During the last decade of U.S. military operations, servicemembers have experienced numerous deployments, which increase the risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI), two common conditions that many post-9/11 servicemembers and veterans Additionally, more seriously wounded servicemembers survive suffer.their injuries—injuries that in previous wars would have been fatal—given improvements to body armor and military medicine, but may be left with significant disabilities. Less than 1 percent of the American population has served on active duty in an all-volunteer, professional military—an historic low—resulting in a so-called “military-civilian” gap. While Americans generally hold the military in high regard, there is a reported lack of awareness and understanding of the difficult challenges many post-9/11 servicemembers have faced while transitioning from the military to civilian life. DOD and VA play key roles in offering assistance to servicemembers, veterans, and their families. In particular, DOD has a role in preparing servicemembers, including those who have served from 9/11 onward, for careers beyond the military and helping them transition from active duty to veteran status. After servicemembers separate from the military, VA’s role is generally to help veterans readjust to civilian life. VA provides health care and other benefits to veterans who have served in all conflicts and wars, such as World War II; Vietnam; and Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation New Dawn or OEF/OIF/OND. DOD and VA have coordinated in assisting servicemembers and veterans and have jointly developed and implemented policies for the care, management, and transition of recovering servicemembers. These policies address certain issues such as care coordination and the disability evaluation process. In a subsequent but related effort, in May 2012, a joint entity known as the DOD/VA Warrior Care & Coordination Task Force began an inventory of DOD and VA programs and established the Interagency Care Coordination Committee (IC3) to guide the development of shared care coordination policies and practices. Additionally, DOD, VA and other agency partners administer the Transition Assistance Program (TAP), which provides counseling to departing servicemembers, and offers employment assistance and information on federal veteran benefits, among other things.to the revised TAP as Transition, Goals, Plans, Success (Transition GPS). Our past reports, as well as reports by others, have highlighted issues surrounding DOD and VA programs, including issues concerning fragmentation, overlap, and duplication; lack of coordination; and challenges in providing some benefits and services.have recommended in two GAO reports that DOD and VA need to better integrate care coordination and case management programs to reduce duplication and better assist recovering servicemembers, veterans, and their families by helping to ensure the continuity of their care. In response, a joint DOD-VA council approved the implementation of specific initiatives that are intended to improve care coordination procedures by facilitating communication between departments and eliminating duplicative efforts. As of September 2014, the departments had not fully implemented these initiatives, according to a senior DOD official. As previously noted, this report does not address fragmentation, overlap, and duplication in benefits or services. Other federal agencies also offer assistance to servicemembers and veterans and bring to bear a variety of policy tools. For example, as we have previously reported, the Department of Labor administers four employment programs targeted to veterans. In addition, the Department of Housing and Urban Development provides permanent housing and case management for eligible homeless veterans; and the Internal Revenue Service administers tax expenditures, such as tax credits for businesses hiring veterans, as well as other special tax benefits. With various federal programs spread across multiple federal agencies, concerns have been raised that no full accounting of the breadth and effectiveness of these programs exists. Among its aims, GPRAMA seeks to instill a more coordinated and crosscutting perspective to federal performance; that is, improving connections across organizations and policy tools. As we have noted in our past work and OMB states in its guidance, effective implementation of GPRAMA could play an important role in clarifying desired outcomes, addressing program performance spanning multiple organizations, and facilitating future actions to reduce duplication, overlap, and fragmentation.requirements and related OMB guidance that emphasize collaboration include: Federal government priority goals: GPRAMA requires OMB to coordinate with agencies to establish federal government priority goals that include outcome-oriented goals covering a limited number of policy areas, as well as goals for needed management improvements across the government. Agency priority goals: Certain agencies are required by GPRAMA to identify from among their performance goals a limited number of priority goals every 2 years. Each agency’s priority goals are to reflect the agency’s highest priorities, as identified by the head of the agency, and be informed by the federal government priority goals, as well as input from relevant congressional committees. Agency performance plans: Agencies’ performance plans are required to describe how the performance goals (including priority goals) are to be achieved, including a description of how the agency is working with other agencies to achieve its performance goals. Strategic reviews: In its 2012 guidance (and subsequent updates) for implementing GPRAMA, OMB guidance directs agencies to conduct annual strategic reviews of progress toward strategic objectives to inform their decision making, beginning in 2014. Agency leaders are responsible for assessing progress on each strategic objective established in the agency strategic plan, including mission, as well as management or crosscutting objectives. Among other things, the reviews are intended to strengthen collaboration on crosscutting issues by identifying and addressing crosscutting challenges or fragmentation. Federal program inventory: As previously noted, GPRAMA requires OMB to make publicly available a list of all federal programs identified by agencies, and to include the purposes of each program, how it contributes to the agency’s mission and goals, and recent funding information. GPRAMA also requires OMB to issue guidance to ensure that this information presents a coherent picture of all federal programs. OMB is taking a phased approach to implement this provision and published the inventories developed by 24 agencies in May 2013. Using our definition of “program,” we identified 99 healthcare and benefit programs administered by DOD and the military services that address the effects of combat on servicemembers, their families, or both. Some of these 99 programs we identified share a common name, but are independently implemented by each branch of the military service. For example, each military service administers wounded warrior programs. These programs provide care coordination for recovering servicemembers and their families as they transition to and readjust to civilian life. This population includes servicemembers and veterans who suffer from TBI, amputations, burns, spinal cord injuries, visual impairment, and PTSD. Over a third of the 99 programs that we identified offer multiple types of services. A sample of programs we identified is contained in table 1, which we categorize by type of service to illustrate the range of services provided. The full array of programs is listed in appendix II. In addition, a detailed, interactive list of programs is available at http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-15-24. The three services most common in the 99 programs are support for mental health and substance abuse (50), information and referral (37), and case management or care coordination (15). The number and types of services in the DOD programs are presented in figure 1. In addition, for 73 of the 99 programs (about 75 percent), a servicemember’s or veteran’s family is also eligible for the services or benefits provided. Also, one of these 99 programs—the Federal Recovery Coordination Program—is jointly administered by DOD and VA. Using our definition of “program,” we identified 87 programs administered by DOD and VA that help servicemembers transition and veterans readjust to civilian life. Some of these programs share a common name, but are independently implemented through their respective military service branch, such as the Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program. As a result, we separately counted each military service’s program. A sample of the programs we identified is contained in Table 2, which we categorize by type of service. The full array of programs is listed in appendix III. In addition, a detailed, interactive list of programs is available at http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-15-24. The three services most common in the 87 programs are disability benefits or services (19); employment assistance (18); and, case management/care coordination, counseling, information and referral, as well as physical health (the frequency for these types of services is 16). The frequency and types of service offered across these 87 programs are portrayed in Figure 2. We also present the number of programs by type of service provided by each agency in table 3. Nine of the programs are jointly administered by DOD and VA, such as the Pre-Discharge Program for active duty servicemembers or activated National Guard or Reserve members. This program affords these servicemembers the opportunity to file claims for disability compensation up to 180 days prior to separation or retirement from active duty. Many of the 87 programs we identified not only support servicemembers and veterans but also their families. Of the 87 programs, 35 offer services to the families of servicemembers and veterans, and 5 provide support to the caregivers of wounded, injured, or disabled veterans. These caregivers generally include family members and friends, according to a RAND study. Using our definition of “program,” we identified 12 programs administered by DOD, the military services, and VA that raise awareness and understanding of servicemembers’ and veterans’ experiences in combat and coming home. DOD and the military services administer 9 of 12 programs, which are listed in table 4.