When legislative, administration, and agency actions, including those in response to our recommendations, result in significant progress toward resolving a high-risk problem, we remove the high-risk designation. The five criteria for determining if the high-risk designation can be removed are (1) a demonstrated strong commitment to, and top leadership support for, addressing problems; (2) the capacity to address problems; (3) a corrective action plan; (4) a program to monitor corrective measures; and (5) demonstrated progress in implementing corrective measures. For our 2011 high-risk update, we determined that two areas warranted removal from the High-Risk List: the Department of Defense (DOD) Personnel Security Clearance Program and the 2010 Census. As we have with areas previously removed from the High-Risk List, we will continue to monitor these areas, as appropriate, to ensure that the improvements we have noted are sustained. If significant problems again arise, we will consider reapplying the high-risk designation. We are removing DOD’s personnel security clearance program from the High-Risk List because of the agency’s progress in timeliness and the development of tools and metrics to assess quality, as well as its commitment to sustaining progress. Importantly, continued congressional oversight and the committed leadership of the Suitability and Security Clearance Performance Accountability Council (Council)—which is responsible for overseeing security clearance reform efforts—have greatly contributed to the progress of DOD and governmentwide security clearance reform. DOD officials, in coordination with the Council, have demonstrated a strong commitment to, and a capacity for, addressing security clearance reform efforts in line with the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA) of 2004. Specifically, DOD (1) significantly improved the timeliness of security clearances and met the IRTPA objective for processing 90 percent of initial clearances on average within 60 days for fiscal year 2010, (2) worked with members of the Council to develop a strategic framework for clearance reform, (3) designed quality tools to evaluate completeness of clearance documentation, (4) issued guidance on adjudication standards, and (5) continues to be a prominent player in the overall security clearance reform effort, which includes entities within the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Personnel Management, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. These efforts have yielded positive results. Continued congressional oversight and the committed leadership of DOD have greatly contributed to the progress in addressing the problems with the personnel security clearance process. We will continue to monitor DOD’s efforts because security clearance reform is ongoing, and DOD needs to place a high priority on ensuring that timeliness improvements continue and quality is built into every step of the process using quantifiable and independently verifiable metrics. We removed the 2010 Census from our High-Risk List because the U.S. Census Bureau (Bureau) generally completed its peak census data collection activities consistent with its operational plans; released the state population counts used to apportion Congress on December 21, 2010, several days ahead of the legally mandated end-of-year deadline; and remaining activities appear to be on track, including, as required by law, delivering the data that states use for congressional redistricting by April 1, 2011. A successful census is critical because the census is a constitutionally mandated program used to apportion and redistrict the U.S. House of Representatives, help allocate about $400 billion yearly in federal financial assistance, and inform the planning and investment decisions of numerous public- and private-sector entities. In March 2008, we designated the 2010 Census a high-risk area because of long-standing weaknesses in the Bureau’s information technology (IT) acquisition and contract management function, problems with the performance of handheld computers used to collect uncertainty over the ultimate cost of the census, which escalated from an initial estimate of $11.3 billion in 2001 to around $13 billion. To address these issues and help secure a successful census, the Bureau demonstrated strong commitment and top leadership support to mitigate the risks, including bringing in experienced personnel to key positions and taking steps to implement our recommendations to strengthen its IT and other management and planning functions. At the same time, similar to the case with the DOD Personnel Security Clearance Program, active congressional oversight—including a dozen congressional hearings held after we added the census to our High-Risk List—helped ensure the Bureau effectively designed and managed operations and kept the enumeration on schedule. Although every census has its decade-specific difficulties, societal trends—including growing concerns over personal privacy, more non- English speakers, and more people residing in makeshift and other nontraditional living arrangements—make each decennial inherently challenging. As shown in figure 1, the cost of enumerating each housing unit has escalated from an average of around $16 in 1970 to around $98 in 2010, an increase of over 500 percent (in constant 2010 dollars). At the same time, the mail response rate—a key indicator of a successful census—has declined from 78 percent in 1970 to 63 percent in 2010. Put another way, the Bureau has to invest substantially more resources each decade in an effort to keep pace with key results from prior enumerations. The bottom line is that the fundamental design of the enumeration—in many ways unchanged since 1970—is no longer capable of delivering a cost-effective headcount given ongoing and newly emerging societal trends. Thus, while the 2020 Census may seem well over the horizon, research and planning activities need to start early in the decade to help ensure the 2020 Census is as cost-effective as possible. Indeed, the Bureau’s past experience has shown that early investments in planning can help reduce the costs and risks of downstream operations. Going forward, potential focus areas for Census reform include new data collection methods such as using administrative records from other government agencies, including driver’s licenses; better leveraging innovations in technology and social media to more fully engage census stakeholders and the general public on census issues; reaching agreement on a set of criteria that could be used to weigh the trade-offs associated with the need for high levels of accuracy on the one hand, and the increasing cost of achieving that accuracy on the other hand; and ensuring that the Bureau’s approach to human capital management, collaboration, capital decision-making, knowledge sharing, and other internal functions are aligned toward delivering a more cost-effective headcount. Ongoing congressional oversight over the course of the decade will also be critical for ensuring the Bureau’s reform efforts stay on track. The Bureau recognizes that it needs to change its method of doing business and has already taken some important first steps in this regard. For example, the Bureau is rebuilding its research directorate to lead early planning efforts and has developed a strategic plan for 2020 and other related documents that, among other things, outline the Bureau’s mission and vision for 2020. Thus, in looking ahead toward the next Census, it will be vitally important to both identify lessons learned from the 2010 enumeration to improve existing census-taking activities, as well as to re-examine and perhaps fundamentally transform the way the Bureau plans, tests, implements, monitors, and evaluates future enumerations in order to address long- standing challenges. We have designated the Department of the Interior’s management of federal oil and gas on leased federal lands and waters as high risk because Interior (1) does not have reasonable assurance that it is collecting its share of revenue from oil and gas produced on federal lands; (2) continues to experience problems in hiring, training, and retaining sufficient staff to provide oversight and management of oil and gas operations on federal lands and waters; and (3) is currently engaged in a broad reorganization of both its offshore oil and gas management and revenue collection functions. With regard to this organizational effort, there are many open questions about whether Interior has the capacity to undertake such a reorganization while continuing to provide reasonable assurance that billions of dollars of revenue owed the public are being properly assessed and collected and that oil and gas exploration and production on federal lands and waters is well-managed. Federal oil and gas resources provide an important source of energy for the United States, create jobs in the oil and gas industry, and generate billions of dollars annually in revenues that are shared between federal, state, and tribal governments. Revenue generated from federal oil and gas production is one of the largest nontax sources of federal government funds, accounting for about $9 billion in fiscal year 2009. Also, the explosion onboard the Deepwater Horizon and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010 emphasized the importance of Interior’s management of permitting and inspection processes to ensure operational and environmental safety. The National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling reported in January 2011 that this disaster was the product of several individual missteps and oversights by BP, Halliburton, and Transocean, which government regulators lacked the authority, the necessary resources, and the technical expertise to prevent. Historically, Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) managed onshore federal oil and gas activities, while the Minerals Management Service (MMS) managed offshore activities and collected royalties for all leases. Interior recently began restructuring its oil and gas program, transferring offshore oversight responsibilities to the newly created Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) and revenue collection to a new Office of Natural Resource Revenue. Interior faces ongoing challenges in three broad areas, including the following: Revenue collection. In 2008, GAO reported that Interior collected lower levels of revenues for oil and gas production than all but 11 of 104 oil and gas resource owners whose revenue collection systems were evaluated in a comprehensive industry study—these resource owners included many other countries as well as some states. GAO recommended that Interior undertake a comprehensive reassessment of its revenue collection policies and processes. Interior has commissioned such a study in response to GAO’s September 2008 report, and the study is expected to be completed in 2011.