize dedicated contributions of our hardworking staff through  awards and recognition programs;    address critical human capital components, such as knowledge capacity  building, succession planning, and staff skills and competencies;    pursue critical structural and infrastructure maintenance and  improvements; restore program funding levels to regain our lost purchasing power; and   undertake critical initiatives to increase our productivity.
Key elements of our proposed budget increase are outlined as follows:  Pay and inflationary cost increases  We are requesting funds to cover anticipated pay and inflationary cost  increases resulting primarily from annual across-the-board and  performance-based increases and annualization of prior fiscal year costs.  These costs also include uncontrollable, inflationary increases imposed by  vendors as the cost of doing business.
GAO generally loses about 10 percent of its workforce annually to  retirements and attrition. This annual loss places GAO under continual  pressure to replace staff capacity and renew institutional memory. In fiscal  year 2007, we were able to replace only about half of our staff loss. In  fiscal year 2008, we plan to replace only staff departures. Our proposed  fiscal year 2009 staffing level of 3,251 FTEs would restore our staff  capacity through a modest FTE increase, which would allow us to initiate  congressional requests in a timelier manner and begin reducing the  backlog of pending requests.
Critical technology and infrastructure improvements  We are requesting funds to undertake critical investments that would  allow us to implement technology improvements, as well as streamline  and reengineer work processes to enhance the productivity and  effectiveness of our staff, make essential investments that have been  deferred year after year but cannot continue to be delayed, and implement  responses to changing federal conditions.
Human capital initiatives and additional legislative authorities  GAO is working with the appropriate authorization and oversight  committees to make reforms that are designed to benefit our employees  and to provide a means to continue to attract, retain, and reward a top- flight workforce, as well as help us improve our operations and increase  administrative efficiencies. Among the requested provisions, GAO  supports the adoption of a “floor guarantee” for future annual pay  adjustments similar to the agreement governing 2008 payment adjustments  reached with the GAO Employees Organization, IFPTE. The floor  guarantee reasonably balances our commitment to performance-based pay  with an appropriate degree of predictability and equity for all GAO  employees.
At the invitation of the House federal workforce subcommittee, we also  have engaged in fruitful discussions about a reasonable and practical  approach should the Congress decide to include a legislative provision to  compensate GAO employees who did not receive the full base pay  increases of 2.6 percent in 2006 and 2.4 percent in 2007. We appreciate  their willingness to provide us with the necessary legal authorities to  address this issue and look forward to working together with you and our  oversight committee to obtain necessary funding to cover these payments.  The budget authority to cover the future impact of these payments is not  reflected in this budget request.
section_title: Establishing and Maintaining Constructive Union Relationships
paragraphs: As you know, on September 19, 2007, our Band I and Band II Analysts,  Auditors, Specialists, and Investigators voted to be represented by the  GAO Employees Organization, IFPTE, for the purpose of bargaining with  GAO management on various terms and conditions of employment. GAO  management is committed to working constructively with employee union  representatives to forge a positive labor-management relationship.
Since September, GAO management has taken a variety of steps to ensure  it is following applicable labor relations laws and has the resources in  place to work effectively and productively in this new union environment.  Our efforts have involved    delivering specialized labor-management relations training to our    establishing a new Workforce Relations Center to provide employee and  labor relations advice and services;    hiring a Workforce Relations Center director, who also serves as our chief  negotiator in collective bargaining deliberations, and    postponing work on several initiatives regarding our current performance  and pay programs.
In addition, we routinely notify union representatives of meetings that may  qualify as formal discussions, so that a representative of the IFPTE can  attend the meeting. We also regularly provide the IFPTE with information  about projects involving changes to terms and conditions of employment  over which the union has the right to bargain.
We are pleased that GAO and the IFPTE reached a prompt agreement on  2008 pay adjustments. The agreement was overwhelmingly ratified by  bargaining unit members on February 14, 2008, and we have applied the  agreed-upon approach to the 2008 adjustments to all GAO staff, with the  exception of the SES and Senior Level staff, regardless of whether they are  represented by the union.
section_title: Fiscal Year 2007 Achievements
paragraphs: In fiscal year 2007, we addressed many difficult issues confronting the  nation, including the conflict in Iraq, domestic disaster relief and recovery,  national security, and criteria for assessing lead in drinking water. For  example, GAO has continued its oversight on issues directly related to the  Iraq war and reconstruction, issuing 20 products in fiscal year 2007  alone—including 11 testimonies to congressional committees. These  products covered timely issues such as the status of Iraqi government  actions, the accountability of U.S.-funded equipment, and various  contracting and security challenges. GAO’s work spans the security,  political, economic, and reconstruction prongs of the U.S. national  strategy in Iraq.
Highlights of the outcomes of GAO work are outlined below. See appendix  II for a detailed summary of GAO’s annual measures and targets.  Additional information on our performance results can be found in  Performance and Accountability Highlights Fiscal Year 2007 at  www.gao.gov.
subsections: section_title: Financial Benefits
paragraphs: GAO’s work in fiscal year 2007 generated $45.9 billion in financial benefits.  These financial benefits, which resulted primarily from actions agencies  and the Congress took in response to our recommendations, included  about $21.1 billion resulting from changes to laws or regulations, $16.3  billion resulting from improvements to core business processes, and $8.5  billion resulting from agency actions based on our recommendations to  improve public services.
section_title: Other Improvements in Government
paragraphs: Many of the benefits that result from our work cannot be measured in  dollar terms. During fiscal year 2007, we recorded a total of 1,354 other  improvements in government resulting from GAO work. For example, in  646 instances federal agencies improved services to the public, in 634  other cases agencies improved core business processes or  governmentwide reforms were advanced, and in 74 instances information  we provided to the Congress resulted in statutory or regulatory changes.  These actions spanned the full spectrum of national issues, from  strengthened screening procedures for all VA health care practitioners to  improved information security at the Securities and Exchange  Commission. See table 4 for additional examples.
section_title: High Risk Series
paragraphs: In January 2007, 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. Issued  to coincide with the start of each new Congress, our high-risk list focuses  on major government programs and operations that need urgent attention.  Overall, this program has served to help resolve a range of serious  weaknesses that involve substantial resources and provide critical services  to the public. GAO added the 2010 Census as a high-risk area in March  2008.
section_title: Concluding Remarks
paragraphs: GAO’s achievements are of great service to the Congress and American  taxpayers. With your support, we will be able to continue to provide the  high level of performance that has come to be expected of GAO. Madam  Chair, this concludes my statement. At this time, I would be pleased to  respond to questions.
section_title: Appendix I: GAO’s Strategic Plan Framework
paragraphs: 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.
Provide Timely, Quality Service to the Congress and the Federal Government to . . . . . .  Address Current and Emerging Challenges to the Well-being and Financial Security of the American People relted to . . .
Viable commnitieNl rerce usnd environmentl protection Phyicl infrastrctre . . . Respond to Changing Security Threats and the Challenges of Global Interdependence involving . . .
Advncement of U.S. intereGlobal mrket forceHelp Transform the Federal Government’s Role and How It Does  Business to Meet 21st Century Challenges assssing . . .
Key mgement chllenge  nd progrm riFil poition nd ﬁnncing of the government Maximize the Value of GAO by Being a Model Federal Agency and a World-Class Professional Services Organization in the reas of . . .
section_title: Appendix II: Agencywide Summary of Annual Measures and Targets
paragraphs: Our employee feedback survey asks staff how often the following occurred in the last 2 months (1)  my job made good use of my skills, (2) GAO provided me with opportunities to do challenging work,  and (3) in general, I was utilized effectively.
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