CBO
A Call for New Research on Energy and the Environment
July 17, 2023
To enhance its work for the Congress, CBO is looking for new research that illuminates the effects of federal regulations on energy markets and CO2 emissions, and the effects of federal spending on efforts to adapt to climate change.
Report
Projected Costs of U.S. Nuclear Forces, 2023 to 2032
July 14, 2023
CBO estimates that plans for U.S. nuclear forces, as described in the fiscal year 2023 budget and supporting documents, would cost $756 billion over the 2023–2032 period, $122 billion more than CBO’s 2021 estimate for the 2021–2030 period.
Cost Estimate
S. 1464, Enhancing DHS Drug Seizures Act
July 14, 2023
As ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on May 17, 2023
Cost Estimate
S. 1798, Offices of Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction and Health Security Act of 2023
July 14, 2023
As ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on June 14, 2023
Report
CBO’s Recent Publications and Work in Progress as of June 30, 2023
July 13, 2023
In this report, the latest in a quarterly series, CBO highlights its recent publications and summarizes its work in progress.
Cost Estimate
Legislation considered under suspension of the Rules of the House of Representatives during the week of July 17, 2023
July 12, 2023
The Majority Leader of the House of Representatives announces bills that will be considered under suspension of the rules in that chamber. CBO estimates the effects of those bills on direct spending and revenues.
Cost Estimate
S. 1835, National Cybersecurity Awareness Act
July 12, 2023
As ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and governmental Affairs on June 14, 2023
Report
Testimony on Social Security’s Finances
July 12, 2023
CBO’s Director, Phillip Swagel, testifies about the agency’s projections of Social Security’s finances before the Senate Budget Committee.
Cost Estimate
Estimated Direct Spending and Revenue Effects of H.R. 3561, the PATIENT Act of 2023
July 11, 2023
As Ordered Reported by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on May 24, 2023
Report
Monthly Budget Review: June 2023
July 11, 2023
The federal budget deficit was $1.4 trillion in the first nine months of fiscal year 2023, CBO estimates—$875 billion more than the shortfall recorded during the same period last year.
Cost Estimate
S. 1325, Western Hemisphere Partnership Act of 2023
July 11, 2023
As ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on May 4, 2023
Cost Estimate
H.R. 2670, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024
July 10, 2023
As reported by the House Committee on Armed Services on June 30, 2023
Cost Estimate
H.R. 3399, Soo Locks Security and Economic Reporting Act of 2023
July 7, 2023
As ordered reported by the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on May 23, 2023
FAF
Financial Accounting Foundation Issues 2022 Annual Report—FASB 50th Anniversary Edition
July 12, 2023
GAO
School Meals:
USDA Should Address Challenges in Its “Foods in Schools” Program
GAO-23-105697
Published:
Publicly Released: About 15-20% of the foods that make up school lunches are purchased by the U.S. Department of Agriculture through its "Foods in Schools" program. School districts mostly use the program to get lean meat and produce. USDA helps states and school districts operate the program. More than half of the states were satisfied with USDA's program assistance. But many states reported challenges such as cancelled...
Priority Open Recommendations:
Department of the Treasury
GAO-23-106469
Published:
Publicly Released: Each year, we make more than 1,000 recommendations to help the federal government save money, address issues on our High Risk List , and significantly improve government operations. This letter to Treasury outlines 33 open recommendations that it should prioritize. Many of these recommendations focus on long-standing issues with financial reporting and controls. For example, we made 2 recommendations that would improve oversight over billions...
A Framework for Managing Improper Payments in Emergency Assistance Programs
GAO-23-105876
Published:
Publicly Released:
Payment errors, including those resulting from fraud, can plague federal assistance programs—especially for emergencies like COVID-19 and hurricanes. Our oversight has shown us how agencies can do more to manage risks and catch these issues before they occur. To help, we created an overall approach with these steps for agencies: Commit to managing payment errors Identify and assess risks Design and implement controls—e.g., procedures to...
Federal Real Property:
Preliminary Results Show Federal Buildings Remain Underutilized Due to Longstanding Challenges and Increased Telework
GAO-23-106200
Published:
Publicly Released: The federal government's office spaces cost billions every year to lease, operate, and maintain. Even before the pandemic, agencies struggled to determine how much office space they actually needed. In this testimony, we discuss the 21.5 million square feet of usable office space—conference rooms, team rooms, and offices—in the headquarters buildings of 24 agencies. During 3 weeks in January, February, and March of this year...
DOD Financial Management:
Efforts to Address Auditability and Systems Challenges Need to Continue
GAO-23-106941
Published:
Publicly Released: DOD is the only large federal agency that has never achieved a "clean" audit opinion—which is when financial statements are presented fairly and consistent with accounting principles. This testimony discusses challenges DOD faces in addressing its long-standing issues with: Financial management Business systems modernization Overall operations Its ability to achieve a clean audit opinion on its financial statements For example, we've found that DOD hasn't...
Regenerative Medicine:
Therapeutic Applications, Challenges, and Policy Options
GAO-23-105430
Published:
Publicly Released: Regenerative medicine restores or replaces human cells, tissues, or organs affected by disease. This may eventually help cure many conditions that are currently considered difficult to treat. For example, a patient's own cells could be used to create a personalized organ, which could eliminate the possibility that a patient's body will reject a donated organ. However, there are challenges with developing regenerative medicine technologies. We...
Federal Budget:
Government-Wide Inventory of Accounts with Mandatory Spending, Fiscal Years 2001–2021
GAO-23-105674
Published:
Publicly Released: Mandatory spending" is the federal spending that isn't usually a part of the annual appropriations process. The laws establishing mandatory spending programs set eligibility rules and payment formulas, which—along with factors such as changes in demographics or interest rates—drive annual costs. We described trends in mandatory spending from fiscal years 2001-2021. For example, more than 60% of annual federal spending during this period was mandatory...
Evidence-Based Policymaking:
Practices to Help Manage and Assess the Results of Federal Efforts
GAO-23-105460
Published:
Publicly Released: Federal decision makers need evidence—such as data and the results of studies—to determine if programs are working as intended and to identify potential improvements. Our past work has found mixed progress across government in collecting, analyzing, and using evidence effectively to make decisions. In this guide, we identify key practices that could help agencies: Plan for results Assess and build evidence Use evidence Foster a...
COVID-19:
GAO Recommendations Can Help Federal Agencies Better Prepare for Future Public Health Emergencies
GAO-23-106554
Published:
Publicly Released: The nation is still recovering from the public health and economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and needs to be ready for future emergencies. In this report, we summarize our newer recommendations in key areas, including public health preparedness and the distribution of federal assistance. We also update our data on COVID-19 funds spent. We've regularly reported on the federal government's $4.7 trillion pandemic response...
Defense Health Care:
Additional Assessments Needed to Determine Effects of Active Duty Medical Personnel Reductions
GAO-23-106094
Published:
Publicly Released: The Department of Defense has about 108,000 active duty medical personnel who provide health care on the battlefield and in military hospitals and clinics across the nation. In 2021, DOD proposed reducing the number of military medical personnel by over 10,000. These reductions could make it harder for the military health system to provide quality care and could affect the cost of that care. But...
Small Business Administration:
Exploring Potential Use of Blockchain
GAO-23-106051
Published:
Publicly Released: Data and recorded transactions can be stored in a shared, tamper-resistant, decentralized digital ledger known as "blockchain." This Q&A looks at whether blockchain could help the Small Business Administration work more efficiently. For example, SBA's annual reports to Congress are often up to 16 months late. Blockchain could speed up the reporting process by eliminating the need to manually verify data and fix errors or...
USAID:
Management Improvements Needed to Better Meet Global Health Mission
GAO-23-105178
Published: Jul 11, 2023
Publicly Released: The U.S. Agency for International Development's Bureau for Global Health supports health programs across the world. We found that the Bureau hasn't: documented lessons learned from addressing the COVID-19 pandemic assessed its performance bureau wide addressed negative behaviors, such as bullying, that affect its culture aligned staffing with its mission and priorities since most of its workforce are contractors who can't oversee contracts and grants...
Venezuela:
Illicit Financial Flows and U.S. Efforts to Disrupt Them
GAO-23-105668
Published:
Publicly Released: Much of Venezuela is ungoverned or ill-governed—allowing drug trafficking, illegal gold mining, and other criminal activities to spread to neighboring countries. Corrupt Venezuelans and other criminals use Venezuela's permissive environment to generate illicit income and then move the assets to hide where they came from. U.S. agencies have taken on efforts to disrupt illicit financial transactions, including those related to drug trafficking and other criminal...
European Deterrence Initiative:
DOD Should Establish Performance Goals and Measures to Improve Oversight
GAO-23-105619
Published:
Publicly Released: DOD's European Deterrence Initiative helps boost the military readiness of European allies and deter Russian aggression. Since 2015 the U.S. has spent $35 billion through the initiative on activities like supporting American troop deployments in Europe. Historically, the military services have used their own criteria to decide which activities are funded under the initiative. DOD has recently issued guidance to standardize the services' budget requests...
Indian Health Service:
Actions Needed to Improve Use of Data on Adverse Events
GAO-23-105722
Published:
Publicly Released: The Indian Health Service provides care to 2.8 million American Indians and Alaska Natives. Over a 2-year period, federal IHS facilities recorded more than 27,000 adverse events, including errors that: could have or did cause harm to patients, like missed diagnoses were prevented before they could cause harm, i.e., a "good catch" IHS facility staff enter information on such events into a web-based system so...
IASB
July 2023 International Accounting Standards Board agenda and meeting papers now available
Meeting
14 Jul 2023
July 2023 Due Process Oversight Committee agenda and meeting paper now available
Meeting
14 Jul 2023
July 2023 International Sustainability Standards Board agenda and meeting paper now available
Meeting
13 Jul 2023
Join the IFRS Advisory Council
Careers
11 Jul 2023
May 2023 Report of the Emerging Economies Group now available
Meeting
11 Jul 2023
Join the staff—Events Manager
Careers
11 Jul 2023
Join the staff—Market Data Manager
Careers
11 Jul 2023
Learn more about IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 in our forthcoming webinars with ISSB Vice-Chair Sue Lloyd
Webinar
10 Jul 2023
IFRS Foundation welcomes culmination of TCFD work and transfer of TCFD monitoring responsibilities to ISSB from 2024
Announcement
10 Jul 2023
IRS
IRS continues reopening closed Taxpayer Assistance Centers; begins special series of Community Assistance Visits to help taxpayers in 8 states to expand service for people who aren’t near agency offices
IR-2023-127, July 14, 2023 — As part of an expanding effort to improve service, the Internal Revenue Service continues expanding Taxpayer Assistance Centers across the country while also starting a special series of events to help taxpayers located in areas not close to the agency’s in-person offices.
Building on filing season 2023 success, IRS continues to improve service, pursue high-income individuals evading taxes, modernize technology
IR-2023-126, July 14, 2023 — Thanks to Inflation Reduction Act resources, the IRS delivered dramatically improved service in filing season 2023. IRS achieved an 87% level of service. Through the end of filing season, IRS answered 3 million more calls, cut phone wait times to three minutes from 28 minutes, served 140,000 more taxpayers in-person, digitized 80 times more returns than in 2022 through the adoption of new scanning technology, cleared the backlog of unprocessed 2022 individual tax returns with no errors, launched two new digital tools, and enabled a new direct-deposit refund option for taxpayers with amended returns.
IRS: Vermont flooding victims now eligible for tax relief; Oct. 16 deadline, other dates extended to Nov. 15
IR-2023-125, July 13, 2023 — Flooding victims anywhere in Vermont now have until Nov. 15, 2023, to file various individual and business tax returns and make tax payments, the Internal Revenue Service announced today.
IRS, Security Summit announce special summer series as Nationwide Tax Forums begin; tax pros should remain vigilant against identity theft amid continued threats
IR-2023 -124, July 11, 2023 — The Internal Revenue Service joins its Security Summit partners today to announce the start of a special summer “Protect Your Clients; Protect Yourself” campaign aimed at ensuring tax professionals stay alert against new and ongoing threats of tax-related identity theft.
NYS
Superintendent Adrienne A. Harris Combats Discrimination By Life Insurance Companies That Offer Multiple Versions of the Same Product
July 17, 2023
Governor Hochul Announces Additional State Resources Deployed to Assist Hudson Valley Residents Following Historic Flooding
July 12, 2023
Governor Hochul Announces Record Number of New Yorkers Used Nation-Leading Paid Family Leave Program in 2022
July 7. 2023
PCAOB
General Counsel Kenneth Lench to Leave the PCAOB
Jul. 14, 2023
Raymond J. Hamm, Deputy Director of Division of Enforcement and Investigations, to Leave PCAOB
Jul. 14, 2023
PCAOB Sanctions CohnReznick LLP for Failing to Make Required Disclosures on a Timely Basis
July 11, 2023
SEC
SEC Charges Celsius Network Limited and Founder Alex Mashinsky with Fraud and Unregistered Offer and Sale of Securities
2023-133
Washington D.C., July 13, 2023 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Celsius Network Limited (Celsius) and its founder and former CEO, Alex Mashinsky, for violating registration and anti-fraud provisions of the federal securities laws, including by failing to register the offers and sales of Celsius’s crypto lending product, the Earn Interest Program; making false and misleading statements to investors of the Earn Interest Program and Celsius’s own crypto asset security, CEL; and engaging in market manipulation as it relates to CEL.
SEC Charges RSE Markets Inc. for Operating an Unregistered Securities Exchange
2023-132
Washington D.C., July 12, 2023 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled charges against RSE Markets Inc. for operating as an unregistered exchange by maintaining and providing a marketplace and facilities that brought together purchasers and sellers of securities, specifically equity interests in “collectible assets” such as valuable cars and watches.
SEC Awards Whistleblower More Than $9 Million
2023-131
Washington D.C., July 12, 2023 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced an award of more than $9 million to a whistleblower whose significant and detailed information and assistance led to a successful SEC enforcement action.
SEC Proposes Rule Amendments to the Broker-Dealer Customer Protection Rule
2023-130
Washington D.C., July 12, 2023 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today proposed amendments to Rule 15c3-3 (the Customer Protection Rule) to require certain broker-dealers to increase the frequency with which they perform computations of the net cash they owe to customers and other broker-dealers (known as PAB account holders) from weekly to daily. Net cash owed to customers and PAB account holders must be held in a special reserve bank account.
SEC Adopts Money Market Fund Reforms and Amendments to Form PF Reporting Requirements for Large Liquidity Fund Advisers
2023-129
Washington D.C., July 12, 2023 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today adopted amendments to certain rules that govern money market funds under the Investment Company Act of 1940.
SEC Charges Merrill Lynch and Parent Company for Failing to File Suspicious Activity Reports
2023-128
Washington D.C., July 11, 2023 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated and its parent company BAC North America Holding Co. (BACNAH) for failing to file hundreds of Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) from 2009 to late 2019. Merrill Lynch agreed to pay a $6 million penalty to settle the SEC charges and, in a parallel action, Merrill Lynch agreed to pay a separate $6 million fine to settle charges brought by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
TIGTA
Actions Are Needed to Improve the Zero Trust Architecture Implementation
Report Number 2023-20-039
July 10, 2023