Priority Open Recommendations: U.S. Department of Agriculture

Highlights

What GAO Found

In June 2024, GAO identified nine priority recommendations for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Since then, USDA has implemented five of those recommendations by, among other things, identifying and starting to recover overpayments under the department's Coronavirus Food Assistance Program.

In May 2025, GAO identified one additional priority recommendation for USDA, that if implemented, could help prevent illness-causing pathogens from entering raw and ready-to-eat meat and poultry products. This brings the total USDA priority recommendations to five. These recommendations focus on the following areas:

• Improving Information Technology modernization,
• Mitigating the risk of pathogens from food products and animals, and
• Improving oversight of federal assistance programs.

USDA's continued attention to these issues could lead to significant improvements in government operations.

Why GAO Did This Study

Priority open recommendations are the GAO recommendations that warrant priority attention from heads of key departments or agencies because their implementation could (1) save large amounts of money; (2) improve congressional or executive branch decision-making on major issues; (3) eliminate mismanagement, fraud, and abuse; or (4) ensure that programs comply with laws and that funds are legally spent, among other benefits. Since 2015, GAO has sent letters to selected agencies to highlight the importance of implementing such recommendations.

For more information, contact Mark Gaffigan at gaffiganm@gao.gov.

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