From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov Transcript for: Comptroller General Testifies to U.S. Senate on GAO's 2019 High Risk List Update Description: In his March 6, 2019, testimony to the U.S. Senate, Comptroller General Gene Dodaro provides an update of GAO's 2019 High Risk List, including two new areas added since 2017: VA acquisition management, and government-wide personnel security clearance process. Related GAO Works: GAO-19-393T: High-Risk Series: Substantial Efforts Needed to Achieve Greater Progress on High-Risk Areas Released: March 2019 [First Screen] High Risk Series: Substantial Efforts Needed to Acheive Greater Progress on High Risk Areas [Second Screen] Senate Committeee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs [Third Screen] Opening Statement by U.S. Comptroller General Gene L. Dodaro March 6, 2019 >> Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Good morning to you, ranking members Senator Peters, Senator Romney, Senator Rosen. Good morning to you both. I'm very pleased to be here today to talk about GAO's high-risk update. As you mentioned, Mr. Chairman, this program continues to be a valuable congressional oversight tool and produces tangible benefits for the American people. You mentioned the financial benefits that we've saved, you know, approaching $350 billion. And a lot of that, I might point out, where we've seen progress in the high-risk areas, Congress has had a hand in helping that progress. We've got a two-page statement in my written statement about all the actions Congress has taken through legislation, through authorization bills, through appropriation bills that implement GAO's recommendations. You mentioned where congressional action is needed. There's actually an asterisk next to each of the high-risk areas where Congress needs to act. And we can talk more about that, but we have specific recommendations to the Congress, where appropriate, to remedy these high-risk areas. Now since our last update in 2017, we've seen some progress. Seven areas have improved. Two areas have improved to the point that we're taking them off the list. One is DOD supply chain management. They, through efforts to implement our recommendations, they're now saving millions of dollars in both inventory management, asset visibility, and material distribution. And they have strengthened their ability to help support military operations. The second area we're taking off is mitigating weather satellite gaps that we had identified. NOAA has launched the new satellite a year or so ago. It's now producing better weather forecasting information for the public, so a clear benefit there. And DOD's on track to update its component of the polar-orbiting satellites in the next couple years. So we think that program is on track now thanks to implementation of our recommendations. Both of these areas had congressional involvement, and I want to underscore that. Now the majority of the 35 areas that are on the list have not really progressed very much. So, substantial effort is really needed by the agencies and by Congress to help make further progress in this area. Three areas have actually regressed since our last assessment: acquisition at NASA, the EPA's oversight of toxic chemicals and assessments, and limiting the federal government's fiscal exposure by better managing climate change risk. All those areas have moved backwards in a number of areas. Now there are many areas that need attention, but there are a few that I want to single out this morning for your special attention. One is the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation. The multi-employer portion of the PBGC is expected to be insolvent by 2025. That basically means that 11 million Americans who are counting on that will not potentially have an adequate pension. The amounts that would be available to them if this went insolvent would only be $2000 a year, hardly enough to qualify as an adequate pension. The secondary is the federal role in housing finance. Freddie Mae and Fannie Mac are still in federal conservatorship, ten years after the global financial crisis. The federal government has assumed all or most of the risk associated with housing programs. About 71 percent of all single-family mortgages are supported by the federal government either directly or indirectly. The portfolio of Ginnie Mae has swollen to about $2 trillion, FHA over $1.2 trillion. There's tremendous exposure here. A lot of the lending in the mortgage area is being done by non-banks which are not regulated as much as the banking industry and so this increases the risk so this area is very important. Cyber security and protecting the nation: both the federal government systems, critical infrastructure protection, but also protecting the privacy of Americans. We had many recommendations. Actually, last year, Mr. Chairman, you mentioned we do this update every two years. I've been so concerned about cyber security we did a special update that I testified on last summer before the Congress. We need a more comprehensive national and global strategy. We need to fix the problems. We still have over 700 GAO recommendations that have not been implemented. We don't know as much as we need to know at the federal government about critical infrastructure protection, the electricity grid, the financial markets, telecommunications and other areas. And we've called for the Congress to pass comprehensive privacy protection framework for the consumers. This is -- we believe very needed and we've called for this for a number of times. Now the 2020 census, I've been before this committee, talked about that before. That still needs a lot of attention. We're concerned about lack of testing in the preparation for the 2020 census. And I can talk more about that in the Q&A. I know you're also concerned, this committee, about the Department of Homeland Security and that area. They've made a little bit of progress. We're tracking 30 performance measures. They now have 17 that they've fully met, but we haven't really materially changed their overall rating: financial management modernization continues to lag, acquisition policies have been improved but not consistently implemented, and morale continues to be a real problem there at the department. And so there's a lot to talk about today. I'll conclude my opening statement now and would be happy to engage in questions with the committee. I underscore GAO's full support to work with this committee and others in Congress to make these high-risk areas experience progress. When I was before this committee for my confirmation, one of the goals I set for myself was to not only identify all the high-risk areas across the government but to get them actually solved and off of the list so that's definitely our goal. And I know this committee shares that goal. And I look forward to engaging with you today and beyond. Thank you very much.