Federal Independent Agencies
Here's a look at documents from federal independent agencies
Featured Stories
OIG Report: FY 2024 Assessment of the Social Security Administration's Charge Card Programs
WOODLAWN, Maryland, March 22 -- The Social Security Administration's Office of the Inspector General issued the following news release on March 21, 2025:
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OIG Report: FY 2024 Assessment of the Social Security Administration's Charge Card Programs
A report issued February 28, 2025, found the risk of illegal, improper, and erroneous purchases made through the Social Security Administration's (SSA) charge card programs is low. The assessment by SSA's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is statutorily required by the Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act of 2012 (Public Law 112-194).
SSA
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WOODLAWN, Maryland, March 22 -- The Social Security Administration's Office of the Inspector General issued the following news release on March 21, 2025:
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OIG Report: FY 2024 Assessment of the Social Security Administration's Charge Card Programs
A report issued February 28, 2025, found the risk of illegal, improper, and erroneous purchases made through the Social Security Administration's (SSA) charge card programs is low. The assessment by SSA's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is statutorily required by the Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act of 2012 (Public Law 112-194).
SSAreported the Agency had approximately $33 million in purchase card spending and/or approximately $9 million in travel card and centrally billed account spending in Fiscal Year (FY) 2024. The Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act requires SSA OIG to identify and analyze risks of illegal, improper, and erroneous use of purchase and travel cards when SSA has $10 million in annual purchases and/or $10 million in travel spending.
For FYs 2013 to 2023, OIG determined the risk of illegal, improper, or erroneous purchases made through charge card programs was low. Because the Agency had not made significant changes to its controls since the 2023 assessment, SSA OIG determined the risk in FY 2024 remained low.
Status of Recommendations and Charge Card Violations
There were no open or closed prior-year recommendations from the SSA OIG pertaining to SSA's charge card programs. In addition, there were no current year audit recommendations to report to US Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
As required by the Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act, SSA OIG and SSA reported to OMB that SSA had no known, and completed reviews and investigations of, use or abuse of purchase cards that resulted in fraud, loss to the government, or misappropriation of funds or assets in FY 2024.
SSA staff reported only three instances of misuse or delinquency in purchase and travel card accounts. Specifically, SSA reported one instance of disciplinary actions for misuse of a purchase card and two instances of delinquent travel card accounts.
SSA had no ongoing investigations or legal proceedings relevant to purchase and travel card programs. Read the full report here.
REPORT: https://oig.ssa.gov/assets/uploads/032416.pdf
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Original text here: https://oig.ssa.gov/news-releases/2025-03-21-oig-report-fy-2024-assessment-of-the-social-security-administration%E2%80%99s-charge-card-programs/
National Science Foundation: Conserving the White Oak - Critical for Timber and Distilling Industries
WASHINGTON, March 22 -- The National Science Foundation issued the following news release:
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Conserving the white oak: Critical for timber and distilling industries
New genomic data aids in preventing the species from disease while advancing conservation efforts
U.S. National Science Foundation-funded researchers at Indiana University and Penn State have collaborated with scientists from the U.S. Forest Service and others to produce the first complete genome for the white oak (Quercus alba). This tree provides large amounts of timber and is the primary species used in barrels for aging
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WASHINGTON, March 22 -- The National Science Foundation issued the following news release:
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Conserving the white oak: Critical for timber and distilling industries
New genomic data aids in preventing the species from disease while advancing conservation efforts
U.S. National Science Foundation-funded researchers at Indiana University and Penn State have collaborated with scientists from the U.S. Forest Service and others to produce the first complete genome for the white oak (Quercus alba). This tree provides large amounts of timber and is the primary species used in barrels for agingspirits.
Data to complete the genome came from a range of academic sources, such as the Forest Service, state forests and industry. By combining those data into an unbiased annotation of the white oak's genes, the researchers have created a resource to understand genetic diversity and population differentiation within the species, assess disease resistance and the evolution of genes that enhance it, and compare with other oak genomes to determine evolutionary relationships between species and how the genomes have evolved.
"Plants, including trees, help meet society's needs for food, fuel, fiber and, in this case, other key economic services. Having genomic data like this helps us address important biological questions, including those related to the economic and societal use of the species," said Diane Jofuku Okamuro, a program officer in the NSF Directorate for Biological Sciences.
The research included the use of the NSF-supported CAGEE (computational analysis of gene expression evolution) software. The tool enabled the researchers to study gene expression and the evolution thereof across the various oak species.
"Often, the community needs new tools and methods to capture and analyze the data necessary for biological discoveries, and NSF has long supported investments in cyberinfrastructure like CAGEE that benefit a wide range of researchers," said David Liberles, also a program officer in the NSF Directorate for Biological Sciences.
The work was published in New Phytologist.
JOURNAL: New Phytologist https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.20463
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Original text here: https://www.nsf.gov/news/conserving-white-oak-critical-timber-distilling-industries
NASA to Launch Three Rockets From Alaska in Single Aurora Experiment
WASHINGTON, March 22 -- NASA issued the following news release:
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NASA to Launch Three Rockets from Alaska in Single Aurora Experiment
Three NASA-funded rockets are set to launch from Poker Flat Research Range in Fairbanks, Alaska, in an experiment that seeks to reveal how auroral substorms affect the behavior and composition of Earth's far upper atmosphere.
The experiment's outcome could upend a long-held theory about the aurora's interaction with the thermosphere. It may also improve space weather forecasting, critical as the world becomes increasingly reliant on satellite-based devices
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WASHINGTON, March 22 -- NASA issued the following news release:
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NASA to Launch Three Rockets from Alaska in Single Aurora Experiment
Three NASA-funded rockets are set to launch from Poker Flat Research Range in Fairbanks, Alaska, in an experiment that seeks to reveal how auroral substorms affect the behavior and composition of Earth's far upper atmosphere.
The experiment's outcome could upend a long-held theory about the aurora's interaction with the thermosphere. It may also improve space weather forecasting, critical as the world becomes increasingly reliant on satellite-based devicessuch as GPS units in everyday life.
The University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) Geophysical Institute owns Poker Flat, located 20 miles north of Fairbanks, and operates it under a contract with NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, which is part of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The experiment, titled Auroral Waves Excited by Substorm Onset Magnetic Events, or AWESOME, features one four-stage rocket and two two-stage rockets all launching in an approximately three-hour period.
Colorful vapor tracers from the largest of the three rockets should be visible across much of northern Alaska. The launch window is March 24 through April 6.
The mission, led by Mark Conde, a space physics professor at UAF, involves about a dozen UAF graduate student researchers at several ground monitoring sites in Alaska at Utqiagvik, Kaktovik, Toolik Lake, Eagle, and Venetie, as well as Poker Flat. NASA delivers, assembles, tests, and launches the rockets.
"Our experiment asks the question, when the aurora goes berserk and dumps a bunch of heat in the atmosphere, how much of that heat is spent transporting the air upward in a continuous convective plume and how much of that heat results in not only vertical but also horizontal oscillations in the atmosphere?" Conde said.
Confirming which process is dominant will reveal the breadth of the mixing and the related changes in the thin air's characteristics.
"Change in composition of the atmosphere has consequences," Conde said. "And we need to know the extent of those consequences."
Most of the thermosphere, which reaches from about 50 to 350 miles above the surface, is what scientists call "convectively stable." That means minimal vertical motion of air, because the warmer air is already at the top, due to absorption of solar radiation.
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Original text here: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/sounding-rockets/nasa-alaska-rockets-aurora-experiment/
NASA Reveals Semifinalists of Power to Explore Challenge
WASHINGTON, March 22 -- NASA issued the following news release:
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NASA Reveals Semifinalists of Power to Explore Challenge
NASA has selected the 45 semifinalists of the Power to Explore Challenge, a national competition for K-12 students featuring the enabling power of radioisotopes.
NASA selected 45 student essays as semifinalists of its 2024-2025 Power to Explore Challenge, a national competition for K-12 students featuring the enabling power of radioisotopes. Contestants were challenged to explore how NASA has powered some of its most famous science missions and to dream up how their
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WASHINGTON, March 22 -- NASA issued the following news release:
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NASA Reveals Semifinalists of Power to Explore Challenge
NASA has selected the 45 semifinalists of the Power to Explore Challenge, a national competition for K-12 students featuring the enabling power of radioisotopes.
NASA selected 45 student essays as semifinalists of its 2024-2025 Power to Explore Challenge, a national competition for K-12 students featuring the enabling power of radioisotopes. Contestants were challenged to explore how NASA has powered some of its most famous science missions and to dream up how theirpersonal "superpower" would energize their success on their own radioisotope-powered science mission to explore one of the nearly 300 moons of our solar system.
The competition asked students to learn about radioisotope power systems (RPS), a type of "nuclear battery" that NASA uses to explore the harshest, darkest, and dustiest parts of our solar system. RPS have enabled many spacecraft to explore a variety of these moons, some with active volcanoes, methane lakes, and intricate weather patterns similar to Earth. Many of these moons remain a mystery to us.
In 275 words or less, students wrote about a mission of their own that would use these space power systems to explore any moon in our solar system and described their own power to achieve their mission goals.
The Power to Explore Challenge offered students the opportunity to learn more about these reliable power systems, celebrate their own strengths, and interact with NASA's diverse workforce. This year's contest set a record, receiving 2,051 submitted entries from all 50 states, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) Overseas.
"This year's submissions to NASA's Power to Explore Challenge were immensely enthralling, and we're thrilled that the number of entries reached a record high," said Carl Sandifer II, program manager of the Radioisotope Power Systems Program at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. "It was particularly interesting to see which moons the students selected for their individual essays, and the mysteries they hope to unravel. Their RPS-powered mission concepts always prove to be innovative, and it's a joy to learn about their 'superpowers' that exemplify their path forward as the next generation of explorers."
Entries were split into three categories: grades K-4, 5-8, and 9-12. Every student who submitted an entry received a digital certificate, and over 4,859 participants who signed up received an invitation to the Power Up with NASA virtual event. Students learned about what powers the NASA workforce utilizes to dream big and work together to explore. Speakers included Carl Sandifer II, Dr. Wanda Peters, NASA's deputy associate administrator for programs in the Science Mission Directorate and Dr. Zibi Turtle, principal investigator for NASA's Dragonfly mission from the John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.
Fifteen national semifinalists in each grade category (45 semifinalists total) have been selected. These participants also will receive a NASA RPS prize pack. Finalists for this challenge will be announced on April 23.
Grades K-4
* Vihaan Akhoury, Roseland, NJ
* Ada Brolan, Somerville, MA
* Ashwin Cohen, Washington D.C
* Unnathi Chandra Devavarapu, San Marcos, CA
* Levi Fisher, Portland, OR
* Tamanna Ghosh, Orlando, FL
* Ava Goodison, Arnold, MD
* Anika Lal, Pflugerville, TX
* Diya Loganathan, Secaucus, NJ
* Mini M, Ann Arbor, MI
* Mark Porter, Temple Hills, MD
* Rohith Thiruppathy, Canton, MI
* Zachary Tolchin, Guilford CT
* Kavin Vairavan, West Windsor Township, NJ
* Terry Xu, Arcadia, CA
Grades 5-8
* Chowdhury Wareesha Ali, Solon OH
* Caydin Brandes, Los Angeles, CA
* Caleb Braswell, Crestview, FL
* Lilah Coyan, Spokane, WA
* Ashwin Dhondi Kubeer, Phoenix, AZ
* Jonathan Gigi, Cypress, TX
* Gagan Girish, Portland, OR
* Maggie Hou, Snohomish, WA
* Sanjay Koripelli, Louisville, KY
* Isaiah Muniz, South Orange, NJ
* Sarabhesh Saravanakumar, Bothell, WA
* Eliya Schubert, Katonah, NY
* Gabriel Traska, Fort Woth, TX
* Jaxon Verbeck, Riggins, ID
* Krish Vinodhkumar, Monrovia, MD
Grades 9-12
* Samaria Berry, Kinder, LA
* David Cai, Saipan, MP
* Reggie Castro, Saipan, MP
* Ryan Danyow, Rutland City, VT
* Faiz Karim, Jericho, NY
* Sakethram Kuncha, Chantilly, VA
* Katerina Morin, Miami, FL
* Emilio Olivares, Edmond, OK
* Kairat Otorov, Trumbull, CT
* Dev Rai, Herndon, VA
* Shaurya Saxena, Irving, TX
* Saanvi Shah, Bothell, WA
* Niyant Sithamraju, San Ramon, CA
* Anna Swenson, Henderson, NV
* Alejandro Valdez, Orlando, FL
About the Challenge
The Power to Explore Student Challenge is funded by the NASA Science Mission Directorate's Radioisotope Power Systems Program Office and managed and administered by Future Engineers under the direction of the NASA Tournament Lab, a part of the Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing Program in NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate.
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Original text here: https://science.nasa.gov/technology/rps/nasa-reveals-semifinalists-of-power-to-explore-challenge/
Social Security Administration's Processing Center for International Workloads Produces Inaccurate Claims
WOODLAWN, Maryland, March 22 -- The Social Security Administration's Office of the Inspector General issued the following news release:
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Social Security Administration's Processing Center for International Workloads Produces Inaccurate Claims
The Social Security Administration (SSA) Office of the Inspector General auditors determined SSA Processing Center 8 accurately processed 33.7 percent of the sample cases reviewed. For the remaining 66.3 percent, Processing Center 8 staff did not always comply with SSA policies and the screening guide. Further, at least 12 of these cases had approximately
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WOODLAWN, Maryland, March 22 -- The Social Security Administration's Office of the Inspector General issued the following news release:
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Social Security Administration's Processing Center for International Workloads Produces Inaccurate Claims
The Social Security Administration (SSA) Office of the Inspector General auditors determined SSA Processing Center 8 accurately processed 33.7 percent of the sample cases reviewed. For the remaining 66.3 percent, Processing Center 8 staff did not always comply with SSA policies and the screening guide. Further, at least 12 of these cases had approximately$211,418 in improper payments.
Processing Centers at SSA play a critical role in beneficiary service delivery and support other SSA personnel by providing direct customer service. It is essential Processing Centers accurately processed actions for beneficiaries under their jurisdiction. SSA has eight Processing Centers nationwide: Centers 1 through 6 process similar workloads and Centers 7 and 8 handle specialized workloads.
Processing Center 8 processes Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance and Medicare claims from all claimants who reside outside of the United States. Processing Center 8 also processes totalization claims for those living in the United States with work history outside of the United States. Approximately 700,000 beneficiaries in current pay status resided in foreign countries and 244,000 were covered under totalization agreements.
OIG auditors used management information on pending workloads at Processing Center 8 for Fiscal Years 2018 through 2023. At that time of the review, Processing Center 8 had 104,946 actions pending among 34 workloads. Audit staff reviewed 196 of 41,684 cases pending at Processing Center 8 as of September 29, 2023, involving 12 of the workloads.
Processing Center 8 case processing accuracy caused hardship to international beneficiaries or individuals working under totalization agreements due to the burden of improper payments and delays in processing cases. SSA agreed with the recommendations to take corrective actions on the case errors that were still unresolved as of November 2024. Further, SSA agreed to provide refresher training to Processing Center 8 staff on SSA policies. With the implementation of the recommendations, Processing Center 8 accuracy should be enhanced and should assist SSA's efforts to reduce improper payments and improve customer service. See the full report here.
REPORT: https://oig.ssa.gov/assets/uploads/012305.pdf
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Original text here: https://oig.ssa.gov/news-releases/2025-03-21-social-security-administration%E2%80%99s-processing-center-for-international-workloads-produces-inaccurate-claims/
Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas: First Quarter 2025 Dividend
DALLAS, Texas, March 22 -- The Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas, a district bank in the Federal Home Loan Bank System, issued the following news release:
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First Quarter 2025 Dividend
The Board of Directors of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas (Bank) has declared dividends in the form of capital stock on Class B-1 Stock and Class B-2 Stock for the first quarter of 2025.
The annualized dividend rate on Class B-1 Stock (membership and excess stock) is 4.78 percent, which equates to the average overnight SOFR rate for the fourth quarter of 2024 plus 0.1 percent. This dividend rate is within
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DALLAS, Texas, March 22 -- The Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas, a district bank in the Federal Home Loan Bank System, issued the following news release:
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First Quarter 2025 Dividend
The Board of Directors of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas (Bank) has declared dividends in the form of capital stock on Class B-1 Stock and Class B-2 Stock for the first quarter of 2025.
The annualized dividend rate on Class B-1 Stock (membership and excess stock) is 4.78 percent, which equates to the average overnight SOFR rate for the fourth quarter of 2024 plus 0.1 percent. This dividend rate is withinthe Bank's current target range for dividends on Class B-1 Stock, which is an annualized rate that approximates the average overnight SOFR rate plus 0 - 0.5 percent.
The annualized dividend rate on Class B-2 Stock (activity-based stock) is 5.78 percent, which equates to the average overnight SOFR rate for the fourth quarter of 2024 plus 1.1 percent. This dividend rate is within the Bank's current target range for dividends on Class B-2 Stock, which is an annualized rate that approximates the average overnight SOFR rate plus 1.0 - 1.5 percent.
The annualized dividend rates of 4.78 percent and 5.78 percent will be applied to members' average balances of Class B-1 Stock and Class B-2 Stock, respectively, which were held during the period from October 1, 2024 through December 31, 2024. The first quarter dividends on Class B-1 and Class B-2 Stock will be paid on Tuesday, March 25, 2025 in the form of Class B-1 Stock with any fractional shares paid in cash.
If you have any questions, please call Member Services at 844.FHL.BANK (844.345.2265).
Sincerely,
Sanjay K. Bhasin
President and Chief Executive Officer
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Original text here: https://www.fhlb.com/library/bulletins/2025/first-quarter-2025-dividend
OIG Report: Untimely Beneficiary Self-Reporting Major Cause for SSA Overpayments
WOODLAWN, Maryland, March 22 -- The Social Security Administration's Office of the Inspector General issued the following news release on March 21, 2025:
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OIG Report: Untimely Beneficiary Self-Reporting Major Cause for SSA Overpayments
The Social Security Administration's (SSA) documented causes for issuing overpayments in its two payment programs. SSA OIG issued an informational report on Feb 20, 2025, that indicates that the largest cause to overpayments I beneficiaries untimely reporting of information that affected their benefits. The report reviewed the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability
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WOODLAWN, Maryland, March 22 -- The Social Security Administration's Office of the Inspector General issued the following news release on March 21, 2025:
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OIG Report: Untimely Beneficiary Self-Reporting Major Cause for SSA Overpayments
The Social Security Administration's (SSA) documented causes for issuing overpayments in its two payment programs. SSA OIG issued an informational report on Feb 20, 2025, that indicates that the largest cause to overpayments I beneficiaries untimely reporting of information that affected their benefits. The report reviewed the Old-Age, Survivors, and DisabilityInsurance (OASDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) overpayments in Fiscal Years 2020 through 2023.
SSA has limited access to automated real-time information required to determine beneficiaries' eligibility and payment amounts. Instead, SSA depends on beneficiaries, representative payees, or family members to timely provide the information. Or SSA receives this information, after the fact, from other sources.
Without more automated data feeds, SSA will continue to require resources for assessing and pursuing the recovery of billions of dollars in overpayments. This places a burden on SSA by requiring employees to spend valuable time on these processes versus focusing on other workloads. It further places a burden on beneficiaries who must determine how to pay back the overpayments.
The top reasons vary per program. For instance, for SSI payments the causes were unreported earnings or income and unreported information affecting entitlement. Whereas for OASDI benefits, the top reasons were unreported disability cessation (or substantial earnings of disability claimants) and unreported early retirement annual earnings.
The following tables show the reasons for overpayments.
As summarized on Figure 1, SSA attributed 85 percent of SSI overpayments to recipients who did not timely report information that affected the amount of SSI payments they were eligible to receive. SSA attributed the remaining 15 percent to reason undetermined or computation errors.
As summarized on Figure 2, SSA attributed 72 percent of OASDI overpayments to beneficiaries who did not report or timely report information to SSA that negatively affected their benefits. SSA determined the remaining 28 percent occurred due to other reasons.
Read the full report here.
REPORT: https://oig.ssa.gov/assets/uploads/062405.pdf
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Original text here: https://oig.ssa.gov/news-releases/2025-03-21-oig-report-untimely-beneficiary-self-reporting-major-cause-for-ssa-overpayments/
