Free Republic

The Trump administration violated the law by withholding appropriated security assistance to Ukraine, the Government Accountability Office said Thursday in a report. The independent watchdog said the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) withheld the appropriated funds last summer. The report said U.S. law “does not permit the president to substitute his own policy priorities for those that Congress has enacted into law.” “Therefore, we conclude that OMB violated the [Impound Control Act],” GAO said. The withholding of the aid is central to the ongoing impeachment proceedings against President Trump. --This breaking news report will be updated.

The Trump administration’s decision to freeze the release of security assistance to Ukraine last year violated federal law, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report Thursday. The independent watchdog said the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) withheld the appropriated funds last summer, not as a programmatic delay but in order to advance the president’s own agenda. Doing so, the watchdog concluded, violates the Impoundment Control Act, a law that governs Congress's role in the federal budget process. “Faithful execution of the law does not permit the President to substitute his own policy priorities for those that Congress has enacted...

Multiple government agencies are relying on a security measure that can be easily bypassed thanks to massive breaches like the Equifax hack, the US Government Accountability Office has found. In a report released Friday, the government watchdog group found that the US Postal Service, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Social Security Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have still been using "Knowledge-Based Verification" to make sure people who apply for benefits online are authentic. This verification method asked applicants questions like their date of birth, Social Security numbers and addresses, assuming that only the applicant would...

A government watchdog says the FBI is ignoring its concerns about the accuracy of facial recognition technology, as well as issues regarding citizens’ Fourth Amendment privacy rights. NextGov reports that the bureau still hasn’t assessed whether its facial recognition technology has met accuracy and privacy standards fully three years after the Government Accountability Office raised a number of concerns regarding its use. The site noted: Since 2015, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies have used the Next Generation Identification-Interstate Photo System, which uses facial recognition software to link potential suspects to crimes, pulling from a database of more than...

United States GAO (Government Accountability Office) Auditor Pushes Socialist Agenda During Work Hours: “No one knows I spent six hours yesterday doing social media for DSA.” (Democratic Socialists of America) Resistance Against Administration’s Agenda: “If you’re in an Executive Branch agency, you can slow ball things to a degree… maybe you get fired or resign or whatever, but you slowed [Trump’s agenda] down.” On His DSA Membership: “…it’s a socialist organization and we want to destroy capitalists.” “We have a bunch of just like communists, like no prefix, and that’s basically me.” GAO Auditor: “Do I care more about having...

The Government Accountability Office said Thursday it's investigating a video from conservative activist group Project Veritas that depicts an employee acknowledging he contributes to the local Democratic Socialists of America chapter during work hours. "We are aware of the video and investigating the serious issues it raises, and we have also communicated with the GAO Inspector General," the GAO said in a statement.The office was responding to a video posted Thursday that purports to show GAO auditor Natarajan Subramanian detailing his involvement in the Washington, D.C. chapter of DSA. Subramanian explained in the video that he does social media work...

President Donald Trump's long-promised border wall between the US and Mexico could costs billions of dollars more than estimated, a new report from a government watchdog agency said on Monday. The report from the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan group that forms part of Congress' oversight arm, said that "key information" is missing from the plans. It further concluded that the US Department of Homeland Security "faces an increased risk that the Border Wall System Program will cost more than projected, take longer than planned, or not fully perform as expected." Factors like a varying terrain and land ownership had...

An investigation requested by two fierce anti-gun members of Congress to determine if firearms are purchased illegally from internet dealers has come up empty. Maryland Congressman Elijah Cummings and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren demanded the probe in the aftermath of mass shootings and the investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), conducted a lengthy covert operation to try to purchase firearms illegally from internet dealers. All 72 of Congressional investigators’ attempts to purchase a firearm illegally via the surface web were unsuccessful, slamming Cummings’ and Warren’s claims that guns are easily obtained by criminal elements on the internet....

GAO report reveals that by 2039, climate change will cost U.S. taxpayers more than $1 trillion Click HERE to watch Senator Collins’ floor remarks on the GAO reportNote to assignment editors and news directors: Click HERE for high-quality video of Senator Collins’ floor remarks on the GAO reportWashington, D.C. - In the wake of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria, and Nate; the multi-year drought across the west; and the wildfires in the nine western states, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a new report requested by Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) on the economic impacts of climate change....

The ongoing controversy and litigation over the Trump administration’s “Muslim ban” has reignited a debate that has raged since the 9/11 attacks: Who commits more domestic terrorism–violent Salafists or traditional “right wing” extremists? According to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, it’s the latter and by a very wide margin. From p. 4 of GAO’s report: Of the 85 violent extremist incidents that resulted in death since September 12, 2001, far right wing violent extremist groups were responsible for 62 (73 percent) while radical Islamist violent extremists were responsible for 23 (27 percent). But as researchers at the Georgia State...

WASHINGTON — A government watchdog will examine the taxpayer-funded travel costs when President Donald Trump travels to the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and the security procedures surrounding those trips, several congressional Democrats announced Tuesday. The lawmakers requested the inquiry by the Government Accountability Office after reports that Trump, accompanied by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, openly discussed North Korea's launch of a ballistic missile while at the resort. They also raised concerns about the cost to taxpayers. In a March 24 letter to the lawmakers, GAO said it will examine how the president's communications and classified information are secured when...

A U.S. government watchdog has agreed to review how classified information is kept secure at President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, the agency said on Monday, after Democratic lawmakers raised concerns about the issue last month. The Government Accountability Office's review will examine whether Secret Service agents subject Mar-a-Lago guests to any security screening, and evaluate the expenses incurred by government employees who travel with Trump to Mar-a-Lago, according to a letter the agency sent the lawmakers on Friday.

I am reading that the great border WALL will cost more than the government originally thought, but I have not gotten involved in the..... ...design or negotiations yet. When I do, just like with the F-35 FighterJet or the Air Force One Program, price will come WAY DOWN!

The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) announced that it would begin its official investigation by the into the ties between UNRWA and terrorist organizations and incitement in official Palestinian Authority textbooks after President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20. The GAO is the supreme audit institution of the US government and provides auditing, evaluation, and investigative services for Congress. The investigation was requested by Senator James Risch (R-Idaho), the Chairman of the Senate Near East Subcommittee, following briefings on UNRWA’s indiscretions to Congress by the Center for Near East Policy Research over the past few years. Sen. Risch requested...

A “boys’ weekend” of golf with Tiger Woods in 2013 was fun for President Obama, but it was a triple-bogey for taxpayers. The Government Accountability Office reported Wednesday that the departments of Defense and Homeland Security spent more than $3.6 million in travel costs and other expenses for Mr. Obama’s getaway weekend with Mr. Woods and other golf partners at an exclusive resort in Florida. The audit said the costs included operation of Air Force One, which costs about $200,000 per hour of flight, plus a virtual squadron of “supporting aircraft and U.S. Coast Guard small boats,” as well as...

A decade after wisps of anthrax sent through the mail killed 5 people, sickened 17 others and terrorized the nation, biologists and chemists still disagree on whether federal investigators got the right man and whether the F.B.I.’s long inquiry brushed aside important clues. Now, three scientists argue that distinctive chemicals found in the dried anthrax spores — including the unexpected presence of tin — point to a high degree of manufacturing skill, contrary to federal reassurances that the attack germs were unsophisticated. The scientists make their case in a coming issue of the Journal of Bioterrorism & Biodefense. F.B.I. documents...

Two weeks after North Korea threatened to launch nuclear strikes against the U.S., the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that the federal government has still not implemented all of the recommendations made eight years ago to prevent catastrophic blackouts caused by an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack. The recommendations were made in 2008 by the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electro-Magnetic Pulse Attack (EMP Commission). Although the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Energy (DOE) have taken actions to prepare against an EMP attack, they “have not established a coordinated approach to identifying...

An auditor for the Government Accountability Office told the Senate budget committee that in the next 15-25 years, the amount of public debt will exceed all the goods and services produced by the entire U.S. economy.  Without action on the debt, the auditor said the percent of debt to GDP could rise to 200% or 300%. Washington Free Beacon: Gene Dodaro, the comptroller general for the Government Accountability Office, testified at the Senate Budget Committee to provide the results of its audit on the government’s financial books. “We’re very heavily leveraged in debt,” Dodaro said. “The historical average post-World War II...

The administration issued a record amount of heft in the federal rule book in 2015 as President Obama's team, carrying out his orders to work around Congress, pushed his expansive government agenda on environmental, labor and Wall Street policy. With one day to go, the administration added 81,611 pages to the Federal Register, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute's count of the official record-keeping digest of federal agencies' rule-making. It's the highest total on record and the third time Mr. Obama has crossed the 80,000-page level during his presidency, the institute's Clyde Wayne Crews calculated. "This is the pen and...

Boeing Co and Lockheed Martin Corp said they will continue their protest against the Air Force's selection of Northrop Grumman Corp to build a new long-range strike bomber, calling that process "irreparably flawed".