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Open Recommendations (5 total)

Zoonotic Diseases: Federal Actions Needed to Improve Surveillance and Better Assess Human Health Risks Posed by Wildlife

GAO-23-105238
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
U.S. Geological Survey The Director of USGS should more fully follow leading practices for collaboration while coordinating with APHIS to develop and implement a national wildlife disease surveillance system. This should include clearly defining common outcomes, involving relevant participants, and identifying resources and staffing. (Recommendation 2)
Open – Partially Addressed
In April 2024, APHIS provided us the charter for a steering committee that has been set up to develop a National Wildlife Disease Database. In addition to APHIS and USGS, the steering committee includes additional federal agencies and participants representing state and tribal interests. The charter also defines a long-term outcome of developing a first iteration of the database by September 30, 2026. To fully implement this recommendation, the agencies need to identify how they will track their progress toward this goal and identify how the steering committee will be funded and staffed.

Zoonotic Diseases: Federal Actions Needed to Improve Surveillance and Better Assess Human Health Risks Posed by Wildlife

GAO-23-105238
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
U.S. Geological Survey The Director of USGS should work with APHIS to resolve data-sharing concerns and implement enhancements that would facilitate APHIS's participation in USGS's national wildlife disease database. (Recommendation 4)
Open
As of April 2024, APHIS and USGS have set up the National Wildlife Disease Database Steering Committee, which started meeting in early 2024 with a goal to complete the first iteration of the database by September 30, 2026. APHIS and USGS have also set up recurring meetings to discuss scientific issues of mutual interest. While these are positive steps, to implement this recommendation, APHIS and USGS must resolve data-sharing concerns and implement enhancements that would facilitate APHIS's participation in USGS's national wildlife disease database.

Earthquakes: Progress Made to Implement Early Warning System, but Actions Needed to Improve Program Management

GAO-21-129
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3 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
U.S. Geological Survey The Director of USGS should develop a strategic plan for the Earthquake Hazard Program that articulates the fundamental mission of the entire program, lays out its long-term goals for implementing the plan, and identifies the strategies and resources that are needed to reach these goals. (Recommendation 1)
Open
DOI concurred that the Director of USGS should develop a strategic plan for the Earthquake Hazard Program (EHP) that articulates the fundamental mission of the entire program, lays out its long-term goals for implementing the plan, and identifies the strategies and resources that are needed to reach these goals. DOI stated that, it is important to distinguish Strategic Planning documents-which are created at the Agency level, and outline Agency responsibilities and progress towards those goals via tracking performance through established measures, in accordance with the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) and the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010 (GPRAMA) - from program-and project-level science planning documents (often also called strategic plans), which describe short- or long-term science goals. In June 2024, USGS reported that USGS had drafted, but not publicly released its 2024-2033 EHP Science Plan. USGS reported that the plan was currently in USGS's production and review process, and estimated the plan would be published before the end of the fiscal year 2024. We will continue to monitor USGS's efforts to implement our recommendation.
U.S. Geological Survey The Director of USGS should develop performance measures for the strategy to determine whether the Earthquake Hazard Program has achieved the strategy's goals after it has drafted the strategic plan. (Recommendation 2)
Open
DOI concurred that the Director of USGS should develop performance measures for the strategy to determine whether the Earthquake Hazards Program has achieved the strategy's goals after it has drafted the strategic plan. In June 2024, DOI reported that USGS had developed a single measure for the Earthquake Hazards Program (EHP), and currently reports on it: According to DOI, the measure developed is, "Percentage of progress towards a fully built out Advanced National Seismic System" and is included in DOI's Annual Performance Plans and Reports. However, . without performance measures linked to the EHP goals and priorities, USGS cannot determine whether the EHP has achieved its plans' long-term goals. We will continue to monitor USGS's efforts to implement our recommendation.
U.S. Geological Survey The Director of USGS should establish a schedule and milestones for ShakeAlert implementation consistent with best practices in GAO's schedule guide. (Recommendation 6)
Open
DOI concurred that the Director of USGS should establish a schedule and milestones for ShakeAlert implementation consistent with best practices in GAO's schedule guide. In July 2023, DOI provided us a list of milestones organized by work breakdown structure element for the remainder of system implementation. However, the estimated schedule and milestones DOI provided is not consistent with GAO best practices. This is because DOI lacks an integrated master schedule consisting of logically related activities whose forecasted dates are automatically recalculated when activities change. By doing so, DOI could better ensure it identifies the consequences of changes to ShakeAlert implementation or possible managerial action to respond to changes. We will continue to monitor implementation of this recommendation.
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