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Open Recommendations

Equal Employment Opportunity: USDA Could Strengthen Efforts to Address Workplace Discrimination Complaints
GAO-25-105804
Jan 21, 2025
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3 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure OASCR consistently monitors and reports annually to the Secretary on agency ADR programs, as authorized by federal regulation. (Recommendation 1)
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When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure OASCR updates its policy, as planned, and resumes its reviews of agency civil rights training program plans, as directed by departmental policy. (Recommendation 2)
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When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Department of Agriculture The Secretary of Agriculture should ensure OASCR develops and administers a department-wide tool for obtaining anonymous information from employees about their experiences with workplace discrimination. This effort should be in coordination with all relevant USDA agencies, offices, and mission areas. (Recommendation 3)
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When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Federal Domestic Violence Assistance: HHS Should Assess Accessibility-Related Technical Assistance for Local Centers
GAO-24-106366
Sep 19, 2024
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Health and Human Services The Secretary of HHS should ensure that the Administration for Children and Families establishes and implements a process to systematically review whether the accessibility-related technical assistance that it supports under the family violence prevention program is reaching and meeting the needs of local centers and, if warranted, take steps to improve the quality and dissemination of technical assistance and ensure that it covers needed topics. For example, HHS could use its revised monitoring tools to collect input from grantees and subgrantees on their accessibility-related technical assistance needs, consider accessibility-related technical assistance when selecting training to observe, or improve the consistency of the data on requests that national resource centers receive for accessibility-related technical assistance from local centers. (Recommendation 1)
Open
HHS agreed with this recommendation and noted steps it plans to take to address it. For example, HHS said that after it has implemented the new performance progress report form for national resource centers discussed in our report, the agency plans to survey family violence prevention program grantees on their technical assistance needs to help ensure that resource centers are addressing those needs, including needs related to serving survivors with disabilities. HHS plans to develop this survey in fiscal year 2025. While this survey could represent a first step toward implementing this recommendation, HHS will need to use the information it collects from the survey as input for a systematic review of its accessibility-related technical assistance. Also, although HHS developed a new mechanism to collect data from national resource centers on the accessibility-related technical assistance they provide, the agency continues to lack consistent data on requests that the centers receive for such technical assistance. We will monitor the progress of these efforts.

Child Care Accessibility: Agencies Can Further Coordinate to Better Serve Families with Disabilities
GAO-24-106843
Sep 12, 2024
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2 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Health and Human Services The Secretary of Health and Human Services should further coordinate with the Department of Education to leverage existing and planned information-sharing mechanisms to more fully promote Parent Training and Information Centers and other resources designed to help parents of children with disabilities with HHS's state and local child care partners. (Recommendation 1)
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HHS agreed with this recommendation. The agency said it would disseminate information about Parent Training and Information Centers and other resources for serving children and families with disabilities through training and technical assistance resources and websites, share this information with CCDF administrators, and leverage the Head Start Collaboration Office to disseminate information to Head Start agencies in their state. We will monitor the progress of these efforts.
Department of Education The Secretary of Education should further coordinate with the Department of Health and Human Services to leverage existing and planned information-sharing mechanisms to more fully promote Parent Training and Information Centers and other resources designed to help parents of children with disabilities with HHS's state and local child care partners. (Recommendation 2)
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Education agreed with this recommendation. The agency said it would coordinate with HHS in making resources from Parent Training and Information Centers available to HHS's state and local child care partners. We will monitor the progress of these efforts.

IRS Workforce: Actions Needed to Address Barriers to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility
GAO-24-105785
Sep 09, 2024
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8 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Internal Revenue Service The Commissioner of Internal Revenue should ensure that the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion updates its barrier analysis policies and procedures to incorporate the regular use of many information sources for trigger identification. (Recommendation 1)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Internal Revenue Service The Commissioner of Internal Revenue should ensure that the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion uses relevant results from our analyses of its workforce composition and of outcomes related to employee promotion, salary, and separation to inform its next annual barrier analysis effort. (Recommendation 2)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Internal Revenue Service The Commissioner of Internal Revenue should ensure that the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion updates its barrier analysis policies and procedures to ensure regular consultation and collaboration with stakeholders, including employee groups and equal employment opportunity program staff, throughout the barrier analysis process. (Recommendation 3)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Internal Revenue Service The Commissioner of Internal Revenue should ensure that the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion conducts a comprehensive assessment of and develops recommendations to address staffing issues hampering its ability to perform barrier analyses. (Recommendation 4)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Internal Revenue Service The Commissioner of Internal Revenue should ensure that the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion uses the results of its comprehensive staffing assessment to take actions to address staffing issues hampering IRS's barrier analyses. (Recommendation 5)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Internal Revenue Service The Commissioner of Internal Revenue should ensure that the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion establishes a unified DEIA strategic plan to determine goals for and guide the development and implementation of agencywide DEIA initiatives. (Recommendation 6)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
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