Yesterday, Americans voted for members of the 119th Congress and a new president. Representatives and senators will be sworn in on Friday, January 3rd.
As they take power, our nation faces many significant challenges, including those that threaten our national security, fiscal stability, and public health. Our work at GAO focuses on some of these issues and how to solve them.
Today’s WatchBlog post looks at some of these issues highlighted in the new Congressional and Presidential transition web pages.
Major issues facing the nation
The federal government promotes programs and policies designed to protect the national security and defense, public health and safety, and the rights of its citizens. We also offer programs that provide services and promote economic growth.
People expect these things from their governments, and governments strive to meet these expectations. But in our work, we often find that governments may not have what it takes to keep them operating in a rapidly changing world while addressing serious domestic and global challenges. It turns out.
We look at the key issues facing the country, including:
National security enterprise. Our research evaluates a range of national security efforts in areas such as military readiness, space programs, and U.S. nuclear facilities.
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military preparation. Nearly two decades of conflict have reduced U.S. military readiness. Our service sector faces the challenge of maintaining our existing fleet of ships, vehicles, and aircraft while acquiring new weapons systems that can adapt to and overcome rapidly evolving future threats.
Service members also report challenges on the job, including fatigue and the need for more training to perform their duties. The Department of Defense must make several urgent changes to address these and other concerns outlined on our Military Readiness Issues page.
- space program. Competition in space is intensifying as more countries launch their own space programs. We’ve been reviewing major NASA projects, including sending Americans back to the moon by the end of September 2026 and then (eventually) to Mars. Our research reports that these efforts face several challenges that cause delays and increased costs. Our Space Issues page provides an overview of the latest developments in NASA’s efforts.
- Maintenance and modernization of nuclear weapons. The Department of Defense and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) are working to modernize virtually all of the United States’ nuclear weapons capabilities, most of which date back to the Cold War era. These efforts are costing billions of dollars and some are as much as a decade behind schedule. Our issue’s pages on Nuclear Weapons and Force Sustainment and Modernization outline our efforts and the key challenges facing these efforts.
science and technology. Advances in science and technology can soon become essential to our daily lives and our nation. Policy makers need reliable and timely information on science and technology topics as rapid developments increase complexity and impact the economy, national security, and more.
Our work helps Congress understand and address some of the most sophisticated, dynamic and interconnected challenges of our time. We have and will continue to consider areas such as artificial intelligence, medical research and applications, critical mineral recovery, and quantum computing. To learn more about this research, please visit our Science and Technology Featured Topics page.
cyber security. Cyber threats are increasing in number and sophistication. A more comprehensive national cybersecurity strategy is needed to protect the critical infrastructure sectors we rely on every day. These include power grids, water systems, healthcare, transportation, and more. Our research outlined threats to critical infrastructure and the steps needed to address them.
We are also concerned about the security of federal IT systems. The federal government collects, uses, and shares a lot of data, including personally identifiable information from tax returns, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and more. Federal IT systems that store this data are increasingly under threat from malicious actors. We have recommended hundreds of measures that federal agencies still need to implement to improve the security of these systems. To learn more about this and other cybersecurity challenges, visit our Featured Topics page.
Medical expenses. Together, approximately 150 million Americans are enrolled in the nation’s largest health care programs, the Medicare and Medicaid programs. As health care costs increase, so too does spending on these programs. These costs continue to grow faster than the U.S. economy, contributing to an unsustainable fiscal future for the nation.
Because of these risks, we include Medicare and Medicaid costs on our high-risk list. At the beginning of each new Congress, we update this list of federal programs and operations that are particularly vulnerable to fraud, waste, abuse, or mismanagement. To learn more about rising health care costs, visit our federal health care spending page.
Our study also looked at health services provided through the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense, and the Indian Health Service.
America’s fiscal future. GAO puts the country’s fiscal situation in perspective and provides resources to help policymakers put the country on a more sustainable fiscal path.
Each year, we report on the country’s fiscal health, focusing on long-term risks. The 2024 report predicts that debt will grow faster than the economy. And huge budget deficits are causing this debt increase. Interest debt paid by the government to investors has also increased.
To change the government’s fiscal path, Congress will need to make difficult budget and policy decisions to address the main drivers of debt. We offer recommendations for developing long-term plans to provide a comprehensive picture of the government’s financial goals and a roadmap to achieve them.
Fraud and Improper Payments. Fraud and improper payments are long-standing problems for the federal government. Reducing both is important to protect federal funds.
Fraud and improper payments are related concepts, but they are not synonymous. All unauthorized payments will be considered improper. However, not all improper payments are due to fraud (some may be due to human error). Fraud is obtaining something through intentional misrepresentation. An improper payment is a payment that should never have been made or a payment that was made in the wrong amount.
The federal government’s response to recent emergencies, such as COVID-19, hurricanes, and wildfires, has been particularly susceptible to fraud and improper payments. This highlights the need for government agencies to better manage risks before they occur. We offer several resources to help you better prevent, detect, and respond to fraud and improper payments, including: Framework for Managing Fraud Risk in Federal Programs and Framework for managing improper payments in emergency assistance programs.
Our featured topics page on fraud and improper payments examines steps Congress and federal agencies can take to reduce the risks of both.
In September, GAO Chief Operating Officer Oris Williams Brown testified before Congress on steps needed to reduce improper payments and fraud. See her opening statement below.
Learn more about GAO’s work in Congress. Sign up to receive the latest news from GAO here.
- GAO’s fact-based, bipartisan information helps Congress and federal agencies improve government. WatchBlog allows us to contextualize GAO’s efforts a little more for the public. See more posts at GAO.gov/blog.
