GAO Reports
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GAO Issues Report on Domestic Violence
WASHINGTON, June 13 -- The Government Accountability Office has issued a report (GAO-20-534) entitled "Domestic Violence: Improved Data Needed to Identify the Prevalence of Brain Injuries among Victims".
The report was sent to Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, chairman, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, chairman, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, chairman, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, ranking member
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WASHINGTON, June 13 -- The Government Accountability Office has issued a report (GAO-20-534) entitled "Domestic Violence: Improved Data Needed to Identify the Prevalence of Brain Injuries among Victims".
The report was sent to Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, chairman, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, chairman, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, chairman, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, ranking memberof the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies, Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-New Jersey, chairman, Rep. Greg Walden, R-Oregon, Republican leader of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Massachusetts, chairman, Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, Republican leader of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro, D-Connecticut, chairwoman, Rep. Tom Cole, R-Oklahoma, ranking member of the House Appropriations subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies, on June 12, 2020. Here are excerpts of summaries associated with the report.
What GAO Found: "According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one in three adults have experienced domestic violence, also known as intimate partner violence. Intimate partner violence includes physical violence, sexual violence, stalking, and psychological aggression. Victims of intimate partner violence may experience brain injury, resulting from blows to the head or strangulation. To address this issue, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) provide grants to state and local entities that work with victims.
GAO identified 12 non-federal initiatives that provide education, screen for, or treat brain injuries resulting from intimate partner violence. All 12 developed and distributed education and training materials to domestic violence shelter staff, victims, health care providers, and others. Six of the 12 initiatives used screening tools to identify potential brain injuries among intimate partner violence victims, and two included a treatment component. Additionally, eight of the 12 initiatives received HHS or DOJ grant funding, although agency officials told us the funding had no specific requirements to address brain injuries resulting from intimate partner violence.
Based on its review of the literature, as well as interviews with HHS officials and other non-federal stakeholders, GAO found that data on the overall prevalence of brain injuries resulting from intimate partner violence are limited. HHS officials acknowledged that the lack of data on the prevalence of these issues is a challenge in addressing the intersection of the issues. However, HHS does not have a plan for how it would collect better prevalence data. HHS agencies have some related efforts underway; however, the efforts are limited and generally do not examine the connection between brain injuries and intimate partner violence. Enhancing the health and well-being of Americans is critical to HHS's public health mission. As part of this mission, CDC, within HHS, uses its Public Health Approach, which includes collecting prevalence data to understand the magnitude of public health issues.
With better data comes a better understanding of the overall prevalence of brain injuries resulting from intimate partner violence. This, in turn, could help ensure that federal resources are allocated to the appropriate areas and used as efficiently and effectively as possible to address this public health issue."
Why GAO Did This Study: "Research has found brain injuries to be common among victims of intimate partner violence, and that such injuries are under-diagnosed and under-treated.
House Report 115-952 included a provision for GAO to report on the relationship between intimate partner violence and brain injuries. GAO (1) describes efforts to provide education, screen for, or treat brain injuries resulting from intimate partner violence; and (2) examines what is known about the prevalence of brain injuries resulting from intimate partner violence, including HHS efforts to determine prevalence. GAO reviewed peer-reviewed literature, federal websites, and documentation from HHS and DOJ. GAO also interviewed officials from HHS, DOJ, and 11 non-federal stakeholders, such as domestic violence organizations. GAO identified 12 initiatives, though this list may not be exhaustive, and conducted site visits to three of them."
What GAO Recommends: "HHS should develop and implement a plan to improve data collected on the prevalence of brain injuries resulting from intimate partner violence and use these data to inform its allocation of resources to address the issue. HHS concurred with our recommendation and is coordinating with its agencies to augment data collection."
The text of the GAO report is available at https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-20-534
GAO Issues Report on Disability Employment
WASHINGTON, June 12 -- The Government Accountability Office has issued a report (GAO-20-384) entitled "Disability Employment: Hiring Has Increased but Actions Needed to Assess Retention, Training, and Reasonable Accommodation Efforts".
The report was sent to Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-New York, chairwoman, and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, ranking member of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, on June 11, 2020. Here are excerpts of summaries associated with the report.
What GAO Found: "Approximately 143,600 persons with disabilities were hired during 2011 through 2015--plus an additional 79,600
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WASHINGTON, June 12 -- The Government Accountability Office has issued a report (GAO-20-384) entitled "Disability Employment: Hiring Has Increased but Actions Needed to Assess Retention, Training, and Reasonable Accommodation Efforts".
The report was sent to Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-New York, chairwoman, and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, ranking member of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, on June 11, 2020. Here are excerpts of summaries associated with the report.
What GAO Found: "Approximately 143,600 persons with disabilities were hired during 2011 through 2015--plus an additional 79,600hires in 2016 and 2017--across the 24 Chief Financial Officers Act agencies, exceeding the stated goal of 100,000 by 2015.
See chart here https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-20-384
About 39 percent of individuals with disabilities hired during 2011 through 2017 stayed less than 1 year and approximately 60 percent stayed less than 2 years. Of the total individuals without disabilities hired during that same time period, approximately 43 percent stayed less than 1 year and approximately 60 percent stayed less than 2 years.
Although targeted data tracking and analyses could help pinpoint root causes contributing to departure rates, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) does not track or report retention data on disabled employees. Doing so, and making such data available to agencies would facilitate more comprehensive analyses of the retention of employees with disabilities and identify needed improvements.
Officials at three agencies GAO examined--Department of Justice (DOJ), Small Business Administration (SBA), and Social Security Administration (SSA)--used various practices to increase hiring, such as training staff on Schedule A--a commonly used hiring authority to employ individuals with disabilities. However, the agencies neither assess the impact of training nor how it relates to contributing to performance goals of increasing the number of disabled hires.
Agencies are expected to track performance related to providing reasonable accommodations. The selected agencies reported having processes in place for receiving reasonable accommodations requests, but only SSA has procedures for obtaining feedback from employees after an accommodation is provided. Without such feedback, DOJ and SBA are limited in their ability to assess the continued effectiveness of reasonable accommodations provided to employees."
Why GAO Did This Study: "Federal agencies are required to provide equal opportunity to qualified individuals with disabilities in all aspects of federal employment.
GAO was asked to examine agencies' efforts to increase the employment of individuals with disabilities. Among other objectives, this report examines: (1) the extent to which agencies met the 2010 federal goal to hire an additional 100,000 individuals with disabilities by 2015, and the retention rates of those employees between 2011 and 2017; and (2) practices selected agencies used to increase hiring and retention of individuals with disabilities.
GAO analyzed data and documents from OPM and interviewed agency officials. GAO interviewed officials from DOJ, SBA, and SSA about their efforts to enhance employment opportunities for disabled persons. GAO selected these three agencies because they represent a range of agency size and relatively high or low percentages of total employees with disabilities."
What GAO Recommends: "GAO is making 6 recommendations: OPM should track and report retention data; DOJ, SBA, and SSA should assess training impacts; and DOJ and SBA should obtain employee feedback on reasonable accommodations. OPM and SSA concurred with GAO's recommendations; SBA concurred with one and partially concurred with one recommendation; DOJ did not agree or disagree with the recommendations. GAO continues to believe all recommendations are warranted."
The text of the GAO report is available at https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-20-384
GAO Issues Report on Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990
WASHINGTON, June 11 -- The Government Accountability Office has issued a report (GAO-20-538R) entitled "Civil Monetary Penalties: Review of Federal Agencies' Compliance with the 2019 Annual Inflation Adjustment Requirements".
The report was sent to Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, chairman, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-New York, chairman, and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, on June 10, 2020. Here are excerpts of summaries associated with the report.
What GAO Found:
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WASHINGTON, June 11 -- The Government Accountability Office has issued a report (GAO-20-538R) entitled "Civil Monetary Penalties: Review of Federal Agencies' Compliance with the 2019 Annual Inflation Adjustment Requirements".
The report was sent to Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, chairman, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-New York, chairman, and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, on June 10, 2020. Here are excerpts of summaries associated with the report.
What GAO Found:"In this fourth annual review, GAO found that most federal agencies that could be subject to the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, as amended (IAA), have complied with the provisions of the act to publish annual civil monetary penalty inflation adjustments in the Federal Register and report related information in their 2019 agency financial reports (AFR), or equivalent. However, three agencies did not publish inflation adjustments in the Federal Register and did not report in their 2019 AFRs the required information for one or all of their civil monetary penalties."
Why GAO Did This Study: "The IAA includes a provision, added in 2015, requiring GAO to annually submit to Congress a report assessing agencies' compliance with the annual inflation adjustments required by the act. This is the fourth annual report responding to this requirement."
The text of the GAO report is available at https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-20-538R
